Join in Our Pentecost Novena

Devotion to the Holy Spirit is a central practice to our sisters, the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity. Our sisters, along with our priests, brothers and lay members, collectively known as the Missionary Cenacle Family, have been praying a perpetual novena to the Holy Spirit from 1913 to this very day!

We invite you to join our Pentecost Novena for the nine days leading up to Pentecost ~ Friday, May 31- Saturday, June 8, 2019.

The word “novena” is Latin for “nine”. Novenas are a traditional form of prayer consisting of public or private prayers repeated for nine consecutive days. The Pentecost Novena has biblical roots. Jesus tells his disciples to pray together after His ascension into heaven, so they gather in the upper room, the “cenacle”, in constant prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had promised (Act 1:6-14). These nine days of continual prayer lead up to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples as “tongues of fire” (Acts 2: 1-4).

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The Holy Spirit is sometimes called “the forgotten member of the Trinity.” Catholic devotions of all kinds abound and enrich our faith, but devotion to the Holy Spirit is frequently overlooked. Our sisters, as part of the larger Missionary Cenacle Family, have a particular devotion to the Holy Spirit. Our local community or residence as actually called a “cenacle” to recall that the same Spirit that descended upon the first Apostles in the upper room, empowers and animates us today.

“We are to make the Holy Spirit better known and loved. By steadfast prayer in our Cenacles we seek to attract the Holy Spirit so that our own hearts maybe enkindled with God’s love and that we may spread this fire to others. We ask to be filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, wisdom and fortitude especially.”

Article 11, Rule of Life of the Missionary Cenacle Family

It is suggested that you pray a novena with specific intentions in mind. Ask for each gift of the Holy Spirit for a specific person or situation in particular need of that gift. Reflection on the fruits of your prayer is an important follow-up to the novena. The fruits are very often not the results we imagined. The Holy Spirit has a way of turning everything upside down and leading us in quite unexpected directions if we are open to it. Indeed, prayer to the Holy Spirit can be a dangerous proposition.

It is our hope that praying this novena may serve to enkindle your heart with God’s love and help you spread God’s love to others. You can pray along with the audio files of our Pentecost Novena in English or Spanish by CLICKING HERE.

Come, Holy Spirit!