Come Holy Spirit’

NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT This is the first and greatest Novena of Prayer in the Church’s tradition, opening ourselves and the Church to the mighty wind of the Spirit – the energy for Mission; opening to the Living Water of the Spirit welling up to Life in all its fulness; opening to the Flam and Fire of God’s Spirit that transforms us into flames of Divine Love in the heart of the world. Without the Spirit of God in us we can do nothing for God, without the Spirit of God we have no real life, without the Spirit of God we have no vision for our mission, no energy to serve the Gospel and the Kingdom. COME HOLY SPIRIT!

CONFIRMATION AND THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT  Our God, Abba our loving Father, loves to pour Divine Gifts upon us whom He loves.  He poured the Holy Spirit into our hearts at our conception so that we could be human – made in the Divine Image and Likeness. In Baptism He pours the Spirit again so that we can experience Him as the love that fulfils our lives and draws us into profound intimacy with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the  The Sacrament of Confirmation, the final step in ‘Initiation’ into the Body of Christ, God pours His Spirit into our being to gift us for Mission and Ministry, gifts us so that we can be gift to the Church and to the world. Holy Spirit comes to empower the Christian for ministry in the Body of Christ and mission to the world in the name of Christ. It is an essential part of our growing into Christ that we not only experience His love but become His Love for others. So the Holy Spirit comes with charisms and gifts to equip us as co-workers with Jesus Christ in the immense task of building up God’s Church, proclaiming the Gospel, the Good News, bringing healing and hope to the broken and oppressed, and ultimately ‘renewing the face of the earth’!