Parish News

Opening Prayer

Risen Lord, we have rejoiced in your Paschal Mystery and gloried in your Resurrection for forty days in imitation of your first disciples. Like them, we now celebrate your Ascension into heaven and await the coming of your Holy Spirit. Look down on us from your heavenly throne, we pray, and grant us the seven gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Give us also the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. May we always follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit and so be united with you and with all the members of your Body. Give us the grace by your Holy Spirit to live out a vocation of service to your Church and the world as we proclaim the good news of your Death, Resurrection, and Ascension to all people. By sharing in your Spirit, may we truly live as sons and daughters of the Almighty Father and come to share in your divine life. Amen.

Invocation of Our Lady

Holy Mary, Mother of God, you persevered in prayer with your Son’s disciples as you waited for him to send the Holy Spirit. Intercede for us, that our prayers during this novena will prepare us to celebrate the Spirit’s coming with joy and thanksgiving. Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, you have cared for your Son’s disciples since the Church’s birth on Pentecost. Show your motherly care for the members of our parish and the whole body of believers throughout the world. Our Lady of the Lake, Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray that the same Spirit will renew in us the graces of Baptism and Confirmation so we will live in holiness and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to give us his gifts, along with the zeal and boldness to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples and to stand firm in all trials. Amen.

Closing Prayer: Come Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord. Amen.