Dear Holy People of God,
RE: Novena to the Holy Spirit
Peace to you all in Christ Jesus Our Lord!

In Acts 1:4, we read: "When he (Jesus) had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is' he had said 'what you have heard me speak about: John baptized with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'" This is the beginning of the practice of Novenas in the Christian tradition. The Apostles, together with Mary, the Lord's mother, spent nine days in prayer in the Upper Room, waiting for the Holy Spirit. I have always felt a particular sense of promoting the Novena to the Holy Spirit, because it is really the first novena of the Church, and is the novena at the bottom of the manifestation of the Church to the world that came about on the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Under normal circumstances, we would have gathered in our parish Church for the Novena. But given the circumstances, I wish to invite us to consider praying this Novena as families and as individuals at our homes. May the Holy Spirit fall afresh on our world, renew our parish and the face of the earth. I wish you all a new birth in the Holy Spirit. Veni Creator Spiritus! Come O Holy Spirit! (Fr. Maurice Abgaw-Ebai)

[An instructional flyer on praying the 9-Day Novena of the Holy Spirit can be downloaded from this page.]