NOVENA TO THE HOLY GHOST - DAY ONE

The Novena of the Holy Spirit is the chief of all novenas because it was the first that was ever celebrated, and that by the Apostles and Mary in the upper room, and was distinguished by so many remarkable wonders and gifts, principally by the gift of the same Holy Spirit, a gift merited for us by the Passion of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus himself made this known to us when he said to his disciples that if he did not die, he could not send us the Holy Spirit: “If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you”. We know well by faith that the Holy Spirit is the love that the Father and the eternal Word bear one to the other; and therefore the gift of love, which the Lord infuses into our souls, and which is the greatest of all gifts, is particularly attributed to the Holy Spirit, as Saint Paul says, “the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us”. In this novena, therefore, we must consider, above all, the great value of divine love, in order that we may desire to obtain it, and endeavor by devout exercises, and especially by prayer, to be made partakers of it, since God has promised it to him who asks for it with humility: “your Father from heaven [will] give the good Spirit to them that ask him!” 

O Most Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, we adore thee with all humility; and with the most lively affections of our hearts we beseech thee to assist us in this thy Novena, that we may rightly prepare ourselves to receive thy heavenly gifts. We cannot, O Divine Spirit, receive thee without thine own aid preventing us. Without thee we cannot please thee. Do thou then, who preparedst the heart of Mary to receive the Word Incarnate, vouchsafe so to dispose our hearts that we may happily conceive the blessed flames of thy love. Amen.

Veni Creator

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

and in our hearts take up Thy rest;

come with Thy grace and heav'nly aid,

To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

O Comforter, to Thee we cry,

Thou heav'nly gift of God most high,

Thou Fount of life, and Fire of love,

and sweet anointing from above.

O Finger of the hand divine,

the sevenfold gifts of grace are thine;

true promise of the Father thou,

who dost the tongue with power endow.

Thy light to every sense impart,

and shed thy love in every heart;

thine own unfailing might supply

to strengthen our infirmity.

Drive far away our ghostly foe,

and thine abiding peace bestow;

if thou be our preventing Guide,

no evil can our steps betide.

Praise we the Father and the Son

and Holy Spirit with them One;

and may the Son on us bestow

the gifts that from the Spirit flow.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created. 

R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us Pray:

O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Ghost: give to us, in the same Spirit, to know what is right, and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who with Thee livest and reignest in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, God. World without end. Amen.

Meditation   

Love Is a Fire That Inflames the Heart. God has ordered, in the ancient law, that there should be a fire kept continually burning on his altar: “The fire on the altar shall always burn.” 

Saint Gregory says that the altars of God are our hearts, where he desires that the fire of his divine love should always be burning; and therefore the eternal Father, not satisfied with having given us his Son Jesus Christ to save us by his death, would also give us the Holy Spirit, that he might dwell in our souls and keep them constantly on fire with love. 

And Jesus himself declared that he had come into the world on purpose to inflame our hearts with this holy fire, and that he desired nothing more than to see it kindled: “I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled?” Forgetting, therefore, the injuries and ingratitude he received from men on this earth, when he had ascended into heaven he sent down upon us the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer

Oh, most loving Redeemer, You do, then, love us, as well in Your sufferings and ignominies, as in Your kingdom of glory! This is why the Holy Spirit chose to appear in the upper room under the form of tongues of fire: “And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire”. And therefore the Church teaches us to pray: “May the Holy Spirit, we beseech You, O Lord, inflame us with that fire which our Jesus Christ came to cast upon the earth, and which he ardently desired should be enkindled.” This was the holy fire which has inflamed the saints to do such great things for God, to love their enemies, to desire contempt, to deprive themselves of all earthly goods, and to embrace with delight even torments and death. Love cannot remain idle and never says, “This is enough.” The soul that loves God, the more she does for her beloved the more she desires to do, in order to please him and to attract to herself his affections. This holy fire is enkindled by mental prayer. If, therefore, we desire to burn with love for God, let us love prayer; that is the blessed furnace in which this divine ardor is enkindled. Affections and prayers. O my God, up to now I have done nothing for You Who has done so much for me. My coldness could well make You cast me away from You. But, O Holy Spirit, make warm what is cold. Deliver me from my lack of fervor and make me burn with the desire to please You. I now wish to deny all that pleases me. I would rather die than displease You in the least thing. To You Who has appeared in the form of fiery tongues, I consecrate my tongue that it may not offend You again. You did give it to me to praise You, but I, I have used it to injure You and cause others to offend You. I am sorry for my sins. For the love of Jesus Christ Who honored You so much by His tongue when He walked this earth, grant that henceforward I may honor You by praising You, by asking often for Your help and by speaking of Your goodness and the infinite love You deserve. I love You, my supreme Good; I love You, O loving God. O Mary, most beloved Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me this holy fire.

Our Father

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Hail Mary

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory Be

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

O, let us fall down and worship him, The love of Father and Son, The consubstantial breath of God, The co-eternal One!

See, how like the Incarnate Word, His blessed self he lowers, To dwell with us invisibly, And make his riches ours. Most loving Spirit!  Mighty God! Sweet must thy presence be, If loss of Jesus can be gain, So long as we have thee!

HOW GREAT SHOULD BE OUR CONFIDENCE IN MARY, WHO IS THE QUEEN OF MERCY

HOW GREAT SHOULD BE OUR CONFIDENCE IN MARY, WHO IS THE QUEEN OF MERCY

As the glorious Virgin Mary has been raised to the dignity of Mother of the King of kings, it is not without reason that the Church honors her, and wishes her to be honored by all, with the glorious title of Queen. ‘If the Son is a King,' says an ancient writer, the Mother who begot him is rightly and truly considered a Queen and Sovereign. No sooner had Mary, says St. Bernardine of Sienna, ' consented to be Mother of the Eternal Word, than she merited by this consent to be made Queen of the world and of all creatures; hence as many creatures as there are who serve God, so many there are who serve Mary : for as angels and men, and all things that are in heaven and on earth, are subject to the empire of God, so are they also under the dominion of Mary.' Mary then is a Queen: but, for our common consolation, be it known that she is a Queen so sweet, clement, and so ready to help us in our miseries, that the holy Church wills that we should salute her under the title of Queen of Mercy. 'The title of Queen,' remarks Blessed Albert the Great, 'differs from that of Empress, which implies severity and rigor, in signifying compassion, and charity towards the poor.' The greatness of kings and queens,' says Seneca,  consists in relieving the wretched; and whereas tyrants, when they reign, have their own good in view, kings should have that of their subjects at heart. Kings should then occupy themselves principally in works of mercy, but not so as to forget the just punishments that are to be inflicted on the guilty. It is however not thus with Mary, who, although a Queen, is not a queen of justice, intent on the punishment of the wicked, but a queen of mercy, intent only on commiserating and pardoning sinners. And this is the reason for which the Church re quires that we should expressly call her ' the Queen of Mercy. But perhaps we may fear that Mary would not deign to interpose for some sinners, on account of their being so overloaded with crimes? Or perhaps we ought to be over awed at the majesty and holiness of this great Queen? No, says St. Gregory,  for the higher and more holy she is, the greater is her sweetness and compassion towards sinners, who have recourse to her with the desire to amend their lives. Kings and queens, with their ostentation of majesty, inspire terror, and cause their subjects to fear to approach them: but what fear, says St. Bernard, can the miserable have to approach this Queen of Mercy, for she inspires no terror, and shows no severity, to those who come to her; but is all sweetness and gentleness. How great then should be our confidence in this Queen, knowing her great power with God, and that she is so rich and full of mercy, that there is no one living on the earth who does not partake of her compassion and favor. This was revealed by our Blessed Lady herself to St. Bridget, saying, 'I am the Queen of heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the door through which sinners are brought to God. There is no sinner on earth so accursed as to be deprived of my mercy, for all, if they receive nothing else through my intercession, receive the grace of being less tempted by the devils than they would otherwise have been. No one, she adds,  unless the irrevocable sentence has been pronounced' (that is the one pronounced on the damned), is so cast off by God, that he will not return to Him, and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of my Son towards men has made me thus merciful towards them; and she concludes by saying, and therefore miserable will he be, and miserable will he be to all eternity, who, in this life, having it in his power to invoke me, who am so compassionate to all, and so desirous to assist sinners, is miserable enough not to invoke me, and so is damned.' Let us then fly, and fly always to the feet of this most sweet Queen, if we would be certain of salvation; and if we are alarmed and disheartened at the sight of our sins, let us remember, that it is in order to save the greatest and most abandoned sinners, who recommend themselves to her, that Mary is made the Queen of Mercy.

EXAMPLE

A noble youth, named Eschylus, was sent by the prince, his father, to Hildesheim, a city of Saxony, to study, but he gave himself up to a disorderly life. He afterwards fell so dangerously ill that he received Extreme Unction. While in this state he had a vision: he found himself shut up in a fiery furnace, and believed himself already in hell; but he then seemed to escape from it by a hole, and took refuge in a great palace, in an apartment of which he saw the most Blessed Virgin Mary, who said to him, 'Presumptuous man that thou art, dost thou dare to appear before me? Depart hence, and go to that fire which thou hast deserved.' The young man then besought the Blessed Virgin to have mercy on him; and then addressed himself to some persons who were there present, and entreated them to recommend him to Mary. They did so, and the Divine Mother replied, ' But you do not know the wicked life which he leads, and that he does not even deign to salute me with a Hail Mary.' His advocates replied, 'But, Lady, he will change his life;' and the young man added, ' Yes, I promise in good earnest to amend, and I will be thy devout client. The Blessed Virgin's anger was then appeased, and she said to him, Well, I accept thy promise; be faithful to me, and meanwhile, with my blessing, be delivered from death and hell.' With these words the vision disappeared. Eschylus returned to himself, and blessing Mary, related to others the grace which he had received; and from that time he led a holy life, always preserving great devotion to our Blessed Lady. He became archbishop of Lund, in Sweden, where he converted many to the faith. Towards the end of his life, on account of his age, he renounced his archbishopric, and be came a monk in Clairvaux, where he lived for four years, and died a holy death. Hence he is numbered,' by some authors, amongst the Cistercian Saints.

PRAYER

0, Mother of my God, and my Lady Mary: as a beggar, all wounded and sore, presents himself before a great queen, so do I present myself before thee, who art the Queen of heaven and earth. From the lofty throne on which thou sittest, disdain not, I implore thee, to cast thine eyes on me, a poor sinner. God has made thee so rich that thou mightest assist the poor, and has constituted thee Queen of Mercy, in order that thou mightest relieve the miserable. Behold me then, and pity me: be hold me, and abandon me not, until thou seest me changed from a sinner into a saint. I know well that I merit nothing; nay more, that I deserve, on account of my ingratitude, to be deprived of the graces that, through thy means, I have already received from God. But thou, who art the Queen of Mercy, seekest not merits, but miseries, in order to help the needy. But who is more needy than I?  

0, exalted Virgin, well do I know that thou, who art Queen of the universe, art also my queen ; but am I determined to dedicate my self more especially to thy service, in order that thou mayest dispose of me as thou pleasest. Therefore do I address thee in the words of St. Bonaventure, ' Do thou govern me, 0 my Queen, and leave me not to myself. Command me; employ me as thou wilt, and chastise me when I do not obey; for the chastisements that come from thy hands will to me be pledges of salvation. I value more the being thy servant, than being ruler of the earth. I am thine save me.' Accept me, 0 Mary, for thine own, and as thine take charge of my salvation. I will no longer be mine; to thee do I give myself. If, during the time past, I have served thee ill, and lost so many occasions of honoring thee, for the future I will be one of thy most loving and faithful servants. I am determined that from this day forward no one shall surpass me, in honoring and loving thee, my most amiable Queen. This I promise; and this, with thy help, I hope to execute. Amen.

Mary's charity towards God - Glories of Mary

        Mary's charity towards God

St. Anselm says, that ' wherever there is the greatest purity, there is also the greatest charity.' The more a heart is pure and empty of itself, the greater is the fullness of its love towards God. The most holy Mary, because she was all humility, and had nothing of self in her, was filled with Divine love, so that her love towards God surpassed that of all men and angels,' as St. Bernardine writes. Therefore St. Francis of Sales with reason called her, 'the Queen of love.' God has, indeed, given men the precept to love Him with their whole hearts: ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.' But, as St. Thomas declares, ' this commandment will be fully and perfectly fulfilled by men in heaven alone, and not on earth, where it is only fulfilled imperfectly. On this subject, blessed Albert the Great remarks, that in a certain sense, it would have been unbecoming had God given a precept, which was never to have been perfectly fulfilled. But this would have been the case had not the Divine Mother perfectly fulfilled it. ' Divine love,' says St. Bernard, ' so penetrated and filled the soul of Mary, that no part of her was left untouched ; so that she loved with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with her whole strength, and was full of grace.' Therefore Mary could well say: 'My Beloved has given Himself all to me, and I have given myself all to Him’: My Beloved to me, and I to Him. Ah, well might even the Seraphim,' says Richard, ' have descended from heaven to learn, in the heart of Mary, how to love God. God, who is love, came on earth to enkindle in the hearts of all the flame of His Divine love; but in no heart did He enkindle it so much as in that of His Mother; for her heart was entirely pure from all earthly affections, and fully prepared to burn with this blessed flame. Thus St. Sophronius says, that ' Divine love so inflamed her, that nothing earthly could enter her affections; she was always burning with this heavenly flame, and, so to say, inebriated with it. Hence the heart of Mary became all fire and flames, as we read of her in the sacred Canticles: ' The lamps thereof are fire and flames;' fire burning within through love, as St. Anselm explains it; and flames shining without, by the example she gave to all in the practice of virtues. St. Thomas of Villanova says, that the bush seen by Moses, which burnt without being consumed, was a real symbol of Mary's heart. Therefore with reason, says St. Bernard, was she seen by St. John clothed with the sun: And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun; for, continues the Saint, she was so closely united to God by love, and penetrated so deeply the abyss of Divine Wisdom, that, without a personal union with God, it would seem impossible for a creature to have a closer union with Him. Hence St. Bernardine of Sienna asserts that the most holy Virgin was never tempted by hell; for he says: 'As flies are driven away by a great fire, so were the evil spirits driven away by her ardent love, so much so, that they did not even dare approach her.' Mary herself revealed to St. Bridget, that in this world she never had any thought, desire, or joy, but in and for God: ' I thought,' she said, of nothing but God, nothing pleased me but God; so that her blessed soul being in the almost continual contemplation of God whilst on earth, the acts of love which she formed were innumerable, as Father Suarez writes. But a remark of Bernardine de Bustis pleases me still more: he says that Mary did not so much repeat acts of love as other Saints do, but that her whole life was one continued act of it; for, by a special privilege, she always actually loved God. As a royal eagle, she always kept her eyes fixed on the Divine Sun of Justice; ' so that,' as St. Peter Damian says, ' the duties of active life did not prevent her from loving, and love did not prevent her from attending to those duties.' Therefore St. Germanus says, that the altar of propitiation, on which the fire was never extinguished day or night, was a type of Mary. Neither was sleep an obstacle to Mary's love for God; since, as St. Augustine asserts, 'the dreams, when sleeping, of our first parents, in their state of innocence, were as happy as their lives when waking;' and if such a privilege were granted them, it certainly cannot be denied that it was also granted to the Divine Mother, as Suarez, the Abbot Rupert, and St. Ambrose fully admit. In fine, St. Bernardine asserts, that as long as Mary lived in this world she was continually loving God: The mind of the Blessed Virgin was always wrapped in the ardor of love.' The Saint moreover adds, ' that she never did anything which the Divine Wisdom did not show her to be pleasing to Him; and that she loved God as much as she thought He was to be loved by her.' But since Mary loves God so much, there can be nothing which she so much requires of her clients as, that they also should love Him to their utmost. This precisely she one day told blessed Angela of Foligno after communion, saying, 'Angela, be thou blessed by my Son, and endeavor to love Him as much as thou canst.' She also said to St. Bridget, ' Daughter, if thou desirest to bind me to thee, love my Son.' Mary desires nothing more than to see her Beloved, who is God, loved. Novarinus asks why the Blessed Vir gin, with the Spouse in the Canticles, begged the angels to make the great love she bore Him known to our Lord, saying: ' I adjure you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him I languish with love.' Did not God know how much she loved Him? Why did she seek to show the wound to her Beloved; since He it was who had inflicted it?' The same author answers, that the Divine Mother thereby wished to make her love known to us, not to God; that as she was herself wounded, so might she also be enabled to wound us with Divine love. And ' because Mary was all on fire with the love of God, all who love and approach her are inflamed by her with this same love; for she renders them like unto herself.' For this reason St. Catherine of Sienna called Mary ' the bearer of fire,' the bearer of the flame of Divine love. If we also desire to burn with these blessed flames, let us endeavor always to draw nearer to our Mother by our prayers and the affections of our souls.

EXAMPLE

A young nobleman who was on a sea voyage began to read an obscene book, in which he took much pleasure. A religious noticed it, and said to him: ' Are you disposed to make a present to our Blessed Lady? The young man replied that he was. Well, the other answered, I wish that for the love of the most holy Virgin you would give up that book, and throw it into the sea. Here it is, Father, said the young man. No, replied the religious, you must yourself make Mary this present. He did so, and no sooner had he returned to Genoa, his native place, than the Mother of God so inflamed his heart with Divine love that he entered a religious order.

PRAYER

Ah, Mary, thou Queen of Love, of all creatures the most amiable, the most beloved, and the most loving, as St. Francis of Sales addressed thee, — my own sweet Mother, thou wast always and in all things inflamed with love towards God; deign then to bestow, at least, a spark of it on me. Thou didst pray thy Son for the spouses whose wine had failed: ' They have no wine.' And wilt thou not pray for us, in whom the love of God, whom we are under such obligations to love, is wanting Say also, ' They have no love, and obtain us this love. This is the only grace for which we ask. O Mother, by the love thou bearest to Jesus, graciously hear and pray for us. Amen.

Month of Mary Devotions - St. Alphonsus Liguori