The Pentecost Novena, itself, can be found here.
"Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour your dew; wash our stains of guilt away." - From the Veni Sancte Spiritus, Sequence for Pentecost
Year after year we celebrate these Mysteries of salvation, and year after year the Church in Her Liturgy makes the same prayers and supplications. While at first it may seem that this is a monotonous gesture, and the risk is certainly there that it could become routine, a simple look at our lives and at nature will prove this is anything but the case! In fact, we shall see this is the best method that Holy Church, guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, could set forth to be maintained.
If we look simply at nature, we see a routine present in its maintenance. Each morning the dew waters the grass, and the sun dries it up, only to repeat the process again and again. Through the seasons of the year, the trees and plants produce their fruit and wither, only to be born again. Or even the human body, with its various routine functions, such as sleep and nourishment, while we may vary them, science has shown a routine is the healthiest. No one would suggest, however, that nature or humans should vary these things up so they don't get bored! That's folly.
Speaking of human lives, let us look at our practices. Do we not practice daily hygiene? And do we not naturally form a schedule to carry out our tasks? Order is a quality of God, and we, made in His image and likeness, share this affinity. There are so many things we do with little variance day by day and year by year, and yet we never fear boredom in it.
Why then should the Liturgy, our most intimate encounter with God be any different?! It only makes sense there should be an order and a repetition to it, for this not only speaks to the human soul, it gives a certain degree of comfort. Is it any less a new day when the dew touches the grass once again, or are the flowers less beautiful when they return because they have done so again and again over the years? The same is true with the Liturgy; it is no less beautiful because we have seen and heard the prayers before. Nor is it any less a new experience each time, because each time is a new encounter with the Holy Spirit!
This leads us then to the reason we make the same prayers again and again, and why we continually pray for the Holy Spirit to be ever more poured out in our souls. Our wounds are always in danger of reopening, and so we call on the Holy Spirit to heal us and preserve us from danger. Though we have never fallen to a certain temptation, we do not cease to pray that we will not, for our prayer is our protection against it.
We repeatedly pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and each time, like eating and drinking for nourishment is a new joy. And in the event we fall into simple repetition, we pray the Holy Spirit may awaken us and make us realize the newness and the joy of every experience in life, especially our spiritual lives by pouring Himself as dew upon our dry souls!
And finally, we pray continually that He may wash our stains of sin away. As our bodies will naturally accumulate dirt and grime and risk sickness if not properly and continuously washed, so our souls shall do the same while still in this fallen world. While we are in the world, we run the risk of being contaminated by its ideas, and becoming sick in sin. Yet the Holy Spirit, as a solicitous guide will always wash us of these infirmities and be our shield and medicine, so long as we go to Him, the Doctor of our souls
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