Pentecost Novena: First Day

The Pentecost Novena, itself, can be found here. 
 
"Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your celestial home shed a ray of light divine!" - From the Veni Sancte Spiritus, Sequence for Pentecost

Over these nine days between the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and the Solemnity of Pentecost, when we, as the Apostles first did, pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us, we shall take as the basis of our mediation the Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is used on Pentecost Day for the Sequence before the Gospel.

The Sequence may be seen as the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel at Mass, for it is meant to enlighten our minds in a special way on the truth that will be proclaimed to us in the Gospel, and this is especially appropriate today! The last line of the Gospel is, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven the, and whose sins you retain are retained." This is, in a sense, the first gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and consequently to the Church. It is the foretaste of what they received on the day of Pentecost in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for from that moment the Apostles truly became a part of the Church, which would begin to go out to all nations on Pentecost.

After the Death of our Lord on Good Friday, the Church was only present in the person of our Lady, who remained faithful to the Resurrection, for in faith, although wrapped in sorrow, she did not abandon our Lord and His promise as the Apostles did. On the evening of the day of the Resurrection, they became witnesses to the Resurrection and their faith was confirmed. It was not until the day of Pentecost, however, that they began to spread this Faith, for it was not until that moment they had the power to do so, as attested to by our Lord (Acts 1:8). We may learn an important truth from this - it is the Holy Spirit, and Him alone, Who brings souls into the Church and spreads the Faith, albeit through us.

This is the basis for one of the mysterious truths we commemorate in the Solemnity of Pentecost. On that day, we recall the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church and Its beginnings as the vehicle of salvation and truth to the nations, but we also conclude the Easter Season. And these two events are of course intrinsically tied together. Before we can witness to the truth of the Resurrection and the life of grace it brings, we must experience that Resurrection, for Christ calls us to be "witnesses" (Acts 1:8). Thus, the Gospel read to us is the one we heard on the Day of Easter.

Throughout the Easter Season, the Risen Christ has been brought before us, and this was to allow us the opportunity to experience His love, the love we must now spread to the rest of the world. Thus, we pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit once again; we pray He will be poured into our souls, and this for two reasons. The first is to enlighten our minds with His Divine Light so that we may continue to understand the Mysteries of the Divine Life and dwell in the celestial realm already in spirit. The second is, by thus dwelling in us, He will use us to spread the Faith to the nations.

This is what we should spend these days between the Ascension and Pentecost praying for. We must beseech the Lord that our celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost will be an opportunity for us to understand our vocation in the world. We must pour forth prayers that we shall be transformed into vessels of the Holy Spirit, and thus be able to spread that Spirit, that Divine Fire of Love, to all peoples and thus bring them to the love of God. In so doing, we shall all be able to travel together steadily and surely to our celestial homeland where we shall dwell with the Risen Christ for all eternity!