The Holy Spirit
The Cenacle, Jerusalem
The original novena — nine days from the Upper Room to the fire
Before there was any other novena, there was this one. After the Ascension the apostles did not go out to preach; they went back up to a room, shut the door, and waited nine days with Mary until the Spirit came. Every novena the Church has prayed since is an echo of those nine days. You will pray them now — one day in the Upper Room, then seven days with the seven gifts the prophet Isaiah named, and on the ninth, Pentecost. If you are shut in yourself, by illness or age or a body that will not go where you wish, take heart: waiting behind a closed door is exactly where the Church began.
The nine days
Day 1 · The Waiting — They Devoted Themselves to Prayer
The Cenacle, in Jerusalem
Day 2 · The First Gift — A Taste for God
Sapientia — the gift that savours
Day 3 · The Second Gift — Light Within the Mind
Intellectus — the gift that reads within
Day 4 · The Third Gift — The Voice at the Crossroads
Consilium — the gift that guides
Day 5 · The Fourth Gift — Strength to Stand
Fortitudo — the gift that endures
Day 6 · The Fifth Gift — Seeing Things as They Are
Scientia — the gift that sees truly
Day 7 · The Sixth Gift — The Heart of a Child
Pietas — the gift that loves as a son
Day 8 · The Seventh Gift — Wonder Before the Holy
Timor Domini — the gift that adores
Day 9 · The Coming — Come, Holy Spirit
The fiftieth day — the fire