days after the Resurrection, before the Lord ascended into heaven, Jesus gave his disciples a command: they were not to leave Jerusalem, but were to wait there for the promise of the Father. He told them that although John baptized with water, they would soon be baptized with the Holy Spirit. He also told them, “you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” and that they would become his witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:4-8 RSVCE).
This was not the first time Christ had promised the Advocate. At the Last Supper, he told them that he would ask the Father to send “another Counselor,” the Spirit of truth, who would be with them forever. The same Spirit would dwell with them and be in them. Later in that same discourse, Jesus said that the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father would send in his name, would teach them all things and bring to their remembrance all that he had said (John 14:16-17, 26 RSVCE). The RSVCE uses the word “Counselor,” while other Christian translations often render this title as “Advocate” (Bible Gateway).
After the Ascension, the apostles returned from the Mount called Olivet to Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that when they entered the city, “they went up to the upper room,” where Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James were staying. There, with one accord, they devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the brethren of the Lord (Acts 1:12-14 RSVCE).
These days of waiting and prayer lead us to the Church’s ancient devotion of the novena. Pentecost comes fifty days after the Resurrection, and Christian tradition sees the prayer of Mary and the apostles in the upper room between the Ascension and Pentecost as the pattern of the first novena. A novena is a nine-day devotion, offered in hope, yearning, and prayer for God’s grace (New Advent).
This novena beautifully reveals the nearness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not merely a force or an inspiration. He is the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, one God with the Father and the Son. The divine Persons are not pieces or parts of God. Each Person is God whole and entire, distinct in Person, united in one divine nature (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
God the Father creates and calls us. Christ the Son is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15 RSVCE), and he remains truly, really, and substantially present to us in the Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within us, leading us, strengthening us, teaching us, and forming us into the likeness of Christ. In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us. In the Holy Spirit, God dwells within us and moves us toward holiness (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
There is something deeply beautiful here. As Christians, we ask the saints to intercede for us. Yet Scripture also reveals that the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us. When we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27 RSVCE).
The first reading of the Pentecost Novena places this truth before us: we are not alone in prayer. The Spirit prays within us. The Spirit pleads for us. The Spirit draws our hearts into the will of the Father. When our words fail, when our hearts are tired, when we do not even know what we need, God has already come near. The Advocate is not far away. He is within the soul made alive by grace.
The Holy Spirit moves in each one of our lives and lives closer to us than even our guardian angel. The Lord dwells within us as the Holy Spirit and fights for us unto our eternity. Thus, let us live our lives with the dignity, passion, and love with which the Lord loves us, following the call the Lord has for us in our lives.
As we return to the reading of the first novena, we hear that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26 RSVCE). How beautiful is the Father’s love for us: that in the depths of his love, he sends the Holy Spirit to groan within us and plead for us.
References
Bible Gateway. “Acts 1-3, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+1-3&version=RSVCE
Bible Gateway. “John 14, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition and New International Version.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14&version=RSVCE%3BNIV
Bible Gateway. “Acts 1:12-14, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+1%3A12-14&version=RSVCE
Bible Gateway. “Colossians 1:15, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+1%3A15&version=RSVCE
New Advent. “Pentecost.” The Catholic Encyclopedia.
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15614b.htm
EWTN. “Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts.”
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-the-holy-spirit-for-the-seven-gifts-309
Catholic Culture. “Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Holy Trinity.”
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=610
Catholic Culture. “Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Eucharist.”
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/catechism/index.cfm?recnum=4242
Bible Gateway. “Romans 8:26-27, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A26-27&version=RSVCE