Day: May 21, 2023

May 22, 2023 Reflection – Novena to the Holy Spirit, Day 4

Novena to the Holy Spirit, Day 4 May 22, 2023 Dear Family of Mary! This is Day 4 the Novena to the Holy Spirit. Today we ask for an outpouring of God’s love in our lives, through the Holy Spirit! Novena to the Holy Spirit, Day 4: Our Lady speaks: April 2, 2014 “Dear children, with a motherly love I desire to help you with your life of prayer and penance to be a sincere attempt at drawing closer to my Son and His divine light – that you may know how to separate yourselves from sin. Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt at drawing closer to my Son, a reminder of His glory and a refuge from sin – it is a way to a renewed union of the good Father and His children. Therefore, my dear children, with hearts open and full of love, cry out the name of the Heavenly Father that He may illuminate you with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God’s love. All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and peace of my Son, will drink from this spring. Thank you. Pray for your shepherds. I pray for them and I desire that they may always feel the blessing of my motherly hands and the support of my motherly heart.” In this message Our Lady calls us to separate from the world, and live a life of prayer and penance. Why? She wants us to be free of all influences that would distract us from God and lead us to sin. And then, she wants us to cry out to the Heavenly Father, for Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit! “Father, send us your Holy Spirit!” She tells us, “Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God’s love!” Of ourselves, we do not have much love to give. We are weak and vulnerable. But when the Holy Spirit fills us we become channels of God’s love, the most powerful love in the universe!! She says: “All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and peace of my Son, will drink from this spring.” Imagine if we all became springs of living water, springs of the flowing love of God to all we meet!! Imagine how the world would change!! Mother, help us to cry out to the Heavenly Father to be illuminated by the Holy Spirit so that we can become springs of living water, the Love of God! The Paraclete, the Fount of Love (A prayer by St. John Henry Newman) My God, I adore You, as the Third Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity, under the name and designation of Love. You are that Living Love, wherewith the Father and the Son love each other. And You are the Author of supernatural love in our hearts. “Fons vivus, ignis, charitas.” (Fount of life, fire and love.) As a fire You came down from heaven on the day of Pentecost; and as a fire You burn away the dross of sin and vanity in the heart and light up the pure flame of devotion and affection. It is You who unite heaven and earth by showing to us the glory and beauty of the Divine Nature, and making us love what is in Itself so winning and transporting. I adore You, O uncreate and everlasting Fire, by which our souls live, by which alone they are made fit for heaven. Amen The Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish Thy work in the souls of Thy Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that He may perfect in my soul the work of Thy grace and Thy love. Grant me: the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Thy divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining Heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with Thee, and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Thy true disciples and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. Amen. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan (c)Mary TV 2023