Hello Everyone! It is already 50 days after Easter, Pentecost Sunday! This is the Sequence for Pentecost:
Sequence
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
We receive 7 gifts from the Holy Spirit, these gifts are:
- Wisdom: helps us judge what is important, meaningful, purposeful, etc.
- Understanding: to know something is different from truly understanding it. I can know a lot of facts about someone, but that is different from truly understanding that person.
- Counsel: helps us differentiate between right and wrong.
- Fortitude: courage and endurance.
- Knowledge: helps us to know God.
- Piety: proper reverence for God, helps us obey God out of love.
- Fear of the Lord: proper disdain for sin and awe of God’s goodness and love. (from Catholic Answers)
These can be found together in Isiah 11: 2-3a. They can be found individually throughout the Bible. When people think of the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the 1st Reading of Pentecost, where the Apostles receive the Holy Spirit, they might also think of the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Sacrament of Confirmation is about being sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit and all the gifts at our Baptism!
The sacrament of confirmation completes the sacrament of baptism. If baptism is the sacrament of re-birth to a new and supernatural life, confir- mation is the sacrament of maturity and coming of age. The real confession of Christ consist in this ‘that the whole man submits himself to Truth, in the judgment of his understanding, in the submission of his will and in the consecration of his whole power of love . . . To do this, poor-spirited man is only able when he has been confirmed by God’s grace’ (From Catholiconline)
Something you can do with your family to prepare for Pentecost or on the day of Pentecost:
Gather 7 red candles in candle holders, 7 place cards and a white candle for each person in the family old enough to hold a lit candle. Have the children old enough write one gift of the Holy Spirit on each of the place cards. Place a card in front of a red candle in the order listed above. When ready Gather the family and begin by singing “Come Holy Ghost” or another appropriate Pentecost Hymn. While the Hymn is being sung light the red candles. Have someone read the Gifts of the Holy Spirit slowly and reverently. Then invite those in your household to light their white candle from the red candle representing the gift of the Holy Spirit he/she feels they need most at this time.(Once the invitation is made it is quiet until everyone has their candle lit) Once everyone has lit their candle read one of the readings or the sequence for Pentecost. Close by singing “Come Holy Ghost” or another Pentecost Hymn and extinguish the candles. (White candles may also be set in sand in front of the red candles rather than held once they are lit.)
Something else that is really neat about Pentecost this year: it is on the Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady to her Cousin Elizabeth! What is this 2nd Joyful Mystery about!? The Holy Spirit and being sent! Read all about it: Luke 1:35-56!
Have a Blessed Pentecost Everyone! Pray often, be kind and take care of yourself! If you are sick offer it up. You never know who you will met one day in Heaven who says to you; I am here because you offered up that suffering to God and it gave me the grace to be open to God!