Novena to the Holy Spirit

Nine days, from the day after the Ascension to the vigil of Pentecost. Begin each day here. Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart, and kindle in me the fire of your love. You are the Promise we were told to wait for. I am waiting, as they waited, in a room that is not yet Pentecost. Then the day. First day — the Spirit himself Come, and do not come as a stranger. Whatever in me is shut, open; whatever has gone cold, set alight. Second day — the fear of the Lord Give me the fear that is not a slave's but a lover's: dreading only to wound the one I love. Third day — piety Teach me to say Father and mean it, and to see in every neighbour someone you also call by name. Fourth day — knowledge Let me see created things as they are: good, and given, and not God. Fifth day — fortitude Hold me at the place where doing right begins to cost, which is the only place courage has ever been a virtue. Sixth day — counsel When the road divides and both ways look like mine, say which one is yours. Seventh day — understanding Let me see into what I already believe, so that it stops being a sentence I repeat and becomes a country I live in. Eighth day — wisdom Give me your own taste for things: to love what heaven loves, in the measure heaven loves it. Ninth day — the fruits You promised fruit, and not only gifts — charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, self-control, chastity. Ripen them in me slowly, and in the people who have to live with me. Close each day. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.