Pentecost

This weekend we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost – the final celebration in the Easter Season and the great feast day of the Holy Spirit Himself.  As you know, there are seven gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us.  St. Alphonsus Liguori composed a beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit based on asking Him for these seven gifts.  It seems especially appropriate on this Pentecost Sunday to include it here in the bulletin:
     
Holy Spirit, Divine Consoler, 
I adore You as my true God, 
with God the Father and God the Son. 
I adore You and unite myself to the adoration 
You receive from the angels and saints. 
I give You my heart and I offer my ardent thanksgiving 
for all the grace which You never cease to bestow on me. 

O Giver of all supernatural gifts, 
who filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
Mother of God, with such immense favors, 
I beg You to visit me with Your grace 
and Your love and to grant me the gift of holy fear, 
so that it may act on me as a check to prevent me 
from falling back into my past sins, 
for which I beg pardon. 

Grant me the gift of piety, 
so that I may serve You for the future with increased 
fervor, follow with more promptness Your holy inspirations, 
and observe your divine precepts with greater fidelity. 

Grant me the gift of knowledge, 
so that I may know the things of God and, 
enlightened by Your holy teaching, may walk, 
without deviation, in the path of eternal salvation. 

Grant me the gift of fortitude, 
so that I may overcome courageously all the assaults of 
the devil, and all the dangers of this world which threaten the 
salvation of my soul. 

Grant me the gift of counsel, 
so that I may choose what is more conducive to my 
spiritual advancement and may discover the wiles and snares of the tempter. 

Grant me the gift of understanding, 
so that I may apprehend the divine mysteries 
and by contemplation of heavenly things detach my thoughts 
and affections from the vain things of this miserable 
world. 

Grant me the gift of wisdom, 
so that I may rightly direct all my actions, referring them to God as my last end; 
so that, having loved Him and served Him in this life, 
I may have the happiness of possessing Him eternally in 
the next. 

Amen.
 
 ​