Pray for the Spirit

In today’s first reading from the 8th chapter of Acts, the Apostles pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon new believers in Christ.

On one level, we see this today in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

But this passage is also a reminder of how we too should be praying for the Holy Spirit.

When we are at our best, our minute-to-minute life can be one long intercessory prayer: constantly asking for the grace to be focused on the Spirit of God and continually asking for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, upon the people we meet, upon the people we think of, and upon the people who really need the Spirit.

There is a special quality to this kind of intercessory prayer: not requesting a specific thing nor asking vaguely for God’s blessings, but asking that the Holy Spirit of God come down upon us and upon that person and that person and that person.

It is a powerful prayer because it is an opening to the infinite power of the Spirit that can do more than we can imagine: signs and wonders and things even more powerful and profound.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God, who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris in eis accende.

Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur;
Et renovabis faciem terrae.

Oremus. Deus, qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti. Da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius semper consolatione gaudere. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.