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Prayers to the Holy Spirit

Veni, Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest)

Come Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.

Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;
Thou, finger of God’s hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father,
Thou who dost the tongue with power imbue.

Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o’erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.

Far from us drive the foe we dread,
and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide,
turn from the path of life aside.

Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed,
of both the eternal Spirit blest.

Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven.

Amen.

Here is a link to the source document for this prayer.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit Dove

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Loyola Press

Encyclicals by Popes on the Holy Spirit and the Church

Dominum Et Vivificantem -- On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World -- Pope John Paul II -- 1986

INTRODUCTION

Venerable Brothers, Beloved Sons and Daughters,
Health and the Apostolic Blessing!

1. The Church professes her faith in the Holy Spirit as “the Lord, the giver of life.” She professes this in the Creed which is called Nicene- Constantinopolitan from the name of the two Councils-of Nicaea (A.D. 325) and Constantinople (A.D. 381) – at which it was formulated or promulgated. It also contains the statement that the Holy Spirit “has spoken through the Prophets.”

These are words which the Church receives from the very source of her faith, Jesus Christ. In fact, according to the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is given to us with the new life, as Jesus foretells and promises on the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles: “If any one thirst let him come to me and drink. He who believeth in me as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'”¹ And the Evangelist explains: “This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.”² It is the same simile of water which Jesus uses in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, when he speaks of “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,”³ and in his conversation with Nicodemus when he speaks of the need for a new birth “of water and the Holy Spirit” in order to “enter the kingdom of God.”⁴

The Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing on the experience of Pentecost and her own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the earliest centuries her faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one in whom the inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings, constituting in them the source of eternal life.

2. This faith, uninterruptedly professed by the Church, needs to be constantly reawakened and deepened in the consciousness of the People of God. In the course of the last hundred years this has been done several times: by Leo XIII, who published the Encyclical Epistle Divinum Illud Munus (1897) entirely devoted to the Holy Spirit; by Pius XII, who in the Encyclical Letter Mystici Corporis (1943) spoke of the Holy Spirit as the vital principle of the Church, in which he works in union with the Head of the Mystical Body, Christ⁵; at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council which brought out the need for a new study of the doctrine on the Holy Spirit, as Paul VI emphasized: “The Christology and particularly the ecclesiology of the Council must be succeeded by a new study of and devotion to the Holy Spirit, precisely as the indispensable complement to the teaching of the Council.”⁶

In our own age, then, we are called anew by the ever ancient and ever new faith of the Church, to draw near to the Holy Spirit as the giver of life. In this we are helped and stimulated also by the heritage we share with the Oriental Churches, which have jealously guarded the extraordinary riches of the teachings of the Fathers on the Holy Spirit. For this reason too we can say that one of the most important ecclesial events of recent years has been the Sixteenth Centenary of the First Council of Constantinople, celebrated simultaneously in Constantinople and Rome on the Solemnity of Pentecost in 1981. The Holy Spirit was then better seen, through a meditation on the mystery of the Church, as the one who points out the ways leading to the union of Christians, indeed as the supreme source of this unity, which comes from God himself and to which St. Paul gave a particular expression in the words which are frequently used to begin the Eucharistic liturgy: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”⁷

In a certain sense, my previous Encyclicals Redemptor Hominis and Dives in Misericordia took their origin and inspiration from this exhortation, celebrating as they do the event of our salvation accomplished in the Son, sent by the Father into the world “that the world might be saved through him”⁸ and “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”⁹ From this exhortation now comes the present Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; with the Father and the Son he is adored and glorified: a divine Person, he is at the center of the Christian faith and is the source and dynamic power of the Church’s renewal.¹⁰ The Encyclical has been drawn from the heart of the heritage of the Council. For the Conciliar texts, thanks to their teaching on the Church in herself and the Church in the world, move us to penetrate ever deeper into the Trinitarian mystery of God himself, through the Gospels, the Fathers and the liturgy: to the Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.

In this way the Church is also responding to certain deep desires which she believes she can discern in people’s hearts today: a fresh discovery of God in his transcendent reality as the infinite Spirit, just as Jesus presents him to the Samaritan woman; the need to adore him “in spirit and truth”¹¹; the hope of finding in him the secret of love and the power of a “new creation”¹²: yes, precisely the giver of life.

The Church feels herself called to this mission of proclaiming the Spirit, while together with the human family she approaches the end of the second Millennium after Christ. Against the background of a heaven and earth which will “pass away,” she knows well that “the words which will not pass away”¹³ acquire a particular eloquence. They are the words of Christ about the Holy Spirit, the inexhaustible source of the “water welling up to eternal life,”¹⁴ as truth and saving grace. Upon these words she wishes to reflect, to these words she wishes to call the attention of believers and of all people, as she prepares to celebrate- as will be said later on-the great Jubilee which will mark the passage from the second to the third Christian Millennium.

Naturally, the considerations that follow do not aim to explore exhaustively the extremely rich doctrine on the Holy Spirit, nor to favor any particular solution of questions which are still open. Their main purpose is to develop in the Church the awareness that “she is compelled by the Holy Spirit to do her part towards the full realization of the will of God, who has established Christ as the source of salvation for the whole world.”¹⁵Excerpt from Saint Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical. Please click on this link for the complete document.

Redemptor Hominis -- Pope John Paul II -- 1979

TO HIS VENERABLE BROTHERS IN THE EPISCOPATE
THE PRIESTS
THE RELIGIOUS FAMILIES
THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE CHURCH
AND TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF GOOD WILL
AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS PAPAL MINISTRY

Blessing

Venerable Brothers, and dear Sons and Daughters
greetings and the Apostolic Blessing

I. INHERITANCE

1. At the close of the second Millennium

THE REDEEMER OF MAN, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history. To him go my thoughts and my heart in this solemn moment of the world that the Church and the whole family of present-day humanity are now living. In fact, this time, in which God in his hidden design has entrusted to me, after my beloved Predecessor John Paul I, the universal service connected with the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, is already very close to the year 2000. At this moment it is difficult to say what mark that year will leave on the face of human history or what it will bring to each people, nation, country and continent, in spite of the efforts already being made to foresee some events. For the Church, the People of God spread, although unevenly, to the most distant limits of the earth, it will be the year of a great Jubilee. We are already approaching that date, which, without prejudice to all the corrections imposed by chronological exactitude, will recall and reawaken in us in a special way our awareness of the key truth of faith which Saint John expressed at the beginning of his Gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”¹, and elsewhere: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”².

We also are in a certain way in a season of a new Advent, a season of expectation: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son…”³, by the Son, his Word, who became man and was born of the Virgin Mary. This act of redemption marked the high point of the history of man within God’s loving plan. God entered the history of humanity and, as a man, became an actor in that history, one of the thousands of millions of human beings but at the same time Unique! Through the Incarnation God gave human life the dimension that he intended man to have from his first beginning; he has granted that dimension definitively-in the way that is peculiar to him alone, in keeping with his eternal love and mercy, with the full freedom of God-and he has granted it also with the bounty that enables us, in considering the original sin and the whole history of the sins of humanity, and in considering the errors of the human intellect, will and heart, to repeat with amazement the words of the Sacred Liturgy: “O happy fault… which gained us so great a Redeemer!”⁴

2. The first words of the new Pontificate

It was to Christ the Redeemer that my feelings and my thoughts were directed on 16 October of last year, when, after the canonical election, I was asked: “Do you accept?” I then replied: “With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and of the Church, in spite of the great difficulties, I accept”. Today I wish to make that reply known publicly to all without exception, thus showing that there is a link between the first fundamental truth of the Incarnation, already mentioned, and the ministry that, with my acceptance of my election as Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, has become my specific duty in his See.

I chose the same names that were chosen by my beloved Predecessor John Paul I. Indeed, as soon as he announced to the Sacred College on 26 August 1978 that he wished to be called John Paul-such a double name being unprecedented in the history of the Papacy-I saw in it a clear presage of grace for the new pontificate. Since that pontificate lasted barely 33 days, it falls to me not only to continue it but in a certain sense to take it up again at the same starting point. This is confirmed by my choice of these two names. By following the example of my venerable Predecessor in choosing them, I wish like him to express my love for the unique inheritance left to the Church by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI and my personal readiness to develop that inheritance with God’s help.

Through these two names and two pontificates I am linked with the whole tradition of the Apostolic See and with all my Predecessors in the expanse of the twentieth century and of the preceding centuries. I am connected, through one after another of the various ages back to the most remote, with the line of the mission and ministry that confers on Peter’s See an altogether special place in the Church. John XXIII and Paul VI are a stage to which I wish to refer directly as a threshold from which I intend to continue, in a certain sense together with John Paul I, into the future, letting myself be guided by unlimited trust in and obedience to the Spirit that Christ promised and sent to his Church. On the night before he suffered he said to his apostles: “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you”⁵. “When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning”⁶. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come”⁷.
Excerpt from the Encyclical by Saint Pope John Paul II.
Please click on this link for the complete text of the Encyclical.

Mystici Corporis Christi -- Pope Pius XII -- 1943

TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN, PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHIOPS, AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES
ENJOYING PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE

Venerable Brethren,
Health and Apostolic Benediction.

The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church,[1] was first taught us by the Redeemer Himself. Illustrating as it does the great and inestimable privilege of our intimate union with so exalted a Head, this doctrine by its sublime dignity invites all those who are drawn by the Holy Spirit to study it, and gives them, in the truths of which it proposes to the mind, a strong incentive to the performance of such good works as are conformable to its teaching. For this reason, We deem it fitting to speak to you on this subject through this Encyclical Letter, developing and explaining above all, those points which concern the Church Militant. To this We are urged not only by the surpassing grandeur of the subject but also by the circumstances of the present time.

2. For We intend to speak of the riches stored up in this Church which Christ purchased with His own Blood, [2] and whose members glory in a thorn-crowned Head. The fact that they thus glory is a striking proof that the greatest joy and exaltation are born only of suffering, and hence that we should rejoice if we partake of the sufferings of Christ, that when His glory shall be revealed we may also be glad with exceeding joy. [3]
3. From the outset it should be noted that the society established by the Redeemer of the human race resembles its divine Founder, who was persecuted, calumniated and tortured by those very men whom He had undertaken to save. We do not deny, rather from a heart filled with gratitude to God We admit, that even in our turbulent times there are many who, though outside the fold of Jesus Christ, look to the Church as the only haven of salvation; but We are also aware that the Church of God not only is despised and hated maliciously by those who shut their eyes to the light of Christian wisdom and miserably return to the teachings, customs and practices of ancient paganism, but is ignored and neglected, and even at times looked upon as irksome by many Christians who are allured by specious error or caught in the meshes of the world’s corruption. In obedience, therefore, Venerable Brethren, to the voice of Our conscience and in compliance with the wishes of many, We will set forth before the eyes of all and extol the beauty, the praises, and the glory of Mother Church to whom, after God, we owe everything.

4. And it is to be hoped that Our instructions and exhortations will bring forth abundant fruit in the souls of the faithful in the present circumstances. For We know that if all the sorrows and calamities of these stormy times, by which countless multitudes are being sorely tried, are accepted from God’s hands with calm submission, they naturally lift souls above the passing things of earth those of heaven that abide forever, and arouse a certain secret thirst and intense desire for spiritual things. Thus, urged by the Holy Spirit, men are moved, and as it were, impelled to seek the kingdom of God with greater diligence; for the more they are detached from the vanities of this world and from inordinate love of temporal things, the more apt they will be to perceive the light of heavenly mysteries. But the vanity and emptiness of earthly things are more manifest today than perhaps at any other period, when Kingdoms and States are crumbling, when enormous quantities of goods and all kinds of wealth are being sunk in the depths of the sea, and cities, towns and fertile fields are strewn with massive ruins and defiled with the blood of brothers.

5. Moreover, We trust that Our exposition of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ will be acceptable and useful to those also who are without the fold of the Church, not only because their good will toward the Church seems to grow from day to day, but also because, while before their eyes nation rises up against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and discord is sown everywhere together with the seeds of envy and hatred, if they turn their gaze to the Church, if they contemplate her divinely-given unity – by which all men of every race are united to Christ in the bond of brotherhood – they will be forced to admire this fellowship in charity, and with the guidance and assistance of divine grace will long to share in the same union and charity.
Excerpt of the Encyclical from Pope Pius XII. Please click on this link for the complete text of the Encyclical.

Divinum Illud Munus -- Pope Leo XIII -- 1897

To Our Venerable Brethren, The Patriarchs, Primates,
Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries having
Peace and Communion with the Holy See.

Venerable Brethren, Health and the Apostolic Benediction.

That divine office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for the welfare of mankind, and most perfectly fulfilled, had for its final object to put men in possession of the eternal life of glory, and proximately during the course of ages to secure to them the life of divine grace, which is destined eventually to blossom into the life of heaven. Wherefore, our Saviour never ceases to invite, with infinite affection, all men, of every race and tongue, into the bosom of His Church: “Come ye all to Me,” “I am the Life,” “I am the Good Shepherd.” Nevertheless, according to His inscrutable counsels, He did not will to entirely complete and finish this office Himself on earth, but as He had received it from the Father, so He transmitted it for its completion to the Holy Ghost. It is consoling to recall those assurances which Christ gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left the earth: “It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you” (1 John xvi., 7). In these words He gave as the chief reason of His departure and His return to the Father, the advantage which would most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of the Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the Holy Ghost is equally sent by-and therefore proceeds from-Himself and the Father; that He would complete, in His office of Intercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself had begun in His mortal life. For, in the redemption of the world, the completion of the work was by Divine Providence reserved to the manifold power of that Spirit, who, in the creation, “adorned the heavens” (Job xxvi., 13), and “filled the whole world” (Wisdom i., 7).

The Two Principal Aims of Our Pontificate

2. Now We have earnestly striven, by the help of His grace, to follow theexample of Christ, Our Saviour, the Prince of Pastors, and the Bishop of ourSouls, by diligently carrying on His office, entrusted by Him to the Apostles and chiefly to Peter, “whose dignity faileth not, even in his unworthy successor” (St. Leo the Great, Sermon ii., On the Anniversary of his Election). In pursuance of this object We have endeavoured to direct all that Wehave attempted and persistently carried out during a long pontificatetowards two chief ends: in the first place, towards the restoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the Christian life in civil and domestic society, since there is no true life for men except from Christ; and, secondly, to promote the reunion of those who have fallen away from the Catholic Church either by heresy or by schism, since it is most undoubtedly the will of Christ that all should be united in one flock under one Shepherd. But now that We are looking forward to the approach of the closing days of Our life, Our soul is deeply moved to dedicate to the Holy Ghost, who is the life-giving Love, all the work We have done during Our pontificate, that He may bring it to maturity and fruitfulness. In order the better and more fully to carry out this Our intention, We have resolved to address you at the approaching sacred season of Pentecost concerning the indwelling and miraculous power of the Holy Ghost; and the extent and efficiency of His action, both in the whole body of the Church and in the individual souls of its members, through the glorious abundance of His divine graces. We earnestly desire that, as a result, faith may be aroused in your minds concerning the mystery of the adorable Trinity, and especially that piety may increase and be inflamed towards the Holy Ghost, to whom especially all of us owe the grace of following the paths of truth and virtue; for, as St. Basil said, “Who denieth that the dispensations concerning man, which have been made by the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, according to the goodness of God, have been fulfilled through the grace of the Spirit?” (Of the Holy Ghost, c. xvi., v. 39).
Excerpt from the Encyclical by Pope Leo XIII. Please click on this link for the complete document.

Audio Links

Archbishop Sample's Homily -- 50th Anniversary of the CCR

Archbishop Sample

The Archdiocese of Portland celebrated the 50th Anniversary for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Salem, OR on August 18-19, 2017.

Archbishop Sample: He is the 11^thArchbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland, OR. He was ordained as a Priest on June 1, 1990, and ordained Bishop of Marquette, MI on January 25, 2006. He was installed as Archbishop of Portland on April 2, 2013.

His homily during the Jubilee Mass: “The History of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal”.

Jim Murphy Talk # 1 -- 50th Anniversary of the CCR

James Murphy

James Murphy: He is the founder and president of Vera Cruz Communications. He has worked in the Catholic Church in many capacities including: youth ministry at the parish, diocesan, national and international levels. He gives parish missions, speaks at retreats, and consults for many parish and diocesan level groups in the Church.

In addition to his work with Vera Cruz Communications, Jim is the former chairman of, and currently a consultant to The National Service Committee for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He is a former producer of “The Choices We Face”, a weekly television program of Renewal Ministries. He is past Chairman of the Youth Executive Committee for the North American Renewal Service Committee, an ecumenical organization. Jim was recently elected President of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service (ICCRS), whose offices are located at the Vatican, in Rome.

Talk one: “Our Journey of Pentecost”

Jim Murphy Talk # 2 -- 50th Anniversary of the CCR

Jim Murphy made a second talk at this Jubilee celebration.

Talk two: “Have you been to the Upper Room”

Fr. Theodore Lang -- 50th Anniversary of the CCR

Fr. Theo Lange

Fr. Theodore Lang. He is a priest for the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon. On February 10, 2016 he was commissioned by Pope Francis as a Missionary of Mercy for the Jubilee of Divine Mercy. Fr. Theo has preached numerous retreats, days of reflections, written articles for the Catholic Sentinel and speaks at conferences in addition to serving at many parishes on weekends as a Missionary of Mercy or promoting the Knights of Columbus.

He is spiritually associated with the Family of the Pierced Hearts, whose foundress is Mother Adela Galindo, SCTJM. Fr. Lange has served at Mt. Angel Seminary as a formation director and a professor of spirituality and theology. Fr. Theo was transferred to St. Catherine of Siena in Veneta, OR on July 1, 2017. He also serves as the State Chaplain for the Knights of Columbus.

Talk: “His testimony and how he sees the future of the Renewal”.

Video Links

The Ministry of the Wild Goose

Fr. Dave Pivonka

Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, a Franciscan priest, has developed with the Wild Goose Ministry, several series on the Holy Spirit and Conversion. You can learn more about the Ministry and Fr. Dave at this link. Here are some of the major offerings:

“The Wild Goose is Loose”

“The Wild Goose series is truly a work of the Holy Spirit. ‘Wild Goose’ was a term that the ancient Celts had for the Holy Spirit. It is a 14 part series featuring Fr. Dave Pivonka and various interviews.

Shot in various locations from Niagara Falls to the California desert, The Wild Goose invites viewers to an encounter, or a renewed encounter, with the Holy Spirit.

The entire series is available for free on WILDGOOSE.TV or if you prefer you can purchase the DVD set as well.”

“Metanoia“

METANOIA – and believe in the Gospel. In the Gospel of Mark, the first words of Jesus are an invitation to metanoia, to repent, to change, to be converted.

Every Catholic, no matter where we are in our faith journey, is invited to a deeper conversion. Metanoia is not a one-time event; rather, it is a continual process of turning away from the things of the world, from lies and sin and discovering a deeper union with Christ.

Metanoia is a production of The Ministry of The Wild Goose and 4PM Media in association with Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Franciscan Friars TOR of the Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The series is beautifully filmed on location in the Holy Land, highlighting sacred places such as the Sea of Galilee, the River Jordan, the desert of Temptations, and many of the holy sites in Jerusalem.

This 10-part series featuring Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, President of Franciscan University and founder of The Ministry of the Wild Goose, leads us on a journey with Christ into conversion. Each of the episodes explores areas of our life where conversion is so often necessary. Metanoia will examine topics such as who is Jesus, what must we do to inherit eternal life, and many other significant matters of faith. With preaching from Fr. Dave as well as personal testimonies from men and women, young and old, religious and lay, their stories will inspire you to seek to encounter Jesus and the new life he is constantly inviting us to.

Join us for the most important journey of our lives, a journey of grace, hope, repentance, and transformation. Do not delay, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel. Mk 1:15

There are several other presentations that may be of interest on this website. When you select some of the video series, you may have an opportunity to download a study guide.

”Video Testimony — Patti Mansfield”

One of the retreat participants at the February 1967 “Duquesne weekend” at the Ark and the Dove retreat house, was Patti Mansfield. She was the first Catholics to experience being “baptized in the spirit”, during that retreat. She was in at the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Church. Here is a link to her video testimony.

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Smith’s Newsletters

Bishop Peter Smith

Before he was ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Portland, Fr. Peter Smith was the Archbishop’s Liaison for the Portland Archdiocese, to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. During that time, he wrote a series of newsletters that provided a valuable insight into the Charismatic Renewal in this Archdiocese.

Note: All of these Newsletter’s are in Adobe “pdf” format.