We are nine days out from the Feast of Pentecost, and traditionally Catholics begin a novena (nine days of prayer) invoking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our lives. We know that in order to live in the post-resurrection reality promised by Jesus, the Holy Spirit is indispensable. Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John focus almost exclusively on this 'Gift of the Father" which Jesus spoke about on the night before He died. "I have much more to say to you," He told them, "but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you into all truth."
Until we actually experience what Jesus meant by the resurrected life, until we have experienced being guided by the Holy Spirit as a partner in our lives, we cannot grasp the teaching of Jesus or the Scriptures. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away....where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (3:14ff).
On the same day of His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaeus and began to open the Scriptures to them. Later, he did the same with His apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem. It's as if he could not wait to begin "opening the Scriptures" to his followers. And the same ministry continues in us today through the revelation-work of the Holy Spirit.
Yesterday I began pondering how I would begin a novena to the Holy Spirit for Pentecost. I am not so great with printed prayers, beautiful though they may be. So typically I will read through them once or twice and then just put them aside. This morning, however, I was lead back to my "first love," so to speak -- the book of Ephesians. In 1962, I read a book about Elizabeth of the Trinity, whose writing expounded on the words from Ephesians, and from reading her writing, I began to love reading Ephesians.
I still go back to that book periodically, but this morning I realized that this needs to be my "novena," albeit an unconventional one, for the next nine days. I need to once again dive into Ephesians slowly, meditatively, deliciously. Watchman Nee once wrote a commentary on this epistles which was brilliant. His book is called Sit, Walk, and Stand. Nee points out the fact that many Christians try to "walk" in the Christian life before they "sit" with the realities poured out by Paul in the first 3 chapters of Ephesians. Until we have "sat" with those truths long enough for them to become a part of us, trying to live the life of Christ is a vain endeavor. Paul does not begin to urge the Corinthians to "walk" in the newness of faith until the 4th chapter of his letter, after he has established the fact that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ...unto the praise of the glory of His grace, which He has freely given us in the One he loves (1:3-6).
Last night, I asked a new convert, baptized at Easter, what she loved about being a Catholic. Her immediate answer was, "the grace that comes with it." This young woman is about 20 years old, and her answer surprised me with its depth of understanding. In fact, her answer recalled to me the prayer of St. Paul, "May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him" (1:17).
I think I have found my novena. For the next nine days, I plan to read and re-read Ephesians, asking for the grace of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of God the Father and of His Son, whose greatest desire is to open the Scriptures to us.
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