A Rushing Wind
A Novena With The Holy Spirit
Rediscover the Holy Spirit
A Rushing Wind is a novena steeped in Scripture, the saints, and the teaching of the Church, and is designed to rekindle our love for the Holy Spirit and let Him renew our lives.
Join us in praying this novena starting on May 10th and culminating on Pentecost!
Buy the Book
Get a hard copy of A Rushing Wind: A Novena with the Holy Spirit that you can pray as often as you'd like.
The book is beautifully designed to pray on your own or with a group of friends.
Free Email Version
Sign up today to receive a daily novena email, starting May 10th and ending on Pentecost!
A Beautiful Resource for Prayer
- Based on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
- Steeped in Scripture and the Writings of the Saints
- Created with daily optional in-depth study resources
- Designed for Groups or Personal Use
Follow Along With The Novena
Rooted in Scripture
Novena Elements
Day 1 – Virtue
Day 2 – Fortitude
Day 3 – Counsel
Day 4 – Piety
Day 5 – Fear of the Lord
Day 6 – Knowledge
Day 7 – Understanding
Day 8 – Wisdom
Day 9 – Mission
A New Pentecost
An Experience Rooted in Scripture
Seeing their friend and teacher brutally murdered sent the apostles into hiding. They were alone and understandably terrified: Could the same thing happen to them? What did it all mean? Jesus was gone—now what? They have given up everything to follow Him, what would they do with their lives?
Experiencing the Resurrection changed all that. Jesus returned, sweeping away any fear and doubt. He appeared to the disciples in His glorious form—beautiful and powerful. The sense of awe, glory, and divine strength was present as never before. They had seen Him die a brutal death, and three days later here He was, alive among them, risen from the dead! If even death had been conquered, what could they fear?
Both Jesus’ divinity and humanity were now shockingly apparent to everyone who saw Him. He let them touch the tangible holes in his hands; He had a human appetite, and they shared meals together; but He was also able to walk through doors and appear out of nowhere. Everything had changed and the new “normal” had become supernatural.
Jesus spent the next forty full days walking, teaching, and sharing life with His disciples. Then suddenly, He took them to one of His favorite spots, the Mount of Olives, and told them He was leaving. The disciples were obviously very confused again. He was back from the dead to finish His work, and this time with power. But now He’s leaving? They even asked: Lord, aren’t you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)
Jesus responded almost abruptly that, no, He was leaving. He invited them to prepare their hearts, saying. “You will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you” and “You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Then He left!
Back to the Upper Room
We can only imagine the disciples’ sense of shock, weakness, and desperate need for prayer. They were now responsible for the very mission they expected Jesus Himself to accomplish.
Instead of being alone, they came together and intensely prayed like never before as they waited together for the Holy Spirit to come. It was nine days. This was the original novena (from the Latin “novem” meaning “nine”).
To pray a novena should bring us back to the upper room. It can be a response to the Lord’s command to “wait for the gift my Father promised.” (Acts 1:4) It can unite us with all the Christians who came before us and the millions who gather now to prepare for Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit in our own lives can change us just as radically and deeply as it did the first apostles.
Make the Most of This Novena
There are so many ways to pray. Novenas are prayed nine days in a row, but can take many forms. We structured this novena around the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
To begin, we dedicated the first day to the foundation of virtue required for the Holy Spirit to work in us, and concluded the last day focused on our calling to be God’s missionaries in the world today.
Each day is designed to work for both groups and individuals, and includes an Optional Study for those who want to go a bit deeper. We recommend dedicating a full 10-20 minutes and finding a quiet space to pray where you can devote your full attention.
The purpose of this brief overview is to delve into the deeper meaning behind the various elements, so we can make the most of this Novena.
1. Coming into God’s Presence
St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, wisely encouraged his followers to begin every moment of prayer with pause in order to recognize the awesome presence of God. He suggested that remembering who God is—His power, wisdom and love—would help them to enter into personal dialogue with God.
Standing a few paces from the spot where I am going to make my meditation, I must recollect myself, raise my mind above earthly things, and consider our Lord Jesus Christ as present and attentive to what I am about to do (…) assuming an attitude of veneration and humble respect. (St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, Introduction to Meditation, 3)
This preparation for prayer is not unlike many churches that are built with an entranceway designed to help us transition from the busy world into the sacred space.
We start every day of the novena with an invitation to become aware of God and His action in our lives. We can calm our busyness and set aside distractions to give the Holy Spirit all the attention He deserves.
2. Invocations
Since prayer is about relying on God’s strength, this novena will begin with invocations, crying out to the Spirit to come and fill our lives with His presence, power and peace.
The Holy Spirit “comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” (Rom 8:26) We recognize our need for support and beg God to help us.
3. Optional Study
In simple words, based on the Church’s consistent teaching, we’ll explain one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit each day. We will see how these gifts relate so beautifully to our own human efforts to live virtuously.
We’ll also pick one concrete way to prepare our hearts for the Holy Spirit’s ever growing action in our lives, and give examples of how to do this.
Day one will explain the foundation of virtue and day nine will focus on our call to mission.
4. Scripture
Sacred Scripture is at the heart of our Faith. Many of our religious and liturgical traditions stem from the Bible. This novena rediscovers the prayerful time of waiting from Ascension Thursday—when Jesus left his followers on earth, to Pentecost—when the Holy Spirit was sent down upon the Church. Each day we will reflect on a brief verse that reminds us of the early foundations of our Faith, as lived by the early Christians.
5. Readings
Over the centuries, popes, saints, clergy, men and women religious, and the fathers and doctors of the Church have explored the most profound questions of our faith. We’ve chosen a selection of brief texts that highlight the wisdom of the Church explaining the different gifts of the Holy Spirit.
These readings may take a little effort to dig into, but it’s well worth the effort! We have selected two optional readings; you may feel free to pick just one or to use both of them.
6. Interior Dialogue
This is meant to be a peaceful, receptive pause to converse with God, to listen, and to embrace the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and consolation. Resist the urge to rush through this! Two minutes of silence may seem like ten.
Approach the Holy Spirit as your dearest friend, with calm humility and bold petition. Allow the Spirit to speak to and challenge your inner depths; to purify you and make you better; bring Him your real concerns.
We will provide some optional questions as conversation starters, however the goal is a brief moment of personal interior dialogue with the “Sweet Guest of the Soul.”
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Lk 6:7-8)
7. Intercessions
In preparation for Pentecost, in a spirit of unity, groups, families, and individuals all over the world together are begging the Holy Spirit nine days in a row to come and fill us with His divine love, strength and comfort.
Just like at Mass, these intercessions are a community opportunity to pray out loud, as a tangible way to unite our voices and intentions with those of the whole Church.
The content of these petitions comes from the Church’s consistent teaching on how to allow the Holy Spirit’s action to guide our lives. We’ve relied especially on renowned spiritual authors such as Aumann, Tanquerey, and Dubay.
8. Closing Prayer
A prayer steeped in the fullness of our Christian faith. A written conversation with the Holy Spirit that both teaches us how to pray and at the same time helps us to rediscover how beautiful and awesome our faith is, challenges our hearts to be rekindled with His divine fire, and asks for the divine assistance we constantly need to renew our lives.
Buy the Book
Get a hard copy of A Rushing Wind: A Novena with the Holy Spirit that you can pray as often as you'd like.
The book is beautifully designed to pray on your own or with a group of friends.
Free Email Version
Sign up today to receive a daily novena email, starting May 10th and ending on Pentecost!
My favorite part was “Coming into God’s Presence.” This was so helpful to do before praying and the different perspective each day gave me something new to think about. I’d love some kind of collection of these to help me prepare for my daily prayer! Overall, it was excellent. Thank you reCatholic team for all you did to make this possible!
Thanks for the feedback! We added that idea to our list.
WOW! I truly enjoyed this with my spouse! We prayed it together each day and then discussed how we were moved by the Holy Spirit or what areas of our life we felt needed to be discerned better in God’s presence. We appreciated being challenged in our faith, and the fact that this allowed us to speak about our God’s presence in our lives in a very natural way.
I’d love to see more resources on prayer, especially for families: maybe even a version that would allow kids to pray along.
You guys did an amazing job – I shared this with all my friends!
Great idea! We’ve added prayers for couples and families to the list for the future. Thanks for praying with us!
I found this novena to be so helpful. It was not like any other novena that I’ve previously seen.
It was real, it was relevant, and honestly, there were parts that moved my soul quite deeply.
The Catechesis section was especially helpful to get an understanding of each of the Gifts.
I prayed with a group some of the time, and by myself some of the time. Both were wonderful experience. During our first day, there was not a dry eye among us, and we needed to take some additional time to spend with the Lord.
I honestly wish I had something like this available for me to use in my daily prayer.
Thank you reCatholic for all of the time you put in to write this novena!
We’re considering some weekly or daily form of prayer aid! Thanks for the suggestion!
I can’t say thank you enough!
Two years ago, my husband and I lost our daughter. It was devastating for our family, and it had a substantial impact on my faith. In losing her, my prayer life became empty. Over the last few months, I felt God trying to reach out to me. Always through gentle invitations. In what I call one of those “God moments,” the Holy Spirit Novena was presented to me. It was to start on the day of our daughter’s passing. It was the “Okay, God, I see you. I hear you” moment that I desperately needed. It was emotional, to say the least.
The Novena has provided a way for me to invite the Holy Spirit back into my life more openly and let Him work instead of taking it all on myself.
Thank you so much for your courage to share and pray with us!
When I was invited to sign up and pray the Novena with my co-workers, I was a bit timid, as I’ve never prayed this before.
After day one of prayer, it has changed my life in a profound way. Something that I thought would be so intimidating, ended up being beautifully written, and very easy to understand.
I am so grateful for having this amazing resource to share with friends and family.
Thank you and I cannot wait to see what is next!
Thank you for taking the risk to pray with us!
This was definitely one of the most helpful novenas I can remember praying. The whole approach and structure was so conducive to solid prayer. I was particularly struck by the “gift” element of it all; we do our best, we attune our hearts and our minds to the Holy Spirit’s movements and promptings, but ultimately it’s His gift. This attitude of humble openness and receptivity has really changed my approach to prayer. So my only question would be: what other materials is the reCatholic team working on?? I’d love to see other series in this same format.
I really liked how unique this was. It wasn’t repetitive like the typical Catholic prayers I grew up with. This Novena helped me a lot with my interior dialogue with God in a way that allowed me to be open and honest in His presence, as I allowed the Holy Spirit to guide me. I believe this Novena can help those who, like me, tend to get distracted and have a hard time staying in God’s presence while praying. Thank you for putting this together for us.
Come Holy Spirit and enkindle in us the fire of the Father’s love!
I just lost my husband Apr.1st. There is this hole in my heart, the novena came at a good time in my life, I felt connected to people when I prayed it. It made the H.S . More alive to me. I find being with people brings me closer to my God, and now that I am alone it is more important to connect with people.
We’re sorry to hear about your husband, and will keep you in our prayers as well, Carol.
Yes, human connection and ongoing support is so important for us to remain strong in our faith. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for this unique resource. Though I normally pray each morning and have for several years, this truly opened up my heart and soul to the Holy Spirit in ways I’d never experienced before and I can’t thank you enough, not only for what I’ve leaned, but for your allowing me as a Protestant to participate.
I look forward to participating in any future programs that you present.
The Holy Spirit desires to touch us all in ways that are ever new and exciting! Thank you so much for praying with us, Gary. We look forward to having you join us as we continue to discern what the Holy Spirit has in store for the future.
I loved it!!! This definitely made my days blessed! I had the time to be close to God, to talk to him, and to listen to him.
In a special way at this time in my life, I need the Holy Spirit to guide me as a mother teaching my daughters values, and the wonderful LOVE of God.
I recently started with a daily 30 min morning meditation routine, in hopes that I could make it a habit and better cultivate listening to God’s voice and instruction. I was looking for for something to guide me through it, and these Novena reflections and prayers were exactly what I needed. They fit perfectly with my purpose and needs and provided me with a structure that allowed me to feel engaged, enlightened, and devoted. I will for sure continue using these as part of my daily morning routine, although I wish I could continue receiving new ones! I pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten the reCatholic team and volunteers to create more of these!
Thank you! We have another one in the works and four planned so far!
This has been such a beautiful journey! The first time I have prayed a novena like this. It is a wonderful novena, so well written. I especially like the dive deeper section, it helped me understand this precious gift so much ! Thank You
Thank you Laura! We’re so glad to hear it!
Thank you for this beautiful Novena. Today is Pentecost Sunday and I am truly prepared to celebrate the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. Only one other time in my prayer life have I felt so prepared and it is such a wonderful gift! I have prayed to receive not only the Gifts of the Spirit but also the Fruits. And I have promised I will use each and every one. I ordered the book too because I didn’t want to lose this rich experience. And now I want to give this book to others and make it available to all in our Church gift shop. How can I place a bulk order? I really want to share this with everyone. Come Holy Spirit!
Yes, we do offer the book wholesale. We’ll have someone from the team reach out! God bless you!