Once again this year, we are invited to join 'Thy Kingdom Come', the global prayer novena from Ascension to Pentecost, to pray for the spread of the Gospel so that more people may come to know Jesus.
In his message inviting us to take part in the novena, Cardinal Vincent encourages us to pray that the Holy Spirit may strengthen 'our effort to announce the Gospel in word and in deed'.
'The Holy Spirit is God's power, sustaining the created world in being. It's the Holy Spirit that transformed what we call the 'chaos' into the 'cosmos', the ordered world,' he says, inviting us to 'cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in protecting, enhancing our natural environment, the world, because it is our human environment.'
For more information about the prayer novena and prayer resources, please visit the Thy Kingdom Come website.
Cardinal's Message:
The novena of prayer before Pentecost, 'Thy Kingdom Come', has become part of the rhythm of life in the Christian churches. So I encourage you to take it up.
Every opportunity to pray, in a structured way and in a way that brings us together in prayer, is immensely valuable.
And that is true of 'Thy Kingdom Come'. We pray in anticipation, asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's so central to our faith. It's the Holy Spirit that gives life to the Church that gave that first impetus to the gathering of the disciples and Mary to go out and to begin the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News that only Jesus Christ brings into this world.
And so we pray for a strengthening in that Spirit in our effort to announce the Gospel in word and in deed. It's really important that we use this period, this novena of prayer before Pentecost, to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. It's a time in which we receive. We cannot ever earn our salvation; we have to receive it, and we receive best with open hands and an open heart.
The Holy Spirit is God's power, sustaining the created world in being. It's the Holy Spirit that transformed what we call the 'chaos' into the 'cosmos', the ordered world.
What better time than now for us to be thinking about how we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in protecting, enhancing our natural environment, the world, because it is our human environment.
In caring for the world, we care for each other. In caring for each other, we care for the Creator and show him our respect, our deference, our service.
So may 'Thy Kingdom Come' be a prayer from our hearts that the Holy Spirit transforms us into servants of the Word and servants of the created world made through the Word himself.
Photo: Mazur/CBCEW.org.uk
