Since Meant For Heaven is meant to provide readers with a perspective of the end goal in mind (Heaven) – all the time I might add – I wanted to provide some considerations to best prepare for the upcoming 10 days prior to the feast of Pentecost. On that day, the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, effectively the beginning of Christ’s Church on Earth.
Check out this website https://opusdei.org/en-us/article/novena-to-the-holy-spirit/ as a suggested resource to help you prepare for Pentecost. There are 7 gifts and 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit and two of my favorite virtues (see below) which you can also pray about over these next 10 days. Specifically, ask the Holy Spirit to help you live each of these gifts/fruits, and virtues regularly. Consider committing to living one per day and you will achieve all of them in 21 days. And then repeat them for the next 21 days, and so on, to instill these as habits in your life.
(7) Gifts – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord
(12) Fruits – Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Benignity, Goodness, Longanimity, Mildness, Faith, Modesty, Continence, and Chastity
(2) Virtues – Self-Control (Temperance), Prudence (Making Good Decisions)
Let me end this short consideration with some words of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska from her Diary, #359 that can help us prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit: “Oh, if souls would only be willing to listen, at least a little, to the voice of conscience and the voice – that is, the inspirations – of the Holy Spirit! I say ‘at least a little’, because once we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit, He Himself will fulfill what is lacking in us”.
Praying for all of you who read this blog that you may have a very Holy Pentecost and please pray for me!