Nine Days
A novena is traditionally nine days of persevering prayer.
Free 9-Day Printable Prayer Guide
Download the complete Novena to the Holy Spirit and keep all nine days of prayer together in one convenient printable booklet. Available in English and Spanish.
Catholic prayer & spiritual life
Prepare for Pentecost with nine days of Catholic prayer asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Traditionally prayed from the Friday after the Ascension through the Saturday before Pentecost
Catholic Teaching at a Glance
A nine-day devotion asking for the Holy Spirit’s grace and gifts.
Traditionally between the Ascension and Pentecost.
To become more receptive to God and more faithful to Christ.
The disciples persevering in prayer in Acts 1–2.
At a glance
Explore this devotion within our Catholic Prayer and Spiritual Life guide.
A novena is traditionally nine days of persevering prayer.
This devotion prepares Catholics for Pentecost.
It recalls the disciples praying together before the Spirit descended.
Catholics pray for the seven traditional gifts.
Pentecost is traditional, but the novena may be prayed throughout the year.
A novena expresses trust; it never forces God to grant an outcome.
Acts 1–2
The disciples’ prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost became a natural model for nine days of Christian prayer.
Christ promises the Holy Spirit and commissions His disciples.
The disciples return to Jerusalem and persevere together in prayer.
The Holy Spirit descends upon the gathered disciples.
Strengthened by the Spirit, they proclaim Jesus Christ.
The novena does not end with receiving. The Holy Spirit strengthens Christians for holiness, witness, service, and mission.
Catholic teaching
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. He is God, equal in divinity with the Father and the Son—not merely a force, feeling, symbol, or spiritual energy.
“Come, Holy Spirit” asks us to become more receptive to the God already at work in His Church and His people.
Isaiah 11:2–3
See life in the light of God.
Enter more deeply into the truths of faith.
Discern and choose what is right.
Remain faithful when doing good is difficult.
See created things in relation to God.
Love and approach God with filial devotion.
Stand before God with reverence and awe.
A simple daily rhythm
Become quiet
Come, Holy Spirit
Read today’s theme
Pray today’s prayer
Our Father × 1
Hail Mary × 1
Glory Be × 7
Act of Consecration
Prayer for the Seven Gifts
Conclude with trust
When should I begin?
Traditional beginning: Friday after the Ascension
Day 9: Saturday before Pentecost
Pentecost: Sunday
Begin on the Friday after the Ascension and conclude on the Saturday before Pentecost.
Today’s focus
The novena begins with the Holy Spirit Himself. Before asking for any gift, we ask for the Giver. We cannot manufacture grace or transform ourselves by determination alone. Begin by opening the door to God.
Pray
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill my heart with greater love for God. Where I am distracted, draw me back to Christ. Where I am weak, strengthen me. Where I resist God’s will, make me willing. Where I am afraid, teach me to trust. Prepare my heart during these nine days so that I may become more faithful to Jesus Christ. Amen.
Carry it into today
Come, Holy Spirit. Begin with me.
Today’s focus
Fear of the Lord is not terror. It is reverence and awe before God—a loving desire not to damage our relationship with the One who is holy, good, and worthy of worship.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of fear of the Lord. Teach me reverence, wonder, and humility. Free me from a casual attitude toward sin, yet protect me from a distorted fear that makes me run from God. When I fall, lead me to mercy. May I never turn away from the One who loves me. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, teach me to love God so deeply that I do not want to turn away.
Today’s focus
Piety helps us love God with the trust of His children. Prayer becomes more than obligation; worship becomes communion. Love of the Father also changes how we treat His sons and daughters.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of piety. Deepen my desire for prayer, my attention at Mass, my reverence for the sacraments, and my love for Scripture. When prayer feels dry, keep me faithful. Teach me to approach the Father with confidence and to treat my neighbor with patience, mercy, and love. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, make my faith more than a habit.
Today’s focus
Fortitude is the strength to remain faithful when doing right carries a cost. Christian courage is neither aggression nor loudness. It is courage joined to charity.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of fortitude. Strengthen me when doing what is right becomes difficult. When I fear what others think, remind me that my deepest loyalty belongs to God. Make me courageous without harshness, strong without pride, and faithful in both great trials and ordinary responsibilities. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, give me courage for the next right thing.
Today’s focus
Knowledge helps us receive creation gratefully without worshiping it. Family, work, beauty, possessions, and achievement can be good—but none is God.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of knowledge. Teach me to see creation as God’s gift. Show me where I am attached to possessions, approval, comfort, achievement, pleasure, or control. Help me use the things of this world wisely, and may every good thing lead me to gratitude for the Giver. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, teach me to love creation without losing sight of the Creator.
Today’s focus
Understanding helps the truths of faith penetrate our lives. It does not erase mystery; it moves us beyond knowing religious words so that faith shapes how we see God, ourselves, and the world.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of understanding. Enlighten my mind and deepen my faith. Help me receive the mysteries expressed in the Apostles’ Creed—the Trinity, the Incarnation, redemption, and eternal life—with humility. Let what I profess become visible in the way I live. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, lead me from familiar words into living faith.
Today’s focus
Counsel forms discernment. It helps us choose faithfully when several paths seem possible and brings truth, prudence, charity, and God’s will into our decisions.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of counsel. Guide my choices and purify my motives. Teach me when to speak and when to listen, when to act and when to wait. Place wise people in my path, make me teachable, and give me courage to follow what is true and loving. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, show me the faithful next step.
Today’s focus
Wisdom helps reorder our loves. It teaches us to value holiness above status, charity above ego, truth above popularity, and eternal life above temporary success.
Pray
Holy Spirit, give me the gift of wisdom. Teach me to see my life in the light of God. Reorder my priorities and help me recognize what is truly good. Teach me to value holiness above appearance, truth above approval, charity above winning, and faithfulness above comfort. Amen.
Carry it into today
Holy Spirit, teach me to recognize what truly matters.
Today’s focus
The novena ends by asking what our lives are becoming. The gifts should bear fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Pray
Holy Spirit, remain at work within me. Where I am selfish, teach me love; restless, give me peace; impatient, form patience; harsh, teach kindness and gentleness; unreliable, make me faithful. Give me joy deeper than circumstance and conform my life to Jesus Christ. Amen.
Carry it into today
Come, Holy Spirit. Let Your gifts bear fruit in the way I live.
Prayers used every day
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by my unfaithfulness and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion, to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood, I implore You, Holy Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to You always and everywhere, “Speak Lord for Your servant listens.” Amen.
Source: Archdiocese of WashingtonO Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.
Source: Archdiocese of WashingtonDo I have to start over?
If you miss a day, return to prayer and continue. A novena is persistent prayer, not a combination lock.
Does it guarantee an answer?
Catholic prayer asks, trusts, perseveres, and remains open to God’s will. Superstition tries to manipulate and demand.
Common questions
A nine-day Catholic devotion asking the Holy Spirit to renew His gifts within us and draw us closer to Jesus Christ.
Novena comes from the Latin novem, meaning nine. It is prayer offered over nine days or nine periods.
It recalls the disciples and Mary persevering in prayer between the Ascension and Pentecost, as described in Acts 1–2.
It is often called the first novena devotionally. Acts does not use that word or describe a later formula; the biblical prayer before Pentecost became the model.
Traditionally, begin on the Friday after the Ascension and pray through the Saturday before Pentecost. Consult the current liturgical calendar for that year’s dates.
Yes. Pentecost is its traditional home, but you may pray whenever you seek renewal, wisdom, courage, discernment, or preparation for Confirmation. You can also deepen this rhythm through prayer with Scripture through Lectio Divina.
Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
No. It means reverence, awe, and a loving desire not to turn away from God.
Return to prayer and continue. You may make up the missed day, continue with the next, or restart if it genuinely helps—without anxiety.
No. Catholic prayer asks boldly, perseveres, trusts God, and remains open to His will; it does not manipulate God.
Yes. It is especially fitting for candidates, sponsors, families, and parish communities preparing for Confirmation.