Pentecost Novena
30 may – 07 june 2014
From the Superior General on his 2013 Christmas message we highlight the following:
The first phase of our Congregation-wide Animation Plan is precisely a call to go back to our beginnings, to allow Poullart des Places and Libermann to reshape our spirituality, our personal and community lives and our missionary commitments today.
A pilgrimage into our past will reveal that our beginnings as a Congregation were very humble indeed but that God accomplished wonderful deeds through the lives of simple, committed Spiritans who were aware of their limitations but were open to the power of the Spirit. Reflecting on the founding of the ‘poor little’ Congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Heart of Mary, Eugene Tisserant pointed out that, unlike the Jesuits and the Franciscans, we have ‘no remarkable figures or men of great talent; all we have are people of good will, unsure as to how they were brought together …without the ability to put any project together but feeling themselves led by an invisible force who directs them and who removes from their path difficulties which seem truly insurmountable…’(E. Tisserant, L’Oeuvre des Noirs, 13 October 1842, N.D.I, 589-90).
This is why, during the coming years, for our Pentecost Novena, we will remember confreres and moments of our spiritan history, especially from our Superior Generals and their initiatives. Doing this we hope these past experiencies will help us on our pilgrimage today, leading us into the future. This novena is also an occasion for each one of us to add other more contemporary names of Spiritans who have provided personal inspiration to us on our Spiritan journey and who have helped us to remain faithful to our Spiritan ideals.
Have a good novena for Pentecost and let us know some of your experiences.
Roma, 27 April 2014 – Day of the canonisation of S. John XXIII and S. John Paul II.
Animation Team
