They were in the Upper Room, maybe the same room where they shared a last meal with their teacher and Lord, before he was cruicified the next day. He had come back to them risen from the dead, to spend a last 40 days preparing them for his final departure. Now he was gone for the second time - ascending right before their eyes up into the heavens, telling them he would be back for them someday. But, in the meantime he would send them a paraclete to remind them of all he had told them and taught them. The paraclete would console them, teach them even more and be with them always until the end of time.
But the promised paraclete haden’t arrived yet. Who was he, where was he, and when was he coming? Where should they look for him? In the meantime, they were afraid, scared that all that had happened to Jesus could happen to them. So they hid.
They were in the upper room, afraid, confused and in grief for the second time at loosing their friend and mentor. They were a small group of his apostles, deciples and friends and of course, his own mother, Mary. They assembled there after the Ascension not knowing where else to go and what else to do, waiting for whatever a paraclete was. So they spent those nine days in prayer, because that’s what he taught them to do – to pray always, especially when in need of help greater than their own.
About 80 percent of our English language comes from our mother language, Latin. Novena comes from the Latin word novem, meaning nine. After those nine days of prayer, the promised paraclete did come. The word paraclete comes from the Koine Greek word παράκλητος meaning an intercessor, one who consoles.
The Paraclete – The Holy Spirit descended on each and every one of them in the form of flames of fire, bringing them a passion and fire within their hearts for all that their Lord had taught them, and a courage so great and strong that they could and did go out into the world to share it as they had been instructed to do. They were no longer afraid. Their nine days of prayer, what we consider the first recorded novena, were answered in a most powerful and dramatic way.
This coming Sunday, we celebrate Pentecost - that day when the Holy Spirit – the Paraclete decended upon those people gathered in the upper room. And we continue their work in our own little world and families around us. And finally, we also believe that our own novenas, our nine days of prayer are answered too, in God’s time and in God’s way.
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