Catholic Prayer: Ascension and Pentecost Prayer Suggestions

Description:

Rev. Westhoff gives some suggestions for preparatory Ascension and Pentecost prayers to be said within the family.

Prayer:

The Rogation Days which precede the feast of the Ascension present another opportunity for family observance. After joining in the procession with fellow-parishioners in the morning, the Church's prayer for that occasion, the Litany of the Saints, might be repeated at home in the evening.

While the petitions made to God on these days are directed primarily toward obtaining heavenly blessings on the growing fruits of the field, they need not be limited to that, especially in our own days when there is so much beyond our own personal needs to pray for.

After the Ascension, family prayers might well include the Novena in preparation for Pentecost. The Holy Spirit once descended into a little home in Nazareth and the Son of God began to dwell there in the womb of His Virgin Mother. The same Holy Spirit is needed, with His seven-fold gifts, to bring holiness to all members of the family, and to make Christ dwell in Christian homes in the midst of His own. Suitable prayers will not be hard to find if one will search through the Mass-texts of the Vigil, the Feast and the Octave of Pentecost.

Some greater emphasis might well be placed on the feast itself by an effort to decorate the home or the family table with suitable symbols, for instance, that of the dove or the tongues of fire. The grace of Confirmation might also be renewed by all members of the family who have been confirmed, when they gather for their evening prayer. The rite of Confirmation itself could readily be adapted for that purpose.

Prayer Source: Your Home, A Church in Miniature by Compiled by The Family Life Bureau in the early 1950s, The Neumann Press, Long Prairie, Minnesota, 1994