Holy Spirit Novena at St Theresa’s

Come pray the Holy Spirit Novena this year at St Theresa’s RC Church, Woodbrook, from May 19–27 at 6  p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on the weekends. Each evening will run for approximately one hour.

Praise, worship, and the novena prayers and reflections will be incorporated into Holy Mass. Prayer ministry teams will be available and we hope the sharing on the final evening generates the type of fellowship the early Christians enjoyed.

St Theresa’s parish priest, Fr Carlyle Guiseppi CSSp, was introduced to praying the novena in this way in 1990 while based at the Church of the Resurrection in La Horquetta, Arima. He has since kept the devotion in every parish in which he has served, including Our Lady of Good Counsel Caribbean Catholic Church in Toronto, Canada, where he was based for almost 15 years.

Among the local parishes where the novena has been communally prayed are Holy Trinity, Arouca; Our Lady of Lourdes, Tacarigua; Rosary, Port of Spain; St Martin de Porres, Gonzales, and St Peter’s, Carenage. Many parishes throughout the Caribbean also keep the novena in this way.

Parishes benefit. Fr Guiseppi has seen parishioners become “more hospitable, more loving, more willing to share.”

“It put a new spark in their life,” he said. “They come to understand God’s Spirit in a deeper and more profound way and [live] more spiritual lives, closer to God.”

Everyone is welcome: our parishioners, friends, and neighbours from other parishes and those who may not be part of any parish or church. Simply come with an open heart.

“Come prepared to receive and to be amazed,” said Fr Guiseppi. “Come prepared to see God’s love.”

— Laura Ann Phillips