Prayers To The Holy Spirit For Guidance Strength And Wisdom

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Guidance

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Strength

Holy Spirit, comforter of all, I turn to You for help. In this moment of need, I trust that You will be with me, guiding me through the darkness and helping me find the light. I ask for Your strength to carry me through, Your wisdom to direct my thoughts and actions, and Your peace to calm my heart. Fill me with Your love and grace. Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Wisdom

Come, Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and understanding, enlighten our hearts. Guide us in the path of righteousness and fill us with Your divine wisdom. Help us to know what is right, to live justly, and to seek the truth in all things. Grant us Your wisdom so that we may bring peace to our lives and to those around us. Amen.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Purity

Holy Spirit, Spirit of purity, cleanse my heart and mind of all impure thoughts and desires. Fill me with Your holiness and light so that I may be a reflection of Your grace. Help me to keep my thoughts pure, my words kind, and my actions virtuous. Protect me from all evil, and keep me close to You. Amen.

Litany of the Holy Spirit

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, have mercy on us.
Spirit of the Father and the Son, boundless in power and light, have mercy on us.
Spirit of truth and wisdom, have mercy on us.
Spirit of understanding and counsel, have mercy on us.
Spirit of knowledge and piety, have mercy on us.
Spirit of the fear of the Lord, have mercy on us.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

About the Prayer to the Holy Spirit

There are very few prayers to God as the Holy Spirit. This prayer was developed from the Pentecost liturgy. The first two lines are the verses sung with the Alleluia before the Gospel on Pentecost. The third and fourth lines are a quote from the Latin translation of Psalm 104, verse 30. It was part of a chant written for Pentecost. The rest of the prayer, which follows “Let us pray” (when it is prayed publicly), is adapted from the former opening prayer of the feast. The feast of Pentecost now has a new opening prayer. The former prayer is the opening prayer for a Mass of the Holy Spirit such as might be celebrated at the opening of a school year.

This prayer is a good example of how a popular prayer to the Holy Spirit came to be composed by the faithful, using verses they heard sung and prayed at the Pentecost liturgy.

The Holy Spirit

In art the Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove. This is probably because in the New Testament we first meet the Holy Spirit at the baptism of Jesus. Some of the passages that depict the Holy Spirit as a dove include the following:
. . . and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. (Matthew 3:16)
. . . and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. (Mark 1:10)
. . . and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. (Luke 3:22)

Holy Spirit Memory

The Holy Spirit reminds us; he reminds us of all that Jesus said. He is the living memory of the Church, and when he reminds us, he helps us understand the words of the Lord.

This remembrance in the Spirit and by virtue of the Spirit . . . is an essential aspect of Christ’s presence within us and within his Church. The Spirit of truth and charity reminds us of all that Christ said and helps us enter ever more fully into the meaning of his words. We all have this experience: one moment, in any situation, there is an idea and then another connects with a passage from Scripture. . . . It is the Spirit who leads us to take this path: the path of the living memory of the Church. And he asks us for a response: the more generous our response, the more Jesus’ words become life within us, becoming attitudes, choices, actions, testimony. In essence the Spirit reminds us of the commandment of love and calls us to live it.

A Christian without memory is not a true Christian but only halfway there: a man or woman, a prisoner of the moment, who doesn’t know how to treasure his or her history, doesn’t know how to read it and live it as salvation history. With the help of the Holy Spirit, however, we are able to interpret interior inspirations and life events in light of Jesus’ words. And thus within us grows the knowledge of memory, knowledge of the heart, which is a gift of the Spirit. May the Holy Spirit rekindle the Christian memory within all of us! And there, that day with the apostles, was Our Lady of Memory, who from the beginning meditated on all those things in her heart. Mary, our Mother, was there. May she help us on this path of memory.

—Excerpted from Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church by Pope Francis