Real Life Disciples: The amazing orchestration of the Holy Spirit

I shared in my last column the many powerful events I experienced over the summer. There was something else I experienced that is worth sharing as well. Early in the summer, at one of the camps, a friend introduced me to a novena I had never heard of – The Surrender Novena.
 
He was carrying the novena card all week, and one day I asked him what it was. He told me it was one of the most powerful novenas he had ever prayed. I found the novena online and started reading about it, and over the next several days, started praying it myself.
 
When I returned home after that camp, I was meeting with Archbishop Coakley and brought up the novena to him, wondering if he had ever heard of it. “Oh, yes,” he said, “I pray it all the time, over and over again!” I was hooked. I already had been experiencing some fruit from the prayer, but to find out that Archbishop Coakley himself found it powerful enough that he just kept repeating the novena over and over again, then it was something I was going to incorporate into my spiritual routine.
 
Several weeks later, I was at the Saint John Bosco conference in Steubenville, Ohio. We had several parish and diocesan leaders from around the archdiocese who attended this year –
17 of us!
 
While there, I had coffee one day with a friend. He had a book on the table that he was reading. It got my attention because of the title, “Come Holy Spirit,” so I asked him about it. He told me that it was a book he recently had been introduced to by his pastor and was finding it very powerful for his spiritual life. I paged through the book while we were talking, read several short passages, and by the time our meeting was over, had ordered a copy on Amazon that was delivered before I got home.
 
You could say this past summer for me had a “golden thread” – The Surrender Novena and “Come Holy Spirit.” The two works became a daily source of inspiration and growth for me. I ended up praying the novena many times over the summer months. And, I have been reading “Come Holy Spirit” daily.
 
Toward the end of the summer, I was feeling called to share about the Surrender Novena with friends, especially those involved in full-time ministry. As I was praying about how to do this, one day I was struck with an urge to invite people to join me in praying the novena the nine days leading up to the Feast of the Assumption (Aug. 15). I especially invited my family to join me but extended the invitation to many other friends who were speakers, authors and ministry leaders. In the end, more than 100 people joined me.
 
As I was crafting the e-mail inviting people to join in the novena, I had the novena prayer card in my hand. But, on the table next to me was the “Come Holy Spirit” book. For the first time, I noticed the author’s name on the book, Don Dolindo Ruotolo. I looked at the back of the prayer card where there was a note about the author of the novena, Father Dolindo Ruotolo. I went back and forth between the two things several times, almost not believing what I was seeing. My “golden thread” of the summer, these two things that came to me at different times, in different places and from different people, completely independent of each other, were written by the SAME person!
 
The amazing orchestration of the Holy Spirit! God somehow knows exactly what we need, even before we ask. “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8).
 
How is the Holy Spirit giving you little nudges toward a book, or a prayer? Be generous in your response – you won’t be disappointed!