Novena

After the Ascension the disciples returned to the upper room and “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with … Mary the mother of Jesus,” and on the tenth day the Spirit came. Christian tradition sees that time of prayer as the model for novenas. A novena may be made to prepare for a feast, to ask a favour through a saint's intercession, or in a time of need; the Novena to the Holy Spirit before Pentecost is the only one built into the liturgical calendar. It is a devotion, not an obligation, and its value lies in persevering prayer, not in the number as such.