Most mornings I read the news from the New York Times on my phone. Many mornings I’ll take a stab at the games the NYT provides—the crossword, the sodoku, the spelling bee. That last game invites us to create words from a limited number of letters: the more letters, the more points. But, sometimes I put in a legitimate word and it gets rejected—either because it’s a foreign word, a proper name, or just one that the game designers don’t know. Two examples: “cenacle” and “novena.” Real words. Actual words that play into these days between the Ascension and Pentecost. Cenacle can refer either to the room of the Last Supper (the site where Mary and the apostles gathered in Acts—and where Jesus prayed in today’s gospel) or a small group gathered for discussion. Novena is nine days of prayer—the number of days that a small group in the cenacle waited in prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This week we’re called to be that “cenacle”, that gathering to hear the word and await the Lord’s promise. This we’re called to enter into this novena, the Church’s urgent prayer in every age that God will continue to send us the Holy Spirit to strengthen and renew us.