unto all riches of fulness of understanding

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it ? For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word: My soul hath hoped in the Lord.

From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Psalm 129

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Act of Consecration

Our Father who art in heaven...

Hail, Mary, Full of Grace, ...

Glory be to the Father... (7 Times)

Abide in Rebecca's soul, O Good and Holy Spirit.
In Thy care may she find healing.
May she whom the doctors could not cure
find comfort and peace in Thee
from now until the day of judgment.

Grant her the grace to understand
the purpose behind the suffering that she had to endure,
the suffering that all men have to endure,
the suffering that our Lord endured.

Spirit of Mercy and Grace,
Strengthen the heart of Rebecca,
that Christ may dwell there,
and she, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend
the breadth and length and height and depth of His love,
a love that surpasses knowledge,
so that she may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Let her remember those she encountered in her old life,
and see how Thou hast made them like herself.
Let her perceive their hopes, their struggles,
the image they bear of the their Maker,
and let her love them also with unbounded love.

Help her to understand Thy purpose for all this world
and the world to come and Thy will for her.

Through Christ Jesus our Lord
Who reigns with Thee and our heavenly Father,
one God, through all the ages of ages.

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

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Saint Francis Caracciolo, pray for her

Novena to the Holy Ghost, Day Six

Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.

The Gift of Understanding
Understanding, as a gift of the Holy Ghost, helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion By faith we know them, but by Understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them to be quickened to newness of life. Our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive, but inspires a mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is in us; we begin to "walk worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things, and increasing in His knowledge." [Colossians 1:10]

Prayer
Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen.

Our Father Who art in heaven...

Hail Mary, Full of Grace, ...

Glory be to the Father... (7 times)

Act of Consecration

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

(Go to Day Seven)

Novena to the Holy Ghost, Day Six

If Thou take Thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay,
All his good is turn'd to ill.

The Gift of Understanding

Understanding, as a gift of the Holy Ghost, helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion By faith we know them, but by Understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them to be quickened to newness of life. Our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive, but inspires a mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is in us; we begin to "walk worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things, and increasing in His knowledge." [Colossians 1:10]


Prayer

Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen.


Our Father who art in heaven...

Hail Mary, Full of Grace, ...

Glory be to the Father... (7 Times)

Act of Consecration

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

(Novena to the Holy Ghost, Day Seven)

Novena to the Holy Spirit, Day 6 (Wednesday)

If Thou take Thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay,
All his good is turn'd to ill.

The Gift of Understanding

Understanding, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion By faith we know them, but by Understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them to be quickened to newness of life. Our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive, but inspires a mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is in us; we begin to "walk worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things, and increasing in His knowledge."


Prayer

Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen.


Our Father who art in heaven...

Hail Mary, Full of Grace, ...

Glory be to the Father... (7 Times)

Act of Consecration

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Day 7 of the Novena

Wisdom

God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

- Aeschylus Agamemnon

[Probably as good an answer as I will find for my friend's question about why God allows suffering -- the same answer that Elihu gives to Job.]

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A Catholic college student posted her own thoughts on suffering recently here. I need to spend more time myself thinking about the redemptive value of suffering.

A good way to start would be by reading David Greenstock's Comfort for the Sick and Dying. I read this some years ago and remember it as a book that lived up to its name. My mother read it while she was dying and was so inspired she bought several to give to friends and family.

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I couldn't find the translation of Agamemnon from which the quote was taken, but I did find two other versions of the play online. Here is how they render the wisdom quote:

'Tis Zeus alone who shows the perfect way
Of knowledge: He hath ruled,
Men shall learn wisdom, by affliction schooled.

In visions of the night, like dropping rain,
Descend the many memories of pain
Before the spirit's sight: through tears and dole
Comes wisdom o'er the unwilling soul-
A boon, I wot, of all Divinity,
That holds its sacred throne in strength, above the sky!

(Translated by E. D. A. Morshead)


For Jove doth teach men wisdom, sternly wins
To virtue by the tutoring of their sins,
Yea! drops of torturing recollection chill
The sleeper’s heart, ’gainst man’s rebellious will
Jove works the wise remorse:
Dread Powers, on awful seats enthroned, compel
Our hearts with gracious force.

(Translated by John Stuart Blackie)