St. John Paul II kept the prayer on a handwritten note and prayed it every day for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Before becoming a priest, St. John Paul II was formed in the faith by his father at home. Looking back, John Paul II would call this time of his life “the first home seminary.”
Among the many things, his dad taught him was a special prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Author Jason Evert reveals this prayer in his book Saint John Paul The Great: His Five Loves.
Karol, Sr., gave him a prayer book on the Holy Spirit, which he used throughout his life, and also taught him the following prayer and instructed him to recite it daily:
Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and Your divine perfections,
for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy faith,
for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this faith,
for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You,
for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You,
for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love,
for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends You, O my God.
Later on John Paul II would go so far as to attest that this prayer resulted a half century later in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Dominum et Vivificantem.
