CCC 726 At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve (“mother of the living”), the mother of the “whole Christ.”1 As such, she was present with the Twelve, who “with one accord devoted themselves to prayer,”2 at the dawn of the “end time” which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of Pentecost with the manifestation of the Church.
CCC 1310 To receive Confirmation one must be in a state of grace. One should receive the sacrament of Penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit. More intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act.3
CCC 2617 Mary’s prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father’s plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ’s conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body.4 In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made “full of grace” responds by offering her whole being: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word.” “Fiat”: this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God’s, because he is wholly ours.
CCC 2623 On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples, gathered “together in one place.”5 While awaiting the Spirit, “all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer.”6 The Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls for her everything that Jesus said7 was also to form her in the life of prayer.
CCC 2673 In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.8
1 Cf. Jn 19:25-27.
2 Acts 1:14.
3 Cf. Acts 1:14.
4 Cf. Lk 1:38; Acts 1:14.
5 Acts 2:1.
6 Acts 1:14.
7 Cf. Jn 14:26.
8 Cf. Acts 1:14.