Reflection

In the Liturgical Year the Church has been celebrating the Resurrection of Our Lord with the Easter Season for a number of weeks now.  At this point of the Liturgical Year with the celebration of Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven on Sunday and Pentecost Sunday the following week, we are soon moving into this time when we reflect upon and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.

As Christians we believe in a Trinitarian God and often find it easier to relate to the first person of the Trinity, the Father, the creator and the second person, made flesh in Jesus where we understand from a human perspective what God’s life and love look like. The third person of the Holy Trinity is the Holy Spirit and harder for us sometimes to ponder and known by some as ‘the great unknown of the Trinity’.  The Holy Spirit is the gift left with us by Jesus to guide us, lead us, sanctify us and enable us to live a life united with Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is with us, it prompts us to act and comes with gifts such as wisdom, courage, understanding, knowledge etc which help us to live a life united with God.  When we live a life united with the Holy Spirit the fruits of the Spirit can also be seen very clearly in our lives. If we think of people we know who are Holy (live a life united with God) we see in their lives these gifts – joy, peace, kindness, patience, self-control etc.

All of us in the depths of our heart want to live a life of peace and joy and desire to be filled with these gifts and have wisdom and knowledge and courage etc. Through our Baptism and Confirmation we have received these gifts and the potential to live a life characterised with these fruits. However, it is one thing to be given a gift, it is another to open it and truly receive it in our hearts and allow it to penetrate our being.

As we reflect Pentecost and the celebration of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the Apostles, we will see that their lives changed dramatically through this gift. The cowardly, scared, hiding men, become courageous, faith filled witnesses proclaiming to all who want to hear that Jesus is alive and indeed work miracles through His power.  The Holy Spirit can have a dramatic effect on our lives also. The Holy Spirit can led us to places we never thought we would go and to experiences we never thought possible.  Let us take time these days before this Feast to prepare, to sit with the gifts we have already received and open our hearts to everything the Holy Spirit wants to give us.  Let us pray a simple prayer each day to the Holy Spirit, asking our hearts to be prepared to receive the gift of God into the very depths of our being and for the Holy Spirit to come in, set our hearts ablaze, igniting them with the love of God and moving within us as it wills.

We pray with the Church:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Holy Family of Nazareth – Be our inspiration and our guide

Jesus of Nazareth – help us to grow in faith, wisdom and knowledge.