Here is my latest column for the Catholic Spirit! It’s a reflection on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Christ’s call for us to be perfect in love. It’s called“Full Hearts”
*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Himand its series on Amazon and Kindle!
Today (October 1st) is the Feast Day of St. Therese of Lisieux! I owe so much to her witness, and St. Mother Teresa’s after her. I wrote this in honor of them 🙂
In such a big world we can easily feel lost. A big world of ideas – you can be whatever you want to be. A big world of globalization – from corporate industry to personal travel. Even a big virtual world that’s ever expanding. We are blessed to live in an age filled with so many possibilities, but we can also feel overwhelmed by them. God raises up saints in every age who discover a way to live the Gospels amidst the circumstances of their time, and in a way that can be instructive to us all. To guide us through this confusion and find the meaning and purpose we desire, the Lord gave us two great saints of modernity, St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) and of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997). They illumine a path to greatness available to each of us: the Little Way of Love.
The industrial revolution brought with it rapid change to life and society. What had formerly been hand made by craftsmen and women became mechanized and mass produced in factories by technicians. Agrarian and close-knit communities became overshadowed by the growing masses of the city and the factory. The secret ingredient to any well-made thing from baked goods to business – personal creativity and love, was replaced with the higher priority of standardization and efficiency. In the subjugation of creation to science and steel, the supernatural and the personal went increasingly by the wayside. It inspired grand ambitions while at the same time overrunning others. On the one hand the world of opportunity seemed to grow bigger, and on the other the reach of an individual seemed to grow smaller.
In the face of such tensions, the answer of the saints is to embrace them with the supernatural light of Christ. St. Therese was inspired with great ambitions and wished to have a global impact. Though they were spiritual endeavors, she nevertheless had to grapple with the distance between the grandeur of her hopes and the limits of her personal reach. When she turned to Christ in prayer and Scripture as she wrestled with this, she learned several things that we can all benefit from.
Many people struggle with choosing which occupation to pursue, and research has shown that young people today become paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. St. Therese struggled with a desire to be every kind of saint and serve the Church in every possible role. This caused unrest and discontent, but she did not allow herself to become paralyzed. She actively sought help from the Lord and found her answer in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (chapters 12 & 13). St. Paul noted how in the body of Christ there are many parts, but each is of equal value and ordained by God. The only factor of stratification is love. Contrary to the hedonistic value of status and the modern industrial values of efficiency and output, God judges interiorly by the measure of one’s love in their self-gift. From this, Therese was freed from her anxiety and found her singular purpose, exclaiming “I understood that LOVE COMPRISED ALL VOCATIONS, THAT LOVE WAS EVERYTHING, THAT IT EMBRACED ALL TIMES AND PLACES.”[1] She found the secret that love gives every effort its value; the task itself is secondary. Love is the unifying factor of life rather than a particular career path.
Having discovered her vocation, her next hurdle lay in how to achieve it. Tempted by discouragement when she noted the difference between herself and the saints she wished to be like, she reasoned “God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.”[2] St. Therese’s logic always included the realness of the love and faithfulness of the Lord. She decided that she would “seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new.”[3] She looked towards human progress as an analogy for spiritual progress. Here, she focused on the relatively new invention of the elevator: “We are living now in an age of inventions, and we no longer have to take the trouble of climbing stairs, for, in the homes of the rich, an elevator has replaced these very successfully. I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection.”[4] St. Therese looked again to Scripture “for some sign of this elevator” and found it: “’Whoever is a LITTLE ONE, let him come to me’…The elevator which must raise me to heaven is Your arms, O Jesus!”.[5] And so, Jesus raised the young, cloistered Carmelite woman from Lisieux to the heights of sainthood and world renown. When Pope St. John Paull II declared her a doctor of the Church in October of 1997, God proved that a person considered small in every worldly measure, could achieve greatness through simple trust in the Lord and obedience to His will. When we feel tempted to over-systematize our life or discern our path through external values, St. Therese reminds us to acknowledge our desires for greatness by returning to their true origin and end: the Person of Christ as loved day by day and moment by moment.
St. Mother Teresa (inspired by St. Therese before her), lived this same spirituality but on the global stage. With the 24-hour news cycle and international media reach, it’s easy today to feel overwhelmed by the misery, poverty, and affliction we see experienced throughout the world. Tempted to despair, we ask ourselves “what can one person do?”. Certainly, many organized social and political structures have attempted to cure these ails, but no panacea has yet been found. Abiding by the Little Way, Mother Teresa cut to the heart of the matter. Every day she simply responded to Christ’s call to care for the poorest of the poor in India. In prayer, He told her “I thirst”, and she tried to alleviate His thirst for love and for souls by attending to Him present in the poor. Seeing her success, many tried to organize it, structure it, reproduce it, or expand it. Nevertheless, Mother Teresa held firm to the true foundation for her effectualness – love of the Lord and the movement of the Holy Spirit within individual souls. Programs don’t help people; people help people. Programs may be an organizing principle, but it all comes down to individuals responding with generosity and compassion toward other individuals’ needs. Moreover, that response of love resides in the little things towards those right in our own lives and communities. Inspired by Mother Teresa, many asked her how they could help, to which she responded to go home and love their families. This seemed so inconsequential! How could Mother Teresa, a global force against poverty, recommend such a mundane thing? In truth, although we may now have the technological and media infrastructure to view the world, real richness comes through a sacrificial gift of ourselves for those we love. We do live in a global community, but we are also essential and irreplaceable members of our family community. Our greatest impact is found not in numbers – a metric of industrial efficiency or personal vainglory – but in the quality of our love, which is the very center of our human nature made in the image and likeness of God, Who is Love. Knowing that the world needed God, not her, she didn’t succumb to secular hopes in a law of progress or the organization of a process. Instead, she placed her hope in God and disregarded the results altogether. Her famous words, “God has not called me to be successful, but to be faithful” has been one of the most liberating lines of wisdom in my life.
Both St. Therese and St. Mother Teresa took the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model of Faith and learned from her discipleship the original Little Way of Love. Consider the Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2:1-12). Jesus’ first miracle happened in response to a request by His mother about a need in his extended family: “They have no wine.” Jesus, of all people, actually did have a huge world-wide and history transforming mission. Yet, from His actions we can see the answer to His question “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” No need is too small. Jesus always cares about the person not the program. Mary’s trust in the merciful heart of Jesus was poignantly conveyed in her simple order to the servants “Do whatever he tells you.” Often our prayers ask Jesus to execute the plan we give Him. Instead, Mary shows us to simply bring the need to the Lord and do the task that He asks of us, even if we don’t see how it will turn out. We can learn from Mary, who was keenly aware of practical needs and realities within the concrete circumstances of life. As she encountered them, she put them before the Lord unobtrusively and attended to them with simplicity and love. She displayed concern but didn’t fret, she was grounded in trust.
Finaly, in our perfectionistic and increasingly artificial world, the culture’s definition of success and quality of life seems beyond the reach of many people. This despair is further multiplied when comparing oneself to what’s seen on media in our consumer culture. However, much of the competitiveness and comparison is due to the limited resources and status requirements in such a value system. But the re-valuation of life around love and the beauty of self-gift, offers a new way forward, for it relies on an unlimited resource from which everyone can draw and this affords much more variety. When St. Therese struggled with comparison, she again found her answer in prayer:
“Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He has created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the Lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked with little wild flowers. And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great souls comparable to Lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones and these must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing His will, in being what He wills us to be.”[6]
In consequence, rather than seeing points of difference as a matter of comparison, she realized they could be celebrated since each enhanced the beauty of the other by way of variation to the eye of the Beholder.
On earth we will experience many setbacks, limitations, and even failures. However, we learn from the Little Way that nothing is lost with God. As the famous Mother Teresa poem closes: “Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway.”
I’m particularly thankful for St. Therese and St. Mother Teresa. In the fall of my freshman year of college, Mother Teresa passed away. I could no longer rest easily knowing there was a Mother Teresa out there saving the world, I knew I now had to get on it and start following in her footsteps more intentionally. That same fall, John Paul II named St. Therese a doctor of the Church and gave me the priceless gift of showing me what to strive for if I wanted greatness.
St. Therese and the Little Way continue to ground us amidst the many challenges of our present time. In a world of exposure, she calls us to draw within. In a culture of self-absorption, she shows us the higher beauty of giving of ourselves. Distracted by ambition, recognition, and external affirmation, she emboldens us to dismiss them all and set our gaze on the only glory that matters and that lasts – the enduring legacy of love.
Today you’re required to feast and to celebrate! This holy day of obligation in the Church, reflects on when, at the end of Mary’s life, the Lord brought her up to heaven, body and soul. We rejoice because Mary persevered to the end, and like St. Paul could say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Mary was the first disciple of Christ, and she illumines the path for us all. Her trusting “yes” to the Lord made possible the Incarnation, and Christianity really. She followed Christ at every moment. She carried Him as an infant where the Lord led her to go – to the house of St. Elizabeth, to Bethlehem, to the Temple for His ritual presentation, to exile in Egypt while Herod sought to kill Him, and back to Nazareth in a quiet life while the Father desired Him to remain Hidden. During His childhood and young adult life, she prayed, she listened, she contemplated, and she loved Christ and neighbor in her acts of service.
When Jesus’ time had arrived for His public ministry, Mary accepted the pain of separation every mother feels when her child leaves home. Even more so, Mary knew that her Son’s path would include His suffering and sacrifice. Yet, she remained faithful to the Lord in every moment and every act, showing us the Little Way of Love that St. Therese would later articulate for us. She helped prepare the wedding celebration for neighbors in Cana, and rather than being distracted by getting to see her Son again, she noted their waning supply of wine and discreetly responded by asking Jesus to help. Even in this, she surrendered the impulse to control or coerce her Son when He questioned what it had to do with Him. Instead she simply told the servants to “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Mary knew how to pray and how to pray purely. She didn’t try to control God but trusted the Lord and His creative and wonderful ways. She knew from experience and believed in her heart God’s words through the prophet Isaiah (55:8-9):
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
During Christ’s Passion, Mary was there every step of the way. She suffered alongside Him for love of us! She knew Christ willingly walked the Via Dolorosa to the Cross and she offered the sacrifice of her own excruciating maternal pain and suffering for the salvation of souls, uniting her yes to the Father’s will to her Son’s. She accepted her next mission from Christ on the Cross: to mother Him by mothering His Church.
“When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciples, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27).
She did not lose faith when she held His limp body after being taken down from the Cross or when He was placed in the tomb. She did not lose faith when she went home alone that night with the apostle John; her Son away in death for three days. She did not curse God in her heartache, she blessed Him and she trusted Him. Mary faced the sacrifice of her Son with the courage and strength of a mighty spiritual warrior. Whereas Abraham’s hand was stayed at the last moment from sacrificing Isaac, Mary endured the deadly strike to her only child with a faith as great and greater than even that of Abraham.
When Christ rose from the dead Mary rejoiced with all of the disciples. When Jesus ascended into Heaven after forty days, she again accepted the bittersweet pull at her heart when He left His earthly home to enter His heavenly one. She waited in patience with the apostles in Jerusalem for Pentecost and witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit come upon them. She was at the center of the early Church and maternally ministered to Christ’s spiritual children as He had asked of her.
Finally, at the end of Mary’s life, she entered into eternal life body and soul. The Father had preserved her from Original Sin so she could be the Mother of Christ who is God (note: this miracle included an application of Christ’s merit on the Cross to her conception – thus she too is redeemed by Christ). She entered the world much like Adam and Eve in that way. However, unlike Adam and Eve, she willfully chose obedience and love of the Lord over every temptation she experienced. In consequence, she witnesses for us God’s original plan for mankind – that after our time on earth is completed and our choice is made – we would then enter eternal life without the necessity of death. Death is a consequence of sin, and Mary never inherited sin nor committed any personal sins. Her love of God grew to completion and she entered into her heavenly home with her Son at last. From there she continues to mother her spiritual children enjoy everlasting life with her beloved Son.
Christ promises that all who persevere in faith will one day enjoy heaven with Him in His Father’s house. Christ opened the gates to this ineffable home and honored His mother by bringing her there to be with Him. We rejoice at her Assumption into Heaven because we rejoice at the love of her Son Jesus for His mother, we rejoice at her unmatched faithfulness in discipleship to which we aspire to imitate, and we rejoice at her glory in heaven which we hope to one day share. Mary rejoices in the Lord as the source of every grace in her life, and we rejoice with her as one of the many generations that call her blessed.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty had done great things for me,
Living in Minnesota, I always find the summer sun a particular grace. After our long winters it’s a short reprieve, but it makes everything here burst with beauty and lushness. In my house, however, I have mixed feelings. I love its brightness – it gives energy and joy. However, that same brightness shows the dullness of bookshelves that need dusted, floors that need swept and mopped, windows that need washing, and more. As I begin to remedy these, I also begin to notice even more dirty details – baseboards, walls, and doors that need washed, a clutter of possessions that needs sorted and discarded or donated, etc. It seems at first like the more I do, the more behind I get. I begin to look forward to the evening when its shadows will soften the imperfections.
A similar experience can happen in the spiritual life. Much like Jesus’ parable about the Sower and the Seed, the light of the Gospel provokes mixed responses. The warmth and brightness can be refreshing – Truth dispelling lies and errors, Love imbuing our life with purpose and meaning, the call to greatness inflaming our hearts with courage, relief from the forgiveness of our sins, gratitude for the love of the Lord revealed through Jesus, and hope for eternal beatitude. That same warmth, however, can expose our coldness and the need for conversion – especially the most difficult areas such as pride and arrogance, or resentment and unforgiveness. Its brightness can reveal the deeper spiritual cleansing we need to do – leaving us dissatisfied with what previously we took pride in. We may also feel more exposed. The culture sets the bar pretty low to look and feel like a good person. Christ’s bar for His disciples however is as high as heaven. We literally can’t reach it on our own. It requires humility and ongoing reliance on the Lord and communion with Him.
Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, both martyred in Rome around the year AD 67 under the Emperor Nero. Peter was appointed by Christ to be the rock for His whole Church. Paul was appointed by Christ to bring His Gospel to the Gentiles. Both brought the light of Christ far and wide, even into the darkest of places. While many savored the light, like summer sun after a long winter, others despised it for illuminating rooms they had kept hidden or showing the dullness of that which they formerly thought gleaming. Thus, they were killed by the Romans, but honored in memoriam by Christians.
The saints are like torchlights along the road of the disciples of Christ through history. They illuminate the path, and the way to walk it with the Lord, by the light of their own life with Him. They dispel the lie that it can’t be done and unsettle our rationalizations. G.K. Chesterton insightfully wrote, “The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Let’s pray for the grace (for ourselves and for all souls) to receive the summer light of Christ with openness, to accept the work we need to do, and to do it with the energy and joy that His sunshine brings!
Fra Angelico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
What do Mother’s Day and preparing for Pentecost have to do with one another? Making room to receive divine Love.
As we celebrate our mothers in May, we also celebrate Christ’s mother Mary. Not only does she nurture, care, guide, and protect us, but she is also the very model from which we learn what it means to be a Church, – how to be a People of God and true disciples of Christ. She who first received the Holy Spirit, from Whom she conceived and bore Christ, was there in the Upper Room praying with the apostles when they too received the Holy Spirit from which the Church was born into the world. We can learn from her how to be more receptive to the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts at baptism, and for His creative grace to bear fruit in our lives.
Pope Benedict XVI offers rich insights into what the Church learns about herself in and through Mary in a work he did with theologian and priest Hans Urs von Balthasar titled Mary – The Church at the Source.
He asserts that “the Church learns concretely what she is and is meant to be by looking at Mary.” In contrast to our self-centered tendencies and our individualistic world, Mary shines as a woman completely open to the Lord, the mystery of His will, and participation in His saving work of love for mankind. He writes, “She does not wish to be just this one human being who defends and protects her own ego. She does not regard life as a stock of goods of which everyone wants to get as much as possible for himself. Her life is such that she is transparent to God, ‘habitable’ for him. Her life is such that she is a place for God.“
How can we be more “habitable”? How can we make a place for God? This was the work of the prayer and waiting that Christ commanded of the apostles between His Ascension into Heaven and Pentecost.
“And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'”Acts 1:4-5
Relationships grow insofar as we open up to each other. It requires giving of oneself and receptivity to the other. In regard to intimate relationship with God, this requires making space for the Holy Spirit to dwell – not in isolation, but in a continual dialogue of listening prayer.
But how do we pray effectively? How can it be fruitful instead of sterile and dry? Again, Mary provides a model. First, we listen attentively, then contemplate and appropriate His word, then respond with action. Jesus had the greatest respect for His mother because of this. When Mary was praised for getting to be Jesus’ physical mother, He pointed instead to her strength of faith which made His conception possible:
As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”Luke 11:27-28 RSV
How can we be followers of Christ, if we never actually listen and let Him guide us? If we rarely pray, and if that prayer consists solely of requests to God, then it remains a self-directed life rather than a God-directed life. Oftentimes we try to lead Christ along our path, asking Him to bless our plans and provide earthly prosperity. Instead, we need to pause and make the time and mental space to really listen to the Lord and what He asks of us. We do this through praying with Scripture – His Word to us – or reading quality spiritual books that draw us deeper into the mysteries of our faith. We can also meditate using the rosary, since it guides us in reflection on each of the key moments of Christ’s life.
“The important thing, when we pray, is not so much what we say to God but rather the work that He accomplishes in us while we remain silent in His presence, when we agree to let ourselves be cured of our lack of love. Prayer does not consist of laying a hand on God, but of letting God lay his Hand on us. Otherwise, our prayer will be sterile. Such prayer requires silence, recollection, interior availability, humility in the presence of God’s holiness.”
The apostles, who had asked Jesus to teach them to pray, knew the great prayer of surrender – the Our Father. They also knew from His example the importance of regularly drawing away from the crowds to converse in prayer with the Father, and always before a mission. They also had Mary with them, the first and longest disciple of Christ and a woman who constantly lived in a contemplative openness to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
“Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away; and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”Acts 1:12-14
What peace Mary must have brought the apostles! Jesus promised He would not leave them orphans, and He never did. From the Cross, He gave them Mary as their mother, and on Pentecost the Holy Spirit – Who proceeds from love of the Father and the Son.
In closing, let’s take a lesson from Mary. Let’s make space for silence, for intentional listening to our Lord. From that listening, let us act on His calling in our hearts, in communion with the Holy Spirit.
“If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23
Finally, a special shout out to all the mothers today! We honor you because you made space in your body and in your heart, giving life through your constant love and care!
Order the kindle e-book (or paperback) to read the Christmas meditation, the meditation for Mary Mother of God, and to reflect on the meditations all year at your convenience.
The health of a culture can be measured to some extent by its general effects in society – positively or negatively. For example, the culture of despair heavy in post-war Europe together with materialist individualism resulted in an astonishing decline in birth rate. George Weigel described it as literally “demographic suicide” and sourced its illness to a spiritual crisis in his book The Cube and the Cathedral.
In American culture today, we see record levels of anxiety and depression rampant through all ages, income levels and geographic regions. In teens and young adults, the suicide rate has jumped dramatically over the last 10-15 years, making it the second leading cause of death for that age group.
How much we need Jesus and His words today: “Peace be with you”!
Pope St. John Paull II’s opening words of his pontificate, and the recurring theme of his many teachings was Jesus’ command: “Be not afraid.”
Certainly mental illness plays a real and significant role in the overall sickness plaguing our society. At the same time, we can’t overlook the toxins present in our culture that either make us more vulnerable to such illnesses, or at least exacerbate them. Remedies should include professional therapy and possibly medication. At the same time, we also have a responsibility to change the culture – to restore youthful optimism in our youth, respect the dignity and meaning of every human life, honor the little way that builds a strong society rather than celebrating only the famous.
If we want full recovery though, not just surviving but thriving, then we need to “Receive the Holy Spirit”(v.22).
Even the apostles were stricken with fear and anxiety in the upper room. They had just seen Jesus crucified and knew they might be next. All they had believed in, all they had sacrificed for, appeared to be for naught. Then, “Jesus came and stood among them,” resurrected! “He showed them has hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (v. 20). This is the source of Christian hope – seeing our risen Lord. Suffering and apparent failure no longer mean death, but rather new life through Christ. When we feel like all is lost, we too need to look at the risen Lord, confident in His ability to redeem.
How much our culture needs this hope, how many people need this! Generational studies expert Dr. Jean Twange, in her book iGen, attributes much of young people’s failure to launch to fear of failure. Their obsession with being safe and with perfection cripples their ability to develop by trying new things and taking reasonable risks. Many don’t even have their drivers license by the age of 18 because they are afraid of failing the test!
In Christ we have our hope and through the gift of His Spirit we receive the necessary peace and courage to live in that hope. Before Pentecost, one of the twelve had committed suicide and the other eleven were hiding in fear. After Pentecost, they left the room on fire for Christ and preached the Gospel with power and zeal – baptizing, healing, and even accepting martyrdom themselves.
To live in this same peace, we too need the Holy Spirit. We receive the indwelling of the Spirit in Baptism, a strengthening of His action in our hearts through Confirmation, and the ongoing animation of His works in our soul through nurturing our relationship with Him in prayer and the Eucharist.
When I feel discouraged, the best antidote is to spend time to friends and family who are encouraging. When I’m anxious and worried, being in the presence of someone filled with confidence and strength eases me. When I’m feeling sad and alone, spending time with a loved one restores my heart. Being in the presence of the Holy Spirit effects all of these. When I feel overwhelmed or defeated, sitting in the stillness of prayer, the Spirit replenish me and even bears a fruit or two (see Galatians 5:22-23).
“‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39
Jesus has risen, He has been glorified, and He has sent His Spirit among us for the salvation of our souls. Praise be to God! Let us receive Him today in our hearts and in our culture.
Consider:
Imagine the risen Lord, standing before you, His pierced hands outstretched, and saying to you personally, “Peace be with you”.
Consider these words of Christ below regarding the Holy Spirit:
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:26-27)
How is the peace of Christ different than the peace of the world?
How can we “not let” our hearts be troubled? What must you do to stay near the Holy Spirit and maintain this source of peace?
How does the resurrection change everything? Offer to Christ your present failure, struggle, or loss for Him to redeem. Remember that He resurrects us to new life though, not the old.
Practical Application:
Develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit
Pray to the Holy Spirit throughout the day, ask for His help and guidance.
Read the Scriptures
Reflect on the fruits and gifts of the Spirit.
Listen to Catholic podcasts or read good books about the Holy Spirit.
Try to live as a person of peace. Ask the Spirit for help!
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always. “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
Meditation Reflection:
Christ’s greatest gift to us – the first fruit of all of His suffering, death, and resurrection, the first thing He asks the Father on our behalf from His throne in Heaven – is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the gift of the Holy Spirit we experience the mystery of the Trinity. God is one and therefore the Spirit makes Christ present in our soul along with the Father. At the same time, God is three Persons, and therefore Jesus explains that He must ascend to Heaven so that the Spirit may descend upon us. Because Christ merited the forgiveness of our sins, His Spirit could begin His work of cleansing us and sanctifying us. The Spirit applies the healing balm of Christ’s sacrifice to the wounds of our sins and works as fast as we will allow to help us regain spiritual health and freedom.
The Spirit is the primary mover in our conversion. He prompts us to turn to God, provides the strength to actually make the conversion, sanctifies our souls with the grace of Baptism and the sacraments, then guides the ongoing process of union with Christ. At the same time, the Spirit requires our cooperation. We can hasten or hinder His work. It reminds me of trying to clean the house with my three kids. Granted, a mother has to come to peace with a certain level of mess if she ever wants to survive motherhood. At the same time, order and cleanliness lend beauty and peace to a home. During those times when I attempt to clean everything up and restore order to the house my kids’ cooperation (or lack there of) unavoidably determines the success and timeframe of my effort. When my kids were little I felt like a gerbil running in it’s wheel. As soon as I cleaned up one mess I would turn around to find my kids had made another. If I stopped to read with them or take them outside where they couldn’t mess up the house, I couldn’t clean it up either. As they got a little older I could finally kick them outside to play while I cleaned inside or “quarantine” off rooms one by one from the kids as they were cleaned. Still, work was often slowed by needs for water or snacks, complaints and fighting, etc. My kids are now at an age where these challenges remain but they are old enough to pitch in and help. Our life is busier with activities and the house gets neglected by our rush in and out. As a result, on days where we are all home I will tell the kids “We all have to work together for one hour and we can get everything back in order.” I remind them that I can no longer do it on my own and I need their help. I am amazed at how the house can turn around so fast when everyone pitches in. That’s not to say that I don’t take the opportunity to clean when they are all away from the house and I can get things done uninterruptedly. However, I’ve learned that I have to employ their help on a more regular basis with the schedule of the new stage we’re in.
Similarly, the Holy Spirit can work in our souls to the extent that we cooperate. When our faith is still immature we tend to act like little kids – creating one mess after another. We may feel like progress is slow and that God isn’t doing very much. However, we need to be honest about our expectations. Every parent who has ever stayed at home with the kids knows how hard they work all day with nothing visible to show for it. The other parent may leave for work and return with the house looking the same or worse than when they left. However, what’s not reflected in that picture is the hundreds of other messes cleaned up constantly, the love and nurturing that took place, and the work at developing a child’s heart and mind. The Spirit works in our souls in a similar way – drawing our minds up to God, comforting us in our sorrows, forming our conscience, encouraging us, and cleaning up our constant messes.
As we mature in the faith we become less of a hindrance to the Spirit and He works more efficiently in our soul. As we become less attached to sin the messes slow (some) and the Spirit can make greater progress teaching us about Christ and deepening our love.
Finally, the mature Christian cooperates with the Holy Spirit in the work of following Christ and grows quickly in union with God. The Sacrament of Confirmation celebrates this as we receive an increase in the Holy Spirit and prepare to be soldiers of Christ, contributors to the faith we have received.
It’s natural for children to depend on their parents more heavily when they are young. It’s also an expectation that they contribute to family life as they get older. The Holy Spirit makes us adopted sons and daughters of the Lord. Through His indwelling we experience the nurturing necessary for sanctification and mature love of God. Moreover, He blesses us with gifts to strengthen and nurture the faith of others.
May we all this Pentecost, reflect on the gracious work of God in our lives, that others may say of us as the crowd did in Acts 2:11“we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
Consider:
Consider your cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you habitual sins you struggle with and pray for His help to overcome them.
Consider how you can grow in virtue so that the Holy Spirit can act even more powerfully within you. The virtue of purity especially increases the Holy Spirit.
Christ calls the Holy Spirit the “Paraclete.” Consider each of the meanings of Paraclete – “advocate”, “intercessor”, “teacher, “helper”, “comforter”.
When has the Holy Spirit advocated on your behalf? Consider the sins you have been freed from because the Holy Spirit advocated for you before the Father. Consider a time when you need the Holy Spirit to advocate for you in the heart of another person.
The Spirit intercedes for us and teaches us how to pray. Thank the Holy Spirit for His prayers on your behalf. Spend 5 minutes of silent prayer just letting the Holy Spirit speak for you to God.
Ask the Holy Spirit to open your mind and heart to God’s word in Scripture. Ask Him to help you see God’s truth in the events of your daily life. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to you.
Consider a time the Holy Spirit gave you profound peace when you were suffering and in pain. Invite the Holy Spirit to bring His comfort now and for the grace to turn to Him first.
Paul tells us in I Corinthians 12 that the Spirit bestows different gifts upon Christians for the upbuilding of the whole body. Read I Corinthinas 12 and pray about what your gift is and how you can put it at the service of Christ.
Make a Resolution (Practical Application):
Each day this week ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the presence of Christ, to your sins, and to God’s will.
Determine one way to grow in the virtue of purity and do it each day this week.
Ask the Holy Spirit for the opportunity to serve God with the gifts He has given you. Then take that opportunity each day.
Each day, take a minute to praise God for His mighty works in your life.
Living in Minnesota, I always find the summer sun a particular grace. After our long winters it’s a short reprieve, but it makes everything here burst with beauty and lushness. In my house, however, I have mixed feelings. I love its brightness – it gives energy and joy. However, that same brightness shows the dullness of bookshelves that need dusted, floors that need swept and mopped, windows that need washing, and more. As I begin to remedy these, I also begin to notice even more dirty details – baseboards, walls, and doors that need washed, a clutter of possessions that needs sorted and discarded or donated, etc. It seems at first like the more I do, the more behind I get. I begin to look forward to the evening when its shadows will soften the imperfections.
Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, both martyred in Rome around the year AD 67 under the Emperor Nero. Peter was appointed by Christ to be the rock for His whole Church. Paul was appointed by Christ to bring His Gospel to the Gentiles. Both brought the light of Christ far and wide, even into the darkest of places. While many savored the light, like summer sun after a long winter, others despised it for illuminating rooms they had kept hidden or showing the dullness of that which they formerly thought gleaming. Thus, they were killed by the Romans, but honored in memoriam by Christians.
peace Mary must have brought the apostles! Jesus promised He would not leave them orphans, and He never did. From the Cross, He gave them Mary as their mother, and on Pentecost the Holy Spirit – Who proceeds from love of the Father and the Son.
Take Time For Him 