Spirit Enabled by Jim and Diane Bayne
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. (Acts 4:4)
Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. (Ps 104:30)
...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. (Gal 5:22-23)
Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify because you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)
Piety
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
– from The Sequence for Pentecost
Study
The notes for Pentecost from the Irish Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) website provide better food for study than anything we could write:
Rather than try to describe what the Holy Spirit looks like, the Bible says great things about what the Spirit does, how it impacts on life. Paul uses an image drawn from nature, speaking about the fruits of the Spirit. He is talking about the visible flowering of the Spirit in a person’s life. We may not be able to see the Holy Spirit, but we can see the Spirit’s impact on our outlook and behavior, just as we cannot see the wind but can see its effects on the world about us.
Wherever we find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control, the Spirit is there at work, made visible in and through these qualities and virtues. The person who had those qualities most of all was Jesus because he was full of the Holy Spirit, full of the life of God.
That divine life and love were poured out at Pentecost, initially on the first disciples but through them on all who are open to receive this powerful and beautiful gift. Paul expresses it simply in his letter to the Romans, ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’ It is that Spirit of God’s love we have received who bears the rich fruit in our lives that Paul speaks about in today’s Second Reading.
The Spirit is constantly at work in our lives, making us more like Jesus. The ordinary, day to day expressions of goodness and kindness, of faithfulness and self-control, of patience and gentleness, are all manifestations of the Spirit that has been given to us by God. We can recognize the Spirit’s presence in the ordinary happenings of everyday life. The spiritual is not something other-worldly; it is humanity at its best.
Action
Take time each evening this week to reflect on how the Holy Spirit was made manifest in your life during the day. What opportunities did you have to expression goodness and kindness, faithfulness and self-control, patience and gentleness? If you missed some opportunities, make a personal pledge to do better tomorrow.
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