Day 8
Reflection
I was thinking the other day about the verse:
7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:8)
Why did Jesus have to first ascend to the Father before He could send us the Holy Spirit? Did He 'leave Him upstairs' so to speak? Thank goodness I wasn't the first to ask these questions, the Church Fathers have discussed most, if not all of the questions I will ever come up with.
This is what St Cyril of Alexandria said:
"Everything has been accomplished which remained to be done on earth; but it still remained necessary that we should share and participate in the divine nature of the Word - that is, that we should put away our life and be utterly transformed and launched on a new way of holy living. Now this could not be brought about except by a sharing and a participation in the Holy Spirit.
The most suitable and appropriate time for the sending of the Holy Spirit and his descent upon us was the time which followed immediately upon the departure of Christ our Saviour from our midst. [When He ascended to the Father]
For I think it is true to say that, while Christ was still present in bodily form among those who believed in Him, He was revealed to them as one who conferred every good gift; but since the time and the need were now calling Him to be carried up to His Father in heaven, it was necessary for Him to be present through the Spirit with those who worshipped Him, and to dwell in our hearts through faith. Having Him within us in this way, we would be able to cry out with confidence: "Abba, Father!", and to make peaceful progress towards every virtue; we would prove powerful and invincible against the wiles of the devil and the attacks of men, for we would possess the Spirit whose power has no limit."
Wow that's deep. Through this passage we come to understand a little more about the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts in a very real way (for we received Him at baptism) and it is because we have the Holy Spirit in us that we are able to pray. How profound is that! So even when we feel dryness in prayer, we don't need to worry because we can just pray to the Holy Spirit to ask Him to help us to pray. Further, God sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. So while Christ was on earth, we could go directly to Him, but once He's ascended back to the Father, the Holy Spirit is Christ's gift to the Church so that we can continue to be guided in God's way. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us live holy lives, and to make us more Christ like day by day!
Day 7
Today's reflection is a prayer, to balance the theological ideas we've been considering over the last few days :)
Reflection: A Prayer for a Clean Heart and Heavenly Wisdom
Strengthen me, O God, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit. Grant me the power to grow in holiness and to empty my heart of all useless care and anxiety, that I may not be led by the desire for earthly things, whether of little or great value. Help me to regard all things in this world as they are - passing and short lived - realising that I too, will pass away with them. Nothing under the sun is lasting, but
all is vanity and a chase after wind (Eccl 1:14) It is a wise person who understands this.
Give me Your heavenly wisdom, O Lord, that I may learn that the most important thing is to seek You and to find You, and above all else, to love You. Help me to understand all other things as they truly are, according to Your wisdom.
Grant me the prudence to avoid all flatterers and to be patient with those who contradict me. It is great wisdom not to be influenced by common gossip, nor listen to soothing, tempting voices. By following this road, we will advance securely in the way we have begun.
Day 6
Reflection - Sins against the Holy Spirit
The other day, we were looking at what Our Lord meant when he said "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven." So what are these sins against the Holy Spirit, and why are they unpardonable?
The Sins against the Holy Spirit are: despair, presumption, impenitence (unrepentence), obstinancy, resisting truth, and envy of another's spiritual welfare.
Some of these are less difficult to pardon than others.
Refusing God's mercy even up until death (final impenitence) is absolutely unpardonable. Those who from deliberate malice refuse to recognise the work of God, like the Pharisees did when they saw the miracles of Jesus and attributed them to Beezlebub, the Prince of Devils. Those who reject deliberately the means of salvation are also rarely pardoned. The difficulty in obtaining pardon for these sins is clearly caused by the sinner himself, who rejects God's grace. Deliberate and habitual sins, sins against the light of truth, offend God more gravely than sins due to weekness and ignorance. God is a gentle lover, He will not
force his forgiveness on us if we stubbornly refuse to be reconciled to Him.
Day 5
Reflection
We have a very clear example of the action of the Holy Spirit on our minds and hearts in the story of the Apostles. Our Lord chose twelve week, rude, ignorant men for His Apostles. They were not only rude and ignorant, but they were timid and fearful. He chose them deliberately so that they might be an example and encourage to us, an example that the weakest of us can follow.
For 3 whole years they were in the constant company of Our Lord, hearing His beautiful doctrine, seeing the miracles he worked, listening to His words of comfort and consolation. Despite all that, they did not grasp His teaching; they did not understand and realise the wonderful doctrines He taught and the promises He made. Once He said to Philip, "Philip, how long have I been with you and yet you do not know Me." Even after the resurrection, we have Thomas who refused to believe unless he was able to touch the wounds of Our Lord.
However, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost, they were changed immediately. In an instant, the Holy Spirit made them understand all that Jesus had been teaching them for three years, but which they had failed to grasp. All of their fears vanished and they courageously went to preach about Jesus Christ. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, and inflamed with love for God, they divided the whole world among themselves, preaching the Gospel, casting down false idols and planting the doctrine of Christ in their place. Even death did not stop them, as they embraced martyrdom when their time came.
Day 4
Reflection:
Fruits of the Holy Spirit
From the Gifts and Beatitudes flow the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are
Joy, Patience, Mildness, Kindness, Modesty, Chastity and other like graces [or virtues]. They are all those acts we do with peace, pleasure, joy and love. (St Thomas Aquinas)
These graces are called "Fruits" because they are the crowning favours, the result of all the Holy Spirit has been doing for us. They are to our souls what the fruit is to the tree, and what the flower is to the plant. So we become an object of delight to the Father and the Son, who come too and live in our souls, which becomes the home of the Blessed Trinity. These Gifts, Beatitudes and Fruits we receive by prayer and good works, by Holy Mass, Communion, and the Sacraments. Strange that many Christians never thnk of asking for the Gifts, the Beatitudes and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
These Gifts and graces do not make our lives sad, or boring. Far from it, they fill us with a peace, a joy and a consolation that we have never felt before. What was difficult to us before is now easy and delightful, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of joy, peace and consolation. He enlightens us, strengthens us, and enable us to know God as we have never known Him before. He gives us a foretaste of Heaven.
Joy and consolation are in fact the chief characteristics of the Holy Spirit. So we read in the Acts of the Apostles "The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit"
Joy is a result of holiness, and we find the Saints the most joyful of mortals. St Dominic, for instance was always most joyful. He was never sad, except when he hears about the sorrow of others.
Day 3
Reflection: The Seven Gifts
The Holy Spirit pours out our souls His gifts and graces and infuses into it the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; He gives us His Seven Gifts which help us to follow His inspirations and which strengthen our natural powers so that we see better and act with more strength. These Gifts are Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom and Counsel, which enlighten and help the intelligence, and Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord, which strengthen our wills.
The Gift of Wisdom helps us to think less of worldly things and more of God and our spiritual life.
The Gift of Understanding helps us to grasp and realise heavenly truths.
The Gift of Counselis what we may call divine prudence, which enables us to choose what is pleasing to God and good for ourselves.
The Gift of Fortitude gives us strength to do our duties well.
The Gift of Knowledge helps us to see and avoid dangers to our soul and our spiritual welfare.
The Gift ofPietyhelps us to love God more tenderly, with more confidence and to do everything lovingly for Him.
The Gift of Fear of the Lord inspires us with reverence and respect for God and all things relating to Him and inspires us with a filial fear of giving Him offense.
These are called "Gifts" because we do not acquire or merit them. They are given to us freely by the Holy Spirit. When we obey and follow the inspiriations they give us, we receive the Beatitudes, that is, new ideas, new views, new activities, a new life. We become more meek, more joyful, more peaceful and more clean of heart.
Day 2
For those who missed the meeting last night, we had an awesome night talking bout the Holy Spirit and Pentecost, with a little bit of theatre-sports action!
Pentecost Sunday is coming up next weekend, and often we forget that the Holy Spirit is also an important person of the Holy Trinity, so let's try and get to know the Holy Spirit a little better over the coming week in preparation for Pentecost. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will set our hearts on fire, and guide us into all truth!
There's a way of praying called the
novena which is basically - praying for 9 days in a row for the same intention (request). So over this week we'll be praying a Novena to the Holy Spirit, and we
pray that the Holy Spirit would fill our hearts, and particularly comfort those who feel distant from God
Everyday I will send out a short reflection (From this book on the Holy Spirit) to help us get to know the Holy Spirit a little more, you can't love what you don't know after all! Under that I will paste the Novena prayer, which I invite you all to pray :) You may join us in the intention we came up with last night, or make your own one up so that's up to you. (This email says Day 2, because we started last night, but if you weren't there, just start tonight and count it as Day 1 :) It just means you'll finish a day Pentecost, no worries!)
So let's try to be a little more faithful to the Holy Spirit this week, and pray that He would prepare our hearts to celebrate Pentecost!
Day 1
Reflection: First Things First - When do we receive the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit comes into our souls in Baptism. He remains there forever. Day and night we carry Him about in our souls. Wherever we go, whatever we are doing, the Holy Spirit is really and truly with us. He only leaves us if we commit a mortal sin. By a deliberate mortal sin, we expel Him from our souls with all His Divine love and graces. In His place the devil would come and fill that glorious soul with all his corruption and filth. If such an awful thing happens to any of us, let us throw ourselves on our knees and beg God's pardon and go to Confession. When our souls are washed in the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will once again return to our soul, which He so tenderly loves and will once more come to live in us.