Having just celebrated the Ascension, my thoughts and prayers are shifting to the upcoming feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Perhaps yours are too. This quote on my prayer bench invites me into these preparation days:
“To live a religious life takes all the life we have.
To live a religious life takes the heart of a hermit, the soul of a mountain climber, the eyes of a lover, the mind of a rabbi.
It requires total immersion in the life of Christ and complete concentration on the meaning of the Gospel life today.”
Is it impossible to embrace this aspiration? Not if we believe in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which we will soon celebrate on Pentecost!
Let‘s be aware of what we need and ask Jesus to ready our hearts so that the gifts of the Spirit that he wants to provide will be available to us.
- May wisdom and understanding guide our lives.
- May counsel (right judgment) and fortitude (courage) keep us on track.
- May knowledge of “God’s way” and piety (reverence) open us to a deep respect for God and others, and
- May fear of the Lord (awe of God) draw us into a union with God that will energize us for living out our baptismal calling with vigor!
Sometimes I might think, “I need all those gifts”! And in many ways we all do! But to particularize our awareness of one of these seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives, let me describe a custom in the Visitation Order that occurs annually at Pentecost:
We have the names of each of these seven gifts on a slip of folded paper, and after prayer together in our chapel, we choose one of these slips of paper, open it up, and read the gift that we have received for this year. In doing this, I find myself more attentive to the special gift that I have been given and pray that I may be ready to exercise this gift in my daily life. The Sisters then share the gift that each has received and what that gift means to them at this time. This 400 year old custom is as relevant to the Sisters today as it was to our first members!
COME HOLY SPIRIT! Immerse us in the life of Jesus! May Sr. Joan Chittister’s words come alive in us and in all Christians as we celebrate again the birthday of the Church!
1 Comment
Catherine Smegal · May 20, 2010 at 9:26 am
Having been reminded last week that it was not we who chose Jesus but it’s He who has chosen us makes possible our openness to all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I love what Father Bauer says about the last part of this passage (“This I command you: love one another.”) he says , “Jesus doesn’t say, ‘This I suggest’ or ‘This is what I hope you’ll try out’, but ‘This I command you'”.
Perhaps these gifts of the Holy Spirit are tools given so we can follow Jesus’ command.