Welcome, holy spirit

A baby in the arms of her dad in church seemed to have just found her voice and was testing its volume. Her embarrassed father was trying to quell her enthusiasm with a binky, a bottle, a toy, but nothing would quiet her. Pushing back all attempts to be quiet, she was enjoying her new toy, the ability to make noise, draw attention and be herself and the new boundary her voice offered her. It was a WOW experience for dad and the church congregation as he tried to quell the new spirit of the baby!

So, for the Christian churches, this day is the Feast of Pentecost or 50 days after Easter and Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit — it is to be our WOW experience. The Holy Spirit arrives with wind and fire, and clamors to impart power upon the apostles and Mary. We all dare to pray in the Responsorial Psalm, “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.” We all need the hope and joy of the Spirit to confront the challenges of life.

Just as the young girl in our story found her new gift of voice, so the Holy Spirit comes to energize God’s people. The spirit comes to call us to use the gifts and fruits of the Spirit uniquely gifted on each one of us to bring about change by love and forgiveness just as the baby tested her volume and was delighted in her discovery.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate encouraging every disciple to discern and share their gifts without distinctions. The Holy Spirit includes all races, genders, nationalities and cultures. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we drink of the one Spirit.’’

As Catholics, we dare to pray, “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.” Along with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we pray and hope for what are called the fruits of the Spirit namely; charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. Just hearing this list we know how badly we all need these gifts to be practiced by ourselves and others to make this a better world.

Just as the baby testing her voice so may we take some time this week to test out living and acting on these fruits of the Holy Spirit to find our true home in the Lord.