Who among us does not experience how quickly time passes? Perhaps if you close your eyes, you are able to remember something your heart has kept from Easter Day, or something that has happened to you during these fifty days that speaks of Life. Or perhaps you find yourself amazed to belong to a community of believers that remains faithful and seeks God. And thus, astonished in your daily reality, you discover that fifty days have already passed and that we are celebrating Pentecost!
“Without the spiritual breath all living forces dry up” (Saint Hildegard of Bingen). “Ask and you shall receive”, “seek and you shall find”. It is Jesus Himself who invites us to ask and to seek. On this Solemnity, what can we ask for? The answer is obvious: the Spirit! We need the anointing of the Spirit, the same received by those being confirmed, in order to be witnesses of Christ in the world. We need Him, with His fire, to infuse the warmth of life into our coldness. The fire of the Spirit sets our hearts ablaze so that we may walk on the path of love for God and neighbour.
If we lift our eyes to heaven, we contemplate the light and the clouds, two other symbols of the Spirit. From the theophanies of the Old Testament, the Cloud —sometimes dark and sometimes luminous— reveals the presence of the living and saving God. The Cloud and the Light are always present in our History of Salvation: on Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, in the Annunciation, in the Baptism of Jesus, in the Transfiguration and in the Ascension.
Another symbol of the Spirit is the seal, which speaks of union and of indelible belonging. Christ is marked with the seal of God and we have been sealed with the seal of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the hand is a symbol of the Spirit, a gesture that the Church preserves in the sacramental epicleses. What does this mean? “Epiclesis” means “invocation upon” and it is the supplication through which the priest asks the Father to send the Spirit.
At times we feel that the Holy Spirit goes unnoticed in our daily lives and also in our prayer. However, this gift of God, who blows where He wills and whose sound we hear, is the promise of the Father. We can ask for the breath, the Ruah, and invoke Him as Paraclete and Consoler, Holy Spirit of the promise and of adoption.
Through the Spirit who has been poured into us, we are recognised as adopted children of God. The letters of Saint Paul remind us how the Holy Trinity acts in our life and that Christians cannot live without the Spirit of God.
We all know the persecutions suffered by many of our Christian brothers and sisters. We can think of them and pray for them so that the Spirit of God may sustain and console them in their sufferings and humiliations. (Cf. 1 Pt 4:14).
So that our strength may not fade, ask for the gift of knowledge, which helps us to recognise God in the wonders of His Creation. Be amazed!
May the gift of wisdom enlighten you to see, judge and act in your place of life and mission.
So that your words may not become a collection of stock phrases, ask for the gift of counsel and allow the Spirit to inspire words of life within you.
When you see only darkness, pain, temptation or misfortune, invoke the gift of fortitude.
Pope Francis explained the gift of Piety in this way: “it is our friendship with God, which Jesus has given us, a friendship that changes our lives and fills us with enthusiasm and joy”.
As sons and daughters of Saint Marie Eugénie, we need to ask for the gift of understanding in order to understand and look at the world beyond appearances.
And to abandon yourself like a child in its mother’s arms, with infinite trust, invoke the gift of fear of God.
Come, Holy Spirit! Kindle in our hearts the fire of your love so that we may journey through the roads and bustle of our lives in the company of God, One and Triune. Blow Your Breath, Lord!
Ana Alonso
Community of Ponferrada, Province of Spain