We are in the annual week of the liturgical year when we are emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit.  Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday.  That celebration concludes the Easter Season and the lengthy process of purification and renewal that began with Ash Wednesday and led us to the Lord’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father.

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday. That solemnity reminds us of the very nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Who God truly is stands at the heart of the incarnation; the Son of God in the world revealing to us the existence and nature of  his Father and the Holy Spirit.

The role of the Holy Spirit is fundamental for us as followers of Jesus.  But at times that role is overlooked in our spiritual lives.  Because the concept of “father” is so familiar to us in our human existence, and because Jesus came and walked and lived among us,  we can easily picture and imagine the presence of the Father and the Son in our reflections of faith.  However, the Holy Spirit, He who proceeds from the Father and the Son, is more difficult for us to grasp and picture in our prayer life. 

The images of the dove or of the tongues of fire from Pentecost point to the deep realities that accompany the presence of the Holy Spirit.  He hovers over the Church and our every thought and action to guide them to God’s will.  He inflames the Church and our hearts with zeal, courage and enthusiasm for the life of faith.

I recently spoke to young people who were completing their preparations to receive the sacrament of confirmation.  We talked about what it meant for them to be  receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.  One thing that we chatted about was how those gifts are gifts not of a single moment, but of a lifetime.  They are gifts that can unfold and develop at various points in life. 

For example, perhaps during the high school and young adult years, the Holy Spirit can begin to move a young man’s heart to thoughts of a vocation to serve Christ and the Church in the priesthood.

For another, the Holy Spirit can begin to move a woman or a man toward a particular person or even away from someone, demonstrating that the call to the vocation of marriage and family is not luck or accident, but part of God’s will. 

We pray that the Holy Spirit will give us strength and courage to follow Christ fully, even in any struggles we might have with infirmity or a final illness. 

In short, the Holy Spirit dwells within us to move our every thought and action to be consistent with the will of Christ.

The Acts of the Apostles tells us that it was the moment of Pentecost, of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, that changed them forever.  They came out from the locked room and engaged the world to proclaim Jesus.  They lived their conviction and love for Christ, even to the point of martyrdom.  That same gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us.  That same impulse to be faithful to Christ, even in challenging or difficult moments, is the result.  It is because of the Spirit’s guidance of the Church through the ages that we entrust ourselves to her and to her teaching.

How deeply blessed we are to have been given the intimate knowledge of the nature of God Himself as one in three.  How blessed we are to know that we are called to be temples of the Holy Spirit. 

Make room for His presence in your every thought and action asking Him to keep us sure in our faith, our hope and our love for God.