LIVING IN THE DAILY PRESENCE OF GOD

 

We area people of faith. We want everyone to grow in the awareness that we live our daily lives in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit is living and moving throughout our everyday existence. The presence of the Holy Spirit can be compared to the air we breathe: it is always present although we do not pay much attention to the movement of air currents right around our body.

 

This Lent, reflect on the movement and the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and in the world. 

 

The Holy Spirit (the very reality of the triune God) has been poured out into your life. When the sacrament of Confirmation was given to you it was a sign that our life was to be a living instrument of the Holy Spirit. Your life was to be given the Holy Spirit, her power and energy, in so many different ways throughout your life. Confirmation was never a one -hot deal! It outlines a vibrant path of life, shaped and moved by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

 

Be conscious that whenever you are moved to pray (whether it be in words or just in attentiveness) this is always the action of the Holy Spirit. No human being can ever become conscious of the presence of God except in and through the Holy Spirit. So many people born into the Church are amazed when you teach them that prayer is the action of God’s Spirit.

 

When we are moved to reach out in charity toward our ancient aunt who lives in her dementia in the nursing home, that is the Holy Spirit moving us in compassion and kindness. The Holy Spirit moves in all human beings who reach out in charity towards another person in need. Be they believers or just indifferent secularist, it is still the Holy Spirit moving within their lives. 

 

When we deal creatively with our cousin who can be so negative and down-right racist towards our First Nations peoples, that strength to help him to a better understanding of human dignity is also the movement of the Holy Spirit. 

 

When we have the ‘laying on of hands’ during the Sunday Eucharist, it is also prayer over your own body that you become the body of Christ. Become the Body of Christ in the healing and new understanding you can bring toward some family members who are somewhat alienated from other members of the family. Be the Body of Christ as you take time to listen to your co-worker share their pain over their twenty-nine year old son’s dangerous drug addiction. 

 

The Spirit of God fills the earth. The Spirit of God moves right around our lives like the wind brushes our face. The Holy Spirit is  daily present.

 

The task of our Christian faith is to help us pay attention to the presence of God. Truly we live and breathe in the atmosphere (the world) of the Holy Spirit.

 

This Lent, grow in your awareness of the Holy Spirit living and moving within your own life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHY I NEED LENT.

There is no doubt: I need the forty days of Lent!

 

We must examine everyone of our traditions: why does Lent have such staying power? What does the religious imagination grasp in this season of forty days?

 

The forty days started out as a ‘spring training camp’ for the candidates who were to be accepted by the waters of baptism during the Easter Vigil. 

 

Over the centuries a very strong penitential tone took over and it changed into a season of fasting, prayer and repentance. 

 

Do not be too hard on the practices of your ancestors. They responded to a felt need in their lives. Today we need to rediscover the gifts that Lent offers us.

 

In our daily lives we all start out with good intentions. It is like getting enough exercise. Good intentions never got us off the couch!

 

The primary frame of mind that we must begin Lent with is ‘be attentive.’ This is an attitude that is humble: we do not have all our ducks lined up in the spiritual life. Our prayer life has grown soft. We neglect praying over the Scriptures. We are weak on our service to the poor.

 

The framework of being attentive is recognizing that we do not have the Spirit of God under control. The Spirit of God is moving like a February wind. It does not hit the same side of your face in identical ways. There are new moments of revelation of the presence of God living and working among us. These forty days give us space to sharpen up and recognize the new movements of the Holy Spirit.

 

There will be new opportunities for  prayer and reflection that have not have not encountered before. These forty days give space to give attention to the presence of God in my life and my church. It also allows us to deepen spiritual truths that we already know but come at them with a deeper sense of appreciation. Lent can be very much a time of deepening these spiritual truths.

 

Lent can extend our charity and justice to the world beyond the walls of our house. It is very much a season of doing charity to the poor and the neglected. Parishioners find it a wonderful season to take off one afternoon each week to visit the nursing home to be a ray of sunshine in the dull days of some many residents. It is the simple hello or brief moment of conversation that can brighten up someone’s day. The corridors of the nursing homes can be very empty. Lent is our time to leave our footprints on the floor and our heart and smile in the hands of our elderly. 

 

Our ancestors in the faith found such gifts in the forty days of Lent. We too must discover its power to help refocus our faith life, deepen our daily prayer and extend our service to the poor. 

 

It is a gift. I need to be open to what the Spirit of God will give me this Lent, 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

A FAITH-LIFE TAKES REAL WORK

 

Real living is hard work. Adult believing is hard work.

 

Ask any parent who wants their child to develop into a well-mannered child whom adults like to associate with and you have a hard-working parent. It takes a lot of effort and much patience to raise a pleasant child.

 

If you want to nurture and develop your friendships you are very conscious how much hard work is involved in our relationships.

 

To live a life of faith is first to experience the hand of God come into our lives. No human being can reach God by purely human efforts. This is always first and foremost the work of God. We must always hold true to the teaching that God does not abandon anyone. Each and every person is sought after by God. God wants to live in friendship with every human being.

 

But the offer of God’s grace does not bowl human freedom over. God’s friendship is always a gift. Human beings are always free to accept or to reject the offer of God’s friendship.

 

We have been created into a world that is wonderful and meant to be lived and enjoyed. We have been blest with health. We can walk, talk, sing and enjoy a good hamburger. Creation is a very positive blessing. We are free to accept this gift in joy and gratitude. Or we can become sour and complain how we are deprived of this and that quality. It is a deliberate choice to recognize each morning as a gift.

 

We want to be like the holy man of old who began his morning prayer with: “Lord, that I may do good today because I will never pass this way again.”

 

We are free to accept the love and friendship of family, friends and co-workers. To be loved and wanted is always gift. We can never make another human being love and care for us. This is always a gift that we choose to accept. And especially when the still accept and stand by us on our off-days. Some days one of our friends will turn to us (but still accepting us in freedom): “This is not your best day but I won’t walk away from you.”

 

As we live and walk with God, we need to recognize the hard work that an adult faith life entails. Maybe the Spirit of God is moving you to care for a relative who is struggling with drug addiction. You will be tempted to just walk away from the hassle and frustration that drug addiction entails. Perhaps the Holy Spirit wants to give you the strength to keep going when almost everyone else has walked away.

 

We lead very demanding and busy lives. It is difficult to structure in a time for prayer. We want to get all our commitments accomplished. Too often we come to the end of the day and there has been no prayer time.

 

God wants our friendship. The discipline that prayer takes will always be worth our effort. 

 

A faith-life does not drop out of the sky. It is very much a two-way affair. God is moving and dynamic. We have to become involved. We have to do our part. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE

 

Last Monday, February 7, the earth shifted. There was a serious earthquake that hit the countries of Turkey and Syria. The estimates of the dead are at 11,000 persons.

 

Now, what goes through our minds as Christian   people?

 

If you listen to the concerns of the ordinary Christian believer there is real concern and empathy. We do not experience earth quakes in our part of the globe but there is a feeling of solidarity with the many ordinary people who have lost loved ones, homes, buildings and social structures such as hospitals. We grasp to understand the pain and devastation that such an earthquake can cause. 

 

When people actually embrace God (given to us in revelation), they begin to share the strong concerns within the heart of God. All creation is an expression of the love of God.  Every bug, every tree and stone is a gift from the creative hand of God. God rejoices in the gift of creation. We may be a distance away from appreciating creation as God does, but we are learning to rejoice with the creating God as he/she looked at each piece of creation and rejoiced, “It is good.”

 

The believer moves to the creation of human beings. This part of creation is unbelievably good and challenging. Human-creation stretches each and every human being. God looks at the creation of woman and man. Human beings are created in the image of God. Human beings reflect the very goodness of God. 

 

Now, human beings have not always lived up to their value. We make wars. We give an incredible amount of energy and money in developing more powerful bombs and missiles. We have enough atomic power that we can even destroy all humanity.

 

This is very frightening.

 

But now I listen to uncomplicated believers. They watch the devastation in Turkey. This is not passive. There are real feelings of compassion and the feeling that I want to help these suffering people.

 

Are these positive feelings arising from an ordinary human being? Or do these feelings arise from a deeper source within the human soul? Do these feelings of compassion arise from the Holy Spirit?

 

People are reluctant to name these feelings of empathy for hundreds of unnamed strangers as coming from the very spirit of God. Could the Holy Spirit be working in my life in such a strong and visceral way? 

 

When we proclaim that we believe in the Holy Spirit I hope we are recognizing that the Holy Spirit is alive and working within humanity and within our individual lives. This Holy Spirit is not some nice decoration in our songs but is the vibrant force of God working and moving throughout humanity. The Holy Spirit works within you, even when you stubbornly resist the movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

This is why I rejoice when I listen to the concerns expressed by my fellow believers over the suffering people in Turkey and Syria. When the earth shakes, the Holy Spirit is shaking our hearts and emotions.

 

How great it is to believe and breathe in the Holy Spirit.