My Favorite Gift of the Holy Spirit

It is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You received it when you were Confirmed.

And the spiritual journey would be far more difficult if we didn’t have it.

It’s the gift of wonder & awe.

Contemplatives know how to activate this gift better than most. They aren’t merely proficient, like a high school musician with a musical instrument on loan.

They own the gift.

They can go from zero to sixty – from world to wonder – the moment they bend the knee, the moment they light a candle, the moment they pick up the rosary beads, the moment they close a book and meditate on the words they have read.

For the rest of us, it takes work. We are the teenager with the instrument-on-rent. It takes us a fair bit of effort to activate this gift in the way it was designed to be activated.

Our spirits aren’t so nimble. Wonder & awe comes when we give everything over to Lord, and we know that self-abandonment goes contrary to our nature.

But how sweet the song is in that moment! How lovely the music. What a joy the instrument that takes us there.

This instrument requires practice. My son attended a music conservatory at UMKC. He practiced. All. Of. The. Time.

In those years, he didn’t let anything usurp the place the trumpet had in his life. And it showed.

We have to make room for contemplation every day. It requires time, more effort than we can imagine.

We have to let go of the worries, the anxieties of life, the things that sabotage the effort. It requires tenacity. Determination.

There is no room for fear.

You can’t be worried about the noise the car is making these days. Or the fact a friend or family member just hurt your feelings. Or that you and your husband don’t have enough money for that family vacation – let alone a date night this month. You can’t be obsessed by money, or out of control kids, or the job you are about to lose.

Imitate the professional. Imitate St. Therese. Or Teresa. Or John of the Cross.

Leave everything behind. When your knee touches the floor, let your soul soar.

You are entering the Presence of the Most High God.

There is room for only wonder & awe.