Welcoming the Spirit: A Weekly Reflection

By Fr. Mike Boutin

"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." (John 15:26-27)

A modern take on the traditional Gregorian chant, Veni Creator Spiritus, thanks to YouTube!

Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia! The Easter season is about Christ's rising from the dead and His return to the Father in glory. But, perhaps, it is most about His Spirit alive in our world today.

Christ is risen and lives, and He shares His risen Spirit with us in the waters of our baptism and in the Eucharist, through which the Risen Christ appears to us in bread and wine, just as surely as He appeared to those fearful and grief-stricken apostles on that first Easter day.

Christ's Spirit, according to Galatians, is a Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Christ's Spirit comes to bring holy gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and awe . . .

Christ's Risen Spirit comes to bring about unity in the face of division and differences, and to bring about holiness in the face of sin and darkness . . .

Christ's Spirit comes to bring life; just as surely as spring comes to bring natural life, so Christ's Spirit comes to bring us the gift of Risen Life, really joy, hope, and gladness . . .

Lift up your heads. Wait and hope for the coming of the Spirit. But don't miss Her when she comes, for She comes like the wind -- gentle, and nudging, and cool and dangerous and mysterious . . .

Don't miss the Spirit when He comes -- in disguise, in the poor, and the lonely, and the forgotten and the hungry . . .

Don't miss the Spirit when It comes: tomorrow, now, yesterday? 

Open up your heart, and let the Spirit in. Life will never be the same....

Now pray . . .

 

Father Mike Boutin is the co-pastor of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Walpole, MA, and travels widely, leading pilgrimages throughout the world to various Catholic religious sites. He is a frequent speaker on liturgy, music, spirituality, and pastoral ministry.