The Holy Spirit in Our Lives

As we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday, let us praise and thank God for the times we have experienced the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. Through the grace of the sacraments, every time we choose to follow God’s will, instead of our own, we are responding to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

Under the leadership of our Pastor, Fr. Matthew Windle, the parish staff and the school and convent leaders have been gathering each week to strive to deepen our personal prayer lives, so we can more faithfully guide all St. David Parishioners to embrace our parish vision:

“Knowing that Jesus is the best gift that any person can receive; that we have encountered him is the best thing that has happened in our lives, and making him known by our word and deeds is our joy.”
~ Pope Benedict XVI  

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who used the vehicles of our group sharing and the insights of a program on prayer entitled, “Oremus” I personally felt impelled to revise my prayer life. The Holy Spirit enlightened me to realize that I was devoting too much time each day to vocal prayer and not enough time to striving to grow in reflective/contemplative prayer. Therefore, I was drawn to decrease my vocal prayer to a single rosary and to spend a minimum of one hour daily reflecting on a short passage from Sacred Scripture so that I may be able to more clearly hear God’s Word. I found the steps below which have helped countless seekers to grow in their personal relationship with God, to be quite beneficial:

• Pray to the Holy Spirit to guide me to the Scripture Reading and the particular phrase for my prayerful reflection that day (usually from the daily Mass Readings). I read the passage slowly and reflectively two or three times.
• Acknowledge – God knows every facet of our lives – our joys and our sufferings. He wants us to put our successes and our failures into his hands, trusting in his love and forgiveness.
• Relate – God desires our true selves, for it is the heart that prays, with all its strengths and weaknesses.
• Receive – I invoke the Holy Spirit to fill my heart with his abiding love and peace!

God speaks to us in SILENCE! BE STILL and LISTEN!

• Respond – I resolve to follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit given to me.

Words are inadequate to express the tremendous increase of joy and peace I have experienced through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to revise my prayer life. My prayers are joined with yours that as a parish we may either respond or continue responding to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to deepen our relationship with God!

Holy Spirit enlighten us!
Sr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, IHM