Being Led by the Holy Spirit
One Moment of Praise
O God of every now, and then,
we pause for one moment to praise you
for all the moments of our lives.
We praise you for the glorious moments:
bread, the intimacy of love,
lilacs, morning coffee, rooted word,
a rapturous song, a circle of stories,
the scrunch of oldsters at play, children at prayer.
We praise you for the shared moments:
honest exchange, deepening trust, earned friendship,
smudgy work, a ballet of ideas, a lullaby of quietness,
trouble met, the release of tears, the easing of fears,
the renewing of wonder, the embracing of mystery.
We praise you for the surprising moments:
the wink of a stranger, the flutter of hope in the
stillness,
the enchantment of a rainbow and claim of a promise
kept,
the goodness beneath the flurry of things,
beauty out of the muck
the clarified direction in a prayer,
a light in the soul's night.
We praise you for the holy moments:
all the bearers of love, of truth, of mercy,
of meaning, of demand, of amazement,
all that nudges us to readiness for the risks of faith,
the mysterious all that attaches us to your grace
from which nothing can separate us.
O God, we praise you for every moment,
for you, source of each moment,
and present in all moments, always, in all ways.
Amen.
Source: Theodore W. Loder, My Heart in My Mouth: Prayers for Our Lives
"BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT"
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the Earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in your consolations.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Is your life being led by the Holy Spirit?
Before Jesus was crucified almost two thousand years ago, he promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and to remind us of everything that Jesus taught us (Jn 14:26). It is the Holy Spirit who is the “spirit of truth” (cf. Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) who will guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
As Pope Francis cautioned:
We live in an age rather skeptical of truth. Benedict XVI has spoken many times of relativism, that is, the tendency to believe that nothing is definitive, and think that the truth is given by consent or by what we want. The question arises: does “the” truth really exist? What is “the” truth? Can we know it? Can we find it?
As Christians, we believe that Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). Jesus taught his disciples, “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). The flesh refers to our fallen and finite human nature and our self-centered thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
We received the promised indwelling Spirit at our Baptism. We are called to allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit who teaches, guides, and transforms us moment-by-moment into the perfection of God’s supernatural reality of love, truth, goodness, and beauty, eventually leading to our eternal union with God. Or instead, we can choose to become slaves to our self-centered desires for finite sensual pleasures, power, material possessions, or for the esteem and approval of others that eventually leads to an empty existence with no ultimate meaning or purpose. As Scripture teaches, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life….” (Dt 30:19).
As Pope Francis teaches:
Let us ask ourselves: am I open to the action of the Holy Spirit, do I pray to it to enlighten me, to make me more sensitive to the things of God? This is a prayer we must pray every day: “Holy Spirit make my heart be open to the Word of God, that my heart be open to good, that my heart be open to the beauty of God every day."
We also received at Baptism the seven “gifts” of the Holy Spirit that were strengthened through the Sacrament of Confirmation (Is 11:1-3) These gifts become manifested to us through prayer, humility, and our desire to do God’s will. These are the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. In following the Spirit we can experience the Spirit’s “fruits” of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.