The Spirit Really Confuses Things

These profound words were uttered by a young adult recently. I couldn't help but smile as he continued, "I mean, c'mon. We've got the Father - ok, I can handle that - and if he's a Father, then he has to have a Son. That makes sense. The Son is human like us. Alright, I can sort of get it. Makes sense. Then, you throw the Spirit in there and I lose everything."

Most, if not all, honest people will have to admit having felt this way before. Most, if not all of us, come to recognize the Spirit relatively late in our journey of faith.  And, yet, to the Spirit is attributed our personal experience with God - our encountering him in our daily life.

Therefore, I beg to differ from the young adult quoted above. We know the Spirit, intimately.  After all, the Spirit is Love. Love is creative. In every creative event in our lives, every moment that we are becoming the person we are intended by God, the Spirit is at work.

That's right. Burn with love for God? Tears of Joy and Repentance? Courage under fire?  Moved to pray?  Received the Eucharist? Wondered about something good? Reverent fear of God? Know your catechism and Scripture? Persevering in virtue? Felt peace? The Spirit.

Next time you are tempted to "give up" on the Spirit - stop and remember - everything you've ever experienced about God, everything you've learned, everything you've felt, everything you've desired to know, every holy motivation, every worthy accomplishment, every step in the right direction, is indication of His presence. If you know that God exists, you know the Spirit... as familiar and wonderful, mysterious and easily to forget as the air we breathe!

This is for us! The Spirit!

Fr. Kolbe Missionaries. All Rights Reserved.

"Know Mary, love Mary, serve Mary, obey Mary in order to know Jesus, love him, be near him, to feel that he is truly Spouse, as well as Brother, and so enter into the intimacy of love with God.  Draw near to the Father, believe in what he asks, what he has given, and what he wants from us. And drawn near to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit makes us so fruitful as to be able to love, offer, generate, and even die. This is for us!...


This month of may ought to be a fruitful month. The Holy Spirit must be particularly present in all of you, the Son must stir within you, and the Madonna must inspire every means of making yourselves worthy so that other souls might know these mysteries of love and salvation..."

Fr. Faccenda, OVS IX, pg. 197-198, April 30, 1992

Freedom to Change

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The world is a beautiful place, and nature is always changing - it makes me wonder why we are so hesistant (at best) to embrace change. Even delightful change (marriage, babies) can cause a certain amount of doubt, nervousness, etc.  Heck, we miss out on so much, because at times we are imprisoned by one fatal misconception: change is going to make us miserable.

Nature has a different story - and since God used nature to tell stories, I suppose we can continue to learn from it.

Take a plant for example. If a plant is growing all jammed into a pot, its roots coming through the bottom and beginning to go deeper into the ground below, it is going to be obstinately against being moved. At the same time, it will be stunted in growth. It will flower but minimally.

Once those roots are free - mind you, not hacked away, trampled, or broken -the plant is free to go wherever its caregiver moves it.  Some of its little fragile roots will fall to the ground or be left in the soil. Some of the dirt will be shaken away.  But the plant remains, its deep and strong roots remain, and even some of the dirt clings to the roots.

It can be moved to another place, different soil, but the same sun, the same care giver, the same water. And because it has given into the change, it will flourish for its own good and be a source of joy and pride for the gardener. It will take time to be sure, a certain "dying" often takes place first, but the results are magnificent.

I'm impressed by how obstinate we can be to change. Fear, laziness, pride, anger, lust, envy, greed - all these deadly sins can act as those fragile and aggravating roots clinging to the way it has always been - convinced that we cannot, should not, or will not change.  We must dig up those non-essentials, shake off our dirt, surrender to our care-giver, and we will be free to change. We will be free for conversion.

Why not?

When considering more deeply the meaning of things, meditating on God's work, and discovering beauty - the question "why" is often the one to ask. Yet, that question is often the first to surface also when it comes to making decisions. 

This can be good, of course, but what happens when the "why should I" isn't strong enough to get you to move? What happens when you are faced with multiple good choices, as in vocational discernment? What happens when the "why" becomes foggy and the mind begins to play games: this or that? 

I have a daring solution: "Why not?"  Very often the answer to "why not" is full of hidden fears and motives.  Or it might reveal very legitimate reasons for the course you are following.  "Why not" challenges us to see WHY we are putting things off, stifling progress, in spritual ruts, and emotionally slow in rejoicing when faced with difficult things. Let's take an imaginary conversation:

Do you accept?

Many of you know that Anna Brizzi was elected to the General Council.

Just the other day the phone ran at 1:30am in the morning. We were "expecting" the call, but somehow it seemed unreal. The question was posed: Do you accept? The response needed to be immediate: Yes.

Less than 24 hours later she was headed to Bologna to begin a new part of her journey, to serve the Institute, to continue her missionary work in her homeland - where she hasn't lived for 27 years.

She left, but we remain. But to each one of us God is asking the question: Do you accept? And because we do not have someone on the line, prodding us for a response, we might find ourselves hemming and hawing longer than we ought. That question, even for Anna, was not: Do you want to come? Do you accept moving? Do you accept a new life? Do you want to help us?  It was far more profound and far more simple: Do you accept MY will?

Everything else is unknown. Even the most expected things never come to pass and the most unexpected appear out of nowhere.  Challenges become gifts and gifts become crosses, and therefore even greater gifts. We can not possibly say yes to unknown future. But, we CAN and MUST say YES to the moment. Do you accept?

Do you accept what I am giving you right here, right now? Do you accept my mercy as support and my compassion as consolation? Do you accept ME, I am here...now?

To accept the "big" things, we must accept the "little" things... and BEING little!

1917

1917 is quickly drifting into the vague fog of history - for many of us, it is already lost - and yet, it seems that it may go down in salvation history as one of the most magnficent years of all time.  I imagine it is right up there with 1531 and 1858.

The Immaculata appeared to three small children in Fatima, Portugal, carrying a message of prayer, penance, and total consecration.  While around the world the fires were already burning - those that would swallow whole countries, and those that would enflame hearts with the heroic love of God. 

1917's main characters ranged from Woodrow Wilson to Lenin, from "Pancho" Villa to Georges Clemenceau. German U-Boats were a frightening force, income tax was introduced in Canada, and suffragettes were arrested in Washington DC. In the midst, 211 people were killed when a F3 tornado touched down in the mid-west, and the "Spanish" influenza took more soldiers lives than World War I.  It seemed that the whole world rebelled, and all nature groaned. 

Quod est Veritas

As you know we recently posted about the most beautiful word a missionary (or anyone) can say: YES! But, really, in the end, what are we saying yes to anyway? After all, as Fulton Sheen points out in The World's First Love, every yes carries with it a no. Yes to marry this man means I say no to all the others. Yes to typing this blog out right now, means I'm saying no to doing anything else.

We say YES to truth. We say NO to lies. Bottom line. But, as Pontius Pilate utters - Quod est veritas? What is truth?  And, how inflexible is it really?

Just food for thought. After all, Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." What was he saying?

To be continued....