Let’s begin today with a question – “Do you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit?”
It’s a good question to ask on Pentecost and every day. I think for most, it is easier to identify with and have a relationship with God the Father and Jesus His Son, but the Holy Spirit. That takes a little more thinking.
Who is the Holy Spirit? How do you have a relationship with a Spirit?
From the beginning and through history, the Holy Spirit is at work to bring the plan of salvation to fulfillment.
The Holy Spirit is God—the third Person of the Holy Trinity, equal to and one in substance with the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit precedes from the Father and the Son – He is not begotten or created. Because of this, the Holy Spirit is inseparably tied to the Father and the Son – He reveals the Son. The Spirit reveals Christ and helps people know and confess Jesus. The Catechism states: “Only God knows God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God,” and that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
So, how do we bring this Person of the Most Holy Trinity into our lives – not leaving Him outside locked doors as we seek the Father or Son?
Relationship with the Holy Spirit happens through the Church’s life.
The Spirit is the ‘interior Teacher” in prayer.
The Catechism explicitly says the Church “invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit as the interior Teacher of Christian prayer.” (Catechism 2681)
And the Church also teaches that the Spirit “intercedes for us” and bears witness that we are adopted sons—so your relationship is not only what you do, but also what God does in you.
In the sacraments: the Spirit prepares, strengthens, and puts you into communion
The Holy Spirit prepares the faithful for the sacraments by the Word of God received in well-disposed hearts, and then the sacraments strengthen and express that faith.
Learn to “invocation” rather than only “information”. Since the Spirit is the interior Teacher of prayer, a simple way to build the relationship is to invite the Holy Spirit before and during prayer, asking for interior guidance to pray well. (Catechism 2681 / Romans 8:26-27)
The Catechism describes the moral life of Christians as sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are “permanent dispositions” making a person docile to the Spirit’s promptings. Let the Holy Spirit shape your moral life through docility and gifts.
So a relationship with the Spirit grows through real responsiveness: noticing promptings, choosing what is good, and repeatedly asking God for grace to cooperate. (Catechism 1830)
Live in the fruits of the Spirit.
The Catechism summarizes the Spirit’s action this way: as Christians become “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” the Spirit teaches them to pray to the Father and becomes their life, prompting them to act so as to bear “the fruit of the Spirit” by charity in action. (Catechism 1695)
In one sentence, to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is to let the Spirit bring you to Christ, dwell within you, and guide you—especially through prayer and the sacraments—into a life of faith, charity, and holiness.
When seeking God, start with the Holy Spirit. This is simple – invoke Him to your prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit, invite Him to join and lead your heart and mind in prayer or reading of the Bible – in everything. “Come Holy Spirit, open my mind to hear what I read..”, “Come Holy Spirit, Jesus, I pray to You..”, “Come Holy Spirit, in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit..”
“Come Holy Spirit” to start everything I do, sat and pray.
Then, let the Spirit take your deeper, head first diving into the Sacraments, Divine Mercy, the ‘fruits of your confirmation’, especially Love.
To have a relationship with the Holy Spirit is to let the Spirit bring you to Christ, dwell within you, and guide you—especially through prayer and the sacraments—into a life of faith, charity, and holiness. A relationship with the Holy Spirit in Catholic life is a real, personal communion with God
“Come 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 they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.