Talk 1: The Power of the Holy Spirit in Daily Life

Conversation with Cardinal Owen Mc Cann, Archbishop of Capetown in 1980s in the course a long car journey. I asked him if he had attended Vat II? When I found that he had, I asked him what impressed him most. He told me in a very emphatic way that it had been the universal call to holiness. For some strange reason, his words made a big impression on me. When I got home, I thought a lot about how one could lead a holy life. I came to the conclusion that it involved three things.

·       Being filled by the Spirit (Eph 5:18)

·       Being guided by the Spirit (Gal 5:18)

·       Being empowered by the Spirit (Phil 2:13)

Let’s look at each point in more detail.

Be Filled with the Spirit

St Paul says in Eph 5:18,

                   “Be filled with the Spirit.”

I want to suggest that this command involves at least four interrelated infillings.

Ø  Firstly, there is the real but sacramental infilling of the Spirit at baptism/confirmation.

Ø  Secondly, there is the experiential infilling that takes place when one is baptised in the Spirit as a result of claiming in faith the graces which we already received in the sacraments of initiation.

Ø  Thirdly, there are the daily infillings of the Spirit we receive when we ask for them.

Ø  Fourthly, there are other significant infillings we receive when we have to undertake new and demanding tasks for the Lord.

In this talk I am going to concentrate on the third and fourth points I have just mentioned.

Daily infillings

I usually pray in the morning. More often than not, I ask for an impartation of the Holy Spirit by saying the following prayer.

Holy Spirit of incomprehensible love, you are the creator of all that exists, and you uphold all things in being lest they lapse into the nothingness from which they came. You are present always and everywhere. You guide everything in accordance with God’s providential purposes. You provide what is needed to save, heal and to unite all things in Christ. We humans were created without our cooperation, but you will not fulfil your plans without it.

I can do nothing to advance the coming of your kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace unless I am filled with your Spirit. It is a Spirit of truth, love and life. Pour that same Holy Spirit into my body, mind and soul. Preserve me today, from all illusions, false inspirations and harmful temptations. Reveal your presence, your word and your will to me, in a way that I can understand. And I thank you that you are doing this while giving me the ability to respond through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Because Eph 5:18 says “be filled with the Spirit,” I know that I am praying within the centrality of God’s will when I ask to receive an impartation of the Spirit.  1 Jn 5:14-15, “we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will. 15He hears us whenever we ask him; and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him.” Knowing this to be true I affirm the fact that the Lord is strengthening me inwardly, in my innermost self with his Spirit of incomprehensible love. No matter how I feel at a subjective level, I know that I am receiving  the Lord and giver of life, together with his fruits and gifts.

Special infillings

Besides receiving daily infillings of the Spirit, St Thomas Aquinas said that occasionally, when faced by a new and demanding task, we can ask for a special infilling of the Holy Spirit to enable us to carry it out. He wrote, 

“There is an invisible sending of the Holy Spirit with respect to an advance in virtue or an increase of grace . . . Such an invisible sending is especially to be seen in that kind of increase of grace whereby a person moves forward into some new act or some new state of grace.” 

As a result, said St Thomas, the Spirit dwells in us in such a way as in order to enable us to do new things, such as engaging in arduous task such as going on the foreign missions or exercising gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy or healing which we  hadn’t exercised before.

Be guided by the Spirit.

In Gal 5:16, St Paul said

“Be guided by the Spirit.”

A number of Pauline scholars say that this injunction is the key to Pauline ethics. Rather than being a word of friendly advice, it is a command of the Lord. Commenting on the verse George Montague says in The Holy Spirit: Growth of a Biblical Tradition,  

"The Christian life is not a list of things to do and things to avoid. It is not virtue acquired by practice. It is the gift of being moved by the Spirit of God, and the key to life is to allow the Spirit to lead. Paul clearly speaks here of an inspired ethic and of inspired action  . . . A crucial point: When confronted with any moral decision, great or small, the Christian's first question should be "where does the Spirit lead me in this?"

When I am praying in the morning, I reserve a period when I go quiet. Having said, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening,” I pray quietly in tongues. Then I wait for the promptings and inspirations of the Holy Spirit. As Vincent de Paul said,

"God communicates many and excellent lights to his servants. In prayer, he enlightens their understanding with many truths incomprehensible to all except those who give themselves to prayer."  

Writing to a priest colleague Vincent advised, 

"Allow yourself to be led by the Lord. He will direct all things through you. Trust him and, following his example, always act humbly, gently and in good faith. You will see everything go well."    

A lot more can be said about this topic. I did so in my book, Guided by God: Ordinary and Charismatic Ways of Discovering God’s Will.

Be empowered by the Spirit

St Paul said in Phil 2:13,

“God is at work within you both to know and to do his good pleasure.”

Notice that three important assertions are made here.

Ø  Rather than God being with you, Jesus is within you by the inbreathing of his Holy Spirit.

Ø  God’s Spirit within you, not only reveals the divine will, i.e., it also prompts you to move from merely desiring it, to actually wanting to do so.

Ø  Furthermore, the indwelling divine presence will empower you to carry out the divine will, despite the weaknesses and limitations of your human nature.

A number of years ago I came across The Life and Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls, St John Eudes (1601-1688). It explained how to be empowered by the Spirit in the way St Paul had said. He began by quoting a well-known Pauline text:

“I make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus Christ for the sake of his body the Church" (Col 1:24).

Then he went on to observe that what Paul says about our sufferings can be extended to all our other actions as well. He said that any true Christian, who is united to Christ by his Spirit, continues and fulfils, through all the actions that he carries out in the spirit of Christ, the actions that Jesus Christ performed during his brief life on earth.

• So, when a Christian prays, he continues and fulfils the prayer that Jesus Christ offered on earth.

• Whenever she works, she continues and fulfils the laborious efforts of Jesus Christ.

• Whenever he relates to his neighbour in a spirit of unconditional love, then he continues and fulfils the relational life of Jesus Christ.

• Whenever she eats or rests in a Christian manner, she continues and fulfils the subjection that Jesus Christ wished to have to these necessities.

·       The same can be said of any other action that is carried out in a Christian manner.

Conclusion

I want to conclude this talk by quoting a powerful line from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and saying a prayer which I like very much.

Par 521 of the Catechism says,

“Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us.”

The following prayer is attributed to St John Gabriel Perboyre who was martyred in China in the 19th cent.

“O my Divine Savior, transform me by your Spirit into Yourself. May my hands be the hands of Jesus. May my tongue be the tongue of Jesus. Grant that every faculty of my body may serve only to glorify You. Above all, transform my soul and all its powers so that my memory, will and affections may be the memory, will and affections of Jesus. I pray You to destroy in me all that is not of You. Grant that I may live but in You, by You and for You, so that I may truly say, with St. Paul, “I live– now not I– but Christ lives in me.”