"Receive the Holy Spirit"
In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told of the story of how before the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostolic community of Jesus, they were in a spirit of prayer and community. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to the apostles that He would not leave them orphaned. Rather, He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit so that He would indwell in their minds and hearts and souls and grant them the courage to preach His gospel to the whole world. So, in a spirit of prayer, they awaited the time until the Spirit of Jesus descended upon them and came upon them like the sound of a strong wind and alighted upon their heads like tongues of fire.
The Spirit that the apostles received at Pentecost is the Spirit of truth - the Spirit of unity and peace and love. The Spirit comes down only when at least two or three are gathered together in prayer and in Jesus name. It is prayer that invites the Spirit to the hearts of anyone who desires Him in their lives. And it is also the presence of the Spirit in our hearts that helps us to pray as we ought: as individuals or in a community.
Today, in a world where there is so much commercialism, materialism, and too much attention to things external, people forget the reality of the Spirit - and the life of peace and love that only the Spirit of God can give. So much attention is given to things modern and to things that do not reflect our Christian values that we often forget that at our baptism, we were made to be Temples of the Spirit. Our bodies and souls are cleansed from sin and made sacred by the indwelling of the Spirit in us. The only way we can regain this life in the Spirit is if we learn to renew ourselves and begin again to live a committed life of prayer - one that looks within and sees the Spirit dwelling in our entire being - seeing Him as the One who is the source of life wherein we move, live and have our being.
Let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Spirit. For without the gift of the Spirit, we will be surely led into a direction that is not of God: a direction coming from our own sinful self, the influence of the world, and the temptations of the Evil One. Let us pray especially also to the Spirit for His guidance upon our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that he may guide the Church into paths led by the Spirit - a path leading to the light of the Resurrection eventually to the light of Pentecost - the Light of Life.
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