If you’ve ever been near an airfield as a huge jet takes off, you know
that it can be a very powerful experience. The deafening noise, the
forceful gust, and the shaking ground can make your pulse quicken and
your whole body tingle.
Now imagine that you can erase the airplane and the noise, but keep that
excited feeling. That’s how some people have described their experience
of the Holy Spirit: a quickened pulse, a sense of awe, and an
excitement over all that his power can accomplish.
Sometimes, however, the Holy Spirit’s work can be very subtle: perhaps a
chance encounter or an answer to an unspoken prayer. It’s this kind of
experience, this subtle work of God, that can be overlooked all too
easily.
This close relationship with the Holy Spirit is something that God wants
us to develop as well—a relationship so close that we can detect his
subtle movements just as easily as his more obvious ones. Pope Francis recently urged us along the same lines:
“Let’s ask ourselves: are we open to the Holy Spirit? Do I pray to him
to enlighten me, to make me more sensitive to the things of God? This is
a prayer we need to pray every day, every day: ‘Holy Spirit, may my
heart be open to the Word of God, may my heart be open to good, may my
heart be open to the beauty of God, every day.’ ”
Today, try to identify the Spirit’s work in your life. Pray that you may
be open to the word of God, to the goodness in the world, and to the
beauty that we experience in creation and in our relationships. Don’t
wait for the noise of the jet!
“Holy Spirit, show me the ways
that you are working in my life and the path that you have planned for
me. Help me to recognize and acknowledge the big and little miracles you
have done in my life.” http://wau.org/meditations/current/In God´s company