To be more faithful to the constant motions and inspirations of the Holy Spirit in our soul, "we can focus on three fundamental realities: docility (...), a life of prayer, and union with the Cross."
Docility, "first of all, because it is the Holy Spirit who, through His inspirations, gives a supernatural tone to our thoughts, desires, and actions. It is He who impels us to adhere to the doctrine of Christ and to deeply assimilate it; He who gives us the light to become aware of our personal vocation and the strength to carry out everything that God expects"¹⁸.
The Paraclete acts ceaselessly in our soul: we do not say a single aspirational prayer—not even a short ejaculation—if it is not by a motion of the Holy Spirit¹⁹, as Saint Paul points out to us in the Second Reading of the Mass. He is present and moves us in prayer, when reading the Gospel, when we discover a new light in a piece of advice received, and when meditating on a truth of faith that we had perhaps already considered many times. We realize that this clarity does not depend on our will. It is not our doing, but God's. It is the Holy Spirit who gently prompts us toward the Sacrament of Penance to confess our sins, to lift our hearts to God at an unexpected moment, and to perform a good deed. It is He who suggests a small mortification to us, or helps us find the right word that moves a person to become better.
A life of prayer, "because the self-giving, obedience, and meekness of a Christian are born of love and are directed toward love. And love leads to companionship, to conversation, to friendship. The Christian life requires a constant dialogue with the Triune God, and it is to this intimacy that the Holy Spirit leads us (...). Let us accustom ourselves to turn to the Holy Spirit, who is the one who must sanctify us: to trust in Him, to ask for His help, to feel Him close to us. In this way, our poor hearts will expand, and we will have a greater desire to love God and, through Him, all creatures"²⁰.
Union with the Cross, "because in the life of Christ, Calvary preceded the Resurrection and Pentecost, and that same process must be reproduced in the life of every Christian (...). The Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Cross, of total surrender to God, of seeking exclusively His glory, and of completely renouncing ourselves"²¹.
To grow closer to the Holy Spirit, nothing is as effective as drawing near to Holy Mary, who knew how to respond to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit like no other creature. The Apostles, before the day of Pentecost, "joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus"²³.
HCD