Light streams through clouds onto a silhouetted mountain.

Ask for the Coming of the Holy Spirit

By Sister Timothy Marie, O.C.D.
The Holy Spirit is not a dove…Nor a fiery tongue resting over someone’s head. The Holy Spirit IS the Love of God. Intense. All-embracing. Attentive and faithful. Because the Holy Spirit is 100% spiritual – not made of physical matter – it is difficult to visualize what the Spirit of God looks like, sounds like, or feels like. Over the centuries artists depicted the Holy Spirit in different ways – such as a dove because at the Baptism of Jesus a white dove appeared over Him as the Father spoke from the heavens. Or when, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down as tongues of fire, so this too has become a symbol of the Spirit.

Mother Luisita invokes the Holy Spirit very often at the beginning of the letters she wrote. “May the grace of the Holy Spirit be in our souls!” she asks, invoking the Holy Spirit to bestow the graces each correspondent needs, especially the grace of the indwelling presence of God in the soul. It is the very first thing she writes. We can learn from Mother Luisita to put spiritual needs front and center in our daily life and the lives of those we love. The more often we meditate of this greeting, the deeper its meaning becomes to us and, of course, if we ask the Holy Spirit to come, “Veni Sancte Spiritus!” of course, He will never refuse our request. And the fruits of the Spirit will be manifested powerfully in our lives.

May 28, 2025 | Carmelite Spirituality, Featured, Reflections, Scripture and Liturgy

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