Prayers & Devotions | Devotionals

Spend I will spend the day attentive to the Holy Spirit and make this a particular point for my exameination of conscience

by Catholic.net | Source: Catholic.net

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I long to abidelead me in to your presence. You refresh my soul and fill me with your light, although I don’t turn to you often enough or exercise enough faith when I do remember you. But here I am now, Lord, ready to spend a few precious moments with you in the room of my heart. I want to pick up more readily on the inspirations of your Spirit. I want to be a docile instrument in your hands to serve you and your Church. Help me to know you thoroughly, to recognize you, to recognize your voice, your face, your actions in my life. In this way, I will be more apt to be instrumental in your plan of salvation. I ask your tender Mother to accompany me as I make this prayer. Mary, teach me to be a faithful servant. 

Petition: Lord, teach me to be open to your Spirit. 

1. Simeon, a Man of the Spirit:  Luke tells us three times in this short passage that Simeon was a man who was attentive to the Holy Spirit. The “Holy Spirit was upon him” since “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord.” Simeon was in conversation with the Spirit and learned to listen to his holy inspirations. Just as in Christ’s life we see him many times moved by the Spirit—, for example, to come to be baptized by John and subsequently to be “driven by the Spirit” into the dessert—, so in Simeon’s life, , he is not only inspired, but also powerfully moved by the Spirit. We should take a moment in our meditation to admire this man who lent himself totally to the movements of the Spirit.

2. Mary, Overshadowed by the Spirit:.    There is no one who demonstrates docility to the Spirit more than Mary Immaculate. She is immaculate because there is in her no stain of sin. At no time did she move outside of the Spirit of God. She didn’t placed put up anyno obstacles to the work of the Holy Spirit; as the Spirit expresses to us through the Gospel writer, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:35). As John Paul II describes it, “Mary is the most sublime witness of what the power of the Spirit of God can do in human beings when he renews them interiorly and makes them living stones of a new world. The recipient of the anticipated Grace of the Redeemer, she “responded with faithful obedience to every request of God, to every motion of the Holy Spirit.” As she stands here at the presentation of her firstborn son, she now hears words spoken to her through the Spirit’s instrument: “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Once more, Mary acquiesces to the Holy Spirit and accepts the foretold suffering far in advance. 

b3. Amazed by the Spirit: .b   All of us have heard incredible stories of moments in which the Holy Spirit clearly intervened or directed a situation. Maybe we have experienced this in our own lives. Is there any reason why we shouldn’t? Are there any obstacles that the Holy Spirit would find in our lives? He should be the soul’s gentle guest. But how do we foster this friendship with the Holy Spirit? We have to bring silence into your our hearts so as to distinguish his voice from the noise of so many worldly voices trying to drown out his word, but not only this; and it also means you we have to de be docile and obedient once you we have heard it.

Conversation with Christ:   Lord Jesus, there are so many lessons to be learned from your presentation in the Temple. I have taken one of them: the presence of your Holy Spirit so evident in this Gospel passage. In this the Christmas season we celebrate your being among us as a tiny child. Yet, your whole life will show me us how to be docile to the Holy Spirit. You have sent him to meso that I we may might not be alone. May he always accompany me in life, and may he always remind me of the many things you did and said, as you lead me to the Father’s house. 

Resolution:   Spend I will spend the day attentive to the Holy Spirit and make this a particular point for my exameination of conscience.