By our baptism/confirmation and sacramental life our spirit is in union with the Holy Spirit...our constant counselor, permanent companion, interior strength, initiation of eternal life. The Holy Spirit is ever guiding, protecting, inspiring, delighting, exulting in us. The Holy Spirit is deeper than our own deepest self, which is created to abide in and with the Spirit and the Son and the Father.
The Holy Spirit is not limited by Church boundaries but seeks to indwell every created person. When we speak with a non-Catholic, even a pagan or an atheist, we can sense the presence and workings of God's Spirit in all that is Good, True and Beautiful in that person. The Holy Spirit in action and presence is like the very wind: unbounded, free, extravagant, omnipresent, serendipitous, ecstatic!
But the Holy Spirit is quiet, gentle, deferential...like Elijah's soft breeze, not the fire or the storm. It must be invited, welcomed, even sought after. It will never intrude. It will not shout over the noise and the chaos of our lives. It waits for us to be still and welcoming.
The Holy Spirit is especially happy to come when we are empty, poor, desperate, depressed...if invited...as strength when we are weak, as hope when we despair, as counsel when we are confused, as decisiveness when we are procrastinating, as JOY when we are in sadness.
As Catholics, we listen to God in solitude and silence, but never as isolated, we are ALWAYS in union with the Church. If God speaks to me and it really is God (not some inner psychic voice) then it is encouraging, strengthening, inspiring, and delighting...for me and also for others. If it is from God, it heals and helps me and the Body of Christ both. We are part of each other...like when we take water, food or medicine it is for our entire body, for our thriving in all out parts and in our entirety.
So we listen to God together: at the Eucharist, rosary, daily prayer of the Church, on the telephone chain, on retreat or pilgrimage, in small and spontaneous movements to God with others. We are moving towards God, in God's own Spirit, with each other.
So we hear God when we converse with each other under the influence of the Holy Spirit: in tender affection and reverence...in truth...about the liturgical readings...about the doctrines of the Church...about this or that saint...about what has touched me today...about my moment closest to Christ...about what I think God is saying to me...about what is happening, good and bad, to the global Chruch.
Living, breathing, con-spiring in the Church, as it becomes habitual and second nature...is like sailing is to the sailor: you hardly think about it, all day your are moving across the water, you monitor the sails or the motor or the rows from time to time but often you are just sailing along, relaxed, napping or talking or eating together, all the time breathing in the fresh, salt air and the splash and the sunshine...moving steadily and smoothly over the waters of this life into the heavenly Kingdom. How Glorious!
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