Who is the Holy Spirit?

One correction from the video, I say the Holy Spirit came down on the 9th day—but it was the 10th day as to align with the Old Testament/Feast of Weeks.

Hi everyone, it’s great to be back!

If you recall, last Gospel, Ascension Thursday was when Jesus ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God, while all of the apostles and Mary watched. And then they ran back to the upper room, lock themselves in and prayed like crazy for the Father to send the Holy Spirit, which is what Jesus said He would ask the father to do. The Holy Spirit is also named the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Consoler.

So who is the Holy Spirit?

As a Catholic, I was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is one God, three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So when I was baptized, I was baptized with the Holy Spirit who is God. And God has remained in me and will continue to remain in me until the day I die. So that is my indelible mark, as a Catholic Christian, basically I am a child of God and God is within me.

So let me read the Gospel—I chose the Vigil Gospel, which is the Saturday before Sunday and it counts as your Sunday obligation and is typically at 3:00 or 4:00 local time in the evening on Saturday. It spoke to me a little more than the other ones.

John 7: 37-39

On the last and greatest day of the feast,
Jesus stood up and exclaimed,
“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
As Scripture says:
Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”

He said this in reference to the Spirit
that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
There was, of course, no Spirit yet,
because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

So God the Father brings Jesus on to this earth to glorify Him. Jesus ascends to the right hand of the father and the Holy Spirit is here to glorify Jesus. So the Holy Spirit is the one who performs miracles and who bestows graces on all of us here on earth. They can only come through Him.

Let me take Peter for a minute. Before Jesus was tried and crucified, Peter said, “You know what, God, I’m going to go to death with you. I will never leave your side. You are the Christ, the son of the living God!” And Jesus is like, “Yeah, buddy. You just wait. I’m going to tell you, you’re going to deny me three times before the cock crows today.” Sure enough, when Peter is walking around, people are like, “Hey, you’re with that Jesus guy. You’re that Nazarene.” Peter replies, “No, I’m not. I don’t know who the heck that guy is! I don’t know him! Leave me alone!” And then the cock crows and Peter is devastated. “I just denied Christ!” he says.

And then of course, as you know, Jesus is crucified. Three days later He’s resurrected and then spends 40 days with Mary and the apostles teaching them how to start the church and continue with the one living body forever and ever. And then he sits with Peter around a fire … they have some food and he asks him three times (this was the gospel for Friday) “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” Peter’s mortified. He is like “God, you know all! You know that I love you.” Jesus says, “Tend my sheep, feed my lambs, build my church. I’m giving you the keys, Peter.”

Whoa!

So when they all are up in the upper room, praying and praying for the Holy Spirit, for nine days, on the tenth day, this big wind comes and tongues of fire land on each one of them and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. They are filled with God! And they bust out of that upper room and they go out into the big feast where people from every nation come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. They’re all speaking different languages. Peter gets up and says, “Hey everybody, listen to me. You killed Our Savior. Ya hung him on a tree and shame on you, but you can repent, be baptized, and have redemption and everlasting life in heaven.”

Everybody hears him in their own language. Can you imagine? How freaky would that be? Well, that’s not freaky … that’s the Holy Spirit in Peter. So you have Peter who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit back in the day when Jesus is going to be crucified and he’s seen miracles, he’s seen people risen from the dead. And now with the Holy Spirit, he can speak the truth in confidence with no fear and love.

That’s the Holy Spirit in action! And oh, by the way, greater things than these will you do when the Holy Spirit comes. And you want me, Jesus is saying, to go to heaven and sit with the Father because you will have the Holy Spirit sent and do great things. Peter brought Tabitha back to life! There are many, many, many miracles that have been conducted and performed through the Holy Spirit.

I have my own miracles to be honest with you. I’m not bringing anyone back from the dead or giving them sight, but I will tell you that I have been given the gift from the Holy Spirit of love (and I call that compassion) and peace and joy. I have never had the love and compassion that I have for people since the past couple of years when the Holy Spirit gave me that gift. I now see Jesus in everyone and I want to love everyone with the love that Jesus has!

And I’ll be honest with you, I thought I loved everybody and I thought I had compassion but I didn’t.

Sure it was really easy to be kind to people who I liked. But boy, oh boy, the ones that I didn’t, or the ones that didn’t agree with me … uh, you know, talking behind people’s backs, gossiping, all of that was a part of my life.

It’s so different now. It’s supernatural. The joy that I have and the peace that I have, I have no anxiety or worry because I know that God is within me. I will forever be a child of God through my baptism and I have a personal relationship with God inside me. I work on it. I also go to daily Mass to receive Him in the Eucharist. I go to weekly confession so that my body and my soul is as pure as I could possibly get it before I receive Him. And as a result, the Holy Spirit just keeps bestowing me with these graces!

It’s not me. I can’t produce it. You can’t produce it. My husband can’t produce it. Nobody. No human on this planet can give you the real gifts of the Holy Spirit. I would love you to Google the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the virtues, and learn more about all these amazing gifts that only HE can give you.

I wish I could bottle it and give it to you. But, I’m doing my best to try and tell you how to get it, and that is through a relationship with God and through the beautiful sacraments in the Catholic faith which instill Christ within you.

So this week I really want you to ask God to come to you. “Come Holy Spirit come.” Open your heart. Let him soften it and be aware of His presence throughout your day. Spend some time, take five minutes, take 30 seconds in the craziest time of your day when you’re freaking out, you’ve got so much going on … “Come Holy Spirit come!” Try to see God in every aspect of your life because He’s there, when you pay attention.

I wasn’t paying attention for the last 42-ish years and now I see him everywhere and I’m graced with peace and love and compassion for people in my life and others around me that I can’t even explain in the English language. It is supernatural. It’s like a miracle—I’m telling you.

I look forward to hearing—how are you seeing the Holy Spirit in your life and God in your day? Please share! And in the meantime, have a blessed and inspired week—till next time.