Download FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
October 10, 2013
Twenty-seventh Thursday in Ordinary Time
From the Word of the Day
“If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
Him?”
(Luke 11: 13)
How should we live this Word?
The reality of prayer is a small universe where there is everything! Here we mean intercessory
prayer, which is probably the one most used by the faithful who easily forget the importance and
beauty of praying to God in the joy of praise and in the gratuity of adoration.
Perhaps, there are still many people who ask the Heavenly Father for a great variety of things.
There is the mother who prays for her wayward son, the student who prays for success in exams, the
merchant who asks blessings on enterprises, and there is the child who prays that the cat may return.
God is so magnanimous, so tender in regard to us that, if the prayer is for our well-being, He grants
what we ask. However, God would like us to broaden the horizon of our prayer. He does it with
delicacy, reminding us that if an earthly father is ready to give good things to his child who asks for
something, now much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
We well know the enormous importance of the Holy Spirit in our life. The Holy Spirit is the ‘sweet
guest of our soul’ who helps us to transfigure and enable our capacity to understand, to desire, and
above all, to love.
If I keep in mind that the Spirit is the pure, intimate embrace of God the Father and the Only Son,
and I grasp that consolation is knowing that God is substantial love, the One who helps me to make
of my days an expression of love, a gift with Jesus to the Father in a relationship that is always new
and good with my sisters and brothers, my life takes a quality leap. Then I know the light, and the
deep meaning of my days, even those that are gray and heavy.
Today in my time of silent contemplation, I will focus on the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit does in
my life. I will gaze on my Heavenly Father who will grant me the Holy Spirit if I ask Him.
O Father of Jesus, sustained by Him, my Lord and Brother, I ask You with great faith, grant the
Holy Spirit to my life. Give me His light so that I may know well that You want of me. Give me the
power of His love so that I may learn the one thing that truly counts, to persevere in love.
The Voice of the Patriarch Athanagoras of Constantinople
Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away and Christ remains in the past. The Gospel becomes a
dead letter and the Church is a simple organization. Authority is power and the mission is
propaganda. Ritual is a remembrance and Christian action is a morality of slaves.
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Comment by Sr. Maria Pia Giudici