Spirit Alive

Someone dies and we say he kept his spirit alive to the end; or we say that ‘his spirit lives on’. A word we talk of easily. It’s something elusive, you can’t pin it down. It comes from somewhere. Maybe from parents, a spirit of endurance or being able to make it through tough time; or from our prayer and faith. We talk of good team spirit, or of a person who kept joyful and courageous to the end. Today is the feast of the Spirit of God, alive, active and joyful.

The flame of the Spirit of love is the flame of God. The tongues of fire over the apostles and the followers of Jesus were flames of love, the Spirit of God that would burn on the inside forever. Pentecost is the flame of God’s own love, given to his followers to mark the birth of the community, the body of Jesus, the church.

It is the spirit of forgiveness always, a gift of the first Pentecost. Did this blow in Ireland during the Royal visit of the British queen Elizabeth a few years ago, or  when the Good Friday Agreement and other peace agreements were signed, when the call came for a new reconciliation among people hurt badly in the times of the troubles?

Compassion, mercy, forgiveness and a hope for justice for all, are gifts we ask from the Spirit who blows among us strongly today.

On each inbreath, pray
‘Come, Holy Spirit’,
 live in me and in all of us
as you lived in Mary and the apostles.

Fr Donal Neary, S.J

Fully Alive

I asked a woman once if Johnny was in the house. She pointed at a chair and said, ‘If he was here he would be there.‘ He never moved far! Jesus – he is here and there. The risen lord has moved on, but he has not fully left us. His Spirit dwells in us.

The one who came to earth has now gone back to heaven, bringing with him all that is human. His body – the man of heaven and the God of earth – is now the church, and that’s us.

Before we are of any denomination or group, we are Christ’s. We are baptised into the church of Christ; and yes, we live out our faith in different denominations. Today is the feast of the whole church – we begin in him and end in him, like the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, on the paschal candle. Our faith is also renewed through living with Jesus – we are partners in our mission. Our faith is also renewed in reading and praying the gospel each day.

On earth we are his body, with all our strengths and weaknesses, goodness and sin. Icons have Jesus smiling as he reaches heaven, smiling on us and living through us. We prepare for the way he is with us now next Sunday – in the Spirit. Where the qualities of the Spirit are alive, he is alive and well among us.

A breathing prayer – as you breathe in notice you are
breathing in the gift of life from God.
Holy Spirit, living in the church, living in Mary,
draw me more fully into your life.

No body now but yours…

St Teresa’s prayer is popular in this adaptation-
Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do well.
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
You are his eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Jesus speaks in the gospel about being still alive, even after his death. Mostly we find Jesus alive in the love of others. The energy of love that is connected to the energy of God, for God is love. Other times we find God close to us in prayer; but where we can sense him alive mostly is in the ordinary and extraordinary loves of every day, in marriage, family, friendship and care for others.

Many of us do not realise that in this way we have been Christ-bearers. In listening to another, in care of all sorts, in putting ourselves out for the other, in working for justice and for peace the Spirit of God is alive and people are touched by God’s love through the co-operation of ordinary men and women.