Come, O Holy Spirit, Fill the Hearts of Your Faithful and Enkindle in Them the Fire of Thy Love!

My husband and I gave our priests worldly and otherworldly gifts for Christmas. The more important was our spiritual gift of the novena to the Holy Spirit which we plan to begin on New Year's Day. What a good way to begin a new year, we decided, by entreating the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and those of our spiritual guides. We expect that not only the priests will benefit from this gift, but we will too. Can you ever pray without being immersed in a pool of grace?

 This morning, during my prayer time, I read an excerpt from St. Claude de la Colombiere's 1674 notes from a retreat in Lyons. It confirmed for me the wisdom of choosing the Holy Spirit novena as a starting place for 2025. What better helper can we invoke as St. Claude writes; and what easier way to endure all things in peace and tranquility?:

One of the greatest gifts the Holy Spirit can bestow on us is to give us peace in time of struggle, calm in the midst of trouble, so that in time of desolation we are armed with so virile a courage that nature, the devil, and even God himself, who seems to be against us, cannot withstand.

The second thing that struck me was Our Lord's dispositions with regard to Judas who betrayed him, to the apostles who abandoned him, and to the priests and others who were the cause of the persecution he suffered. Amidst it all Jesus remained perfectly calm, his love for his disciples and enemies was not altered at all; he grieved over the harm they did themselves, but his own sufferings, far from troubling him, comforted him because he knew they would act as a remedy for the sins of his enemies. His Heart was without bitterness and full of tenderness toward his enemies in spite of their perfidy and of all they made him suffer.

The Valley of Tears - Gustave Doré

This life is, indeed, a valley of tears. Throughout our pilgrimage we suffer, as Jesus did, not only from those who desire to do evil to us, but from our family and friends. That is simply the reality of life. We hurt others and they hurt us. Two ways inflict suffering. We can sin either through malice, when we desire and deliberately hurt others, or through ignorance. 

One of my sisters shared with me that an elderly friend told her, as she was nearing death, that she had come to believe that most of us sin out of ignorance rather than malice. I hope she's right. I certainly hope that I don't commit sins out of malice -- rather ignorance, stupidity, and weakness. I depend on the Holy Spirit to give me the courage to live as the final words of the Act of Contrition state:

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, do penance, and to amend my life. Amen

With the help of the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and my guardian angel and patron saints I'm confident that I can reach the end of 2025 closer to Jesus than when I began.

Please pray for me as I will pray for you that 2025 is a year of tremendous graces to embrace the will of God, not only in times of consolation, but especially in desolation.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!