Living The Gospel – June 5, 2022

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” One Spirit, one body, we are all joined together as 1 in the Holy Spirit. We, as a church community, have been through a lot in the last year or so. COVID, losing Fr Doug, gaining Fr Corey, losing Fr Corey, getting to know Fr Peter, and now, in the next several weeks, starting on a new chapter. Through all these things, there has been one thing that hasn’t changed, that never changes, the unity of the Trinity and our connection to it. We literally have God dwelling in our mortal bodies. Not our own individual “god,” but THE God, the living God, the Holy Spirit, sent to us as our helper and guide, our unifying factor. As Christians, particularly as Catholic Christians, we should feel a bond with each other through the Holy Spirit. A bond that is stronger than any political difference, stronger than personal opinion, stronger than any government ties. It is a bond that unites us in Christ, who died so we could live with him one day, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as one people, all beloved children of God. But sometimes I think we forget this, we allow other “gods” into our lives. We subconsciously put other things we believe in ahead of God. I think a lot of the time it starts out with a good cause, but then as we get more involved with that cause, other ideas start to ease their way in, all related to that cause, and before we know it we also start adopting them, without looking at those ideas in light of God’s word and Church teaching. So, how do we avoid doing this? How do we avoid putting, say, our political views ahead of God’s word and Church teaching? The Holy Spirit. Which was first given to us at Pentecost and is still with us all today. We have to surrender ourselves daily to God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. I recently came across a great prayer from Saint Charles de Foucauld, who was canonized on May 15, 2022, that I have been praying to help me allow God to work in my life through the Holy Spirit. I ask that you begin to pray this daily along with me so it will become a reminder, every day, that we are living for God, and not for ourselves:

Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.

Pax Christi,

John Mihalko