The ancient Celts had the name for the Holy Spirit, the Wild Goose. In this blog, I’d like to share with you our daily promptings based on the course of the Wild Goose. It’s a 14-part series featuring Fr. Dave Pivonka and various interviews. The whole purpose of the Wild Goose is an invitation to an encounter or a renewed encounter with the Holy Spirit.
God’s love pour out
God loves us and will never stop loving us even when the water passes. Whatever we do, God loves us as well. God offers us intimacy with Him, gives us peace and joy. God wants us to have a relationship with Him. The relationship with Him will set us free, heal us, and elevate us, it is personal and intimate. This relationship is filled with love. God's love was given to us by the Holy Spirit and is offered to us daily. Love with God satisfies, creates everything new, gives meaning and purpose. There is a desire for His love hidden in us, experiencing His love is different from knowing about it. Let us pray repeatedly that God will give us His love through the Holy Spirit and invite Him into our hearts and be led by Him.
The Breath of God
We are called to live life in fullness and not in darkness but in light. If something is missing in our lives, we do not live as God wants from us. Our spiritual life is then like a closed room. Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit to be pour upon us. The Holy Spirit comes in the form of fire and tongues, and our spiritual life changes forever. The breath of God is breathed into life throughout the Scriptures when they were created. So, if we can't do something, let us ask the Holy Spirit to instill life in us.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit and Fire
Jesus came to baptize us in the Holy Spirit and fire. God becomes personal, He is above us, love prevails towards us, He gives us peace and therefore we will never be the same. When we are weak and pray, He comes, His Spirit prays in us and for us. Everything will change, our outlook on life, our reading of the Scriptures. God sends us the Holy Spirit repeatedly to be baptized in Him. There comes love, peace, understanding who Jesus is, protection from everything, more joy, patience. The need for giving, the need to share, the need to do more. This is the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit and Our Lady
God chose a simple virgin, Mary, to whom He told that all nations would glorify and call her blessed according to St. Luke. Without the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary would not be able to do and prove everything. God wants us to be filled with His Holy Spirit so that we can live life to the fullest. God has chosen us as Mary, but we are similarly asking how this will happen. In confirmation, we receive the Holy Spirit, but we need to allow the Spirit to receive His gifts. Then the Holy Spirit becomes a blessing to us, leading us to meet the living Christ. Only the power of the Holy Spirit will change us, transform us, heal us.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The best and most beautiful gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit, more than we can even imagine. The Holy Spirit is like the wind and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like sailing supported by the wind. When we give our lives to the Holy Spirit, we get much more. If we limit ourselves to something in the Holy Spirit, we lose a lot. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are for our sanctification, for strengthening, they are here for us and have a purpose. We receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit at baptism. That is why God is the giver of gifts and we are His recipients.
The Spirit and the Eucharist
In the Eucharistic prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to bring us what God wants. The Scriptures said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," which discouraged many followers of Jesus Christ. His body and blood are spiritual food for us, which we receive and grow through the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit in us, the presence of Christ at the Holy Mass is all the stronger. On altar is offered not only bread and wine but our whole being. The Eucharist gives us everything we need in life.
The Spirit of Adoption
We have the Holy Spirit who does not make us slaves, but we become His adopted children. He wants us to call him Abba, “Daddy”. God is longing for our love, wants us to be personal with Him. Adoption is a gift that remains or persists, that is why we are His loved ones. Our Father wants to be with us and near us. Jesus first addressed God in Scripture “Abba". He brought and showed us a new dimension of the relationship we are called to enter into.
The Spirit and the Sacraments
One of the most important day of our lives is our baptism. Our lives will never be the same after we have been baptized. Baptism is the gateway to living with the Holy Spirit, to a new life. Through baptism, we receive grace from our God, which will never perish. Baptism is also a necessary step towards confirmation. Confirmation helps us grow in the Holy Spirit.
The Fruits of the Holy Spirit
We will be known by the fruit, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. What kind of fruit does my life bear? We are confronted daily with who we are. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Gal 5: 22-23. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is seen on me and is the result of my relationship with God, not my efforts. Through the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we know that our lives have been transformed. The fruit of the Holy Spirit will become our daily bread.
The Spirit and the Desert
The Holy Spirit led Jesus Christ into the desert. A desert is a place of isolation, condemnation. The desert was perceived in the Old Testament as a bad place, without hope, food, it was a place of death. However, Jesus Christ made the desert a new place. A place where good things arise. The desert will change everything, it will not be the same as before. In the wilderness, the devil tempted Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helped him. Evil will always tempt us where we are weak. Therefore, the desert becomes a place of destruction. We are where God needs us to have something demolished in us, e.g. pride, selfishness. We fear the desert, we run away from it, but if we allow it, we will experience the Holy Spirit like never before. The desert shows us emptiness, silence to overcome ourselves internally. We are to be where the Holy Spirit leads us. It is a place where we find God, and there we are to be with God through the Holy Spirit. Desert does not last forever. It is only a time for God to guide us.
The Spirit Conviction
The Holy Spirit, Jesus did not come to condemn us but to assure us that we are His. Evil says that God will not forgive us, but the Spirit testifies that yes, God loves us and forgives us. The Holy Spirit convinces us to turn, to return home, to God. The wicked wants us to hold on to our falls, our mistakes, our injuries, our past by blaming us. When we sin, it breaks the relationship with the Lord, we separate from Him. Thus, we break our hearts and cause pain, worry to the Lord. God shows us our sins so that we may be free from them. We need to pray to the Holy Spirit to know the truth. We are to be silent and ask the Lord through the Spirit to convict us.
The Spirit´s Freedom
God wants us to be free, it is a gift from God himself. Freedom is the ability to live responsibly with each other. Freedom comes from our God; we are free to choose who we love. God has given us the freedom to choose to love Him freely. He wanted a relationship of love in freedom. The Lord Jesus comes to deliver us from sin and to be free. Meeting Jesus is what will make us better people. Where there is the Holy Spirit, there is freedom, God sets us free, gives us purity, clarity. God wants us to be free from the past, sins, things we don't like to do, addictions, ...
The Spirit´s Witness
The relics of the saints are a reminder that the Holy Spirit has lived and continues to live in them. The Holy Spirit lives in the saints, testifying through them. Without the Holy Spirit, they were unable to do what they did. When we experience the Holy Spirit, we want to tell others about it, evangelize. Each of us has our own original story with God to share with others. Evangelism without the Holy Spirit is not possible. We know many stories of Jesus, but can we talk about Jesus as the one we know and have a relationship with? When the Holy Spirit comes, we will also know our Lord Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who evangelizes.
The Spirit Remembers
God wants to give Himself to us, to give His Spirit. He wants our hearts to grow so that we can receive more things from Him. If we want to have a relationship with God, we need to pray. If we want to be His disciples, we need to follow Him. We need to find a place to pray, a place that is holy and affects us. Let's light a candle as we pray. It is important to be consistent in prayer over time. In prayer we find out what to do, we are able to recognize what we should do. The Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need and remind us of what to do. We do not keep His grace only for ourselves but spread it to the people around us.
In closing, we believe that by reading our blog you were able to pause and meditate on our daily promptings. It’s our hope and wishes that you will invite the Holy Spirit to your daily life. We pray that your relationship with the Holy Spirit is renewed and fulfilled. Come Holy Spirit, you are welcome here! Your gifts and fruits are what we need.
Lenka & Marek