In the west, we Christians may be comfortable talking about our relationship with Jesus. We may often pray to the Father. But our relationship with the Spirit tends to be much more ambiguous. We say it is the third person of the Trinity, but I’m not sure we think of the Holy Spirit as a person, or related to it as a person.
Often we either get locked into the image of the dove, or we think of it as a kind of mystical energy. The Holy Spirit is devoid of personality.
If we think about it for a moment, the opposite should be true. We should have the closest relationship to the Holy Spirit. From the first outpouring, it is the Holy Spirit that remains with us. The Holy Spirit transforms us. It is the Holy Spirit who changes mere bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
In the Office of Readings today St. Didymus of Alexandria reminds us:
The Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with his grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love. The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from the earthly men we were, men of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the divine glory, sons and heirs of God
In these days lead8ng to Pentecost, each of us should take time to pray with, in, and to the Holy Spirit, the advocate always with us.
