“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3RD Lk. 5:1-11 “After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.’”
Part 1: Jesus and Simon Peter…
Part 2: Open Your Mind & Heart to the Holy Spirit by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
PART 1:
- Peter obeys Jesus. Jesus said to Simon: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Peter’s response: “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.”
- Peter is humble before the Lord. When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. Falling to his knees, Peter says: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
- Peter has magnanimity – meaning he has great generosity with Jesus! “When they brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”
- Today, in our prayer, let us reflect on this fisherman, Simon Peter, whom Jesus chose to be Vicar of His Church on earth, and ask ourselves these questions.
- Do I obey like Peter? Are we willing to obey Christ and His Church under the direction of our Holy Father and the guidance of our good priests? Even when the world tells us something different? St. Ignatius says YES! We are to think with the mind of the Church, and in doing so we put on the mind of Christ.
- Do we have Peter’s humility? The humility to fall on our knees before Jesus again and again to admit our sins with heart-felt repentance? Pope Francis in Joy of the Gospel says: “Now is the time to say to Jesus, ‘Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to Him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking His mercy.”
- Do we have Peter’s magnanimity (great generosity) in serving the Lord? Are we willing to do All for the Honor and Glory of God? Can we say that our every thought, word, decision, and action is for God’s greater glory???
- We see in the Gospels that Peter was far from perfect. He could be rash, impetuous, fearful, and even cowardly. He denied Christ three times! St. Luke records that after the cock crowed, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter…. And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
- There is one final action necessary to make Peter a great Pope, Saint and Martyr – the action of the Holy Spirit and Mary in the Upper Room on Pentecost! After nine days and nights of prayer with Our Blessed Mother, a violent wind rushed through the room and the Holy Spirit came in tongues of fire that rested over the heads of Peter and the Apostles. That afternoon, Peter gave his first sermon beginning with these words: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen carefully to what I say.” This uneducated fisherman converted 3,000 that day with one sermon!
- What was necessary for Peter and the Apostles, is necessary for us if we are to become the saints God created us to be! We need Our Blessed Mother praying for us and with us every day, and we need the rushing of the Holy Spirit upon us!
PART 2:
OPEN YOUR MIND & HEART TO THE HOLY SPIRIT by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
The Sanctifier, Sweet Guest of the Soul, Interior Master of Prayer, the Consoler and Counselor, Intimate Friend, Paraclete, Advocate, Soul of the Church, Uncreated bond of love between Father and Son—all of these express titles or names for the Third Person of the most Blessed Trinity: The Holy Spirit.
STARTS WITH BAPTISM. From the moment we have received the unmerited and gratuitous gift from God, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, we received with this Sacrament countless graces and blessings. One of the most sublime and extraordinary gifts is “The Gift of Gifts” (CCC), the Holy Spirit. In that moment the Holy Spirit became the Divine Guest of the soul bringing with His Presence the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.
HEAVENLY INSPIRATIONS. If we maintain our soul in the state of sanctifying grace, the Holy Spirit works in the depths of our being in a very special way. Heavenly inspirations from on high become more and more frequent depending on one condition: our DOCILITY, YES, DOCILITY to these heavenly inspirations. If we are humble, attentive, docile and receptive then the Holy Spirit works quietly but very powerfully in our soul and we experience in the depths of our soul an interior sweetness; these are the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. By collaborating with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we will experience that interior sweetness in our soul of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit: peace, joy, mildness, self-control, chastity, patience, etc. In a word, our holiness and sanctification depends in large part on allowing the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, to work more freely, openly, and powerfully in our conversion, transformation, and sanctification.
FREQUENT INSPIRATIONS FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT AND DOCILITY. In this short essay we would like to highlight certain inspirations that come from the Holy Spirit, the Sweet Guest of your soul, and the great importance to recognize them and respond to them. May Our Lady, the Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit, come to our aid and pray for us that the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives will not be frustrated but brought to a full development. “Come, Holy Spirit, come through the Heart of Mary.” Mary was at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances totally and unreservedly open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Without doubt through her powerful intercession, Mary can help us to be more docile and responsive to the graces and inspirations from on high!
1. GO TO CONFESSION!!! If we have had the misfortune and disgrace to have fallen into Mortal Sin and lost sanctifying grace, then most assuredly the Holy Spirit will send inspirations to bring you back to God be means of a well-prepared, well-expressed, humble and contrite Sacramental Confession. Most surely, the Holy Spirit wants you to be restored to grace, but He respects our free-will!
2. OPEN OUR HEARTS TO PRAYER. One of the titles mentioned above describing the work of the Holy Spirit is that of “Interior Master of the soul”. This title means that the Holy Spirit wants to teach us how to communicate with God through prayer. For most of us, prayer is often a struggle, and we might even say that we do not really know how to pray. Saint Paul in the Letter to the Romans responds to this quandary and struggle in our spiritual life with these words: “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Holy Spirit intercedes with ineffable groans so that we can say, Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:26)
3. GO DEEPER AND LONGER INTO THE INFINITE OCEAN OF PRAYER. Not only will the Holy Spirit gently but insistently invite us to pray through His Holy inspirations, but He will challenge us to both pray more and at greater length, as well as go deeper in our prayer. Prayer can be compared to the ocean. We can walk along the seashore and allow the waves to barely graze our feet or we can go into the deep, drop the anchor, and the ocean seems to be a bottom-less abyss. So it is in our relationship with God; He is infinite and so can our prayer become better and better, deeper and deeper!
4. SEEK ADVICE. At times, when we find ourselves in a state of both desolation and confusion the Holy Spirit might nudge us to seek help, to seek advice, to seek counsel and direction through a human medium or intermediary, and this would be a spiritual-director. Saint John of the Cross states wryly: “He who has himself as director, has an idiot as a disciple.” Put bluntly, we cannot adequately direct ourselves because we all have many BLIND-SPOTS in our spiritual journey!
5. PUSH TO PRACTICE PENANCE. It is impossible to be under the guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit and not have nudges, gentle pushes, interior lights and inspirations to engage the practice of penance. In very clear and unequivocal terms Jesus asserted: “Anyone who wishes to be my follower must renounce himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mt. 16:24) In so many words, the great woman Mystic and Doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila, states that prayer and a life of indulgence and sensuality are diametrically opposed. They are like oil and vinegar—they simply do not mix!
6. READ, REFLECT, REASON, AND RUN TO GOD. Often the Holy Spirit will challenge us to slow down in our active and frenetic life characterized by the spirit of the day called ACTIVISM. The Holy Spirit will sometimes nudge us to stop, slow down, take up a good spiritual book and start to read the text slowly, reflect seriously upon it as Mary did when she pondered in her Immaculate Heart, then discern its deeper meaning, and finally run to God as our most sure haven and source of refuge. “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.” (Ps. 124:8)
7. HUMBLE YOURSELF AND RECONCILE, MAKING PEACE. In no uncertain terms, Jesus commands us to strive to be at peace with our brothers and sisters. So much so that Jesus says if you are about to present your gift at the altar and recall that your brother has something against you, then leave the gift, go and reconcile with your brother, and then come back to offer the gift. (This can be interpreted in the light of Holy Mass, our offering and Holy Communion.) In other words, the Holy Spirit cannot work powerfully and efficaciously in a heart that is proud, resentful, bitter, and angry! Jesus said that he is meek and humble of heart and challenges us to be the same! (Mt. 11:28-30)
8. WALK THE EXTRA MILE: EVEN WHEN YOU DO NOT FEEL LIKE IT! Once again related to the topic or theme of sacrifice, often the Holy Spirit will challenge us by His heavenly inspirations to walk the extra mile and to move on in some task, work or activity when we are tired, maybe even exhausted. However, if we correspond with docility and generosity to the inspiration, His grace and strength will never be lacking. Jesus said to the Great Apostle Saint Paul: “My grace is sufficient.” (2Cor.12:9) The Holy Spirit will never inspire in your mind and heart a proposal that He will not give you sufficient grace to carry out! Our prayer must be: “Holy Spirit, I trust in your power, presence, and patience in me!”
9. SLEEP LESS, EAT LESS, PRAY MORE, WORK HARDER, CARRY THE CROSS TRUSTINGLY AND OVERFLOW WITH JOY! If you read through the lives of the saints, who are the spiritual masterpieces of God in the words of Saint Pope John XXIII, you will notice the following characteristics of many of the saints. They tend to spend less time in bed; they do not spend too much time at the table chowing down; they pray more, and they work harder and more efficaciously without complaining; then they have many crosses, and I say many crosses. However, in the midst of all of these apparent hardships and trials they are overflowing with peace, happiness, joy! All of this is obviously the working of the Holy Spirit. Test yourself in these areas; how do you rate???
10. INSPIRATIONS TO TALK TO, DRAW CLOSE TO, AND CONFIDE IN HIS MYSTICAL SPOUSE—THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY!!! The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and the Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit. This being the case, the Holy Spirit will often inspire you to open up your heart and talk to Mary about your life, your feelings, your struggles, your battles, your failures and victories, your hopes and your dreams! Saint Louis de Montfort, in his spiritual classic, True Devotion to Mary states: “Those who love Mary, the Holy Spirit flings Himself into their souls.”
In conclusion, our conversion, sanctification, transformation and perseverance in grace depends in large part upon our relationship with the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier. Holiness depends on being docile to the Heavenly inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us all start right now and make a firm decision and commitment to be more docile and attentive to the inner workings and inspirations of the Holy Spirit in our lives! “If today you hear His voice harden not your hearts.” (Psalm 95:7-8) May our prayer be a Marian prayer connecting us to the Holy Spirit: “Come, Holy Spirit, come through the Heart of Mary.”
Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA
