Do We Really Mean It When We Pray "Come Holy Spirit?"

Well do we?

I ask this question that has been on my mind for the last few days. Like many others I have been praying the Pentecost Novena. I have been meditating on what I have been asking.

I have been thinking about what we say at Mass today. We pray the ancient Latin hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit) attributed to Pope Innocent III (c. 1160-1216), as the Pentecost sequence between the 2nd reading & the Gospel. We often sing the even more ancient hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest), verses are ascribed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856). We pray "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love."

Some people pray the prayer written by Cardinal Mercier: "O Holy Spirit, Soul of my soul, I adore thee. Enlighten, guide, strengthen and console me. Tell me what I ought to do and command me to do it. I promise to be submissive in everything that thou shalt ask of me and to accept all that thou permits to happen to me, only show mewhat is thy will."

On the Solemnity of the Ascension in the 1st reading at Mass we hear Jesus say: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8) We read in Acts & elsewhere not only of the gifts the Holy Spirit pours out but of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles & the rest of the early Church. The Holy Spirit worked so powerfully that when Paul & his companions arrived at Thessalonica the comment made was " 'The people who have been turning the whole world upside down have come here now." (Acts 17:6)

So why can't the same thing be said of us? Why is it that we seem to be more like the Apostles in the Upper Room on Easter, in the Upper Room with our doors locked out of fear? If we truly are empowered with the Holy Spirit why are we acting like cowards.

Why aren't we being bold in proclaiming the Gospel? Why aren't we expecting God to work through us, to hear our prayers & using us to defeat the "culture of death"?

Are we afraid of persecution? Are we afraid of rejection? Are we afraid to fail?

We shouldn't be. The same Holy Spirit that was poured out on the 1st Pentecost is the same Holy Spirit we received at Baptism, that was given to us anew in the sacrament of Confirmation/Chrismation. We have that same power. If we truly mean what we pray today, then we need to say Yes to all that entails.

But we also need to realize that it will cost us. As the title of a book written in the 70s by Fr. Orsini points out, there is a cost in Pentecost. That cost is our surrender, our surrender of all to Jesus to let Him use us, to let him him lead & guide us. The cost included dying to sin, dying to self, surrendering our lives completely. & yes, it may include persecution, & even martyrdom.

Are we are truly willing to pay that cost, to truly say yes, to pay the cost to surrender ever more fully to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to the Lordship of Jesus? If we are, then we will see the world again turned upside down. (Actually, right side up.) We will be able to defeat the "culture of death". We will bring people back to the faith. We will call people to repentance & they will heed our words. We will have the courage to call sin sin. God will do all this & more through us, through our prayers & through our actions. Are we willing? Do we mean what we pray?

If we really mean what we say then we will stand up & defend the Bride of Christ, His Church. If we mean it then we will let the Spirit give us the courage we need to speak up when the teachings of the Catholic Church come under attack. If we say yes & let the Spirit make us into the soldiers we have been empowered to be then we will stand up & defend the Vicar of Christ, the Pope. We will defend him when he is attacked by the media for upholding the Church's teaching on abortion, on condoms, on marriage etc. Are we willing to stand up & defend the Church from all attacks, from without as well as within?

We are at a major turning point in history. God is calling us to action, actions that will have eternal consequences for us as well as others. Maybe in the past, we could say "Come Holy Spirit" & not be serious. Not any more. We need to decide. Are we going to let the world turn us upside down? Or are we going to let God use us to turn the world right side up? Do we really mean it (individually & as a whole) when we pray "Come Holy Spirit"?

Do we?