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Care of the soul is a continuous process that concerns itself not so much with "fixing" a central flaw, as with attending to the small details of everyday life.
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
He is not enthusiasm. He is not courage. He is not energy. He is not the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather. Actually, the Holy Spirit is not the personification of anything. He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and intelligence. He has hearing. He has knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think. He can hear, speak, desire, grieve and rejoice. He is a Person.
We do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come. He came on the day of Pentecost. He has never left. Receiving the Holy Spirit is the way that those who already believe in Christ, are empowered to serve Him. It's more important to focus on how one lives the Spirit-filled life, than on a rigid formula for receiving it. Receiving the Spirit is not a one-time event, but rather, an on-going way of life. The Spirit has His own existence and personal function in the inner life of God and the economy of salvation. His task is to bring about the unity of the human race in the Body of Christ... but He also imparts to this unity, a personal, and hence, diversified character.
The work of the Spirit is the bringing to be of the vision of God... the capacitating of persons to "see visions" and dream dreams. The birth of the Church is the beginning of the End. The Kingdom of God as the miracle of ocular newness when the "blind see," makes its impact on history in the Creation of a visionary community.
Fellowship among the spiritually-gifted people exists because of their common possession of the one gift, Jesus Christ. Christ himself is the one who really 'has' the spiritual gifts..... As head of the body, he is the source and bearer of all spiritual gifts. They function at his behest. The Holy Spirit works in us to make clear to us what purpose God has in mind for us.
Not only is the Holy Spirit God, the Spirit is a full person of the Trinity.
Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON.
Spirit of Love, Spirit of Life
The journey of the soul is a continual cycle, somewhat like the seasons. In spring, things open. In summer, they come to great fruition. In fall, things go out in a blaze of glory... and in winter, the seed is in the dark ground and can't be seen.
At different points of our journey, throughout our whole life, we are in one of these cycles. Winter is often experienced as a period of despair. At the same time, it is a period of creative hibernation and development. When we get sunk down in the dark night of the soul, it helps to remember this is just one phase that will change into something else. We will come out of the darkness with something that will help us and help other people. It is actually a kind of purification phase.
When we are back in the light, we also have to accept that we will be going back into the dark again. Nature is full of surprises, always changing, and we must change with it. In nature, the soul is renewed and called to open and grow. In the wilderness, you're up against whatever nature brings you - the dangers as well as the beauty.
Healing is feeling and understanding one's own individual part of the common universal journey. For transformation, you have to be in touch with your own personal struggles but at the same time, able to go beyond them. Sometimes, people who grow up in a sheltered environment think life should be easy. They don't reflect about themselves or others. On the other hand, people who are too caught up in their own personal despair are also cut off from helping. Getting in touch with one's soul means going through one's own struggle and despair and also realizing that it is working through those wounds that helps unite you with other people.
Everyone gets thrown off balance. What can keep a person centered is walking or taking time in nature. Balance and serenity can be found there. Also, being with friends and in relationship with others is central to nourishing our lives. When we are feeling overwhelmed and stuck in our own despair, we need to reach out to other people. Sometimes, you think it's only you. It's important to gather something in yourself to give to somebody else. That helps you connect and unite with somebody else, and it takes the focus off your own pain. Dreams sometimes come to help us in those situations. If we're open to what's going on inside and outside us, we can see a connection. It might be a chance encounter with a person, or seeing a flower. It could be anything. If you can offer yourself as a channel for creation who nourishes both yourself and others, I think that in the process, you find a community of travelers on the soul's journey.
Where the Spirit is, there is freedom. We are all destined, designed, created to be free. But we forge chains for ourselves and each other, corrupting our freedom till it isn't freedom anymore. Only someone who isn't bound by the mess can free us from it. That's where Christ comes in. And, after Christ arose, it's where the Spirit comes in. The Spirit's sent from Christ to humanity, blown on us by Jesus. The Spirit makes us able to take part in God's work in the world. And makes it personal. The Gospel becomes mine to spread. The Kingdom becomes my vision for living. God's hope for all becomes my hope for all. God's sorrow over peoples' situations and deeds becomes mine, too. If the Spirit has me, God is not distant but up-close and real. This new freedom isn't something we 'have' or possess; it's something that has us just as the Spirit does. The human spirit soars because of the Spirit; otherwise it is still bound to the ground
Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.
The Holy Spirit, object of faith, is also an object of prayer : we must not only pray that we receive the Holy Spirit. We must pray to him.
Grace is power as well as pardon.
Even while we wait for the full enjoyment of the good things in store for us, by the Holy Spirit we are able to rejoice through faith in the promise of the graces to come. If the promise itself is so glorious, what must its fulfillment be like?
Out of the Darkness... And Into the Light.
