The Holy Spirit, the Counselor
In the silence of your hearts… (C)Mary TV May 29, 2019 Dear Family of Mary! As we approach the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost Sunday, we become more and more aware of the role of the Holy Spirit according to Jesus. He said in the Gospel for today in John Chapter 16: 5-11. Here is a portion of the Gospel: Jesus said to his disciples: “But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn 16: 5-7 RSV) So the role of the Holy Spirit is vital and essential. But it can seem a bit invisible sometimes. So, let’s look at this passage from St. Faustina’s Diary, entry 359, in which she talks of her experience of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 359January 10, 1935. +Thursday. In the evening during Benediction, such thoughts as these began to distress me: Is not perhaps all this that I am saying about God’s great mercy just a lie or an illusion? And I wanted to think about this for a while, when I heard a strong and clear inner voice saying, Everything that you say about My goodness is true; language has no adequate expression to extol My goodness. These words were so filled with power and so clear that I would give my life in declaring they came from God. I can tell this by the profound peace that accompanied them at that time and that still remains with me. This peace gives me such great strength and power that all difficulties, adversities, sufferings, and death itself are as nothing. This light gave me a glimpse of the truth that all my efforts to bring souls to know the mercy of the Lord are very pleasing to God. And from this springs such great joy in my soul that I do not know whether it could be any greater in heaven. Oh, if souls would only be willing to listen, at least a little, to the voice of conscience and the voice – that is, the inspirations – of the Holy Spirit! I say, “at least a little,” because once we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit, He Himself will fulfill what is lacking in us. (Diary, 359) I think there is so much more we can learn from what St. Faustina says here. First, she was before the Blessed Sacrament, and she started to get distressing thoughts. Usually where do those thoughts come from?? And God intervened…Jesus spoke to her through the Holy Spirit, addressing those thoughts and protecting her from them by telling her that “Everything that you say about My goodness is true. Language has no adequate expression to extol My goodness.” Jesus and the Holy Spirit just blew all those thoughts away. Don’t we need this kind of help from the Holy Spirit in our day. We are inundated by the lies and negativity of the devil all the time through the Media. Well, St. Faustina was facing very difficult times too, but she received such peace from the Holy Spirit that day. She says: “These words were so filled with power and so clear that I would give my life in declaring they came from God.” She felt the power of the Holy Spirit in the words. They filled her whole heart with peace, with strength, with a firm foundation for her. She was confirmed in what she was doing and was given the peace to continue. This was a really, really important moment for St. Faustina. She didn’t forget it. She wrote it down. And she recognized that, “Oh, if souls would only be willing to listen, at least a little, to the voice of conscience and the voice – that is, the inspirations – of the Holy Spirit! I say, “at least a little,” because once we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit, He Himself will fulfill what is lacking in us.” That’s the important thing. We have to acquire a silence in our souls. We need to be quiet enough to hear what the Holy Spirit will say because He doesn’t scream at us!! He doesn’t interrupt us, but He gently says things that we could easily overlook. But we need Him to make it through our challenges. Our Lady once said to us: May 25, 2001 “Dear children! At this time of grace, I call you to prayer. Little children, you work much but without God’s blessing. Bless and seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to lead you at this time so that you may comprehend and live in the grace of this time. Convert, little children, and kneel in the silence of your hearts. Put God in the center of your being so that, in that way, you can witness in joy the beauty that God continually gives in your life. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Our Lady works like a little megaphone to make the Holy Spirit’s voice louder! She amplifies it for us, so we can notice it. She gives us clues about Him. She is guiding us spiritually, so we will get very close to the Holy Spirit and we will be guided by Him all the time. As Denis always says, you can’t separate the two, Mary and the Holy Spirit!! We should be very grateful that we are not alone in this very difficult time in history. We are not alone. “Dear children, my real, living presence among you should make you happy because this is the great love of my Son. He is sending me among you so that, with a motherly love, I may grant you safety… (July 2, 2016) Jesus was insistent that it was better for Him to leave and the Holy Spirit to come instead!! Our Lady has come to help us discover this great gift, the Holy Spirit here among us to help us in these very dark and difficult days. We are not alone!! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2019