Ninth Meditation on the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, enlighten us, for You are the light that makes our darkness bright. Take away from us all our spiritual blindness, so that we may better recognise You and perceive reality in Your light. There is a big difference between recognising You in the work and only seeing the natural reality.
You know, Holy Spirit, we actually understand very little!
For us, life is made up of many different impressions, with which we try to build a coherent picture of reality. Sometimes we notice an inner line, and in faith we also know that such a line exists. But we easily lose this line during the day when we are involved in different activities and are too absorbed by them.
So how can we stay in touch with You and become more aware of You in our lives?
Prayer, talking to You and even more listening to You are very helpful.
Maybe we are not so used to it. We talk more with Jesus or with our Heavenly Father or also with Mary, the Mother of God.
So we must first get to know You better, to really see You as a personal Being, in order to be able to turn to You. You are not just a force that works in the universe, but remains impersonal, and you should not remain an unknown person in the following of Christ.
The best thing to do is to simply speak to You and ask to get to know You better. You will know the ways to us and gently spread Your light in our souls. But especially You want us to know our faith better and to perceive the fine guidance of God in our lives.
But in all honesty, Beloved Holy Spirit, we have to recognise that we are often so indifferent and so hard to listen to. Especially the many impressions confuse us, and the countless voices make it difficult to listen attentively to You and to perceive Your presence finely.
That is why You invite us into silence and want us to go inward, so that our heart can receive You at all. Perhaps You are calling us to remain silent before the holy Sacrament in the church, to follow Jesus’ invitation to be with Him. In a time when everything is happening so quickly around us, this helps us to pause. You will draw us to receive the sacraments. Surely You also draw us to read the Scriptures, for there You speak directly to us.
When we have become more receptive to You through prayer, silence and the Word of God, we notice Your voice and perceive better how You speak to us inwardly, bringing You and the Word of the Lord to mind and guiding us to good; we begin to see everything more with Your gaze. Our blindness begins to give way, our ears are opened and our mouth learns to consider its words better, and to bring them into harmony with You.
Now the contact with You begins to become more intense. We will ask You more and more often for advice in concrete situations, ask for Your assistance, and hopefully we will not forget to thank You when You have helped us! Your strength lies in gentleness, You do not impose Yourself, but You are always present, and Your light takes away our blindness and enlightens us.
So You are already there, Holy Spirit, let us set out to meet You and understand You better and better!