#TodayMeditation: Mark 3:22-30 Saint Angela Merici, Virgin How can Satan drive out Satan? (Mark 3:23) If you’ve ever been near an airfield as a huge jet takes off, you know that it can be a very powerful experience. The deafening noise, the forceful gust, and the shaking ground can make your pulse quicken and your whole body tingle. Now imagine that you can erase the airplane and the noise, but keep that excited feeling. That’s how some people have described their experience of the Holy Spirit: a quickened pulse, a sense of awe, and an excitement over all that his power can accomplish. Sometimes, however, the Holy Spirit’s work can be very subtle: perhaps a chance encounter or an answer to an unspoken prayer. It’s this kind of experience, this subtle work of God, that can be overlooked all too easily. In today’s Gospel reading, the people see Jesus’ miracles and fear that his power is of demonic origin. But Jesus is quick to attribute the miracles to the Holy Spirit. He even rebukes them for slandering the Holy Spirit. It’s striking to see him defending the Spirit as if he were a brother or a close friend. This close relationship with the Holy Spirit is something that God wants us to develop as well—a relationship so close that we can detect his subtle movements just as easily as his more obvious ones. Pope Francis recently urged us along the same lines: “Let’s ask ourselves: are we open to the Holy Spirit? Do I pray to him to enlighten me, to make me more sensitive to the things of God? This is a prayer we need to pray every day, every day: ‘Holy Spirit, may my heart be open to the Word of God, may my heart be open to good, may my heart be open to the beauty of God, every day.’ ” Today, try to identify the Spirit’s work in your life. Pray that you may be open to the word of God, to the goodness in the world, and to the beauty that we experience in creation and in our relationships. Don’t wait for the noise of the jet! “Holy Spirit, show me the ways that you are working in my life and the path that you have planned for me. Help me to recognize and acknowledge the big and little miracles you have done in my life.”
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:57:32 +0000
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