When is the last time we prayed for the Holy Spirit to inspire us with
wisdom? When the apostles were waiting
for the Paraclete, as their now ascended Jesus had promised, He came in tongues
of flame to each of them. Jesus had
promised that the Holy Spirit would come as their consoler, who would empower
them to tell the wondrous story of Jesus.
Why fire? Fire is contagious. A small spark in a drought can change a
forest or a neighborhood. Fire can
change us, it changed these fishermen into evangelists who changed the
world. In this year of faith, we need to
catch fire so we too can change the world as we evangelize. We will need prayer to the Holy Spirit to
help us undergo the change, so we can change others.
Do you ever admire the prayerful habits of
Moslems? They pray constantly despite
work or home-life, travel, or walks in the woods. They get out their prayer rug and kneel down
in prayer. If you haven't known a
Trappist or Cistercian Monk, you might not realize that there are people who pray
to God many times a day. Not just a
simple prayer in their car, but removed from whatever work or task they are
doing, they stand and chant, or kneel and pray.
Fire in the Bible
was first used to consume the sacrifice to God.
Later it represented God as He led the Israelites through the desert as
a pillar of fire. A chariot of fire took
Elijah into heaven. In the New
Testament, Jesus cooks fish over a charcoal fire on the shore after rising from
the dead. Fire can also cleanse or
purify precious gold. Jesus tells of the
chaff of the harvest being burned, and the weeds in the field thrown in the
fire to burn. The Holy Spirit we
welcomed at Confirmation comes to give us wisdom and creativity, and a burning
devotion to God. And so we pray,
"Come, Holy
Spirit,/fill the hearts of your faithful/and kindle in them the fire of your
love./Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created,/And You shall renew
the face of the earth." kvs
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