Feel The Spirit

Thursday, May 18th, 2017

The Church is gearing up for the late Easter season and with it readings about the Holy Spirit begin to emerge from the ambo. I’ve written before on how it is sometimes difficult to understand what the Holy Spirit actually is.  “God’s glue” or “God’s Wi-Fi” are terms I’ve used to try to illuminate the idea for my students.  I struggle myself to communicate God’s love as a connecting spirit at once all around us and at the same time no where to be seen.

While our concepts of “father” and “son” are easily imagined when thinking of God and Jesus we have a harder time describing the Holy Spirit. That is natural; the Bible itself isn’t clear on the matter, describing the Spirit in a variety of ways.  It is something closer to climate, not weather — poetry before the novel.

And yet, one of the more interesting facts when teaching about the Holy Spirit to children is that the images they conjure up for a seemingly abstract idea are very concrete. I asked them what are some images that come to mind when thinking of the Holy Spirit. Their answers, like most children’s answers, were a lot of fun to listen to.

“My favorite blanket,” “snow falling,” “the feeling I have when my parents tuck me in,” “my favorite song” were all images they conjured up.  Powerful and interesting stuff.  So perhaps if we pray to our heavenly Father, we can ask him to open not our eyes but all our senses to feel the Spirit.

I’ll be seeing you,

Elliot

Event Signup Forms
View Signup Forms