Jesus said to his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). God wants to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we may proclaim his love to others with all our life (Romans 10:17).
This leads to the following questions: Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? And how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit? We should first understand that being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a once-and-for-all experience. God communicates his Spirit in different ways. Among the most important are the sacraments, which is why the Church recommends frequent participation in the Holy Eucharist and Confession. Each time we either receive Communion, confess our sins or spend time in adoration, we receive an overflow of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. There are also our daily interior conversations with God and our meditations of the Scriptures that unite us to Him and divinizes us; likewise, as we work to help those in need and bring others to Christ.
We also receive His Spirit and are renewed in faith when we listen to the prophetic words that God keeps giving us. Yahweh speaks to us prophetically and personally today, notably through the messages of our Mother Mary during her apparitions and through those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, a great movement of God was born because Christians fervently sought to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was poured out in many Christian denominations as Christians laid hands on one another. A new wave of evangelization and a renewed practice of the charisms was born from this intense desire to receive God’s Spirit. An important instrument of this renewal has been the Life in the Spirit seminars which generally have these 2 main objectives: Activate the power of the Holy Spirit in the faithful and promote an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.
God still wants us today to be filled and guided by His Spirit of love (Ephesians 5:18). For this we have to actively seek Him, spend time with Him and be ever closer to Him. Let this be our only ambition. Then we will not have to worry about the fruits: by persevering, by honouring His commandments, our Father will come with His Son to dwell in us in the fullness of the Spirit according to what our soil can bear.
By Pierre-Alain Giffard, Director of Pastoral Work
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