A Prayer for the Seven-Fold Gift of the Holy Spirit

A Prayer for the Seven-Fold Gift of the Holy Spirit

From the St. Augustine’s Prayer Book

O Holy Ghost, my Lord and my God, who hast over-shadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and formed the most holy humanity of my Savior Jesus Christ, I adore thee, and acknowledge here in thy divine presence, that I am nothing and can do nothing without thee. Come, thou blessed Spirit of God, and dwell in this soul that longs to be thy holy temple. Heal the lurking distemper of my heart and infuse thy grace into the well-springs of my life.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of wisdom and supernatural light, that I may not only know God in his infinite goodness, power, and beauty, but also taste with ardent joy of heart his infinite sweetness.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of understanding and shining light, that I may know the mysteries of faith and of heavenly things, not as in darkness, but in the true light of thy wisdom filling my mind and heart.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of counsel and brilliant light, that in danger and doubt I may choose what is right and good, and under thy guidance attain a happy end.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of fortitude and comforting light, that I may generously overcome all difficulties in the way of salvation, resisting all temptations, and bearing patiently all the troubles and trials of this life.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of knowledge and discerning light, that I may judge of all things according to their true worth, and despise what is to be despised and love what is to be loved.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of godliness and heavenly light, which may penetrate my soul with a tender devotion to thee and love for thy divine service, and also cause me to find happiness in practicing good works.

O Holy Ghost, grant me the gift of the fear of God and penetrating light, that I may recognize how greatly sin offends thy infinite majesty, and may fear and most carefully avoid all that is displeasing to thee.

The Joy of Judgment

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth. Psalm 67:4

A strange and startling idea is smack dab in the middle of Psalm 67. God’s judgment of the nations is a cause for gladness and joy among the very nations being judged. Perhaps you are like me. For many years I thought Judgment Day was to be a terrifying spectacle and that the nations would weep and lament their fate. The Scripture clarifies this misconception.

Make no mistake, there are some among the nations who will weep and lament about what God’s judgment means for them. However, there are others, the faithful among all nations, who will rejoice and sing the songs of salvation. This was heard two weeks ago in the Easter 4 lesson from Revelation 7:9-17. “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Psalm 67 anticipates this scene.

Psalm 67 describes the joy of those looking for the full manifestation of the uncontested and unending government, reign, or rule of God: his Kingdom. This Kingdom was once thought to be limited to the Jewish nation. In Christ, though, we find that non-Jew—i.e. Gentiles (even Texans!)—are invited to join the Kingdom alongside the Jews and through the same means: by grace through faith (see Rom. 4, Eph. 2).

So, in the words of one devotional writer, “Psalm 67 is a communal expression of desire for God’s blessing so that the whole world will come to acknowledge God. . . . The psalm echoes the Aaronic benediction (Num. 6:24-26) but also extends its focus by suggesting that this blessing is for the benefit of the nations.”

The ground and source of this worldwide blessing is the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus, God the Son made man. The person energizing and accomplishing the implementation of this New Covenant is God the Holy Spirit, God made available to all who are alive in Christ.

The descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, which follows the Ascension of Jesus by nine days, is the beginning stage of the reign and rule inaugurated in the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. It begins in Jerusalem, goes through Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, even Arlington, Texas, USA. And the “it” that begins in Jerusalem is being “clothed with power from on high” (Acts 1:8) for the purpose of telling the truth about who is really in charge of the universe: Jesus. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt. 28:18).

Just as we prepare, by maturity and training, to bear our part in the U.S. Government—the voting age is 18 and we have compulsory government courses for our public school students—so also we should prepare by teaching, training, prayer, and spiritual maturity for our part in the Kingdom of God. The nine days between Ascension and Pentecost gives us a unique, short season to devote ourselves to prayer in thanksgiving for the Holy Spirit and further growth in our cooperation with the Spirit’s ministry in this age.

The name for any nine-day season of prayer is novena. A novena is modeled upon the devotion to prayer in the time between the Ascension and Pentecost shown by Mary and Jesus’s apostles. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14).

Here is a link to a Novena to the Holy Ghost. This is suitable for any time, and especially this season between Ascension and Pentecost.

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire!

Favorite (and feisty) Dallas Willard Quotation

"Our personal relationship with Jesus is what saves us in every sense of 'saves.' And there is no personal relationship with Jesus but that of disciple to their master, teacher, and Lord. The idea that you could trust him for forgiveness of sins, but for nothing else, is a psychological absurdity, a theological crime, and nothing the Bible ever heard of. It is designed to rationalize a preexisting system that allows people to be Christians without being disciples."

This quotation comes from a talk called "Good News that Makes Disciples." It was given within a four-part series called "Bringing Truth to Life." I can no longer find the files online. I'm pleased that I downloaded them while they were available.

Exactly Why the Local Church is the Hope of the World

This is a substantive and important sermon by Dallas Willard. It was on the front page of his web site, but is now difficult to find. I found it on a cached version of the page. The link still works and I would like to share it here.

Exactly Why the Local Church is the Hope of the World by Dallas Willard.

I Am a Church Member at St. Mark's, Arlington

We celebrated our parish's patron, St. Mark, last Sunday.

I took the opportunity to ask our parish to celebrate two things: (1) the existence of this parish and (2) the Lord Jesus, in whom, by whom, and for whom we exist. 

St. Mark's, Arlington, is special not simply for our activities (our learning, serving, praying, and singing), buildings, and ball field. The parish is special principally for its irrevocable connection to her unique, universal, glorious Lord, Jesus Christ, the teacher and master of human life.

When we celebrate the parish it takes some work to remember that we’re celebrating the people and the Person who makes us his people. 

While we enjoy our programs and property, fundamentally we are a people. Jesus does not give himself to programs and property. He gave himself for people and gives himself to people who love him and trust him.

With great privilege, being the Church, being a people saved by Jesus, comes great responsibility. We must be members of the one body we are.

To promote reflection on our privilege and responsibility, I encourage reading a short article by Dr. Thom Rainer called, “I am a church member.” 

While I don’t agree with every detail of the article, I found it a helpful exercise to reflect on the responsibilities that go along with the inestimable privilege of being a member of the Church,  of being an organ in the body of which Christ is the head.

I Am a Church Member the post.

Or, for further reading and reflection:

I Am a Church Member the book.

"Our Portion is Charity, and Our Sustenance Faith"

Friday was a difficult day to write a short article for my parish. My attention was almost consumed and overcome by the events of the week, of Thursday night, Friday morning, and the breaking news of the day. I was tempted, so very tempted, to retreat. To say to myself and to the parish, “Turn it off. Ignore the temporal. Contemplate the eternal.” But that will not work. The eternal entered the temporal. Infinity engaged history. Divinity assumed humanity. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14a).

Christians must not and cannot ignore history or disregard current events. However, we must not obsessively ponder current events, the news of the day, to the exclusion of hearing and owning the Big Story of our creation, fall, redemption, and destiny. The Big Story is the story of Israel (the Old Testament), fulfilled in the story of Jesus (the Gospel), becoming our story (the Church and the Age to Come). The constant challenge is to place current news within the context of the Good News.

To make what we can see, touch, taste, and smell submissive and responsive to what we cannot see—the Kingdom of God and Jesus at God’s right hand in glory—is the struggle that we call faith, “for we walk by faith and not by sight” (2Cor. 5:7). Another wonderful translation says, “For we live by believing and not by seeing.” And this faith by which we live is never alone. It is accompanied by hope and love. “So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13).

Faith does not make the pain, sadness, suffering, violence, confusion, and consternation of the past week disappear. It will, however, turn down the volume, de-prioritize the seemingly urgent, and let us hear the gracious words of the master of human life, Jesus, our teacher and Lord. “In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world” (Jn. 16:33).

David Bentley Hart writes beautifully of eventual and ultimate victory of Jesus’ life and peace over the plentiful trouble and suffering now competing for control of the world.

“Until that final glory, however, the world remains divided between two kingdoms, where light and darkness, life and death grow up together and await the harvest. In such a world, our portion is charity, and our sustenance is faith, and so it will be until the end of days. As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child, I do not see the face of God but the face of his enemy. Such faith might never seem credible to someone like Ivan Karamazov, or still the disquiet of his conscience, or give him peace in place of rebellion, but neither is it a faith that his arguments can defeat: for it is a faith that set us free from optimism long ago and taught us hope instead. Now we are able to rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that he will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, he will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes—and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and he that sits upon the throne will say, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Conversion to Christ, Conversion to Reality

I began last week’s article with a short paragraph on the Christian life. I’d like to repeat it this week in an effort to continue reflecting on the same theme.

Christianity is participation, by grace through faith, in the ongoing life of Jesus Christ. This participation involves many things: the Bible, the Mass, the Prayers, giving, service to others. Yet we must not pursue any one of these means at the cost of losing sight of the end: life in Christ. This is the heart of Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus in John 3. “You must be born anew” (John 3:7).

In Acts 9:1-19, St. Paul has a surprising encounter with Jesus and discovers two things quite forcefully: (1) Jesus is alive and (2) the life that he now lives is intimately connected with the people living that life with him. St. Paul, or Saul the Rabbi, was actively persecuting believers in Jesus. And Jesus asks him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Jesus doesn’t ask why Saul is attacking his fan club, or memorial society, or even his church. He asks Saul why is persecuting his own person.

Participating in the ongoing life of Jesus Christ is more concrete than we usually think. This life is not an abstract idea or a metaphor. It is a connection with the risen Jesus so profound and lasting that believers are treated by Jesus himself as parts of him. As surely and concretely as the fingers with which I now type this article are members of my body, those who trust Jesus are members of his body (1 Cor. 6:15a).

Because this connection with Jesus is more concrete than we usually think, we need to work on adjusting our thinking, as St. Paul most surely had to adjust his thinking. Surely this was a large portion of the first three days after his encounter with Jesus, “And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:9).

We may not be struck blind and forced into three-day weekend of repentance and faith, but practices of silence, solitude, and fasting are core exercises for coming to terms with Jesus in his concrete, glorious, and ever living reality. Disciplines of engagement like prayer, study, Bible memory, and works of mercy are also essential as we increase and intensify our conversion to Christ.

We often speak of conversion as an event. Often conversions begin with a momentous encounter with Jesus. So we have the cliché “Damascus Road Experience.” But Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road was the beginning of an ongoing conversion. “One thing I do, . . . I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). Conversion is both an event and a process.

Conversion is event and process with a definite purpose. The end goal is an ongoing and unending enjoyment of the life Jesus lives with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christian theology calls this the Beatific Vision, “The immediate knowledge of God which the angelic spirits and the souls of the just enjoy in Heaven.”

We use words like “rest” and “repose” to describe the experience of those who enjoy this vision. “Repose, yes. But not as quiescence, passivity, eternal fixity,” writes Dallas Willard. “It is, instead, peace as wholeness, as fullness of function, as the restful but unending creativity involved in a cosmos-wide, cooperative pursuit of a created order that continuously approaches but never reaches the limitless goodness and greatness of the triune personality of God, its source.”

The “limitless goodness and greatness” of the Holy Trinity is available now through trusting Jesus of Nazareth. He will bring us to life and shape our thinking and living in this age and in the age to come.