Welcome In Your Advocate

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth... I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:15-18). This is awesome! Many times we think of Scripture as just being repetitive and boring; it can never be repetitive or boring - it is alive! We have heard many times that God sent his Sprit after Christ ascended into Heaven, but do we just accept it and move on with our lives or do we give pause and realize the profound effect that it has on our own life?

Jesus is telling us that God's Sprit dwells within us. Many times I have felt spiritually alone. I am sure we have all felt like that in our lives, probably at many different points. It just feels like no one can relate to where we are or what we are dealing with. It feels like there is no help or hope. My brothers and sisters, there is hope! God has not abandoned us, he has given us his Spirit to dwell deep inside us. The Spirt cannot be physically found with an X-Ray, or by having an MRI, or any other way, but he is there. He is dwelling in your heart. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says it beautifully, "The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully" (2563). Wow! The Holy Spirit dwells in the deepest part of our being. Do you feel him present in your heart? As I go through my day it is rare that I think about just how close the Holy Spirit is. He knows the depths of who I am. No matter how many years I live nor how much I pray, I will never know myself the way the Spirit does.

I know that we can all feel alone, but Jesus is so good that he gave us his Spirit. God's love is expressed through his Spirit. It is so easy to forget or to ignore, but the love is there and it is great! It is a life changing love - give into that love. Let every part of your being just be inebriated in the love of God. It is through daily prayer that we can not just know about the love of God, but to experience his great and mighty love in our lives. We don't have to work hard to feel the love of God, we just need to pray and open our hearts to receive the love that the Spirit brings.

It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can encounter Christ. Many times in my life I think about how wonderful it would be to have Christ here on earth as he was 2000 years ago. How could life not be amazing? I imagine I wouldn't have a problem following him and trying to fight off temptation. I know life would still be tough, but because I can see Christ fully human it would give me that extra push in my faith to trust in him and let all the sin in my life go. In the times that I have thought about this, I have failed to recognize the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Jesus tells us that he will not leave us orphans and he never has. Those time when you are searching for Christ, look to your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to help you pray. "According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays" (CCC 1562).

Many times we pray with our heads, but it is in our hearts not our heads that we encounter God. Allow the brain to become the servant of the heart and ask the Holy Spirit to aid you in your prayer. We tend to forget about the third Person of the Trinity, but yet the Holy Spirit is not a nonessential Person. Welcome the Spirit of God in each time you pray and even more generally ask the Holy Spirit to enter your day, so that no matter where you are or what you are doing you will know that the Holy Spirit is present and active in that moment.

God wants you to experience his love AND for you to return that love through action. Let the Holy Spirit move you and challenge you to grow in your life. You cannot encounter God on your own, you are in need of his Spirit. He is your Advocate, he will not abandon you, but is here to help you to know the love of God, to love God in return, and to love your fellow brothers and sisters who are in need.