05/05/2024

I have never seen the objective signs of the Holy Spirit. I have never experienced  subjectively the love that comes from God. As a child I know that I loved my mother and father and later my siblings. As a teenager I know that I loved many girls. Even today my heart can skip when I see a pretty face.

Of all these "loves" there is one that has never changed and that is love for a dog. I really do experience an unconditional love for a dog. I tell myself that this love of a creature just because he is what he is, is God's way of showing to me how he loves me, of letting me glimpse the Evergreater Love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are loved not because we exist but exist because we are loved.

St Peter brings our attention to the Holy Spirit. He and the others present witnessed something that was as real to them as their selves. The gentiles present were unbaptised, but the signs of the Holy Spirit became manifest. They spoke in "tongues".

St John, as always, writes of Love. He and Mary had been told by Jesus that in the complete revelation that would be his Resurrection they were to care for each other with maternal and reciprocal filial love. We, the disciples of the crucified Lord, are told to manifest our love for him by our love for each other. "Friend" is Jesus' name for us who show that we live not as a "favourite" but by obeying the unchangeable directions to Eternity; the way, the truth and the life, his commandments.

Dear Lord, let me learn to love you not just because "you are" but because "I am"  only because loved by you. You even accepted a shameful death in total weakness on the cross so that I might have my sins forgiven and my soul rescued from the mire of human sinfulness. Jesus is with us to the end of time. He is the Sacrament who has been shamefully mocked by the many such as I who have received the host in a state of Sin. May Mary and all the saints help me to share in your mystical body and help me to love you in a love that ignores my self but reflects back to you as much of your Love for me as I am able. Let my prayer be heard and let me live this "today" without sin. Look with mercy on all sinners both living and in Purgatory and let us be scraped clean of sin and again become as pure as the Love with which you created Adam & Eve.