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Tuesday, May 11, 1999

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Acts 16:22-34
Psalm 138
John 16:5-11

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the age of the holy spirit

"I tell you the sober truth: It is much better for you that I go. If I fail to go, the Paraclete will never come to you." —John 16:7

We live in better times. We live in the "last days" (see Heb 1:2, our transl), the time of the Holy Spirit. Pope Paul VI observed that in more recent times we are being led even more deeply into the life in the Spirit. He said: "We live in the Church at a privileged moment of the Spirit. Everywhere people are trying to know Him better" (On Evangelization, 75).

Pope John Paul II indicated the consequences of accepting or rejecting the mounting movement of the Holy Spirit when he quoted Pope Paul VI: "The Christology and particularly the ecclesiology of the (Second Vatican) Council must be succeeded by a new study of and devotion to the Holy Spirit, precisely as the indispensable complement to the teaching of the Council" (The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World, 2). Pope John Paul II also prophesied that we will have a "new springtime of Christian life" by the Great Jubilee, that is, by the year 2000, if we "are docile to the action of the Holy Spirit" (Towards the Third Millennium, 18).

We are in better times in which God's perfect plan of salvation will culminate through the Holy Spirit. Will we follow the Spirit's lead (Gal 5:25) or defeat God's plan in our lives? (Lk 7:30) Come, Holy Spirit!

Prayer:  Father and Jesus, make me docile to the Holy Spirit.

Promise:  "He led them up into his house, spread a table before them, and joyfully celebrated with his whole family his newfound faith in God." —Acts 16:34

Praise:  Several teenage boys learned how to operate digital taping equipment. They arise weekly before 6 AM to help Father Ted record his Catholic radio program.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, October 9, 1998


Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, October 17, 1998