“For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” In this admonition, St. Paul reminds us of the great gift that is the Holy Spirit.
            All of us have received the gift of the Holy Spirit in baptism. The Spirit we have received is a Spirit of power. How our lives and our world would be transformed if all Christians allowed the power of the Spirit of God to take full possession of them! St. Paul surrendered completely to the power of God at work in him. He allowed that power to lead him on his great work of evangelization and to sustain him when that work caused him great suffering and great hardship. Through the power of the Spirit of God at work in him, St. Paul brought the Gospel of Christ to all of the then known world. Many of us are afraid to follow the example of St. Paul because we want to control our lives, control the measure to which God directs our lives, and we want to limit the measure to which our faith influences our lives. All of us need to pray daily for the grace to grow in our willingness to give full freedom to the power of God within us.
            The Spirit of love that is within each of us is the love that is God. The love that is God is a love that is compassionate, merciful, and faithful, gives welcome to all, and is a total gift of self. Do others see in us the love of God? Do they see that we have allowed the Spirit of love that is God to take full possession of our hearts?
            The Spirit of self-control reminds us that we are not slaves to our passions and desires. We can conform our lives to what God desires for us with the help of the Spirit of God within us. What are the disordered passions and desires that we need to control in our lives so that we can live in conformity with what God wills for us? Do we seek the help of the Spirit within us to grow in our capacity to control our desires so that we live in greater faithfulness to God?
            We are blessed to have the Spirit of God within us! Now we have to allow that Spirit to operate with full freedom within us in order to transform us and through us our world.
                            Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.