P ♰ C

by Jean Allen

Finally, sisters, fill your minds with everything that is true, noble, good and pure, everything that we love and honor, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise…then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8)

This text is not in the readings for Pentecost but, if one is preparing one’s heart for the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is a critical text. We often go to Mass on Pentecost Sunday determined to allow the Spirit to take up a deeper residence in our hearts but come Monday, not a lot has changed. Same old, same old and, indeed, it’s so easy to forget Pentecost and the Holy Spirit in the midst of all the other tasks, worries and plans that assail us on Monday morning.

However, if there is a deep desire for a renewed presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, then those words above are the first thing to look at and contemplate. You see, it’s not that the Holy Spirit isn’t with us always and everywhere but when our minds are focussed first on the false, the ignoble, the things in our lives and in society that we deem bad and tainted and we keep turning to chew on the deeds of unvirtuous people or leaders (political or otherwise) and the situations that we cannot praise or condone, we are creating an environment inside ourselves where the Holy Spirit is not welcome. The Holy Spirit does not intrude upon us if he is not welcome and when we are mulling on the negative all the time, we are basically indicating that the Holy Spirit is pretty much a non-entity in our lives – a presence that is not really welcome or thought of as having anything to offer.

Paul tells us to ‘fill our minds’ with goodness. For some of us, that means a whole change of mental priorities and that’s difficult because, for some odd reason, we feel like when we focus on and label the negative, we are more in control – and how we love to be in control. If you don’t believe me, believe Paul. He knew the dynamism of the Spirit within a yielded heart that is filled with thoughts and perspectives of the lovely goodness of God.

It is then that the God of peace – and the Holy Spirit of power – will be with you.

[This is a special edition, written for us at Parish♰Connections. Thank you, Jean. We love you! P & K]