“The Holy Spirit is God at work—creating, speaking, transforming us, living within us, working in us.”

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:   --Joel 2:28

(Gospel Text: JN 20:19-23)

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews,

Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Today we call to mind the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit:  Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord.  These gifts are graciously given to us by our Lord, but they are not given to be kept to ourselves, they are to be used and shared. 

Are we willing to share these gifts? 

Maybe we are, but not sure how.

Each individual is unique and blessed with different gifts, talents, personalities, desires, forms of service and workings.  Your gifts are different than mine and that’s a good thing!  The Lord made each of us unique for a reason and we each live out our vocational call and call to holiness by responding “Yes” to the Lord, to become the person he made us to be, to become the best version of ourselves.  Often times our culture seems to tell us we all need to be like someone else, to look up to family members, celebrities or other influencers in our lives and be like them.  While it is important to look up to role models, especially the example set by our ultimate role models- the Saints - we must remember that God did not create me to be exactly the same as St. Therese of Lisieux or Mother Teresa of Calcutta or St. Matthew or St. Francis of Assisi. We must remember that God is calling you to be you, not someone else.  That is what is beautiful about the Catholic faith; we are all made in the same image - the image and likeness of God.  We all come from the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, yet we are all unique and live out our call to holiness differently, just like the Saints.  That’s what made them Saints, they become the best version of themselves, who God was calling them to be. 

Who is God calling you to be?  Are you becoming the best version of yourself? 

The Holy Spirit is alive in each one of us, as sons and daughters of God we are led by the Spirit if we only allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, if we give God the time in prayer to listen to where he is calling us.