At the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which is the story of the early Church, the apostles and the Blessed Mother gather together in the upper room and the Holy Spirit descends upon them. Then, for the rest of the Book of Acts, the Apostles burst out into the world, doing Christ’s work all around them.
Mass does the same thing: The Holy Spirit gathers and sends us.
To make the most of it, look for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at Mass, and take them with you into your life.
The first two gifts of the Holy Spirit are about seeing the way God works.
Wisdom is “a spiritual gift which enables one to see the purpose and plan of God.” When you look to the host, your eyes see only bread — but the Holy Spirit’s gift of wisdom allows you to see Christ.
The same wisdom that allows you to see the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist allows your heart to see the way he is present in the people who surround you in the rest of your life.
Knowledge is the gift of the Holy Spirit that helps you see the pattern God put in salvation history — and in your life. The liturgy teaches us that “From the beginning until the end of time the whole of God’s work is a blessing.”
At Mass we are safe and secure in the knowledge that we are exactly where God wants us to be — but we lay people remain there wherever we go.
Two gifts of the Holy Spirit are about aligning your priorities with God’s.
Understanding is the gift we get in the Liturgy of the Word, where “The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who hear it ... so they can live out the meaning of what they hear.”
Right judgement is the gift of the Holy Spirit that disposes our heart to see and follow God’s will. At Mass “the grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart and adherence to the Father’s will.”
This gift is “conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterwards.”
Then there are the three gifts of the Holy Spirit that shape your relationship with God.
Piety is the gift of consolation in prayer, which Mass is built to deliver. At every Mass, “The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father’s vine which bears fruit in its branches.” The sweet joy of belonging to the body of Christ at Mass, with his life coursing through us, should inspire the same awareness throughout the week.
Fear of the Lord is the gift of awe and reverence for the Lord. Mass shows us that “God the Father is blessed and adored as the source of all the blessings of creation and salvation,” so that we won’t forget that he is our strong Father in the days that follow.
Fortitude is the way God strengthens your heart to face your life’s troubles. This happens at every Mass where “he pours into our hearts the Gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.”
The Eucharist is not just the source and summit of our Christian life.
It is also the source and summit of our connection to the Holy Spirit — and every Mass is a weekly Pentecost that gathers us in to God’s life, and sends his life out to the world.
