by Jim Beckman, Executive Director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
This is the third article in a special series on prayer. The first two, dealing with the question “Why Pray?” were released during the season of Lent. If you haven’t seen those, it might be worth going back to check them out before moving forward. Hopefully, the first two articles convinced you that you should be making time consistently for prayer – the “why.” This article is about the “what” of prayer. What is prayer anyway?
Prayer is all about relationship. But, it’s not like any other relationship in our lives. Prayer is about a relationship with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God actually knows us better than we know ourselves, so a consistent relationship with him helps us grow in better understanding of ourselves – our identity. The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes makes this clear: “…only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light … Christ … fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (GS, 22). That makes my third point, prayer is all about mission! When you know yourself better, you also tend to know more clearly why you are here. You could capture all this reality in a simple working definition for prayer as: relationship, identity, mission.
If that is what prayer is, then we can begin to see why the Holy Spirit plays such a critical role in the spiritual life. A quick reference to the Catechism gives us a clue as to how significant this role is – and this is by no means a comprehensive list: the Holy Spirit reveals the person of Christ (152, 683); the Holy Spirit coverts the human heart (1989); he helps and sustains faith (158, 684); he leads us to a life of prayer (2623); he’s the master of prayer (2625, 2630, 2670); and he’s the source of all holiness (749). If you desire to grow in a life of prayer, the Holy Spirit is your go-to person of the Trinity to help you get there!
Let’s dig a little more into these graces to understand better how the Holy Spirit helps us advance in the pursuit of holiness. I want to focus on three special graces he offers. The Holy Spirit “reveals,” the Holy Spirit “transforms” and the Holy Spirit “teaches.”
The Holy Spirit reveals
One of the principal things the Holy Spirit does is reveal the Father and the Son to us. We come into greater depth and intimacy with the persons of the Trinity through the special work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to how powerfully the Catechism articulates this: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. God has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 683). In the life of prayer, we can trust the Holy Spirit to keep leading us into ever-deepening intimacy and relationship with the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit transforms
One of the fundamental aims of the spiritual life is interior transformation – God is trying to change our broken human nature into his perfect and divine nature.
As Saint Athanasius says, “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God” (CCC, 458). This work of transformation takes time; it is a slow, incremental process. It also requires much from us in terms of our cooperation.
“The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion … moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man” (CCC, 1989). Over time, little by little, if we let him, the Holy Spirit gradually changes us into who we were created to be. That’s what we call transformation!
The Holy Spirit teaches
All during that process of transformation, the Holy Spirit is like a tour guide and athletic trainer combined. He knows the path to holiness, so can illuminate the path and guide us with every step. But, he also knows that we won’t really grow without our own cooperation and effort. “No pain, no gain” so to speak.
The Holy Spirit is the “master of prayer” because he knows how to lead us to hope in the midst of our struggle. “In the risen Christ the Church's petition is buoyed by hope, even if we still wait in a state of expectation and must be converted anew every day. Christian petition, what Saint Paul calls ‘groaning,’ arises from another depth, that of creation ‘in labor pains’ and that of ourselves ‘as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.’ In the end, however, ‘with sighs too deep for words’ the Holy Spirit ‘helps us in our weakness’” (CCC, 2630).
In your prayer, which hopefully you have been convinced by now needs to be happening every day, ask the Holy Spirit to help you! Ask him to reveal the Father and Son to you. Ask him to keep transforming you more and more into the holy saint God created you to be. And ask him to teach you how you can lean into that work of transformation more and more, and maybe even speed up the progress of interior change.
May the special graces of this season be like a jet fuel in your spiritual life! Happy Easter!