Spirit of grace and prayer, have mercy on us.
Grace and prayer. Both of these are gifts from God that the Holy Spirit pours into us. Grace, as defined in the Catechism, is the “free and undeserved gift God gives us to respond to our vocation to become His adopted children.” When we are baptized, God fills us with sanctifying grace and comes to dwell within us. We become temples of the Holy Spirit.
But God’s grace does not end there. God provides actual graces, sacramental graces, and special graces every day of our lives. These graces strengthen us in love, draw us to God, nudge us toward repentance, and give us all we need to devote our entire existence to God. Our job is to open ourselves to receive these graces and to respond to them, embracing them and living them with gratitude.
Prayer, too, is a grace. We might think that we initiate prayer, but God gives us the desire to pray to Him in the first place. We respond by pouring our hearts out to God. As St. Therese of Lisieux so beautifully explains, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”
In Romans 8:26, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit actually prays in us. He “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” Notice how the Spirit surrounds us in prayer. He prays within us as He spurs on our own prayers. Our intimacy with God deepens more and more as we allow the Spirit to work within us, reaching up to the Father and the Son in love.
Spirit of peace and meekness, have mercy on us.
In Scripture, peace is more than just a lack of conflict. Rather, it is a state of wholeness with everything in proper order. When we are at peace, we are right with God, with others, and with ourselves, according to God’s plan for our lives.
Meekness is yet another one of those concepts that gets a bad rap in the modern world. People often equate “meek” with “wimpy” or “cowardly.” But this isn’t the Christian sense of the word. Meekness isn’t weakness; it’s strength under control. People who are truly meek are humble, self-controlled, and gentle, but they are also strong. They know how to respond to all situations correctly and how to allow God to guide them in their dealings with others. In this, they imitate Jesus, Who is both meek and powerful, gentle and forceful.
Spirit of modesty and innocence, have mercy on us.
Modesty is another form of self-control. The Catechism explains that “Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden.” Modesty refers to our outward appearance but also to our behaviors, words, and attitudes. When we are modest, we recognize and preserve the human dignity that God has given us, and we treat ourselves and others with respect, for we have all been made in the image of God.
The word “innocence” may call to mind the image of a small child, one who has not yet learned how to be anything other than what he or she is. Indeed, Jesus tells us, “I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3). We might think it is impossible to recapture the innocence of our childhood. We have seen too much of the world. We have done too many things wrong. Yet God offers us the way of repentance and forgiveness. He cleanses us of our sins and purifies our hearts so that we can rediscover the innocence we have lost.
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