CMP Review 2024-10-06
When Jesus teaches about prayer, he asks us to think about our children: “And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?”
Even as we are thinking about loaves, and fishes, and eggs, we read in the Gospel of Luke the surprising final sentence: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
The Navarre Bible puts this into perspective: “The Holy Spirit is God’s best gift to us, the great promise Christ gives his disciples (cf. Jn 5:26), the divine fire which descends on the apostles at Pentecost, filling them with fortitude and freedom to proclaim Christ’s message (cf. Acts 2).”
And so St. Josemaría Escrivá proclaims, “Jesus has kept his promise. He has risen from the dead and, in union with the eternal Father, he sends us the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and to give us life.”
Charlotte Mason recognized the significance of this gift. In her poetic commentary on this passage from Luke she writes, “No good thing that a man requires but comes with Pentecostal fires.” Read or listen to Mason’s spiritual poem here.
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