As we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, our focus is the Holy Spirit. We will look at the some of the titles of the Holy Spirit. In the Nicene Creed we profess “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life”. In Genesis we read: “And then the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth, and he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). From of old the breath in the body was seen as the sign of life. The Holy Spirit is the source of our physical life. As such, we didn’t just happen. We were given the gift of life by God. The Spirit also sustains us in our human life.

But the Spirit is also the source of our sharing in God’s Divine life. As we are born naturally, so we are reborn in the waters of baptism spiritually. Jesus told Nicodemus: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one has been reborn by water and the Holy Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Jesus stresses this aspect of the Spirit when in John 6:64 he says: “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Later, St Paul confirms this by saying, in 2 Corinthians 3:6 “but the Spirit gives life.” Again, as such, we were adopted by choice to share God’s divine life and become Temples of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit sustains us in our human life, so He sustains us in our life in God. Give thanks to the Spirit for both our human life and our share in his divine life.