Hello everyone!
It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog- nearly a year and a half! Wow, time sure does have a way of sneaking up on us.
The reason I am writing is actually because of something beautiful my wife did. We have been praying the novena to the Holy Spirit in preparation for Pentecost. This was a big deal in that we last prayed together as a couple consistently during the first week of Easter. In fact, I have been struggling to pray consistently this entire year.
But, with my wife as a faithful prayer partner, we've done the short prayer each day together. The prayers are simple but show the different graces the Holy Spirit can bestow- Joy, Kindness, etc. It was a rough week of work and, in general, the entire Easter Season has been stressful. Many unexpected changes all in a row threw us for a loop.
But God truly works in mysterious ways and in hidden and beautiful ways in each of us. My wife went out today to Hoboken to see a friend. Similarly, I met up with my groomsmen. While my friends are good people, sometimes when I'm with them I fall back into bad old habits of mine from when we first met in high school. Cursing, inappropriate jokes- the kind of thing that one does when you forget who you want to be and slip up. My wife too seemed to fall into an old habit while she was out but in a much different way.
My wife said that she prayed on the train to the Holy Spirit. When she got off the train, she was presented with several homeless people that needed help. While usually, being trained from experiences in NYC, to avoid most homeless people, my wife approached two separate people to help them. One woman she bought food; another man asked for change but, as she didn't have any change she offered a hug. He accepted and she hugged him. She did not have concern for herself, only thinking that this person needed to be loved and feel human.
That hug is what restored me in my times of trouble. My wife's love is what has brought me back to God and shown me the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a remarkable and amazing hug to experience and she shared that with a person in need today. That act of love without self worry was a gift of self that connected with a person who, like many of us, are not acknowledged as a person. If that were me today, I would have walked right past the man acting for change.
God worked in a special way in my wife today and hopefully, come tomorrow with the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit will act in all of us. The Holy Spirit lives in all of the baptized and, if we open ourselves up to Him, asking for the grace of God in our lives, we too may feel His embrace and share the warmth of his love- person to person.
God love you!
~OCG
