When (or if) someone asks you to “describe what God looks like,” your answers probably fall into one of two categories.
One is that of a long-white-haired, bearded, and robed man high in the clouds with the sun serving as His spotlight.
The other is of a not-quite-as-old bearded man with traditional garb of antiquity and sandals resembling someone from King of Kings, Jesus of Nazareth, and so on. He may or may not have thorns, a cross, or other elements crucial to crucifixion.
How many times have you, or could you, answer “What does God look like?” with a description of fire, wind, and . . . well spirit?
While there is no such thing as a “middle child” in the Holy Trinity, I think the so-called “third person,” gets forgotten, misunderstood, neglected, and anything else the thesaurus will tell us.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the Holy Spirit is “The third divine Person of the Holy Trinity, the personal love of Father and Son for each other. Also called the Paraclete (Advocate) and Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the divine plan for our salvation (Glossary; CCC 685; cf. 152, 243).”
It’s so easy to think of the Holy Spirit as an afterthought or just something that came after Christ.
Despite not being announced as part of the Trinity until later in the Bible, we have to remember God the Holy Spirit always was, always is, and always will be.
The Holy Spirit is just as much God as any other image or idea we have of God.
The Holy Spirit is also the “advocate” that was sent to us following the Ascension of Jesus.
We need to pay attention to the Holy Spirit and pray to the Holy Spirit.
As Church teaching says, the Holy Spirit is going to be with us for a long time so we ought to make the most of such said an advocate.
Why the neglect?
We like thinking about God as some sort of personification.
When we ask for help, we envision getting help from someone with a familiar image and likeness.
To some, an individual that possesses the characteristics of tongues of fire might resemble something from Marvel versus part of the Trinity. Although I imagine some people would be more apt to think Iron Man could save them instead of God.
We see imagery of God the Son all the time. Think about how often you see a crucifix or a Rosary — He’s there. Most of us don’t have the equivalent items for the Holy Spirit.
Maybe some of you do this already, but what if we hung up images of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit next to where we have our crucifixes? We would never forget the Trinity, the whole Trinity, and nothing but the Trinity.
Even the idea of a “spirit” being a “person” can be hard to grasp. It’s hard to carry on a conversation with a spirit. We need constant approval and interaction. Of course, these are challenges when praying to any person of the Trinity.
Most people may think of a “spirit” as a ghost-like figure also, which is certainly not the imagery we’re going for when trying to illustrate God.
Perhaps much of the hesitance to fully embracing the Holy Spirit is our lack of ability to believe what we do not see.
We believe, help our unbelief.
Eye has not seen, indeed.
I may get some feedback from those of you who have a strong devotion to praying to God the Holy Spirit. To that, I say thank you.
The next time you pray “Come, Holy Spirit,” pray for the rest of us. 🙂
Turning to prayer
Of course, it doesn’t matter how we pray to God as long as we’re praying to God.
If we’ve only been praying to some combination of the Father and the Son, we’ve probably been missing out on so much more.
If we add in the Holy Spirit, our prayer life would grow by at least 50 percent.
If we’re not praying to the Holy Spirit and accepting said Spirit as just as much a part of the Trinity as the other Persons, we are truly missing out.
It’s very easy to start. All you have to do is ask the Holy Spirit for help.
How about that? By asking for help, you’re already doing what you want to be doing.
God really makes these things so easy on us if we would just Trust Him.
God the Father is good.
God the Son is good.
God the Holy Spirit is good too.
Let God the Holy Spirit into your life and bring it into your prayer life whether you’re praising God, praying for what you need (want), praying for what others need, or thanking God for all the Trinity has done and blessed you with in your life.
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.