"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." -Luke 4:21
Jesus prophesied: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; therefore He has anointed Me. He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19). This "year of favor" is the Jubilee Year, which occurred every fifty years (see Lv 25:10ff) and Jesus promised the good news of great freedom each year.
As the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and anointed Him to set the captives free, so we need the Holy Spirit to be stirred into flame in our lives (2 Tm 1:6-7). Sunday, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, the last day of the Christmas season. As the Spirit descended upon Jesus at His Baptism in the river Jordan, so the Spirit will come to us in new and deeper ways. End this Christmas season by receiving the power of the Spirit to give jubilee-freedom to an enslaved and enslaving world.
Come, Holy Spirit! Come, true Christmas Spirit!
Father, may I celebrate jubilee years and a jubilee life forever with You.
"We, for our part, love because He first loved us." -1 Jn 4:19
2 comments:
If souls would only be willing to listen, at least a little, to the voice of conscience and the voice-that is, the inspirations-of the Holy Spirit! I say "at least a little," because once we open ourselves to the influence of the Holy Spirit, He himself will fulfill what is lacking in us.
Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 359
PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
Come Holy Spirit, pour forth on our entire family of Love Crucified, as well as our personal family, the source of Your grace, and enkindle a new Pentecost in Your Church! Come down upon Your bishops, Your priests, your seminarians, your religious, Your faithful and upon those who do not believe, upon the most hardened of sinners, and finally, upon each one of us! Come down upon all the people of the world, upon all races, and upon every class and category of people!
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