The Holy Spirit and Prayer

One

In Spirit and Truth

Everyone knows the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well. It was a remarkable conversation, and led to the conversion not only of that woman, but of the whole village where she lived. But there’s a certain part of that conversation that doesn’t get as much notice. At one point, the Samaritan woman talks about how Jews worship in Jerusalem, while the Samaritans worshipped in Samaria. Jesus responds that the time is coming when people will not need to worship in just one place, whether in Jerusalem or Samaria, but everyone will worship the Father “in Spirit and in Truth,” as the Father wishes.

What does that mean, “In Spirit and in truth”? It means that only the Holy Spirit can cause us to pray rightly to the Father, as Jesus wants us to. It also means that only the Holy Spirit can cause us to pray so that we enter more deeply into the truth. It means that if we want to pray as followers of Christ, we have to be receptive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Two

The Holy Spirit leads us to Prayer

There is nothing good that does not come from God: the universe, the earth and the life that fills it, the human race, and all its achievements. Our families, our talents, the food on our plates, the roofs over our heads, everything, everything good is the gift of God. That includes our good impulses. 

Every good impulse we have is the gift of God. We may be free to resist the good impulses God sends. Our resistance, which isn’t good, comes from ourselves, not from God. But every time we do something right and every time we want to do something right, that inspiration is God’s gift. 

And notice that we say “in-Spiration”. Because even though each Person in the Trinity dwells within the just person, and prompts us to act well, it’s the Holy Spirit who we most associate with living in us as a temple and moving us to the good as a hidden, loving force from within.

What does that mean, in practice? Every time we make it to prayer, that impulse, and the strength to carry out that resolution, came from the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one urging us to pray. When we pray, we are responding, being docile, to His impetus. So be aware, when you pray, that this prayer is not ultimately coming from you. It’s coming from the Spirit who dwells within you. And only if the Holy Spirit guides your prayer will it bring forth its proper fruit.

Three

Prayer “In Truth”

Jesus says we are to pray “In Spirit and in Truth.”  So how does the Holy Spirit lead us to the Truth, in prayer?

Well, first let’s remember that the Holy Spirit is God, and that everything God does, He does through His Spirit. You might think of the whole universe or the whole story of salvation, or just your whole life, as a movie. And God the Father is the One who produces it, and writes the script. All the ultimate instructions come from Him. God the Son is the Leading Protagonist. He’s the Star performer, center stage. The spotlight is on Him. But the Holy Spirit is the Director of everything, of absolutely everything.

He’s the one who stays behind the scenes and arranges how the planets will move, how the stars will shine. He’s the one who inspires the prophets to predict in the Old Testament and then brings everything together in the New Testament to match those predictions. He’s the one, hidden, behind the scenes, who was at work in every single beautiful surprise of your life. Always arranging, always orchestrating, always unseen.

Now have you noticed how a lot of movies these days include Director’s commentaries? Because who better than the director to help you appreciate everything that went into a movie, all the thought and attention to detail? Who better than the director to show you the hidden meanings and point out the clever themes in the movie that you might have missed on your own?

This is exactly what the Spirit can give us in prayer. He can lead us into all truth. He, the director of everything, can show us what it all means. As Paul says, “No one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God” (I Cor 2:11) Only He perfectly understands the universe, the plan of salvation, the arc of our own lives. Every time you have an insight in prayer, that’s the Holy Spirit. Every time you make a good resolution that corresponds to a deeper truth of things, that’s the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His apostles that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things (Jn 14:26), that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth (Jn 16:13). So the first step in prayer should be to invoke Him who leads us to prayer, and allows us to pray into the deeper and deeper truth that only He knows fully.

Four

Invocations of the Holy Spirit

When you first sit down to pray, begin by acknowledging your dependence on the Holy Spirit, and asking Him to guide you in prayer. You can use a formula if you want like, “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. Enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Word, and we shall be recreated, and You shall renew the face of the earth.”

What a beautiful prayer! Just as the Holy Spirit causes the leaves to grow on the trees, the grass to grow, light to travel at the speed it does, gravity to bind together all physical objects. So too, we ask the Holy Spirit to renew and recreate the world that is our own souls. To cause new life to come from the dead sticks and dry dirt of our sins. To cause us to let go of our sluggishness to progress at light-speed towards things of heaven. To cause us to be drawn to the people around us, pulled by the gravity of God’s love that connects everything together. Or, if you can’t remember that whole prayer, just begin by saying, “Help me pray well, Holy Spirit.”

And then you’ll be on your way to praying in Spirit and in Truth.

Five

Am I praying right or am I doing this wrong?

What matters in prayer is not what we do, but what God does in us during these moments.

CCC 2672, “The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the living tradition of prayer. To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as there are persons who pray, but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with all.”

The essential act of prayer is to place ourselves in God’s presence and remain there. We cannot sit before a fire without becoming warm. We cannot be out in the sun without tanning. Likewise, if our prayer consists simply in standing before God without doing anything, without thinking anything or feeling anything but a readiness, trust, and abandonment, then we allow God to act in our soul and we could do nothing better.

One must be less concerned about doing things in prayer and more concerned about being open to God’s action.

The key to success in prayer is twofold. Establish the habit of daily meditation and resolution and persevere, persevere, persevere. Don’t quit, and if you do, start again.