Come, Holy Spirit
“For the Souls in Purgatory – Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord”
Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
Grace Prayed For
Come, Holy Spirit. Come into our dryness with living water, our darkness with light, our coldness with fire. We wait for you.
Reflection
We do not know how to pray as we ought. Paul’s admission is startling in its honesty, and also profoundly consoling. The Apostle — who planted churches across the Roman world, who wrote half the New Testament, who was caught up to the third heaven — confesses that he does not know how to pray properly. And he frames this not as failure but as the very space into which the Spirit enters.
The Spirit comes to the aid of weakness. This is the grammar of grace: not ‘the Spirit rewards strength’ but ‘the Spirit helps weakness.’ The place of our inadequacy is precisely the place of the Spirit’s work.
Inexpressible groanings. The Greek word is alaletos — too deep for words, beyond articulation. There are prayers that cannot be formed into sentences — the raw ache of grief, the voiceless longing for something we cannot name, the intercession for another that exceeds our capacity to express. The Spirit takes these wordless burdens and carries them before the Father.
For those in our groups who feel that their prayer life is too thin, too halting, too unsophisticated to count for much — this verse is medicine. Your weakness is not a disqualification from prayer; it is the invitation for the Spirit’s intercession to begin. You bring what you have, however inadequate, and the Spirit carries the rest.
Two days before Pentecost, we do not wait for the Spirit as if the Spirit is absent. The Spirit is already praying in us and for us, with sighs too deep for words. The feast coming Sunday is not the Spirit’s arrival from nowhere; it is the revelation of what has already been at work in us.
Come, Holy Spirit. You are already here.
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Sharing
Jesus last words on Earth were to his disciples, can be found in Matthew Chap 28 when Jesus told his disciples, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Jesus calls all of us to share in his redemptive mission here on Earth. I would ask you to share this Scripture reflection with your family, your friends and your acquaintances, and then share it with a couple of individuals that you may may not be comfortable sharing with, keeping in mind always the words of Jesus, And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age
Author was assisted by AI in the drafting of this Post