So, tell me more!

So, tell me more!

The Long Green Season, the season of Pentecost, will take us all the way until November 30, the First Sunday in Advent. The duration of this season is directly proportional to how important it is for our spiritual life and growth. When Jesus told the disciples that he would “…ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (comforter) to help you and be with you forever—” (John 14:16), he was setting forth the future for all of us. 

This season is long because we need time to focus and embrace the Advocate. The issue isn’t that the Holy Spirit is hard to perceive; rather, it is that we have very short attention spans. In the age of exploding electronic and AI advancements where packages arrive in a day and even the most obscure information is seemingly available to us in seconds, it is no wonder that we think it will be the same with God. I am not saying that God isn’t available to us at this instant, but that our experience is that of being served with little or no effort.

God is indeed with us always, “even to the end of the ages.”  This is the same God that made Adam and Eve and set them to work, attending the Garden in partnership. Adam and Eve were not created with lounge chairs waiting and God serving at beck and call. In glory, we were created to work! Our structure, our bodies are made to labor on, as the hymn proclaims. We are at our best when we strive and exert ourselves. NIH’s National Library of Medicine's National Center for Biotechnology Information wrote in the article, The Importance of Physical Activity Exercise among Older People, that 

The evidence shows that regular physical activity is safe for healthy and for frail older people and the risks of developing major cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, obesity, falls, cognitive impairments, osteoporosis and muscular weakness are decreased by regularly completing activities ranging from low intensity walking through to more vigorous sports and resistance exercises. Yet, participation in physical activities remains low amongst older adults. 

The advancement of ease in services (information, Doordash, Teledoc, Uber, etc.) is appropriate, even expected social evolution has created the sedentary lifestyle so contrary to God’s design. 
They went on to say,

Improvements in mental health, emotional, psychological, and social well-being and cognitive function are also associated with regular physical activity. 

Our physical well being–striving, working, is connected to every part of our being. A paper presented on the Black Physicians and Healthcare Network stated, 

We live in bodies designed for movement, yet many spend most of our days sitting in front of screens or confined to sedentary lifestyles. However, adding exercise to our daily routines isn't just about losing weight—it's about building good habits and turning exercise into a lifestyle.  (220324)

Building Good Habits

What we all know about the importance of a robust physical life is also true about our spiritual existence. God designed our bodies and spirits with the same intention and to produce the same outcome. The ease we are all enjoying in our physical world has affected our spiritual health as well.
The Long Green Season is a long time designed to help us build good habits. Reading, praying, just recognizing God’s design and striving to live into God’s plan requires a change of our habitual patterns. Just as going to Church on Sunday morning is a habit that produces great benefits, so, too, living into the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives also. 

Saint Augustine, the great Bishop, theologian, and philosopher, realized that the ease of his day–of which he took full advantage, served only to degrade his person, body, mind and spirit. His journey for fulfillment led him to conversion and his embrace of Jesus is a witness through the ages.

The season of Pentecost is a gift of time through which we all can realize the embrace of Jesus and the fulfillment of body and spirit. St. Augustine helps us begin our new habit of attention and devotion by giving us this prayer.

Oh Holy Spirit, Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Love, Spirit of Holiness; I adore You and love You with all my heart. Teach me to know and to seek God, by whom and for whom I was created. Fill my heart with Your presence that I may live in awe and wonder experiencing all of creation as miraculous gift from You! Let Holy Fear and joyful anticipation greet me every waking moment and flood my sleep with the waters of life.

Increase faith, hope and charity in me and bring forth in me all the virtues proper to my state of life. Help me to grow in the four *Cardinal Virtues, Your *Seven Gifts and Your *Twelve Fruits.
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Make me a faithful follower of Jesus, an obedient child of the Church and a help to my neighbor. Give me the grace to keep the Commandments and to receive the Sacraments worthily. Raise me to Holiness in the state of life to which You have called me, and lead me through a happy death to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be Holy. Move in me, Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be Holy. Attract my heart, Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is Holy. Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is Holy. Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be Holy.
Amen.


Next week we will look at the  four “Cardinal Virtues,” our “Seven Gifts” and our “Twelve Fruits.”


Exercising body and faith,
Fr. Bill+