YOUCAT Lesson 496
YOUCAT the catechism
for Catholic youth
496 Why do we need the Holy
Spirit when we pray?
The Bible says, “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but
the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
The Trinity in Christianity is the
belief that there is but one God with three divine persons: God the Father, God
the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.
We express this belief with the Sign of the Cross (In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit). We affirm our belief in the Holy Trinity when we pray the Apostle’s Creed. Jesus often speaks of his Father in the gospels
of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Jesus
sent the Holy Spirit to Mary and the Apostles on the first Penticost.
…..496
“Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your
faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your divine love. Send forth your Spirit and we will be created
and you will renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: O God by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us by the same
Spirit to be truly wise and to ever rejoice in his consolation through Christ
our Lord. Amen”
Praying to God is possible only with God. It is not primarily our accomplishment that
our prayer actually reaches God. We
Christians have received the Spirit of Jesus, who wholeheartedly yearned to be
one with the Father: to be loving at all times, to listen to each other with
complete attention, to understand each other thoroughly, to want wholeheartedly
what the other person wants. This holy
Spirit of Jesus is in us, and he is speaking through us when we pray. Basically prayer means that from the depths
of my heart, God speaks to God. The Holy
Spirit helps our spirit to pray. Hence
we should say again and again, “Come, Holy Spirit, come and help me to
pray.”120
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit
who unites the Father with the Son in Love.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Vigil of Pentecost 2006
“Come, O Holy Spirit, come: and from Thy heavenly home shed
a ray of light divine…” Sequence for
Pentecost
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in
our weakness.” Romans 8:26a
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