Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (6/7/2009)

Dear People of Holy Name,

We speak of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God. A broader way to think of the Father is as creator so as not to leave out a feminine dimension of God which happens when we refer to God with the human image of father. When we think of God the creator we are also referencing the God who always was, the one who created all things.

When we refer to the Son of God we are referring to Jesus Christ, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a woman. Jesus is the presence of God who entered human time and who through his life, death and resurrection has reconciled us to the Father. It is through Jesus Christ that we have come to know God as creator, redeemer and sanctifier. John in his Gospel repeats over and over that to know the Father is to know the Son because everything he has been given, has been given to him by the Father.

The Holy Spirit, who as we profess in our creed, proceeds from the Father and the Son, is the continued presence of God in the present. The Holy Spirit is God present in this moment, and the Holy Spirit is God’s promised presence to us till the end of earthly time. To know Jesus, to experience the presence of God in our lives, is the manifestation of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our time.

Contemplating God as the Holy Trinity helps us to understand that the God who created all things, and who reconciled through Jesus Christ is just as present to us as he was when he breathed over the waters in creating, when he rose from the dead in Jesus Christ and when the Holy Spirit enlivened the early Church that we hear of in the Acts of the Apostles. Praying in the Holy Spirit we realize that God is powerfully and really present in this every moment.

Often in our prayer and reflection we think of God in the past, but we are called to live in God and make his presence known today. For this we need and must pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We must open our minds and hearts to the Lord and seek his action in our lives. In doing so, we are going out and baptizing all peoples in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We bring people into the presence of God when we allow his Holy Spirit to live and move in us.

On this Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we bow down in awe of a God who created us, redeemed us and who continues to live in us. We also realized that he has called us to be his sons and daughters in the world today. Each of us is that important and that special and each of us has gifts and talents given to us that we might accomplish here on earth what God has called us into being to accomplish.

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo