Come, Holy Spirit Novena Day 8

Scripture

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

Meditation

Fruit results from the union of living things. In the Nicene Creed, Christians proclaim that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord and Giver of life.” He comes to dwell in us, and as we allow Him to take root in our spirits, He produces fruit.

Notice that the word fruit in this verse in Galatians is in the singular. St. Paul says, “fruit of the Spirit,” not “fruits of the Spirit.” The fruit of the Holy Spirit differs from the gifts of the Spirit. An individual does not have all the gifts listed in the New Testament spiritual gift passages (i.e. I Cor 12, Rom 12, and Eph 4). God gives gifts as He chooses. However, the fruit is a package deal in the sense that God intends for each of us to grow in all the qualities listed: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And the greatest of these is love because the rest are all rooted in love. If we abandon ourselves to the love of Christ and allow His Spirit to work and flow through us, we will manifest the fruit of the Spirit more and more.

St. Paul exhorts us to walk by the Spirit. That means we have a choice. If we desire to produce the fruit of the Spirit, we must intentionally choose to follow the Holy Spirit. We have to decide to love with Christ’s love, experience the joy of His salvation, accept the peace of Christ, and so on. We must make a decision to live a life of prayer and walk in the presence of God.

Second Corinthians 3:18 calls us to prayer. In the presence of God and in contemplating the Lord’s glory, the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ, and He does this by producing His fruit in us. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, and transform me into the image of Jesus. Bear Your fruit in me. Draw me to prayer and adoration so that Your Spirit transforms me as I dwell in Your presence. Make me a channel of Your love. 

Traditional prayer invoking the Holy Spirit: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Meditation and first prayer by Adriana Gonzalez

Photo by Lasseter Winery on Unsplash