Month: May 2026

105) Pentecost Today!

Our parish participated in the Renew program, and it was a real blessing to many of us.  It reawakened our faith, with a new and deeper desire to live the Gospel life.  One part of the program was a large group gathering with speakers from the diocese doing a presentation.

      There weren’t very many of us there that night, and the couple presenting said they felt led to change their original presentation.  The core of the message they felt led to give was how to fulfill the desire within you to experience God’s power in your life.

     I knew that something was missing in my spiritual life.  All of my life I had been trying to live the Christian life, but it was obvious to me that something was lacking – my walk was so far from the Gospel life I desired.  I listened intently to the words I hoped would bring me the answer I sought.

      The couple said, if you want to experience the power of God in your life, do three things:

  1. pray
  2. get to know Jesus personally
  3. invite the Holy Spirit into your life

      I could remember a simple formula like that, so first, I made a commitment to spend 15 minutes a day in prayer.  Secondly, I had been teaching 3rd grade CCD, and the need came for a 7th grade teacher.  I agreed, and found that the 7th grade curriculum centered on the life of Jesus.  Third, a prayer to the Holy Spirit literally fell out of two different books at me!  So I began to pray that prayer daily also.

      In our Renew group, I had begun to recognize more clearly the difference between my walk and my talk, especially in the matter of prayer.  I talked about it a lot, taught it to  the kids, but wasn’t consistent in my own prayer life.  One of the ladies in the Renew group was a member of a charismatic prayer group that had formed in our parish to pray for Renew – so I joined them.  I also joined a Moms in Touch prayer group that met weekly to pray for our kids and the schools.  The three points were in place now, and I found a gradual sense of growth in my faith life.  It made a huge jump when our prayer group went through a Life in the Spirit video seminar, and I was prayed for to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  The Lord had been preparing my heart, and I was finally ready to give Him a solid Yes.  

     I experienced what have been almost universally agreed as fruits of receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  My knowledge of God’s deep love for me moved from just in my mind into my heart; the desire to pray grew stronger; I had a desire to read the Scriptures, and they came alive for me in a new way; the Mass became more meaningful; and perhaps most noticeable was a gift of courage to do things that I had always been fearful of before.  To speak before a group, even a small group of people I knew, would paralyze me, whereas now I found myself taking on leadership roles and speaking in front of people with an inner strength that wasn’t my own.

     I realized that although I had been trying so very hard to live the Christian life, I had been doing it in my own power, which was painfully inadequate.  The Lord was showing me how to begin to live it in the power of the Holy Spirit.  There’s still so very much more to grow into, but I’m incredibly grateful for the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead me on the way!

     Lord God, thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love.  Send forth Your Spirit, and we shall be created, and You shall renew the faith of the earth…

(Re-print from March 2023)

104) License Plates


As I’ve become more aware of the Lord’s hand in every detail of my life, each day brings promises of surprises that are often new lessons to be learned. With this in mind, I had been eagerly watching the mailbox for the license plates to arrive for our new van – I knew the letters and numbers the Lord would put there would not be random, but rather a secret message from the Lord for us to unravel! The day arrived and as the plates were removed from their envelope, the combination PBX300 was revealed – now to decipher the code!

The first part, PBX, jumped out at me instantly – X of course stood for Christ, from the Greek letter X, or Chi – Christos – the Anointed One. PB offered two possibilities – Praise Be to Christ was the first one that offered itself, especially as I’ve become so aware of the priority of Praise as a foundation of our faith.

The second option of course is Peanut Butter, and this was an even more personal message – the mainstay of our lunch for years has been PBJs, so peanut butter and Christ is even more logical – to keep Christ in the very center of our lives, right in the common and ordinariness of lunch. This was a message I often needed to remember, that to find our Lord we need go no farther than the kitchen, and among the most mundane elements of our living – the sacred in the homeliness of our everyday existence. Sometimes I forget and want to run out to find the Lord in all those mountain top experiences, when in reality He remains so very much present right in the humdrum of our lives.


Considering the idea of peanut butter and Christ presents a very important lesson too – Humor! I can’t look at the plate without smiling, thinking how silly it would appear to many to hear this “code de-ciphering” – and to me too – it brings a smile to my lips whenever I think of it, and a lightness to my heart, and another reminder to take myself less seriously, yet to seriously keep the Lord at the center of our lives!


The number 300 offered extra options too – the first focusing on the number 3, for the Trinity! and the 00 are the eyes of the Holy Spirit – for the last several years a prayer to the Holy Spirit has held a special place in my daily devotions, as I’ve sought to enter into an ever deeper surrender to the Lord – what a neat thought that His eyes are on us all the time, and watching before us and behind us to keep us safe from harm, and give us direction! This puts another smile in my heart too – to imagine the two eyes in the license plate – I like to think the Lord’s eyes would have a twinkle in them at the thought also!


The second option for the 300 came from a journal entry from Catherine Marshall’s book, A CLOSER WALK, which I had only discovered a few days after the plates had arrived. She was writing about the story of Gideon, how he felt himself so incapable of accomplishing the task the Lord had set before him – and indeed by his own power he was incapable – but the Lord assured him that He, the Lord, would provide all that was needed. Gideon needed only to trust, and obey. When Gideon had assembled the forces to do battle as the Lord had commanded, God told him he had too many men – he had 22,000 – they might think they accomplished the victory in their own power instead of by the power of the Lord, so God told him to keep only 300 men – 300! – to prove that it was indeed the Lord’s power that had wrought the victory, and not Gideon’s! What a reminder of humility – to always remember that any victory, or good, achieved through me comes from the power of the Lord within me, and never of myself alone. And that power for good is available to a surrendered life to achieve that which the Lord desires, for His Glory!


Who would have thought how much the Lord could show me through those “random” license plate letters and numbers!? Each time I jump in the van, and it is indeed often, I am reminded of the very real Presence of Christ right with me, wherever I go, the desire to praise Him in all things, the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding me, and to constantly seek to trust and obey the Lord in all that I do, knowing that it is His power and His alone that accomplishes good. And all of this is wrapped in the wonderful lightness of humor, to help me keep the proper perspective on my life and endeavors, knowing that the Joy of the Lord is my strength! (Neh 8:10)

I wonder what surprise the Lord has in store for us tomorrow!?