Staying Engaged with The Holy Spirit

·23 min·2 clips

St. Paul warns not to grieve the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity living inside us.

The episode is a solo homily by Fr. Patrick Gonyeau, a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, focused on the biblical command from Ephesians 4:30 not to grieve the Holy Spirit. He begins by establishing the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity living within baptized believers. Fr. Patrick interprets 'grieving' as 'turning away from perfect love,' illustrating this with an analogy of a spouse rejecting a loving embrace. He acknowledges the daily challenge of responding to situations in the flesh rather than the Spirit, listing negative reactions like bitterness and anger. A key insight is that 'getting caught by the Lord' in our wrongs is a gift of love, allowing for correction. The homily's first major practical tip is to 'fill yourself with goodness,' primarily by reading the Bible for 15-30 minutes daily, as what fills the heart determines speech and action, referencing Luke 6:45. The second tip is to immediately take captive rotten, tempting thoughts by giving them to Jesus and asking what He wants to give in exchange. Fr. Patrick shares a personal testimony of doing this and hearing God respond with 'the joy of being alive in my presence.' He connects this to receiving the Eucharist, encouraging petitions for grace to be filled with goodness and to surrender bad thoughts. The episode concludes with a prayer blessing the congregation, asking the Holy Spirit to set hearts and minds in divine love to avoid grieving the Spirit and to live with pure hearts.

As heard by us

A fervent Catholic call to guard the heart so the mouth speaks life.

The piece treats St. Paul’s warning in chapter 4 as a Catholic call to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit, named here as God himself, the third person of the Trinity living within baptized sons and daughters.

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Why you'd press play

If your speech needs a holiness check, this one starts by naming the Holy Spirit up front and early.

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