On the feast of Pentecost, we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit to be renewed in us. When we received the sacrament of Confirmation, we learnt of the gifts of wisdom, understanding counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. We need these gifts to be renewed in us constantly if we are to play our own part as disciples of Jesus Christ.
We also pray for the Holy Spirit to bring peace to our souls. The sequence for today’s feast speaks of this effect of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit:
Thou of all consolers blest
Thou the soul’s delightful guest
dost refreshing peace bestow.
This “refreshing peace” (refrigerium) was an important hope for our early Christian saints who struggled in this life under persecution. Their pagan contemporaries sought peace in various forms of wisdom just as people do today in self-help schemes and the search for a healthy life.
When He taught the apostles about the Holy Spirit, Our Lord promised a peace that the world cannot give. (Jn 14.27) This peace is lost by sin and by lukewarmness towards the things of God, and discovered in devoted and attentive prayer. It is a great treasure because it is not simply the absence of turmoil, but the presence of our “delightful guest.”