Gratitude to God -- Really ALIVE

What about real gratitude for the Spirit of God??? St. Paul reminds us of one of the many reasons to be grateful for God's presence within us: (Romans 8:9-11 from The Message)

"But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. .... For you who welcome him, in whom he dwells -- even though you still experience all the limitations of sin -- you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!"

For our own sharing: How do we experience the "alive-and-present God" within us during the day? What does that look like? And what does that feel like? What are some things that have helped you to become more aware of the God who lives and breathes in you?

The Spirit - Alive in Our Teens

CYO teens -- on a weekend retreat in Putnam Valley, New York. A great experience for me to see the Holy Spirit working through them and to see the depths of their love for Jesus Christ: both the teen directors and the teen participants. Now, that is what the Holy Spirit does, as St. Paul reminds in letter after letter.

So, let's start looking more closely to what God is doing in our young people and stop concentrating on what we think is negative. Look around (and go around) those circles where teenagers are growing in their relationship to Jesus and are being the real apostles of our day. Take note of what they are doing.

Let's share this good news of the Pentecost power that is being revealed to us.