Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 481


The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God’s will.


I suppose nearly everyone has their favorite passage of scripture but nearly everyone favors Romans 8, the Spiritual Chapter. Following Saint Paul’s exasperated, self-incrimination – “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” – he thanks God for the merciful, reassuring presence of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit buoys him up and carries him over the shoals of his persistent failure.

The Christian learns to pray “in the Spirit.” She learns to let the self be quiet. Its worries, concerns, grievances, disappointments and anxieties can settle down for a while. They are important, no doubt, but not that important. They can be “placed on the back burner” at least for a few minutes as the Spirit of God clears its throat within the chamber of my heart and begins to sing.

The self can listen to the song which may or may not use words. When I first heard the song it used the words of Psalm 139: “O Lord you have probed me and you know me….” I didn’t even know which psalm that was though I had read it many times in our psalter. Hearing it sung in my heart I had to go searching through the breviary to identify it:

LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
You sift through my travels and my rest;
with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
LORD, you know it all.

Some people hear the Spirit as tongues, and others as familiar hymns. Creative types might hear a new song, read a poem yet unwritten, or see a picture that wants to be painted. In any case they know it is not their own doing but the Spirit speaking within them, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Life is full of troubles. This we know. But it need not be sated.  All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.