Written by Father Michael
My crazy clock is working again. People that see it wonder how it works at all. The clock is a BIG BEN wind up alarm clock. Most of you probably have seen it in old time movies. 
People are either throwing it across the room or throwing something at it. Its irritating wake up call is despised by all. Tick-tock all night, then a loud clank, clank, clank. My black BIG BEN has it parts, springs, gears, and face flying out and around the clock. The face of the clock sticks out and is in your face. But it keeps good time, and the second hand is replaced with a feather. The alarm does not work and the hands move quietly around. A new battery power movement smoothly moves the hands. It is a friendlier clock; in fact, it generally brings a smile to the face of whoever views it. And to those of us that actually used one of these wind-ups it is a fitting silent end.
We just celebrated Pentecost, the great feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world to become our help in our journey home to God to fulfill Jesus’ promise that we will never be left alone. In the readings of Pentecost, like my Big Ben, there are two visions. From Paul’s Acts (2:1-2) …THERE CAME FROM THE SKY A NOISE LIKE A STRONG WIND…and from John (20:19 &22) … PEACE BE WITH YOU…&…HE BREATHED ON THEM AND SAID “RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT”. Two ways to receive the Spirit, in thunder or in quiet. How do you receive the Spirit?
How you receive the Spirit is basically the way you will give the Spirit. My preference may be obvious to most. I prefer to receive the Spirit in my life as a breath of life. The Spirit is an enabler, who gives me the strength and the ability to act on the gifts God has given me. The greatest gift in my life is the belief that has sustained me, that no matter how bad things are or how far I have strayed, the Spirit has never left me. I have cried the tears of desertion and abandonment but weren’t those tears for my own desertion and abandonment not the Spirit’s? Those were the periods of doubt and forgetfulness. God is always present if we chose to see God.
God breathed the Spirit into the hearts of those first disciples and continues to breathe into us to give us life. The omnipresence of the Spirit is difficult for most of us because the Spirit comes to us in the quiet. NO big bang, no big wind, no big conversion or wake up call, just the quiet persistent presence of the one who loves us. Because the Spirit is so quiet we do forget and ignore the Spirit’s presence. Those times we do allow the Spirit to enter our lives great things happen, the world becomes a different place, it is Spirit filled. God’s will becomes our will. We no longer question God and ask why, we become humble and loving servants. We do not fear, we are loved.
Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful.