The Unknown God: Nine Steps to Pentecost

Day One

*The Annunciation,* 1506, Gerard David, Public Domain from the Met

When St. Paul was in Athens, he noticed that the people worshiped an unknown God. When commenting on this passage, a priest said, “We also worship an unknown God. Our unknown God is one of the members of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit.”

Let’s learn to know the Holy Spirit better during these nine days before Pentecost. Here is the first step.

As we reflect on Jesus leaving the world and returning to the Father, we might ask, “Who was it that brought Jesus into the world?”

The Gospel of St. Matthew and the Gospel of St. Luke both tell us that Jesus was brought into the world through the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit is God, he doesn’t change. Therefore although Jesus can only once be brought into the world as a baby in the womb of his mother, he can continue to be brought into the world every day through the desire of Christians and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always desires to bring Jesus into the world.

First day of a novena to the Holy Spirit:

Send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

Come, Holy Spirit, and bring Jesus into the world so that we may love him and be united to the Father through the power of your transforming action. Amen.