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Are there “dead” spots in your heart? Are there parts of it that have hardened, parts that are closed, that now lack warmth and compassion, from past hurts and betrayals, from suffering or sin? And as a result, is part of you out of touch with the Holy Spirit — or at least less in touch than you might otherwise be?

This is a relevant question because it is the heart that connects us to God, Who of course is the Spirit.

And so one must pray for the Holy Spirit in a big way, in times such as ours, when hearts have grown so hard and cold — to pray for Him (this is the month of the Sacred Heart) to be with us at all times, inspiring, infusing, and instructing every minute. Come Holy Spirit.

Life becomes much more pleasant (and powerful) this way.

He alone is the Truth. Seeing clearly (again, so urgent in our times) is impossible without Him.

The next time you want to get angry or “tough,” first pray to see things as He does.

There is that glint in the eyes of those in touch with God and often an aura of brightness — sometimes perceptible, at least according to one evangelical, Jennifer Eivaz, who invokes the Spirit to the point where those at her prayer talks claim to see (and even to have photographed) her light up, almost like a bulb (for your discernment). [See video interview with her below, and also her book, Seeing the Supernatural)

Here’s the important point: when portions of our hearts have calcified — have hardened — we lose a proportion of feeling without even noticing it. This is happening around the world, especially America: There is hardness. There is coarse discourse. And it only harms. It only shuts out the Holy Spirit, and when He is shut off, so are His wonders, so are His answers to prayers.

When we beseech Him constantly, says Eivaz, He shows up; He sits with us — right there; He goes everywhere with us. He wants to go everywhere. He will bequeath His glory, visible or not.

A meditation for our day: defending ourselves against the enemy (and persecution; yes); being “prayer warriors”; but doing so with humility — softening the heart and allowing in God, asking the Holy Spirit to be with and through us, always.

This is where wisdom and healing begin.

[resources: Jennifer’s book Seeing the Supernatural]

[Father Jozo Zovko of Croatia’s prayer to invoke the Holy Spirit:

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, You who are our peace, come fill us with peace. You who are love, fill us with love and blessing and salvation. We are not here accidentally. We have been called, that we may be able to recognize our call and our mission. We ask You to come O Most Holy Spirit, that our masks may melt away, that our true face may be revealed before You.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, may a miracle happen today: the beginning of our conversion, the beginning of our true devotion. Come, O Most Holy Spirit pour out Your grace and Your strength on Your Church and convert us. Sanctify us. Change us.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, we are the Church united together in prayer with the Mother. As the disciples at the very beginning, united together with Her in prayer for the gift of Your Spirit, for the gift of love, that we may be freed from selfishness and hatred, that we may be freed from every evil, and that we may start to love, that we may start to forgive and to pray, that we may start to fast.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, Come bless us. Come, change us.You who are prayer, come and anoint us with prayer that we may become the Church that believes in the power of prayer. Come, Most Holy Spirit, renew prayer in us, that we may become the renewers of family prayer.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, come heal us, come bless us, come convert us. O You who anoints with Your Peace, with Your Joy, with Your Love. Come anoint us. In the last message O Blessed Mother, You say, that the one who prays, lives joy and peace and love. O Blessed Mother, here is the Church in prayer, here is the Church who desires to renew itself in prayer, firm in prayer, come to fall in love with prayer. O grant that these days may be the renewal of our prayer, of our faith through prayer, of our love through prayer, of a Christian life in prayer. Come, O Most Holy Spirit. Come, pour Yourself out upon us. The Church united together with the Mother is praying to you, You who make all things new. Grant that this Church may become new. It may become a Church of prayer, a holy Church, a sign amongst nations, your city on the hillside, your light on the way, Your Self.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit. Come and pour Yourself out upon us. Our Father who art in Heaven….Hail Mary, full of grace…Mother and Queen of Peace – pray for us. Mother of the Church – pray for us. Mother and Queen of the family – pray for us. Consolation of the Sorrowful – pray for us, help of Christians – pray for us, help of the sick – pray for us, gate of heaven – pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

*In the last message O Blessed Mother, You say, that the one who prays, lives joy and peace and love. O Blessed Mother, here is the Church in prayer, here is the Church who desires to renew itself in prayer, firm in prayer, come to fall in love with prayer. O grant that these days may be the renewal of our prayer, of our faith through prayer, of our love through prayer, of a Christian life in prayer.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, Come, pour Yourself out upon us. The Church united together with the Mother is praying to you, You who make all things new. Grant that this Church may become new. It may become a Church of prayer, a holy Church, a sign amongst nations, your city on the hillside, your light on the way, Your Self.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit, Come and pour Yourself out upon us. Our Father who art in Heaven….Hail Mary, full of grace…Mother and Queen of Peace – pray for us. Mother of the Church – pray for us. Mother and Queen of the family – pray for us. Consolation of the Sorrowful – pray for us, help of Christians – pray for us, help of the sick – pray for us, gate of heaven – pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.]

[Footnote: “The Spirit does not come bearing an agenda, it comes as fire,” the Pope recently said. He does not adhere to a schedule; He is not present in “particular churches, those who do so much in the organization, plans, to have everything clear, all distributed” — but haven’t prayed for Him.

The Holy Spirit is what gives power, life, and dynamism to evangelization, to our words, not good rhetorical skills, the Pontiff said Wednesday, according to the Catholic News Agency. The words of men become effective not thanks to rhetoric, but thanks to the Holy Spirit, “which has the power to purify the word, to make it the bearer of life.”  The Holy Spirit is what makes the Bible different from a written history, he said at his general audience, and “helps us to make that word a seed of holiness, a seed of life, to be effective.”

[Michael Brown retreat, Mass, New Mexico, and pilgrimage, Medjugorje]