Tom McGrath is vice president of new product development for Loyola Press and author of Raising Faith-Filled Kids: Ordinary Opportunities to Nurture Spirituality at Home.
My wife and I have found a great remedy for those times when life seems overwhelmingly stressful, our worries mount, and our inner resources seem depleted. We consider the birds of the air.
In the South Side Chicago neighborhood where I grew up, if one of the men on the block found himself stymied by City Hall bureaucracy, he would talk to Louie. I was never quite sure what Louie did for a living.
What happens to a person when the Holy Spirit descends like a tongue of fire? In Acts, those present were filled with the Holy Spirit. We all long for this. We all seek fulfillment. I saw this once when I was conducting a spiritual retreat for members of various 12-step groups. Each person spoke powerfully about how the pain of emptiness in his life had led him down wayward paths. Each had discovered that “you can never get enough of that which will not satisfy.”
There were only 11 disciples on the mountain. The group was incomplete because one had betrayed Jesus and given in to despair. The others hadn’t acquitted themselves much better during the time of trial. The impetuous one had denied Jesus three times. Some had scattered and hid. Together or on their own, it just didn’t seem they were enough.
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