This past weekend, I got to lead the Confirmation retreat for the eighth graders at our church. At it, we talked about what it means to become an adult in the Church, to discover the unique ways we as individuals are gifted to serve the larger body, a discovery process that can start at Confirmation through receiving the Holy Spirit. We discussed how we are called to know God, so we can know ourselves, so we can then serve the people around us.

With Pentecost -- when the apostles received the Holy Spirit and went out to start the early Church -- coming up in approximately a month, it's a great time for all of us to delve into knowing the Holy Spirit more deeply, too. Because in the same way we're called to have a personal relationship with Jesus, we're also called to have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.

It's really incredible to think about: God can do anything, and, through Baptism and Confirmation, this very same Spirit of God is inside of us. The same Spirit who was at the creation of the world, who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk through, who enabled the disciples to speak in languages they didn't know so everyone around them could understand the message of Jesus, is the same Spirit God wants to give to us today. We can have God in us, with us, through us.

We first meet the Holy Spirit in the second verse of Scripture, in Genesis 1:2, before the creation of the world. Here, the Spirit is referred to as a "mighty wind" -- in Hebrew, ruah, which means "spirit or breath of God." This same Hebrew word is used in Acts 2:2, when the Spirit comes to the disciples as a "strong driving wind" and "tongues of fire," enabling them to proclaim the Word of God in different languages. This is the same Spirit Jesus says he wants to give to us in John 14:16-17 and John 16:7, when he calls the Spirit an advocate, someone who helps us and works for us.

Because the Holy Spirit is our advocate and is passionate about helping us become holy, the Spirit wants to give us the gifts of wisdom, wonder and awe, reverence, right judgement, courage, knowledge and understanding. The Holy Spirit wants to help us and always says yes when we ask for these gifts in prayer.

We have an example of this in John 20:19-23. In these verses, the disciples start out afraid; they have locked themselves together in a room because they have been traumatized by the brutal death of one of their best friends. They are afraid they, too, will be killed. When Jesus comes and breathes on them, giving them the Holy Spirit, they go forth, courageous, preaching the Word of God to start the early Church. They have the Spirit of God in them; they can do anything.

Because we know God doesn't change, the same is still true for us today. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit enables us to do anything.

A simple, powerful prayer I love consists of three words: "Come, Holy Spirit." It's a prayer we can be assured that when we pray it, the Holy Spirit's answer is "yes," and the Spirit comes to be in us, with us, through us. When you're afraid, when you don't know what to do, when you need words to say, pray it sometime. You can know, when you do, it is God who is with you.