The Spirit will Be with Us Forever

by Peggy Colf, Executive Assistant  |  05/10/2026  |  This Sunday's Reading

The readings today remind us that God stays close to His people. The Holy Spirit is given to guide and strengthen believers. Jesus calls us to love Him and live out that love through our actions. Our challenge is to trust that we are not alone in our faith. We need to let our actions show our love for Jesus each day. We should always be ready to share our hope with others and to do it in a calm and kind way. If we do one small act of kindness it can be a way of living out our faith. We should not hold on to our faith but instead we need to help it spread to our family, our neighbors and our friends both near us and those farther away. We need to encourage others to trust that God is with us in every moment. We hear in the first reading that the Word of God is reaching out to new people, and the Spirit is moving among them.

In the psalm we are invited to praise God for His mighty works and in the second reading Peter tells us to speak of our hope with gentleness. In the Gospel we hear Jesus promise that the Spirit will be with us forever. All of what we hear this weekend is full of hope and promise but you might ask how can I share with those that are not around or near me? Let me share with you something from my own family. My children and I had become “fallen away Catholics” and to this day some have not found their way back. But we remain a close family, always being there to celebrate each milestone in each other’s lives. My oldest son and his family have found their way back but, even though I pray to St. Monica for the others to return, my son has been doing so much more. He found away to reach out to all the male members of our family, both old and young, Catholic and no longer practicing their Catholic faith, and with the help of the internet, holds a Bible Study each Sunday from his own home. He is sharing with them God’s promises, God’s teachings and most of all God’s Love. They share their time together from Ohio, Washington D.C., Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Nevada, California and even right here in Chino Valley. I can truly say that I see the Holy Spirit working in my family through my son. This is something that they want to do, not something they are forced to do. They are even talking about Walking together, the Camino de Santiago in a couple of years. Maybe we all need to look within our own families because you just might see the Holy Spirit working there too.

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18)

Peace and God’s Blessings.