“In caring for the world, we care for each other. In caring for each other, we care for the Creator and show Him our respect, our deference, our service.”
Those were the words of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, in a special message for the global prayer initiative ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. Cardinal Nichols upheld two key pillars of the Christian faith – praying to the Holy Spirit for people to come to know Jesus Christ and the role of the Holy Spirit as ‘God’s power’ sustaining the created world.
“It’s the Holy Spirit that transformed what we call the ‘chaos’ into the ‘cosmos’ – the ordered world,” Cardinal Nichols said.
“May ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ be a prayer from our hearts that the Holy Spirit transforms us into servants of the word and servants of the created world made through the Word Himself.”
MESSAGE
The novena of prayer before Pentecost, ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, has become part of the rhythm of life in the Christian churches. So I encourage you to take it up.
Every opportunity to pray, in a structured way and in a way that brings us together in prayer, is immensely valuable.
And that is true of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. We pray in anticipation – asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, that’s so central to our faith. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives life to the Church that gave that first impetus to the gathering of the disciples and Mary to go out and to begin the proclamation of the Gospel – the Good News that only Jesus Christ brings into this world.
And so we pray for a strengthening in that spirit in our effort to announce the Gospel in word and in deed. It’s really important that we use this period, this novena of prayer before Pentecost, to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us. It’s a time in which we receive. You know, we cannot ever earn our salvation, we have to receive it, and we receive best with open hands and an open heart.
The Holy Spirit is God’s power, sustaining the created world in being. It’s the Holy Spirit that transformed what we call the ‘chaos’ into the ‘cosmos’ – the ordered world.
What better time than now for us to be thinking about how we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in protecting, enhancing our natural environment – the world – because it is our human environment.
In caring for the world, we care for each other. In caring for each other, we care for the Creator and show Him our respect, our deference, our service.
So may ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ be a prayer from our hearts that the Holy Spirit transforms us into servants of the word and servants of the created world made through the Word Himself.
