Andi Oney - Marys Life in the Holy Spirit: A Model for Us

ANDI ONEY

Marys Life in the Holy Spirit

A Model for Us

Copyright 2019 Andi Oney

All rights reserved.

Published by The Word Among Us Press

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ISBN: 978-1-59325-359-2

eISBN: 978-1-59325-534-3

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV-CE are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, Second Edition, copyright 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with Permission. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright 1997, United States Conference of Catholic BishopsLibreria Editrice Vaticana.

Cover design by Suzanne Earl

Cover art by Cameron Smith, Immaculate Heart of Mary (2009)

studiocameronsmith.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the author and publisher.

Made and printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019933377

To Mom,
The one who first introduced me to the
Holy Spirit and his spouse.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Journey of Faith

From the first pages of Scripture, God demonstrates his desire to be with us, his people. Beginning with the story of creation we see this in his care for our earliest ancestors, Adam and Eve, and then throughout the Old and New Testaments, into the present age, and promised until the end of time. His desire to be near us continues. The reality is that we are Gods chosen people, and he wants to visit us today.

Increasingly, over the past few years, I have felt that we should look to Mary, the mother of Jesus, to show us how we can open ourselves to Gods presence by opening ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit. The goal of this book is to present Mary, the mother of God, for who she is in the order of gracea woman filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary is the foretold vessel God used to bring the Messiah into the world. Her yes to Gods plan fulfills many Old Testament prophecies that speak of the manifestation of Gods presence on earth.

As Mary is revealed to us in Gods plan of salvation, it may seem that she is so far above us that we cannot know her or relate to her. The Church has defined her as immaculately conceived, the mother of God, a perpetual virgin, and one who was assumed into heaven. These truths depict Mary as pure, holy, humble, and contemplative, but they reveal only one side of the woman the Church calls its mother. We must not forget her humanness.

In Marys humanity, we see her boldness, her emotions of joy and sorrow, her daily activity, and her exercise of charismsall lived out under the shadow of the Spirit. These traits draw us into her personhood and inspire us to live empowered by the Spirit, with fervor, as she did. In her holiness and in her humanity, Mary demonstrates the perfect will of the Father for all of us.

In his encyclical Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer), Pope St. John Paul II sums up Marys life by calling it a journey of faith. Throughout this document, he emphasizes Marys faith as the driving force behind all that she does. This faith is evident each time we meet her in Scripture. It was Marys faith that enabled her to consent to be the mother of God. Her faith brought her to visit Elizabeth. Her faith gave her strength to flee to Egypt with Joseph. Her faith moved her to action at the wedding at Cana. Her faith strengthened her at the foot of the cross. It was her faith at Pentecost that allowed her to receive the Holy Spirit in a new way. Marys faith was initiated by the Holy Spirit who led her to complete obedience.

We, like Mary, are called to a journey of faith. Although our journey differs from Marys, it has much in common with hers.

The Charismatic Renewal

My journey of faith began when I was born into a family who practiced the faith and saw to it that I received the sacraments and participated in religious education classes. Our faith centered on attending Mass and receiving the sacraments regularly. But my familys journey changed when my mother began going to prayer meetings in the 1980s. These prayer meetings seemed to capture the joy, energy, and evangelizing power of the early Church, which we read about in Scripture. The meetings included the use of the charisms listed by St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthianssuch as prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of tongues (see 1 Corinthians 12:8-10).

In the Catholic Church, prayer meetings of this nature began over fifty years ago. In 1967 the Holy Spirit came in power upon a group of college students who were on retreat near Duquesne University. These students had prayed and prepared for the retreat by reading the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which tell of the Holy Spirits descent on the followers of Jesus following his ascension. On the retreat, the students experienced something similar to what happened at that first Pentecost as God manifested his presence and power to them.

This weekendcommonly referred to as the Duquesne Weekendmarked the beginning of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, a movement that has touched over 120 million Catholics and that every pope since has supported and encouraged. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is central to this movement. All four Gospels refer to being baptized in or with the Spirit, and Jesus uses this language in the Acts of the Apostles in reference to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost (see Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5).

Essentially this baptism involves praying for greater openness to the Holy Spirit and receiving all that this prayer brings, such as deeper union with God, a renewed appreciation for Scripture, growth in the fruits of the Spirit, and the operation in our lives of various gifts of the Spirit. Baptism in the Holy Spirit brings a new love for Jesus and a new life in the power of the Spirit, which enables us to surrender as Mary did and to live a life of prayer and obedience. To be empowered by the Holy Spirit is to live as a member of the body of Christ, building up that body through the Spirits gifts.

I was a teenager when I became involved in the charismatic renewal, a few years after my mother. Although the prayer meetings I attended included many of the same manifestations of the Spirit as described in the Acts of the Apostlessuch as praise, praying in tongues, and prophecythe most dramatic manifestation of the Holy Spirit was the deeper, more personal relationship with God that people experienced. Love for God and neighbor, along with a desire for holiness, were the priorities in our lives.

After I had been attending prayer meetings for about two years, I was prayed with to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I had already received the Holy Spirit as a child at Baptism, of course; this new prayer was for a release or renewal of the Holy Spirit in my life. And truly, my journey of faith took an unexpected turn at that moment, a turn that I can only describe as grace.