Why Praying with the Holy Spirit Matters

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I first encountered St. Teresa of Avila when I was 18. A young college freshman, I found my home at Emory’s Catholic Center, where there was a vibrant, charismatic community. It was there I learned to pray, to listen, to understand what God’s voice sounded like in my own heart.

Teresa’s words in her Interior Castle resonated deeply with me. I recognized myself and my own journey in her early chapters, and eagerly read on, anticipating heights and depths I could look forward to on my walk with God. In my youth, and the first blush of my love of Jesus, I could not imagine why it had taken her until middle age to realize all of this, could not conceive of losing my own faith or falling into indifference in my own relationship with the Lord. I scoffed at this, and assured myself it would not happen to me.

Which of course it did. Pride does often go before a fall after all. And I was young and innocent, and more easily led astray than I would like to admit. I ignored her sage advice about guarding my heart and my life, and sank into the very muck she warned me against.

And while I did not settle into indifference, I forgot one of the most important lessons the Lord has ever taught me: that the easiest and quickest way to holiness is simply faithfulness to the Holy Spirit. I don’t need to strive, to work and toil in areas that He is not asking me to. I only need to be concerned with where He is leading and what He is asking of me.

I knew that, once, deep in my innermost being, and once upon a time I lived it out as easily as I breathed. It was normal and natural to me to listen and attend to the Holy Spirit, which makes sense, because it is normal and natural, and entirely possible to do. I’m ashamed to say that I lost sight of it in the busyness of life, but I’m trying to remember it now, day by day, moment by moment.

But how do we follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit? How do we learn to listen? How do we know that it is in fact the Holy Spirit speaking and not our own imaginations?

I have found a few resources to be helpful in this process, and I would like to share them with you.

Pray for Baptism in the Holy Spirit

If this is a new idea to you, I urge you to watch this talk given by a dear friend of mine. Michael is the person who taught me to pray with the Holy Spirit, who made the Third Person of the Trinity come alive to me as more than just an abstract concept. The talk is long, but well worth the time. Praying for Baptism in the Holy Spirit changed my prayer life, and in truth, my whole life.

Find a Spiritual Director and People to Pray with, and then Use Them!

These two things have helped me tremendously over the years. I am grateful to have men and women to turn to with my prayers. I can ask them to pray and discern alongside me, to help me to figure out if what I’m hearing in my own prayers is God’s voice or my own desires. The times of life that I’ve gone the most astray are the times that I’ve tried to go it alone.

Read and Learn

Books are one of the ways that God speaks to me most loudly. Two books on this topic that I have loved are Sober Intoxication of the Spirit by Fr. Cantalamessa and In the School of the Holy Spirit by Fr. Jacques Phillipe. I also cannot recommend enough Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila.

Getting to know the Holy Spirit, and being able to recognize His hand at work has changed my life. I hope that you find that it changes yours as well.

I’ll leave you with a prayer from Fr. Phillipe that I’ve taken to using each morning: “Inspire me in all my decisions, and never let me neglect any of Your inspirations.”