Note: As a personal, spiritual discipline, reviving my practice in the Lenten season of 2017, I revise the prayers I wrote then for each of the forty days of this Lent; each petition focusing on a theme, a concern weighing on my mind and heart or a care of my soul and spirit.
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On the paradoxical nature and work of the Holy Spirit (being a meditation on Genesis 2.7, John 1.14, and 1 Corinthians 3.16)…
O Spirit of God, through You, the Lord God, at the dawn of creation, breathed life into dust.
O Spirit of God, through You, the Lord God, in the fullness of time, enfleshed His Word in Jesus.
O Spirit of God, through Your Presence within me, the Lord God makes of my human living His Temple.
Still, O Spirit of God, in Your indwelling my sinful human being, You, wholly Holy, Wise, and True, inhabit what is impure, imprudent, and imperfect. A more deserving earthly house I would imagine for You; though among humankind there neither is nor can be.
Thus, O Spirit of God, I pray You stay. Abide within me and, by Your continual work of sanctification, make me, day by day, more and more as You are: holy, wise, and true.
Amen.
Illustrations:
The Creation of Adam (c. 1508-1512), Michelangelo (1475-1564)
The Birth of Jesus Christ (detail), James Tissot (1836-1902)
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 