DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Friday, October 5, 2018

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now He said this about the Spirit, which believers in Him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. – John 7:37b-39

“Out of the heart … out of the core of one’s being … out of the deepest part of the soul … shall flow rivers of living water… not any water but fresh, thirst quenching, life-restoring water, refreshing water , not the bitter waters nor the poisoned waters that flows out of the cisterns of certain souls.”

I find these words of Christ to highlight both the creative nature of the Spirit and the providential nature of the Spirit.

The Christian life by definition is a life of creativity.  The Spirit is continually creating out of the Spirit’s own Life the life we are living.  Each day, the Christian returns to his or her studio to create the something more.  In Christ and in His Spirit, life becomes artistry.  Often using the essence of the old but now we a new spark of the new, we and the Spirit create a new expression of a day and add to the gallery of our days.  Life stops when we stop creating and our lives become but an museum rather than an artist’s studio.

Yet it is the one Spirit, the Spirit who sustain our yesterday, who will sustain through today, and who will be there to sustain in our tomorrow.  Each day we are to harvest the bread made available in the living of each day, sometimes we are planting, sometimes we are tending, sometimes we are harvesting.  The Spirit is the water that we draw from the Ever-flowing River, quenching not only our own thirst, but also the thirst of others, and the thirst of the fields of grain.

The human creature cannot live for long without water to quench the thirst, nor can the soul of that human creature without the living water that flows from that heavenly spring within.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz