Pentecost: “As you wish!
Posted On June 8, 2009
As a way of continuing the great feast of Pentecost which we have just celebrated, I’d like to pass on a simple, little prayer to the Holy Spirit. So simple that it would be easy to overlook if you happened to see it written somewhere without any explanation or commentary.
I came across the prayer a few years ago in an article written by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the papal preacher. It’s become the most powerful prayer of my life, so much so that it comes automatically to my mind many times a day, in all kinds of different circumstances.
I call it my “anti-control device.”
You see, I tend to be a control freak. Imagine the stereotypical scene of a guy sitting in front of a TV set with a remote in his hand, clicking shows on and off, switching channels, controlling the volume. If I’m honest, that’s a pretty accurate picture of how I go through life. I tend to plan a lot, writing scripts in my mind for how things ought to happen. And I aim that remote most often, not at a TV but at God. If I examine my prayers honestly, I find that most of them are really attempts to convince God to do what I want Him to do or what I think He ought to do. I’m trying to get Him to follow my script.
It’s not that I’m asking for bad things. I think I write pretty good scripts. The problem is that they’re my scripts, and they don’t necessarily jive with God’s.
Recognize any of these prayers? “Lord, please help us get our finances straightened out; Lord, help my daughter find a good husband; Lord, please bring my children back to the Church; Lord, heal my grandson; Lord, help me get this job; Lord,don’t let my mom die yet; Lord, help me do well on this test; Lord, let this situation work out; Lord, bless this project.”
Is it wrong to pray like this? Of course not. But if most of my prayers are like this, without another type of prayer coming first, then I’m spending most of my time asking God to do my will instead of asking Him first to let me know His will. I’m forgetting that He’s God and I’m not, and what seems best to me right now may not turn out to be the best at all.
What I need is the inspiration, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the Holy Spirit. How do I get it? That simple little prayer I mentioned, my little anti-control device. (Bet you thought I’d never get to it).
There are 3 parts to the prayer. The first you’ve probably prayed many times: “Come Holy Spirit.”
The second is the part I usually pray with great fervor: “Come now!” (Patience is a virtue I’m still trying to acquire. My wife bought me a coffee mug once that seemed made for me: “Lord, grant me patience, and please hurry up!”)
The third part is the most important part, the part I can most easily forget, but the part I most need to pray: “Come as YOU wish!”
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this prayer. It can change your life. I’ve learned to repeat it over and over at each intersection of my day: each moment of decision, of confusion, of stress, of trouble, of need, and especially before beginning each new task.
I always repeat the prayer at least 3 times, often many more, until I feel a new sense of peace and freedom. It’s like pausing to take a deep breath, a calm remembering: “O yeah. I forgot. You’re God and you love me. You know what’s best, and you have the power to make it happen.”
“Come Holy Spirit; come now; come as YOU wish!”
Don’t come as I wish, Holy Spirit. Come as YOU wish.
Don’t come to do MY will. Come to help me do YOURS.
Don’t come to follow my script, to bless what I’ve already decided to do. Come to refocus my mind and heart in accordance with Your perfect will.
With this prayer, I remember and acknowledge that God is God and I am not; I place my will under His; and I invite His Holy Spirit into the now of my life. Instead of asking Him to bless what I’m doing, I ask Him to help me do what He’s blessing.
After praying this prayer, you may find yourself praying some of the same kind of prayers of intercession I mentioned above. But now they’re more completely linked to His will, and they are accompanied by a sense of peace and trust rather than anxiety.
May this little prayer become a source of great blessing in your life!