Photo Credit Pawel Czerwinski Unsplash

By Jane Korvemaker

The Glowing Ember

As a young adolescent, I wouldn’t say that I felt my life was different finally being fully initiated into the Church. Though my senses were dulled to feeling affected by these sacraments, the reality was that I had been baptised in the name of the Trinity, washed and claimed by God, been confirmed and anointed into the mission of the Holy Spirit, and every week I received Jesus in the Eucharist. The smallest gift of God was still his presence, like a large ember in me, glowing with encouragement and hope, awaiting further consent to spark.

That consent started happening in high school. My faith life was rekindled through my religion teacher’s own blazing fire. With my growing love for Jesus, I often sensed the glow of the Spirit within me, whispering warmth and sometimes igniting in a crackling blaze.

The Guiding Spirit and Mary

While it may seem crazy to most, my experience of the Spirit in me was a very distinct maternal presence guiding me. She was the great Wisdom of God gifted to me at confirmation. Scripture is rich in these images of God, and I relished such passages describing Wisdom as begotten, the first of God’s work, “a breath of the might of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty,” (Wisdom) given to dwell on earth with God’s chosen people, and whose character and image were reflected in Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20.

About five years ago, I felt prompted to pray and participate in a Consecration to Mary through the book 30 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael E. Gaitley. It was here that I made a discovery that rocked my world:

Mary’s relationship with the Spirit is an intensely intimate union: the uncreated immaculate conception (the Holy Spirit) and the created immaculate conception (Mary). Through her immaculate conception, Mary has full human freedom to respond to God and to do his will. Being an immaculate human vessel, she is called Mediatrix of All Graces, for through her intimate union with the Holy Spirit, she is blessed to distribute God’s grace according to his will; she mediates his love and favour. Ultimately this is the call of all Christians to do as Mary did as perfectly as we are able.

This revelation of the intimate relationship between the Spirit and Mary and her role as Mediatrix has caused me, many times over, to be bemused with wonder – it’s been Mary’s maternal touch this whole time! In consort with the Spirit, I’ve been guided and hand-held by not only the Spirit, but also my spiritual Mother.

Pentecost and the Church

Pentecost is close at hand. Mary, the Spirit, and all of us – we are bound up together and called Church, the ekklesia, if you will. Through our rites of initiation into the Church, we are given the Spirit, our ember. Every year at Pentecost, we celebrate this relationship: his Spirit in us and inviting us to be in that intimate relationship, like with Mary! She is our example and lived hope – what was (and is) accomplished in her is our desire and hope. Her ‘yes’ led to a revolution of Love that affected the whole world.

Mary is our model of communion between humanity and God, the model of the Church. The Spirit who has done wondrous things through her ‘yes’ is the same Spirit gifted to us through our own anointing at confirmation. We, too, have the Holy Spirit! Perhaps not fully enflamed yet, but the more we ask to know him, spend time with him, and immerse ourselves in Christ’s work with other disciples and his apostles, the more that ember will flare and spark – the Flame is ready to emblazon the world through us!

I did not have to feel the Holy Spirit in order for him to be gifted to me. I just had to blow on the coals a little to enkindle that fire I received through baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist. He is there and waiting for us to allow him to make that spark into a wildfire! St. Catherine of Siena said, “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.” As we allow the Spirit’s flaming love to set us on fire, we can indeed set the world on fire!

Jane Korvemaker is a B.C. transplant who lives in Saskatoon with her husband, three children, and mischievous cat. She holds a Certificate in Culinary Arts, Bachelor of Theology, Certificate in Youth Ministry Studies, and is a Level Two Catechist in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She hopes to one day find the perfect pairing of bacon, beer, and Balthasar. She semi-regularly writes at ajk2.ca