My parish has three churches, each with a different history. There’s St. Mary’s, which was the Italian church. St. Patrick’s, which was (surprise, surprise, LOL) the Irish church. And Sts. Peter and Paul, which was the German church. I imagine back in the day, one wouldn’t think of going to one of the other churches rather than the one you belonged to, ethnically. Today, however, the churches are united and served by the same clergy, and service times always alternate between them.

Though our Sunday church is St. Mary’s, we love to go to daily mass at Sts. Peter and Paul. It’s just…beautiful. Ornate and gilded with soaring ceilings, murals, stunning stained glass, etc. And one of my favorite architectural highlights is at the very top of the church, right above the altar. There’s a gold circle with a dove.

Though none of our other churches have this, it used to be a standard feature in all churches…only, rather than just a gilded disc, it was once an actual hole at the top of the church. Why?

That dove is your clue–it was a hole through which the Holy Spirit was invited to descend and fill the sanctuary. As Christianity spread to colder climes, the hole was merely symbolic…but what a symbol, right?

We know that we don’t need an actual hole in the ceiling for the Spirit to come among us…but you know what we do need? A hole in our lives to let Him in through. We need to make space for Him. We need to give Him an opening. We need to invite Him in, and that’s exactly what those circles open to the heavens were meant to do.

They are the church saying, “Come, Holy Spirit.” And I love going into Sts. Peter and Paul and looking up at that golden reminder–a reminder that I need to say, “Come, Holy Spirit. Come into my life. Walk beside me. Shine Your light in my heart and show me my faults, banish the shadows.

As we recite the Nicene creed, I love to look up at that reminder when we get to the stanza about the Holy Spirit:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son
is adored and glorified.,
who has spoken through the prophets.

In the Old Testament, we see the Spirit coming upon people almost forcefully. He didn’t dwell with them, but rather visited them. He is the one who whispered those words to the prophets, who made them abandon their humble lives to be the mouthpieces of God. He is fire and wind and that dove descending upon Christ. He is the part of the trinity that came upon Mary and planted Jesus in her womb.

He is the Comforter that Christ promised would not just visit us now and then, but who would dwell with us, leading us every step of the way.

And yet…we are now given a choice as to whether we let Him in. Not just once, but every day. We can ignore His voice. We can close the door, and too often we do, without even realizing it. We don’t have time or energy or desire to focus on the things of God, so we nudge Him out and stop up the gaps through which He comes. We ignore the nudges and the whisper and turn from the burning flame. We are given that freedom, that right.

But I pray that we regularly stop and wonder. We ask ourselves, “Have I invited Him in today?” I pray we always keep that place at the top of our beings open for the Holy Spirit. I pray we let Him fill us, use us, speak through us, speak to us. Jesus promises that the Spirit will always give us the words we need to speak…but first we have to ask Him to do so.

Let’s turn our eyes upward, my friends. And remember to extend that invitation.