Prayer Pledge // Day 15

Week Three // O Holy Spirit, Beloved of My Soul

O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You.

Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.

Tell me what I should do; give me Your orders.

I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me.

Let me only know Your will. Amen.

Week Three Intention

We pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our local communities and dioceses.

Week Three // Day Three

Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.

There’s a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl during which the ship and its crew are being tossed by the waves of a great storm. One of the characters questions the sanity of Captain Jack, as he is steering the ship by a compass which doesn’t point north.

"How can we sail to an island that nobody can find, with a compass that doesn't work?" he yells above the squall.

"Aye, the compass doesn't point north, but we're not trying to find north, are we?" the first mate knowingly returns.

When we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can expect a couple of things.

First, we are going to encounter disturbances and downpours. It’s not a question of “if.” The island which the pirates were trying to reach possessed an immense treasure which also made its owners immortal. The powerful storm was an attempt to keep the crew from reaching that destination. Similarly, the Holy Spirit guides us towards the treasure of eternal life. Right as rain (pun-intended) we can presuppose that the enemy will send disorder, upheaval, and barricades to try and veer us off course. Satan really doesn’t care whether we are shipwrecked entirely or simply lose our bearings. His only concern is that we never obtain the treasure. Storms are often a sign that we’re headed in the right direction within our spiritual lives.

Second, the guidance of the Holy Spirit is a lot like Jack’s compass. It doesn’t “point north.” The Holy Spirit does not direct us the same way the world directs us. Because He points us in a different direction and leads us by different means, people will often question our sanity and our intelligence, just as they did with Captain Jack. Thus, we can all take a page from the book of Jack Sparrow and simply grin when this occurs, because we know something the world doesn’t. And their opinions won’t stop us from receiving our eternal reward unless we let their own doubts starve our faith.

Whether we face storms or the judgment of others, we simply need to keep our focus on “the compass that doesn’t point north” (aka: the Holy Spirit).

Try to approach the spiritual warfare in your day-to-day life as confirmation that you are headed in the right direction.

Prayer + Discussion for Prayer Partners

Do other people’s remarks cause you to question the guidance or assurance you received in prayer?

Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. #BISblog #prayerpledge //Click to tweet

About Grace Bellon

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Grace is a regular contributor to the BIS Blog. She had planned to be a nurse until an encounter with Christ in Confession ignited a spark that resulted in an ongoing career as a high school Theology teacher. Though a cradle Catholic, she continues to be amazed at the depth of peace and joy that can be found within the Faith and can’t help but share that passion with others as a teacher, writer, and speaker. Outside of ministry, she dabbles in a bit of everything, excels in almost nothing, and like most moms, cannot survive without at least one cup of coffee a day. Grace resides in Charleston, SC with her hunky husband and their daughter who looks just like him. You can find out more about her here. Read all of Grace's posts here.