"But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (John 16:14).
Truth felt like an evasive slippery uncomfortable thing. I slinked down in the backseat of my friend's junker car and listened to the conversation unfold in the front seat. Who could really say what was truth? One friend argued to the other. He drove us up the driveway to his parent's house and when the car settled to a stop, he responded, It's like your truth and my truth just might look different. My seventeen-year-old brain was swirling. I kinda wanted to pipe up and kinda wanted to just slink again.
The teenage pseudo-intellectualism is traded out for adulting on Instagram for me now, but the conversations swirl around these same topics. What is my truth and yours . . . how can my truth be better than yours . . . my experiences dictate my reality of truth . . . and so on. Only now there's no Buick back seat in which to slink. Now I can either hide, unfollow, or gently remind my sisters-in-Christ.
There is Truth, friends. It has been revealed to us through Jesus, the workings of the Holy Spirit, and it's present in the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Don't be discouraged by the sidebar conversations and the fringe interpretations and the dubious claims of relativism. Take heart when you examine Saint Catherine of Siena who spoke truth to power. Take heart when you ponder Saint Therese of Lisieux and her little (powerhouse) way. Take heart when you listen to the poem-chants of Saint Hildegard of Bingen and her incredible reach of evangelization. Take heart when you pray like Saint Teresa of Avila, the contemplative who ushered in reform.
On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, let's call upon the Holy Spirit to guide us to speak truth especially when it's unpopular and counter cultural. Let's sink our teeth into some heroic virtue like the women Doctors of the Church.
Speaking of the Trinity, are you doing our free three-chapter study guide on God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Get your copy here!
Nell O'Leary is a recovering lawyer turned blogger, speaker, and sewer of baby goods while tending to her husband and four kiddos in the great city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She serves as Managing Editor for Blessed is She and can down a hot cocoa in no time flat. Find out more about her here. She is the editor of our Blessed Conversations Series and guide for the Gift of You course.