One year, when I was serving as a catechist in my parish, I was asked to prepare a small group of five high school students for Confirmation. They were older than the other candidates preparing for the Sacrament, and came from varied family situations.
Among the group was a young man, Joey, who had missed several years of religious education classes, so there was a lot to teach him. He was not, however, a good book learner. He was inquisitive, insightful and easily bored. I was routinely faced with a challenge on how best to engage him in learning.
At one point, I discovered Joey had never owned a rosary, nor had he ever prayed the Rosary. So, one day I brought him a rosary that he could keep as his own. He was visibly moved by the gift and asked me so many questions that we had regular conversations about the meaning of the rosary. From that day, he never came to class without the rosary beads in his pocket. In fact, he told me, he never went anywhere without them. He had been touched by faith, and the Holy Spirit.
One evening, I decided to take the class out to the parish garden for prayer and to have each young person hunt for an item that could serve as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When we got back into the classroom, I asked them to use the item they found to draw their personal symbol of the Holy Spirit. They were encouraged to reflect on these symbols as they continued their preparation for Confirmation.
Joey chose a dried, crinkled maple leaf that had fallen to the ground. He set it on the desk before him and began to draw, imbuing his drawn leaf with the myriad hues of fall. I watched as he extended the tips of the leaf upwards, changing them into flames of red and gold. It was a simple but beautiful masterpiece, but I wasn’t prepared for his explanation of the symbol he had drawn.
I asked Joey why his leaf was on fire. He looked up at me with a little grin and said, “The leaf was dead, but it is transformed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. The leaf will become life-giving. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us. It transforms us. It burns away everything that is not of God and gives us a new life.”
I cried. This was not a lesson I had taught him. It was his own insight, the fruit of having been touched by faith and the Holy Spirit. He was at a place in his life where it all meant something to him.
As Pentecost approaches, it is good to remember the burning leaf when we recall that the Holy Spirit appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room as tongues of fire over their heads. In those moments the Apostles were also transformed and brought forth new life in the form of the Church, the Body of Christ.
As members of that Body, the words of Saint Teresa of Ávila (Teresa of Jesus) are a beautiful reminder of our own role in bringing forth new life in the Church and in the world:
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.