A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go on a private guided retreat at the Monastery of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. A private guided retreat is a fancy way of saying that I was doing a retreat on my own, not part of a group, and I had someone, in this case, a Sister, who I met with once a day to talk with about how I was feeling and what my prayers were about. She helped me to discern where and how the Holy Spirit was working in my life.
The Holy Spirit is a big part of anyone’s spiritual life. The Third Person of the Trinity is who animates our prayer and inspires our thoughts and actions. Before and during my retreat I prayed that the Holy Spirit would be my constant companion.
The view out the window of my guest room at the Monastery was of farmland and rolling hills just waiting for the spring planting. In the middle of one of the fields stood a wind turbine. The more I gazed at the turbine, memorized by the movement of the huge blades, the more I began to think of it as my constant companion and a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Like the Holy Spirit, this turbine seemed to be everywhere. I could see it no matter where I was on the property. Like the Holy Spirt, the steady hum of the blades cutting through the air brought me comfort. Like the Holy Spirit, the turbine is a source of power, and like the Holy Spirt, it was always moving.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus likens the Holy Spirit to the wind when he says “the wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). So maybe I wasn’t so far off with my Holy Spirit – wind turbine comparison.
