“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath consecrated me with the anointing to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4: 18).

Jesus returned to Galilee moved by the Holy Spirit, and there  He even returns to his city, Nazareth, there he opens the scroll from the prophet Isaiah, just where it is said that the Spirit of God is upon him. It is the Spirit who moves Jesus Who leads Him. He guides and illuminates the Lord to carry out His mission.

Two things need to happen to us. The first is that we need to let the Spirit take care of us, that He take hold of us, to take the direction and to lead our lives. This may not seem to be simple, in fact, it is not, but it is necessary.There needs to be on our part a surrender of our thoughts, feelings and affections to the light and lead of the Spirit.

And the second thing that needs to happen, as we yield to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, is that we need to do what Jesus did today: take hold of the life of the Spirit in us! The same Spirit that rests on Jesus, standing over him, is also the Spirit who consecrated us and anointed!

I with with great pleasure, do the anointing of children by baptizing them! It may be the anointing with the oil of catechumens, anointing across your chest to leave that indelible mark of God’s action in them; it is the anointing with chrism oil, I do this on the forehead. It is not the amount of oil that matters, but rather the belief that it [the oil] that communicates this grace of the Spirit, the anointing of God, I ask, in each baptism I realize, that there is born a baptized and anointed child by the Spirit of God.

I’m talking about me and you, because one day we were also baptized, consecrated, anointed by that same Spirit. And as we need to take possession of the anointing God has given us! Not enough to be anointed, we must take possession of this anointing, you need to have the Spirit really inebrie our whole being, our whole life and all our hearts!

I want a purpose for this year and I want to invite you to also do it: we allow the Spirit’s anointing inebrie our actions and our attitudes. You may ask, “What anointing, Father?” The anointing of our baptism, our chrism, the anointing you received in every prayer, every invocation in which we ask the Spirit to come upon us.

May the Spirit, who led the footsteps of Jesus, also lead our steps!

God bless you!