Episode Transcript  

One

The Face of the Spirit 

We meet God the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. And we know the Son because He became man in Jesus and the four Gospels paint his portrait. Yet Scripture usually speaks of the Spirit in symbols—wind, fire, water, a dove. Symbols inspire, but they do not invite the same personal familiarity. How, then, can we move from impersonal images to a living relationship with the Holy Spirit? 

Pope St. John Paul II answered the problem.  “From the Cross the Savior wished to pour out upon humanity rivers of living water, that is, the abundance of the Holy Spirit. But he wanted this outpouring of grace to be linked to a mother’s face, his Mother’s.” 

A few sentences later he drew the practical conclusion, “Calvary reveals the close and enduring link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Mary as mother…The link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the motherhood of Mary emerges again at Pentecost, when she awaited with the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit…therefore, as the bond with Mary grows deeper, so the action of the Spirit in the life of the Church grows more fruitful.” 

Mary is not the Holy Spirit, but she is the Spirit’s perfect human expression. Looking at her, we glimpse the Spirit’s maternal presence and learn how to relate to the Spirit as a mother.

Two

The Holy Spirit in the Trinity 

If we want to understand the Holy Spirit, we need to begin with the Holy Trinity. God the Father is the eternal Giver, who begets the Son by giving His own divine life. The Son is both a receiver and a giver. Both the Father and the Son, together, give the gift of divinity to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, receiving divinity from both. The Holy Spirit’s identity consists in the pure capacity to receive divine being. 

Ancient and modern thinkers associate Masculinity with giving and femininity with receiving. One way to understand receptivity is the capacity to hold or contain things, like a warehouse, a library, or a computer. Consequently, a higher or greater perfection of receptivity would be the capacity to receive and hold biological life. In this sense, a human mother would exhibit the greatest perfection of physical receptivity, the capacity to receive and hold human life. And, moving up the scale of being from the created to the divine, we would then be justified in saying that the Holy Spirit is the greatest expression of the feminine perfection of receptivity, since Holy Spirit receives and contains divine life from the Father and the Son.

Picture a mother’s womb: it welcomes, shelters, and nourishes new life. The Spirit does this – receiving, containing, and communicating the very life of God.  

Three

Scripture and the Spirit’s Maternal Mission

The Holy Spirit acts as a mother in three key events: Creation, the Incarnation, and Pentecost. In Genesis, the Spirit (Ruah, a feminine Hebrew noun) hovers over the waters like a mother bird, bringing forth life. At the Annunciation, the Spirit “overshadows” Mary, conceiving Jesus in her womb—again generating and nurturing life. At Pentecost, the Spirit descends upon the apostles, giving birth to the Church. In each moment, the Spirit conceives and brings forth life, fulfilling a distinctly maternal mission within God’s plan of creation, redemption, and sanctification. John 3:3-5.

Jesus makes the link between the Holy Spirit and motherhood explicit. Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again. This would be a birth from above by water (Baptism) and the Spirit. Now, obviously, the person you are born of is your parent. And Jesus says Christians are born of the Holy Spirit. So, which parent does the Holy Spirit become through Baptism? The Spirit can’t be our Father. So the Spirit must take the role of the feminine parent, the role of our Mother. In fact, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to relate to us as our divine mother. 

Four

The Maternity of the Spirit through Mary 

Over the last hundred years or so, the Church has taught that the Annunciation and Pentecost show us the Holy Spirit acts as a mother through Mary to conceive and form Jesus in her womb and in our soul. At the Annunciation, the Spirit overshadowed Mary to conceive Christ in her womb. Mary cooperated by her faith and obedience and gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem.

At Calvary, Jesus breathed out the Spirit upon Mary, enabling her to spiritually conceive the Church. Again, Mary cooperated by her faith and obedience, conceiving the Church. Then, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit and Mary gave birth to the Church, the Body of Christ.

So, we have two mothers, the Holy Spirit and Mary, one divine and one human, working together to conceive and give birth to Christ and the Church.

Five

Mary shows us the Spirit 

In his letter on Mary, Redemptoris Mater, Mother of the Redeemer (1987), Pope St. John Paul II writes, “There is a unique correspondence between the moment of the Incarnation of the Word and the moment of the birth of the Church. The person who links these two moments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth and Mary in the Upper Room at Jerusalem. In both cases her (Mary’s) discreet yet essential presence indicates the path of "birth from the Holy Spirit." Redemptoris Mater 24

Who gives birth to Christians? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as a mother. Through whom? Through Mary. The Annunciation and Pentecost reveal that the Holy Spirit carries out a maternal mission through Mary, forming Christ first in her womb, and then in the souls of believers. The Holy Spirit is the divine feminine principle in the Trinity, and Mary makes that mystery visible. Through Mary, we come to know the Spirit’s person and mission. Mary is not the Holy Spirit, but she is the perfect human expression of the Spirit’s maternal love.

This is why St. John Paul II said Jesus wanted the Spirit to be linked to “a mother’s face—his mother’s.” Mary’s face shows us who the Holy Spirit is: our divine mother. Just as the Son’s mission is manifest in Jesus, the Spirit’s mission is manifest in Mary. To know the Spirit, look to Mary. To grow close to the Spirit, grow close to her. As John Paul II taught, “As the bond with Mary grows deeper, so the action of the Spirit in the life of the Church becomes more fruitful.” Mary reveals the Spirit’s maternal love. A deeper relationship with her leads to a deeper relationship with the Spirit.

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you. 

• Like you would a mother, get to know the Spirit by spending time entrusting yourself to the Holy Spirit, sharing your inner thoughts, and asking for guidance.

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