Rekindle the Fire Within Us
«For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God» (Romans 8,19)
When the sun shines, our whole being feels its warmth. In winter, we welcome the comfort of a fire or a warm home. In spring, a single ray of sunlight can make us forget the bite of the cold.
Yet even when bodies are warm, many hearts remain cold with loneliness, illness, or inner suffering. Many people facing difficult situations long for someone to be present. When we listen to victims of disasters, we hear that what moves them is more than the help they receive: it is an outstretched hand, a neighbor who listens, welcomes them, and stays beside them.
In a world where everyone chases after having, we have forgotten the value of being. From birth until the last breath, every person, created in the image of God, seeks love and needs to be loved truly. Only Jesus can love each person as they need to be loved, and yet so few know him.
We who have received the grace of meeting him are called to reveal him to the world. But often we are lukewarm, when we could be burning with love for others. We let fear stop us. Let us neither make excuses for our lack of zeal nor treat lukewarmness as harmless. Saint John warns us:
“So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)
Let us ask instead: Why do we not burn with love as Jesus does? How can we enter a renewed life with a heart that burns with love for others?
We must change in the depths of our being, as the disciples and the saints did. To allow love to grow within us, we need to:
draw near to its source, Divine Mercy;
welcome the Holy Spirit;
become missionary disciples.
1. Draw Near to the Source of Mercy
We cannot give what we have not received, or have received only in a small measure. If I want to offer someone a gift, I must first obtain it or gather what I need to make it. The same is true of spiritual life. If I do not draw near to the heart of God through prayer, quiet contemplation, listening to his Word and receiving the sacraments, I will act only from my own heart and with my own strength.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were alone and downcast as they made their way home. Jesus came alongside them, just as he has touched each of us personally. He spoke to their hearts, explained the Scriptures, opened their minds to the things of heaven and brought them into hope.
When he left them, they realised that their hearts had been burning in his presence: “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” They immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem. (Luke 24:32–33)
With those burning hearts, they set out to announce the risen Jesus.
Jesus teaches us that prayer comes before action and that acts of compassion accompany the proclamation of the Word. Before choosing the Twelve, he spent the night in prayer. Then he went to the crowd who longed for his healing. (cfr. Luke 6:12–13, 19)
Even if we sincerely desire to serve God, our actions will not bear the fruit we hope for unless we take time for prayer, for meeting him, and for allowing the Spirit to renew our minds. Prayer is not wasted time; it gives us the time and strength we need. Jesus, who knows every heart, shows us the right attitudes, gives us words that lift others up and grants us the courage to go beyond our human abilities.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose works of mercy we know, reminded us that prayer should rise from a heart filled with love, reverence, trust, simplicity, and gentleness. She invited us to let God’s love take hold of our hearts so completely that it becomes second nature and to learn to pray every day, wherever we are.
“Our prayers should be burning words rising from hearts filled with love. In prayer, speak to God with deep reverence and trust. Do not drag your feet or rush ahead; do not shout or withdraw into silence. With devotion, gentleness and simplicity, offer praise to God with all your heart and soul.Let the love of God take complete possession of your heart and become like a second nature within it. Allow nothing contrary to that love to enter. Let your heart keep growing in love by seeking to please God in everything and refusing him nothing. Accept what comes from his hand, and resolve not to do wrong knowingly. If you stumble, humble yourself and rise again at once. A heart like this will pray continually.If you seek God and do not know where to begin, learn to pray and make an effort to pray every day. You can pray anywhere, at any time.”
In our daily prayer, let us ask the Holy Spirit to accompany us in everything we do. Jesus assures us that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. (Luke 11:13)
2. In the Fire of the Spirit
The cry of someone who suffers may be silent. But in a heart that listens, the Holy Spirit awakens compassion. He opens our eyes to suffering around us and invites us to become, for those in pain, a sign of God’s presence: a presence that eases suffering and sometimes leads to healing in Jesus. Those who suffer are waiting for a fire that can warm them.
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Luke 12:49)
Jesus came to kindle on earth the fire of the Holy Spirit: the warmth of revelation, light, purification, and the power to transform. Fire gathers people around a campfire or a meal. It warms a home, lights a candle, and, in the hands of a smith or glassmaker, makes something new possible. In Jesus’ time, before electricity, fire was present in every household. His disciples immediately understood the strength of this image.
Jesus asks us to welcome the Holy Spirit as a fire in the home of our hearts so that his light may shine around us. This fire cannot remain hidden. To become a source of healing and salvation for others, it must burn brightly.
We feed it through personal prayer, the sacraments, and prayer with our brothers and sisters in groups and communities. Like the disciples, we allow ourselves to be taught by the Word, by the people God places on our path, by priests, by the Church’s teaching, and by the writings of the saints.
It is not good to live as an isolated Christian: we are the Church. Jesus sends his disciples out two by two; he gathers them together and then gathers the crowds. The Holy Spirit is given to build us up, to strengthen our brothers and sisters in the Church and, above all, to help us share the graces we have received.
We have all been given this fire freely so that it may be alive in our prayers and in our actions.
3. The Holy Spirit for Mission
Prophetic Intercession
Every intercessor who listens to the Spirit and proclaims the Word according to God’s will is a burning fire in this world. We are called to an intercession filled with mercy. God’s Word, proclaimed with faith, brings his light and power.
Let us ask ourselves: How fervently do I pray? Do I trust that God hears me? Do I truly believe that the words I speak in faith can bear fruit?
Jesus says:
“Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:21–22)
Even when illness or old age limits what we can do physically, we can remain steadfast in faith through intercession. Saint Paul tells us that the Spirit
“intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” (Romans 8:26)
Prayer opens our hearts to the needs of others, with the confidence that God listens and acts. We do not need to convince God to do something; we cooperate with his will and become channels of his love and power.
My grandmothers prayed for others every day. My paternal grandmother lived to be 103 and sometimes said that she had become useless. I told her how precious she was, because her prayer had great value. Both my grandmothers kept watch in faith through prayer.
Let us not wait until we can do nothing else before praying for others. Let us enter this real ministry now. The world greatly needs people who keep watch in prayer. Let us not be stopped by what looks like failure or frightened by the obstacles we meet.
We must enter kairos, God’s time. If I pray in faith for someone’s salvation, I must not confine my hope to what I can see today. I can remain confident that nothing escapes God’s mercy.
Let us pray for healing, freedom, peace and life: this too is a work of compassion. Above all, let us pray that God’s name may be known, praised and glorified, and that souls may be saved. In his time, God answers prayer offered in faith. Jesus came to save what was lost; those who work for his Kingdom seek first that people may enter the grace of mercy given to them in him.
Let us intercede for the whole creation to be reconciled with the Father. This is our hope. Let us listen to God’s voice and pray for what he entrusts to us. He chooses us to be voices crying out in the wilderness and proclaiming his glory in the heart of the world.
When we proclaim his grace, power and blessings according to his will, he allows our words to take part in his work. Saint Faustina invites us to turn towards Jesus’ mercy: “No prayer is lost; even a sigh of love can save a soul.”
Let our hearts burn with love and our intercession be fervent, so that God’s mercy may spread from heart to heart. Through prophetic intercession, let us take part in the work of salvation.
Works of Mercy in My Life
Simon was an ordinary fisherman who answered Jesus’ call. He knew moments of zeal and moments of weakness. Yet, through the power of the Holy Spirit received at Pentecost, he became the rock of the Church.
Every Christian who lives in attentiveness to the Holy Spirit can see God at work in their life. The fire of the Spirit brings forth a new person within us, filled with God’s presence and strength. The Spirit enlightens, strengthens and sanctifies us, helping humility and compassion to grow.
When we allow Christ’s love to transform us, we want his mercy to reach our families, our churches, our society, our country and the world. We want to bring warmth where there is the coldness of indifference. The Spirit makes us living witnesses to his love.
We are saved by grace in Jesus, not by our works. Yet our works reveal what lives deep within our hearts. A Christian who knows their identity naturally becomes a loving witness, a missionary and a person passionate about the Lord.
When the Lord speaks to his Church—to people who know him and have chosen him—he calls them to fervour, conversion and attentiveness to the Spirit. In Revelation 3:15–22, he warns against lukewarmness, corrects those he loves, stands at the door and knocks, and invites the Churches to listen.
Let us reflect on this exhortation together, because it matters deeply.
The Lord Looks at Our Actions. Our actions are guided by what lives in our hearts. We must therefore accept the correction and light the Spirit gives us. Jesus teaches that what we say flows from the heart, and asks why we call him Lord without doing what he says. (Luke 6:45–46)
Jesus asks us to love our neighbour as ourselves. How can we say that we love Jesus while neglecting those he loves? In the circumstances of our lives, with all we have experienced and the graces we have received, he asks us to become a fire that warms the people around us.
When I met Jesus, others were there to speak with me, accompany me and help me discover the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now it is my turn to spread that fire of love.
Questions for an examination of the heart:
For whom am I working?
How much of myself do I give to the Kingdom of God?
What place do I give the Lord in my life?
Does the suffering around me move me enough to change my habits and serve the Lord?
If I live in God’s love, I cannot remain indifferent. That love cries out within me:
“Look! Listen! See the suffering of my people!”
The Spirit urges us onward and longs for the work of salvation to unfold within us and through us. Let us not smother this fire or look for excuses to avoid acting. Let us return continually to the Father in the intimacy of prayer. He will show us what he is asking us to do, and the Spirit will give us the strength to do it. Let us take the first step; he will show us the way. Each of us has a place in God’s work, according to the grace we have received.
The Church is called to act with faith for the sick, prisoners, people with broken hearts, young people, older and isolated people, and those struggling with addiction or living under oppression. Many services and ministries already exist, and there is a place for us among them.
Saint James asks the sick to call on the elders of the Church, who will pray over them and anoint them in the Lord’s name. (James 5:14–15) Jesus was sent to bring good news to the poor, freedom to captives, sight to the blind and release to the oppressed. (Luke 4:18–21)
Jesus taught us to care for others as we would care for him: to recognise him in the person who is hungry or suffering. Speaking of those in greatest need, he says:
“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:32–45)
If I refuse to let the Spirit transform my thoughts and actions, and if I will not allow him to lead me towards others with compassion, I move away from the love of the merciful Father. We are saved by grace, and Jesus asks us to become witnesses to the grace we have received.
He promises that, through his grace and with the Holy Spirit, all things are possible. Our “yes” must therefore be wholehearted: not “yes, but…”, but a true yes that places our will, out of love, in the hands of the Father.
Lord, rekindle the fire of your love within us and make us ardent witnesses to your mercy.
Continue the Journey at the School of Prophecy
Would you like to grow in listening to the Holy Spirit, prayer and mission? The EMMAUS COM School of Prophecy invites you to take this journey (in french or italian) with others. You can still begin, even if the programme has already started.