I am particularly thrilled by the first reading from First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthian Church (12:3b-7, 12-13). You can read it very slowly and meditate on it. Pay attention to how the community became an expression of difference and unity through the agency of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s model of unity is not the one that surpasses difference – in the many gifts, many languages, many cultures, many fruits…. The Holy Spirit is a divine aesthetic intelligence.

The crisis in most parts of the world, the conflicts that dot our paths, the divisions in many places manifest the gross misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit, or rather the inability to learn from the Holy Spirit. We are always inclined to subject the other person to our own image and likeness, we tend to become insecure when there is another light shinning over there that is not under our immediate control, we perceive the other as threatening to our own identity and existence.

Enjoy what Paul said to the Corinthians:

“Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; 
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.

As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.“

Difference everywhere and in everything but one Spirit.

When we begin to see difference as gifts then our world would experience less conflict.

Come to our aid Oh Holy Spirit, enkindle in us the fire of your love and renew the face of the earth.