It is easy to forget about the Holy Spirit, perhaps because it is hard to picture him. We have the image of the dove, of course, which surmounts the Legionary vexillum. But Mary is also given to us as the human icon of the Spirit. In her we see someone who has let the Spirit enter into her life so as to make her fruitful in an extraordinary way.

We should never look at Mary without thinking of the Spirit and what he can do in our lives also, if we let him, if we say yes. In these days we ask the Holy Spirit to come on us afresh. We ask him to make us, like Mary, receptive to God’s will and grace.

We ask him to fill us, as he filled her, with the joy of salvation. As the Holy Spirit made Mary the cause of our joy, may he make us all, both priests and laity, humble apostles of that joy.