The feast of the Baptism of the Lord has a rather muted emphasis in the life of the Western Church. Coming in early January, it is dwarfed by the earlier celebrations of Christmas and even the Epiphany.

Again and again at key points in the story of salvation, the Holy Spirit, the power of God, comes revealed in a cloud. In the cloud, God's presence is revealed while the full glory of his transcendence is shrouded.

The intimate communion between the Holy Spirit and Mary continued throughout her life. Her Immaculate Conception was not merely an episode at the start of her life. Rather, the Spirit abided.

From the outside, the Immaculate Conception is likely seen as the oddest and the most unnecessary of Catholic doctrines. To have faith in salvation through Jesus, we surely do not have to believe that his mother was conceived without the taint of original sin, do we?

Too often, John the Baptist gets portrayed as a first-century crank, a fierce guy with shabby clothes and unkempt beard and hair, who lives like a homeless person. We perhaps see him in the same light as a grubby man who, amidst downtown crowds, carries a sign that reads, "The End is Near."

The Breath of God filled creation with the glory of God's presence. But Adam and Eve shattered the bond of communion by breaking away from God. After that, not only humanity, but also all earthly creation, had a broken, diminished existence.

Perhaps when we think of the Holy Spirit, our first thoughts are those of Pentecost. While it is true that the Spirit was poured out most abundantly following Christ's ascension, the story of the Spirit goes right back to the second verse of the Bible.

When St. Paul first came to Ephesus, he came upon a dozen disciples. For whatever reason, Paul asked them whether they had received the Holy Spirit when they became believers.

The Holy Spirit, according to the Second Vatican Council, is the source of the ongoing renewal that must take place in the Church.