# Bishop Barron -. on The Holy Spirit

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 8 Aug 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73269762/bishop_barron_on_the_holy_spirit.mp3



## Transcript

[0:10] Speaker 1: You know, one of my favorite texts in the New
[0:12] Speaker 1: Testament is Galatians chapter five, because people ask you all
[0:16] Speaker 1: the time when you're a priest, how do I know
[0:18] Speaker 1: what God wants me to do? How do I know
[0:20] Speaker 1: what the will of God is? How do I know
[0:22] Speaker 1: I'm walking the right path? And I'll tell them look
[0:25] Speaker 1: in Galatians chapter five, because what you find are two
[0:28] Speaker 1: wonderful passages, one dealing with the works of the flesh,
[0:32] Speaker 1: Paul calls it, and he lays those out if maybe
[0:35] Speaker 1: I'll do a video eventually on that. But then he says,
[0:37] Speaker 1: in contrast to those, you find the fruit of the
[0:40] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. In other words, what are the signs that
[0:44] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit is in you? So I'll tell people,
[0:47] Speaker 1: look at this passage and tell me, are these things
[0:49] Speaker 1: happening in your life? Then you're on the right path.
[0:53] Speaker 1: Then you're probably walking the path Holy Spirit. If they're not,
[0:56] Speaker 1: then you're probably not on the right path. So it's
[1:00] Speaker 1: Relations chapter five, and beginning with verse twenty two, Paul
[1:04] Speaker 1: says this, now listen. In contrast, the fruit of the
[1:07] Speaker 1: Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
[1:16] Speaker 1: self control. Nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. Who is
[1:21] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit? Backed this up a little bit, Who
[1:24] Speaker 1: is the Holy Spirit? All we say, the Holy Spirit
[1:27] Speaker 1: is the love that connects the Father and the Son.
[1:29] Speaker 1: So the Father from all eternity knows himself in that
[1:34] Speaker 1: great act, he generates an image, the imago, the image
[1:38] Speaker 1: of God. This perfect image of the Father is the Son.
[1:42] Speaker 1: The Father and son look at each other, and then
[1:45] Speaker 1: Fulton Sheen put it this way. They they sigh their
[1:49] Speaker 1: love for each other, and that shared breath, that shared
[1:54] Speaker 1: love is the Holy Spirit. Now, salvation's all about the
[1:59] Speaker 1: Father's sending his son all the way out to the
[2:02] Speaker 1: very limits of god forsakenness, so that we might be
[2:05] Speaker 1: gathered into the love that the Father and son share,
[2:08] Speaker 1: which we signal every time we do this. Right, you
[2:11] Speaker 1: say that God, the Father, so loved the world he
[2:13] Speaker 1: sent his only son all the way down that we
[2:17] Speaker 1: might be gathered into the Holy Spirit. That's when a
[2:20] Speaker 1: Christian talks about the spiritual life. He's not just using
[2:24] Speaker 1: the language vaguely the way a lot of people do today.
[2:27] Speaker 1: I'm spiritual. So here's the question that Paul is asking,
[2:30] Speaker 1: how do you know that you're in the Holy Spirit. Well,
[2:34] Speaker 1: you can't see and control the Holy Spirit. You know,
[2:37] Speaker 1: it's like the wind that blows where he wills. Right,
[2:40] Speaker 1: But you can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
[2:42] Speaker 1: The consequences are effects of the spirit. That's why this
[2:45] Speaker 1: text is so important. So what I want to do
[2:48] Speaker 1: is just look at some of the major themes Paul
[2:50] Speaker 1: talks about. So the first fruit of the spirit is love.
[2:55] Speaker 1: To no one's surprised, because that's what the Holy Spirit is.
[2:58] Speaker 1: So if you have the Spirit in you, it'll show
[3:01] Speaker 1: up as love. Now, love is not a sentiment or feeling. Primarily,
[3:07] Speaker 1: love is an act of the will. Love is to
[3:10] Speaker 1: want the good of the other and to do something
[3:13] Speaker 1: about it. Not, as I've often said, this indirect egotism,
[3:17] Speaker 1: which is I'll be nice to you that you might
[3:19] Speaker 1: be nice to me. I'll, you know, wash your back,
[3:22] Speaker 1: you wash mine. It's not that love is breaking out
[3:26] Speaker 1: of this black hole of the ego. It's getting out
[3:31] Speaker 1: of the gravitational pull of the ego and really living
[3:35] Speaker 1: for the other. If you've got that, then you're in
[3:39] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. If your life is characterized by that,
[3:42] Speaker 1: then the Holy Spirit is breathing through you. Then Paul
[3:46] Speaker 1: talks about joy and peace. It's been said, I think
[3:50] Speaker 1: correctly that the flag of the Holy Spirit is joy.
[3:55] Speaker 1: Someone who's joyful has the Holy Spirit in him or her. Now,
[4:00] Speaker 1: make a contrast, though we're not talking primarily about giddiness
[4:05] Speaker 1: or even psychological satisfaction or stability. Those are all good.
[4:10] Speaker 1: I'm all in favor of that. But the joy we're
[4:12] Speaker 1: talking about here is signaled more by that second word peace.
[4:17] Speaker 1: Right now, Paul would have been translating in his mind shalom,
[4:21] Speaker 1: that desire that God had that we experience well being,
[4:27] Speaker 1: Shalom peace. What is it? I would say, it's the
[4:31] Speaker 1: connection at the very depth of your soul to the
[4:35] Speaker 1: Spirit of God. What that gives you is a peace,
[4:41] Speaker 1: a harmony, and a serenity which can endure any of
[4:46] Speaker 1: the changes in your life, whether you are in a
[4:49] Speaker 1: good psychological space or a bad one, whether you're healthy
[4:52] Speaker 1: or sick, whether you're successful or not. If you're connected
[4:58] Speaker 1: to the Spirit of God, you have this sense of peace.
[5:03] Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating that almost everyone who met Mother
[5:05] Speaker 1: Teresa of Calcutta commented on her joy, that she was
[5:10] Speaker 1: a joyful person. But yet we know, don't we from
[5:13] Speaker 1: her diaries and letters now that she wasn't psychologically always
[5:17] Speaker 1: in a good space. Just the contrary, she suffered from
[5:20] Speaker 1: enormous anxiety, depression, and so on. But yet see underneath
[5:25] Speaker 1: all that, through all that, there was joy. That's what
[5:29] Speaker 1: Paul means. Now is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
[5:33] Speaker 1: Matthew talks about patience. I've always liked the King James
[5:37] Speaker 1: version has that lovely word long suffering. Long suffering or
[5:43] Speaker 1: patience is a mark of the Holy Spirit. Now, how
[5:44] Speaker 1: come because the Holy Spirit is love, and love is
[5:49] Speaker 1: willing the good of the other. See if your life
[5:52] Speaker 1: is based on you and your projects, your needs, your plans,
[5:58] Speaker 1: what's your attitude toward people who are boring or annoying
[6:01] Speaker 1: or getting in your way? It's just it's an annoyance,
[6:04] Speaker 1: it's impatience. Get out of my way. You're blocking what
[6:08] Speaker 1: I want to achieve. But see, if your stance is
[6:11] Speaker 1: that of love, you're not trying to get those people
[6:14] Speaker 1: out of your way. In fact, you're seeing them as
[6:17] Speaker 1: an occasion for love. That perhaps they were put in
[6:20] Speaker 1: your plays, in your way precisely as an opportunity for
[6:24] Speaker 1: you to love. Just think of you know, when you
[6:28] Speaker 1: wake up in the morning, what's your fundamental attitude is
[6:32] Speaker 1: it now, what can I get out of this day?
[6:35] Speaker 1: Or what occasions for love will present themselves to me today?
[6:40] Speaker 1: The patient or long suffering person has that attitude. I'd
[6:44] Speaker 1: also say this that your patient in regard to your
[6:48] Speaker 1: own suffering. Again, if you're egotistic, that all you want
[6:53] Speaker 1: is your projects and plans, well, then your own physical
[6:55] Speaker 1: suffering is just getting in the way, which is why
[6:58] Speaker 1: we get impatient with it. And when will I get
[7:00] Speaker 1: over this suffering? But the patient person might say no,
[7:04] Speaker 1: maybe this suffering is itself a gift given to me
[7:08] Speaker 1: by God to help me grow in some spiritual way,
[7:11] Speaker 1: And so I'm long suffering even in regard to my
[7:15] Speaker 1: own suffering. Now, next Paul talks about generosity. Now, I
[7:22] Speaker 1: often will focus on this one when people ask me, now,
[7:25] Speaker 1: what does God want me to do? What path should
[7:26] Speaker 1: I want? I'll say, what path makes you most generous?
[7:32] Speaker 1: What form of life makes you most generous? That's the
[7:34] Speaker 1: one God wants you on. The Holy Spirit is gift right,
[7:40] Speaker 1: because the father loves the son, the son loves the father.
[7:43] Speaker 1: The spirit is the mutual gifting of father and son.
[7:47] Speaker 1: The spirit is the divine generosity. Most of us they'll
[7:52] Speaker 1: live like that. In Elliott's great poem The Love Song
[7:56] Speaker 1: of Jaylford Proofroi, where he laments the end of his days,
[8:00] Speaker 1: I've measured out my life with coffee spoons. That's the
[8:04] Speaker 1: ungenerous attitudes. I just take a little, tiny spoon and
[8:07] Speaker 1: offer you a little bit because I'm hanging on to
[8:11] Speaker 1: my prerogatives and privileges and so on. I don't know.
[8:14] Speaker 1: If the Holy Spirit's in you, then you become gifting,
[8:19] Speaker 1: You become overflowing generosity is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Next,
[8:27] Speaker 1: Paul talks about faithfulness or fidelity. Gods is important, isn't it.
[8:33] Speaker 1: Most of us will make a great commitment of love
[8:36] Speaker 1: at some point in life, and that's where our maturity
[8:39] Speaker 1: is found. Really. So it's a person becoming a priest,
[8:43] Speaker 1: it's two people getting married, someone deciding that he will
[8:46] Speaker 1: give himself to his country or whatever it is. When
[8:48] Speaker 1: you say I make this great commitment of love, good,
[8:51] Speaker 1: that's of the Holy Spirit. Fidelity is faithfulness to that commitment,
[8:59] Speaker 1: just as the spirit. But see that the father and
[9:01] Speaker 1: son can never fall out of love. One of the
[9:04] Speaker 1: names for the spirit is vinculum amorous. It's lovely, it
[9:07] Speaker 1: means the chain of love is the chain of love
[9:10] Speaker 1: that binds the Father and the Son. We'll see, when
[9:13] Speaker 1: we're faithful in our commitments of love, we imitate the
[9:16] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit in us. That's
[9:19] Speaker 1: why lack of fidelity is such a great crisis in
[9:23] Speaker 1: our culture, you know, because it's not a fruit of
[9:26] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Finally, he talks about I'm skipping a couple,
[9:30] Speaker 1: but he talks about self control. And as I've said
[9:34] Speaker 1: one hundred times, this is not Puritanism. You know. We
[9:38] Speaker 1: can mock Christianity easily enough as fussy and it's antibody,
[9:43] Speaker 1: and it's not. It doesn't like sexuality, and so it's
[9:45] Speaker 1: self control, that isn't it. Paul is a Jew. Jews
[9:50] Speaker 1: aren't anti of flesh. Platonists maybe were, but Jews weren't.
[9:55] Speaker 1: Paul's not against the flesh at all. But why self
[9:57] Speaker 1: control important? Self control means I'm going to order everything
[10:01] Speaker 1: in me according to love. That's what it means. It
[10:05] Speaker 1: means all my energies, all my passions, all my powers,
[10:08] Speaker 1: all of them are good, but they have to be
[10:10] Speaker 1: ordered to love. If not, then chaos will result. And
[10:15] Speaker 1: the person who lacks self control lacks that ordering capacity.
[10:20] Speaker 1: That's why it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's like,
[10:22] Speaker 1: what makes me able to direct my life toward love?
[10:26] Speaker 1: That's what God wants. That's the path that you're on.
[10:29] Speaker 1: You're walking a path where you're losing self control. That
[10:32] Speaker 1: ain't it. That's not the Holy Spirit. I'll close with
[10:37] Speaker 1: something I heard from Father Hesperg the legendary of former
[10:41] Speaker 1: president of Notre Dame University. And he said, this is
[10:44] Speaker 1: about ten years ago. I heard him give it a holliway.
[10:47] Speaker 1: He said, here's a prayer that always works no matter
[10:52] Speaker 1: what's going on in your life. If you're successful, you're unsuccessful,
[10:55] Speaker 1: you're young, you're old, you're sick, you're healthy, no matter
[10:58] Speaker 1: where you are, this prayer always works. I remember I
[11:01] Speaker 1: kind of pricked up my ears. I can't what is that?
[11:03] Speaker 1: And he said, any sunk day spiritos come Holy Spirit.
[11:09] Speaker 1: And I think, first of all, he's right about that.
[11:11] Speaker 1: It's a prayer that works anytime. But secondly, it's the
[11:15] Speaker 1: only way to get the Holy Spirit. See again, the
[11:19] Speaker 1: Spirit blows where he wills. That you can't control the
[11:22] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. If I just do X, Y and Z,
[11:24] Speaker 1: I'll get the Holy Spirit. It doesn't work that way,
[11:27] Speaker 1: or if I follow this program, i'll get the Holy Spirit.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Doesn't work that way. You have to ask for the
[11:33] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Ask, come, Holy Spirit, Come renew the hearts
[11:37] Speaker 1: of your people, Come renew the face of the earth.
[11:40] Speaker 1: And so i'd recommend if you want the fruit of
[11:43] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit in you Galatians five, ask ask any
[11:49] Speaker 1: sunk day spirituos

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