Likewise the Spirit helps in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs to deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
--Romans 8:26-27
Jesus made the promise, and at Pentecost He delivered on the promise. The Holy Spirit arrived, and the holy catholic church -- as confessed in The Apostles' Creed -- was born. The Scripture readings for the weak, listed in this past Sunday's meditation, help to unpack just exactly what the work of the Holy Spirit is.
In today's reading, St. Paul -- who, at his conversion to Christ, made a dramatic turnaround in his life -- says that the Holy Spirit helps and intercedes. Specifically, the Spirit helps us in our weakness -- with the weakness specifically being not knowing how to pray as we ought. That help takes the form of intercession. The Spirit within us literally prays for us, and that with sighs too deep for words says St. Paul.
Most wonderfully, God knows those sighs.
PD
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