It is always interesting, enlightening and consoling to delve into the Paul's prayers: in this case, his prayer for Timothy. He refers to a ritual of the laying on of hands and the conferring of God's gift of the Holy Spirit. He affirms that this gift makes Timothy strong, loving and wise. The Old Testament calls God "the strong one of Israel", and unfortunately, far too frequently that strength of God is taken in a militaristic sense, with God showing strength in defeating and even annihilating Israel's enemies. Thankfully in Jesus God has liberated us from such impossible notions and bloodthirsty images.

In union with God nothing is impossible for us in the realms of faith, hope and love: through the gift of the Spirit, we can be strong in our faith, strong and wise in our loving, for the Holy Spirit has been given us (Rom 6:5). In our modern world of continuous warfare and its concomitant crimes against humanity, any form of hope, especially the religious hope of Christianity, can seem rather futile and foolish. But once again by the gift of the Spirit we can be strong and wise in our hope, for that hope encourages and enables us to be lovingly hopeful and hopefully loving.