{"id":5263,"date":"2026-03-03T07:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5263"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:45:24","slug":"conceived-by-the-holy-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/conceived-by-the-holy-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Conceived by the Holy Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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Extraordinary figures are often associated with claims of extraordinary births.
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The Egyptian god Amun, masquerading as a human being, was said to have placed an ankh \u2013 a sacred symbol of life \u2013 on top of the nose of Queen Ahmose, who promptly conceived the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.
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The Indian god Mithras was said to have emerged from solid rock.
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Devotees of the mythical Yellow Emperor of China claimed that he was conceived in his mother\u2019s womb when she was struck by a bolt of lightning originating from the Big Dipper.
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According to Greek mythology, Zeus had a dalliance with the goddess Metis. When she reported her pregnancy, the king of the gods feared that her child might be mightier than himself. So he swallowed her. Metis gave birth anyway. Her daughter Athena sprang, fully grown, from Zeus\u2019 forehead, wearing armor and bearing a sword. Most of the other Olympian deities would indeed come to experience the volatile Athena as the Mother of All Headaches.
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Real-life historical figures floated their own amazing birth narratives. Alexander the Great and the emperor Augustus both claimed to have been virgin-born, fathered by either a serpent god or Apollo.
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It seemed inevitable that the earliest Christians would insist that Jesus, God\u2019s only Son, would enter the human race in some extraordinary fashion.
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That idea is on prominent display in the Apostles\u2019 Creed, which declares that Jesus \u201cwas conceived by the Holy Spirit\u201d and \u201cborn of the Virgin Mary.\u201d
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Christians, however, add this twist: In Jesus\u2019 case, we\u2019re not talking about mythological or narcissistic embellishment. Jesus\u2019 virgin birth really happened.
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No, really.<\/em>
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We\u2019ll explore that claim, and Mary\u2019s special role, in greater detail tomorrow. Today let\u2019s consider what the Creed says about the Holy Spirit as the divine agent of conception.
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That takes us all the way back to the Bible\u2019s opening words in the book of Genesis.
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The Hebrew word ru\u2019ach<\/em> and the Greek word pneuma<\/em>, which are translated \u201cspirit\u201d in the Old and New Testaments, respectively, both serve triple duty linguistically.\u00a0They also mean \u201cbreath\u201d and \u201cwind.\u201d\u00a0 Thus God\u2019s Spirit can be understood as the very breath of God.\u00a0
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In Genesis chapter one, God breathes creation into existence.\u00a0
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\u201cIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.\u00a0Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters\u201d (Genesis 1:1-2).\u00a0
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This remarkable snapshot from the beginning of the cosmos may well be echoed in the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary.\u00a0When she asks how in the world she can possibly bear a child if she is still a virgin, he replies, \u201cThe Holy Spirit will come on you,\u00a0and the power of the Most High\u00a0will overshadow you. So the holy one\u00a0to be born will be called\u00a0the Son of God\u201d (Luke 1:35).
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The Spirit hovers, overshadows, or broods over the waters of creation, seemingly ready to breathe the breath of life into everything God has made.
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In Genesis 2:7, God forms the first human being from the dust of the ground, breathing life into his nostrils \u2013 \u201cand man became a living being.\u201d\u00a0In the same way, God himself becomes a living human being within the womb of a Jewish peasant girl.
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This breathing-out by the Spirit is not just a one-time act of creation.\u00a0It can also be a re-creation of our life with God, as many times as our inner worlds become empty and dry.\u00a0In Ezekiel 37:1-10, the prophet looks down upon an utterly disheartening valley of dry bones.\u00a0That\u2019s what faithless Israel has become.\u00a0\u201cThere was no breath in them.\u201d\u00a0
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But when God blows upon that skeletal heap, \u201cthey came to life and stood up on their feet.\u201d\u00a0The breath of God\u2019s Spirit means there is always hope of a different kind of tomorrow.
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When Jesus stands before his confused and fearful disciples after his resurrection, he breathes on them and says, \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit\u201d (John 20:22) \u2013 a gift that will explode into its fullest dimensions at Pentecost.\u00a0
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And Paul tells us that Scripture itself is theopneustos<\/em>, a fascinating, made-up word that means \u201cGod-breathed\u201d (2 Timothy 3:16).\u00a0
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We may say that that Scripture inspires us<\/em>.\u00a0But theopneustos<\/em> is not making a claim about the Bible\u2019s effect on its readers. Instead, it\u2019s asserting that every time we hold a Bible in our hands, we\u2019re clutching something that was breathed out<\/em> from the very heart and mind of God.\u00a0
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This, of course, may seem quite interesting, from a theological perspective. But will the fact that the Spirit is the breath of God make any real difference to you and me over the next 24 hours?
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Let\u2019s return to an observation we\u2019ve made several times in the past \u2013 the way in which God introduces himself to Moses in Exodus 3.\u00a0\u00a0
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Moses is shaking in his sandals.\u00a0Who, exactly, is this mysterious Presence speaking to him from a burning bush?
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God identifies himself with four Hebrew letters: YHWH.\u00a0No one knows precisely what they mean, or even how they should be pronounced.\u00a0Most Bible students opt for Yahweh<\/em>, and believe that God\u2019s personal name should be translated, \u201cI am who am.\u201d\u00a0
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In other words, God is God and we are not.\u00a0He is the ultimate Being in the cosmos.\u00a0Others prefer, \u201cI am who I am.\u201d\u00a0That is, \u201cMoses, who I am is none of your business.\u201d\u00a0This would be an expression of God\u2019s impenetrable identity.\u00a0Still other scholars believe Yahweh means, \u201cI will be there with you,\u201d or \u201cI am all you need.\u201d\u00a0
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The simplest and perhaps most compelling insight is that God may have wanted his people to think about him every time they took a breath.\u00a0
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Try it.\u00a0Breathe in:\u00a0Yah.\u00a0<\/em>Breathe out:\u00a0Weh.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cYah-weh.\u201d\u00a0
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The consonants in YHWH are the only ones in Hebrew in which the speaker doesn\u2019t use the tongue or close the lips.\u00a0All the other consonants \u2013 such as P, K, T, B \u2013 explode off the lips or teeth, or spring from the back of the throat. But\u00a0Yahweh<\/em>\u00a0can be said effortlessly.\u00a0It\u2019s as easy as breathing in and breathing out.
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God\u2019s name, in fact, may represent a constant reminder that he is the One, by means of his Spirit, who keeps us breathing.
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Farther Richard Rohr has made an intriguing suggestion.\u00a0The Franciscan priest notes that the first word spoken by every human being, the world over, is the sacred name of God.\u00a0The first breath of every newborn baby is God\u2019s personal identity.\u00a0And just in case you\u2019re anxious about what you should pray just before you die, don\u2019t worry. With your last breath you will speak God\u2019s name.
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Rohr goes on to say that there isn\u2019t a Catholic way of breathing or a Protestant way or an Orthodox way or an English way or an American way.\u00a0
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There\u2019s just breathing<\/em>.\u00a0
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You\u2019ve done it your whole life \u2013 on average, about 20,000 times a day, whether awake or asleep.\u00a0
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And as we catch our breath going from one moment to the next one, we can choose to remember that the Spirit who overshadowed a trusting peasant girl, bringing Jesus into the world, is sustaining the life within you and me right now.


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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0Extraordinary figures are often associated with claims of extraordinary births.\u00a0The Egyptian god Amun, masquerading as a human being, was said to have placed an… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,352,301],"class_list":["post-5263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-holy-spirit","tag-yhwh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5265,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions\/5265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}