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.