Do we ever reach a point when the Holy Spirit is absent from us?

We could answer that in one word: No; he is always with us. What about the person who commits a sin repeatedly and needs the mercy of God, continually? If we worry about that issue too much we may come to believe that our sinfulness is an uncontrollable essence that will remain without any sense of forgiveness. Remember when we are getting absolution it is not the priest who forgives us, it is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation that the Holy Spirit is right there. He never left us and is ready to bring the mercy of God upon our drooping heart.

When Christ suffered for our sins he didn’t do this for the current sins of the people of his day, but for all time and all people who were not yet born. Therefore, his presence is found throughout human history and through the constant presence of the Holy Spirit who is always present within us. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6: 19 - 20).

Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain stirile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance. (CCC 1430).

“No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.” “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son. (CCC 683).

“No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” Now God’s Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who “has spoken through the prophets” makes us hear the Father’s Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. The Spirit of truth who “unveils” Christ to us “will not speak on his own.” Such properly divine self-effacement explains why “the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him or knows him,” while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them. (CCC 687).

Ralph B.Hathaway