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How does the current RCIA literature c/w what you were once taught ?
The word used in the Russian Orthodox Church for a saint, prepodobnia, means “very, very like” and is a perfect description of what Jesus meant by the “true life”. If we want to obtain life everlasting, we must become “very, very like” Jesus. And, we can only do this if we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit - the Lord and giver of life.
Throughout Jesus’ time on earth the Holy Spirit worked within Jesus, guiding and inspiring him. As John baptized Jesus, “… the H.S. descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” [Luke 3:22]. And when he was led into the desert to prepare for his public preaching, it was the H.S. who took him there. [Luke 4:1] When he eventually began to preach in Galilee, it was with the power of the H.S. [Luke 4:14]. To be really like Jesus, then, we must have the H.S. within us, too. That is why when the time came for him to leave his apostles Jesus promised to send them the H.S. When the H.S. came to the apostles at Pentecost, they were completely transformed. The H.S. bound them more closely to Jesus by making them more like him. They were filled with a new life, the life of Jesus, and so Paul could exclaim many years later: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”. [Gal. 2:20].
The word used in the Russian Orthodox Church for a saint, prepodobnia, means “very, very like” and is a perfect description of what Jesus meant by the “true life”. If we want to obtain life everlasting, we must become “very, very like” Jesus. And, we can only do this if we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit - the Lord and giver of life.
Throughout Jesus’ time on earth the Holy Spirit worked within Jesus, guiding and inspiring him. As John baptized Jesus, “… the H.S. descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” [Luke 3:22]. And when he was led into the desert to prepare for his public preaching, it was the H.S. who took him there. [Luke 4:1] When he eventually began to preach in Galilee, it was with the power of the H.S. [Luke 4:14]. To be really like Jesus, then, we must have the H.S. within us, too. That is why when the time came for him to leave his apostles Jesus promised to send them the H.S. When the H.S. came to the apostles at Pentecost, they were completely transformed. The H.S. bound them more closely to Jesus by making them more like him. They were filled with a new life, the life of Jesus, and so Paul could exclaim many years later: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”. [Gal. 2:20].