Holy Spirit - SHE?

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mrayburn

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I was recently watching a video of a mass that took place on Pentecost Sunday. During the homily at one point the priest started referring to the Holy Spirit as SHE. I do not find the Scripture referring to the Holy Spirit in this way. Was this just a priest trying to be politically correct or has anyone else heard your priests do this?
 
“ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ παράκλητος ὃν ἐγὼ πέμψω ὑμῖν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας ὃ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται, **ἐκεῖνος **μαρτυρήσει περὶ ἐμοῦ·”

Ekeinos means ‘He’, if the Spirit were female it would have said ekeine. Pneuma is neuter, again not female.
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
“口ταν 口λθ口 口 παρ口κλητο口 口ν 口γ口 π口μψω 口μ口ν παρ口 το口 πατρ口口, τ口 πνε口μα τ口口 口ληθε口α口 口 παρ口 το口 πατρ口口 口κπορε口εται, **口κε口νο口 **μαρτυρ口σει περ口 口μο口・”

Ekeinos means ‘he’, if it were female it would have said ekeine.
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The Hebrew ruach is gramatically feminine while Greek pneuma is neuter, but AFAIK when the Holy Spirit is being referred to words in the masculine are sometimes used, in violation of proper grammar.
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
“ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ παράκλητος ὃν ἐγὼ πέμψω ὑμῖν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας ὃ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται, **ἐκεῖνος **μαρτυρήσει περὶ ἐμοῦ·”

Ekeinos means ‘He’, if the Spirit were female it would have said ekeine. Pneuma is neuter, again not female.
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👍 Beat me to it.

I find it significant that the New Testament writers ignore the grammatical precept that a pronoun must match its antecedent in gender and number, and use the masculine pronoun when refering to the neuter “spirit.”
 
The Holy Spirit overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and 9 months later our Glorious Saviour was born.

The Holy Spirit is a HE!👍
 
I’m a little embarrassed that Catholics and Christians alike would stumble so quickly, by assigning a gender to the Holy Spirit that is any different than the gender of Jesus.:confused:

The Church is referred to as a “she” because she is HIS bride…! The Holy Trinity is ONE God, and it is bad to think of the three parts as seperate in any way. If one is He, then all three parts are He.

Jesus was male.
 
So far nobody in the thread has it right. See CCC 239: God transcends human distinctions between the sexes.
 
Credo_ergo_sum said:
“ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ παράκλητος ὃν ἐγὼ πέμψω ὑμῖν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας ὃ παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορεύεται, **ἐκεῖνος **μαρτυρήσει περὶ ἐμοῦ·”

Ekeinos means ‘He’, if the Spirit were female it would have said ekeine. Pneuma is neuter, again not female.
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Can’t argue with that logic. Btw I’d be careful if I were him. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only sin that cannot be forgiven.
 
BListon said:
Can’t argue with that logic. Btw I’d be careful if I were him. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only sin that cannot be forgiven.
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You are misinterpreting Matthew. In the sense it is used there, “blasphemy against the Spirit” refers to the deliberate refusal of God’s forgiveness. It does not mean that blasphemous talk about the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.
 
stanczyk said:
You are misinterpreting Matthew. In the sense it is used there, “blasphemy against the Spirit” refers to the deliberate refusal of God’s forgiveness. It does not mean that blasphemous talk about the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.
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Perhaps you are right, but better safe than sorry.
 
BListon said:
Can’t argue with that logic. Btw I’d be careful if I were him. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only sin that cannot be forgiven.
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Btw, who’s “him” that should be careful?
 
I don’t think the priest was being politically correct. He was probably referring to the Holy Spirit as “She” because the Holy Spirit is so mysterious, moving like the wind, having nothing to really grasp or hold on to . Women have a mystery about them, you never really know what you are going to get, kind of like the weather, beautiful, necessary but unpredictable.

God made male AND FEMALE in His image, not just male. The attributes of both male and female mirror God. I take no offense to calling the Holy Spirit, “she.”
 
Lady_Love said:
He was probably referring to the Holy Spirit as “She” because the Holy Spirit is so mysterious, moving like the wind, having nothing to really grasp or hold on to . Women have a mystery about them, you never really know what you are going to get, kind of like the weather, beautiful, necessary but unpredictable.
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The world as portrayed in books or movies isn’t the real world. Most women I met are hilariously predictable :o
 
BListon said:
Perhaps you are right, but better safe than sorry.
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Well I certainly would never condone blasphemy, but I am extremely wary about describing any sin as unforgivable. It’s simply not the case. All sins are forgivable.
 
Relax everyone, take a breath…regardless, is your love, respect, adoration or worship of the Holy Spirit in anyway be diminished over the possibilities arising from this thread? My guess (and my hope) is that it will not!

For what its worth, in my opinion, spirit is spirit, and language is language (even though in many languages inanimate objects take on the persona of either masculine or feminine), neither have anything to do with human, physical, gender.

The Holy Spirit is not of THIS world…thank God!

Peace an all good!
 
Lady_Love said:
I don’t think the priest was being politically correct. …
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Of course he was, otherwise why didn’t he go beat up on Spanish which has a gender for every noun?
…Because of their biological makeup, principally their more task-focused and less intuitive intellectual processes, men are unlikely to connect with a feminine-dominated or even gender-neutral symbolic environment, which is what a religion is. Masculine language in reference to God is part of the traditional symbol system of biblical faith, and it has allowed men to find meaning in that faith. Feminizing the language of worship virtually guarantees that men will fall by the wayside, except perhaps those whose sexual identity is confused.
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Languages lie at the bedrock of cultures, and are inherently resistant to change. Bible translators know this, and make accommodations in order to translate the biblical idiom into phrases that will have equivalent significance in the target culture. But the current drive for gender-neutral language works in the opposite direction: it attempts to force linguistic change in order to foster cultural change. In this case, the translators are attempting to force a linguistic change on both the originating culture (the Bible and Christian tradition) and the target culture (North American society) at the same time. In reality, the movement for inclusive language is an attempt by an elitist segment to impose its values upon a larger community, and to take control not only of the actions of others but their thoughts as well.
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If worship is to be truly inclusive, it cannot impose an elitist linguistic convention on a larger culture. A mandate for gender-neutral language in Christian worship would simply create a small, holier-than-thou cult with its own special lingo, while the rest of us hopeless Neanderthals fall off the edge of their world. And that’s exactly what’s happening to most of the historic North American denominations. Locked into the feminizing agenda, they are fast becoming a tiny minority of Left-wing activists and their captive senior citizens who stick around just because of inertia. Anybody who is really looking for a meaningful set of religious symbols is going someplace else: to those churches which don’t care about inclusive language, but do care whether or not people are included in the covenant with God through Jesus Christ. …
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“Worship and Inclusive Language”
Richard C. Leonard
laudemont.org/a-wail.htm
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