Well I don’t really see the gifts at work in my home parish so much… but in parishes where there are charismatic groups and charismatic mass I see them at work… I’ve seen people speaking in tongues, prophesying, and heard stories of great healing miracles by the laying on of hands.
Like I said, I can’t speak in tongues… even though I’ve been baptised in the Spirit twice. Maybe it’s just that the Holy Spirit chooses not to work through me, or maybe it’s that I don’t open myself to Him enough for Him to be able to work through me.
However, I guess one thing to consider is that not all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are that miraculous-looking. When someone has courage, how do we know whether it was just their own courage from within themselves or whether they were braver than usual because of the Holy Spirit? So yea, sometimes it is hard to tell when the Spirit is at work.
As for tradition… the Holy Spirit didn’t stop trying to reveal the truth once the bible was written. He helps people to understand the bible today. But he also works strongly with the development and understanding of Tradition. Check out CCC 74 - 100. Here are some examples links made between the Spirit and Tradition.
76 In keeping with the Lord’s command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:
- *orally *“by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit”;33 - in writing “by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing”.34
. . . continued in apostolic succession
**77 **"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority."35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."36
**78 **This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes."37 "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."38
**85 **"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."47 This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
**86 **"Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."48
