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Augustine3
Guest
Jesus told his disciples he must go in order that the Father would send the Holy Spirit. Obviously the Holy Spirit is omnipresent so what does it mean to “send the Holy Spirit”?
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M
MarcoPolo
Guest
To make especially active throughout Christian vocations?
K
katholikos12
Guest
I want to say because the HS was kept in the Ark of the Covenant. The release of the HS came after Christ death with the tearing of the veil in the Temple and then formally given at Pentecost.
Its a good question though not sure
Its a good question though not sure
S
sirach2v4
Guest
In deference to the year of Faith, I am reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church, from my 19-year-old first edition. I just logged reading page 345.
So, from this skimming of the catechism and my resulting inspiration, I can take a weak stab at this question.
What does it mean and why does it matter?
First of all, we have to attribute the giving of the Holy Spirit to the inscrutable and perfect will of God. This is how God intended to remain in the Church until the end of time. There is just nothing to discuss about it.
Second, It matters because we have the assurance of the presence of God in the Church, guiding it, for all time, imperfect as the living Church on earth is. Without this assurance, we would have disintegrated, as history shows almost happened. The work of the Holy Spirit is to give witness to Christ. Without the HS, we’d be protestants, pointing to the men in funny hats as mere men.
So, from this skimming of the catechism and my resulting inspiration, I can take a weak stab at this question.
What does it mean and why does it matter?
First of all, we have to attribute the giving of the Holy Spirit to the inscrutable and perfect will of God. This is how God intended to remain in the Church until the end of time. There is just nothing to discuss about it.
Second, It matters because we have the assurance of the presence of God in the Church, guiding it, for all time, imperfect as the living Church on earth is. Without this assurance, we would have disintegrated, as history shows almost happened. The work of the Holy Spirit is to give witness to Christ. Without the HS, we’d be protestants, pointing to the men in funny hats as mere men.
K
katholikos12
Guest
Ahahahaha
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TimothyH
Guest
The Holy Spirit is breath of God which gives us life.I want to say because the HS was kept in the Ark of the Covenant. The release of the HS came after Christ death with the tearing of the veil in the Temple and then formally given at Pentecost.
Its a good question though not sure
John’s version of Pentacost is the reception of the holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on the disciples in the upper room.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. (John 20:19-20)
The word spirit in Latin is spiritus, and it means breath. In Greek it is pneuma from which we get pneumatic and pneumonia. In Hebrew it is ruah. When Jesus breathes on the disciples, he is giving them his life giving spirit, the breath of life. In Lukes version of pentacost there is the roar of a strong wind. The spirit of God is often assocated with moving air, wind, or breathing, and it is this breath which gives us life.
the LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
Jesus himself tells us that the holy Spirit is the giver of life.
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63)
We testify to our belief in this at every Mass when we say the creed.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.
-Tim-
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TimothyH
Guest
There is plenty to discuss about it because the Holy Spirt dwells not just in the Church but in each of us personally.
We can and should learn to recognize the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and with proper spiritual training can come to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit, learn to respond to them in a positive way, and thereby increase the promptings of the Spirit in intensity and frequency. You can feel the presence of God this way. It is not difficult to learn, but most people don’t want to invest the time and effort required for prayer and silence.
I suggest “In the School of the Holy Spirit” by Jacques Philippe.
And the Catechism teaches us that the Protestant Churches are not devoid of the Holy Spirit. If you read 345 pages then you most certainly read paragraph 819 and would know that.
There are millions of Protestants who experience the action of the Holy Spirit in their lives far more than many Catholics who recieve the Eucharist, go to confession once in a while, but never read the Bible and can’t be bothered to pray. I know many of them.
The Holy Spirit is not the property of the Catholic Church. The Church does not keep the Holy Spirit in a bottle to hand out on Saturdays and when people come to confession and Sundays when people show up to recieve the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit is God. God does not cease to act outside of the visible confines of the Catholic Church.
-Tim-
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bogeydogg
Guest
In the sending of the Holy Spirit Christ created His Church. By the Spirit the Apostles were given the power to be led and to lead others into all truth. It was not Peter the fisherman who spoke on Pentecost, it was Peter the Apostle empowered by God the Holy Spirit who so pierced the hearts of men by his bold preaching that received baptism and gave themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. It was the Holy Spirit who created the Church and gave it the power to change the world, that is why Jesus declared it is better for us that He leave because He is with us always, but God places us in Him by the Holy Spirit.
God Bless
J
jdobbins
Guest
As long as Jesus was here among us, the presence of God was where He was, and only where He was. He brought the reality of the Kingdom of God among men. “Repent, for the kingdom of God is here.” But God’s plan was to be with His Church for all time, and to be the inspiration for the leaders. Thus, Jesus had to leave and go to the Father so the Holy Spirit could be with the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, in all places at all time. “I will not leave you orphans.” Remember, God is One. The three Persons of God are the relationship existing within God, not external to God. God is a family of relationships. God is Trinity essentially because of two factors: He is Love and He is infinite. Because God is infinite, what He does has infinite effect. Because He is Love, He loves infinitely. His love for Himself is personified as the Word. The love between the Father and the Word is personified as the Holy Spirit. This infinite relationship is always in Act. It is always happening. But it is all within God as His nature, not external to Him. Therefore, when God acts, any of the three Persons can act, and it is still God acting. The unique and absolutely amazing act of God’s Love is that the Word became incarnated as man and dwelt among us so He might bring us the fullness of revelation and forgiveness of sin. To do this, this Divine Person who is the Word, had to take on a human nature, thus become a divine Person with a dual nature. His human nature prevented Him from doing what God intended to do for mankind after the mission of Jesus was accomplished, so Jesus left to go to the Father and established the path for us to follow Him there, to a place no human had ever been. The Holy Spirit remains among us to lead and guide us to the new Promised Land by acting through the Mystical Body of Christ.
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fhansen
Guest
God is omnipresent and yet out of communion with man, due to the Fall, until reconciliation takes place.
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mlz
Guest
You have made a good point. As a former protestant I experienced the Holy Spirit in my life in a profound and wonderful way and as a result the Holy Spirit LED me to the Catholic Church. When coming into Adoration I knew at once the Holy Spirit was present because I was aware of Him in my life. I had never experienced such deep closeness to the Lord as I did when I came to Adoration (as a protestant) It made me look into the Catholic faith and study it, then come into the Church. We need to evangelize our fellow brothers and sisters in the Catholic faith who are “sleeping” in this wonderful Catholic Church and pray that the fire of the Holy Spirit moves through the Church and wakes up those sleeping. He so badly needs ALL of us to remember that we are to give Christ our BEST, ALWAYS. Praise God!
mlz
P.S. I really like the author you mentioned but never read that book, I’ll have to get it thanks for sharing
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