Trinity
Posted on

A Few Facts About The Holy Spirit

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you. (Jn. 14:15-20)

Of all the doctrines of the Faith, the Holy Spirit is probably one of the toughest for us to understand. The Third Person of the Trinity can seem vague, amorphous, unclear. Some of us have the image of a dove (which is Scriptural), but that isn’t wholly accurate. We do not have a “face” to go with the name, in a manner of speaking. Of course, it is a mystery – meaning it is something we will not fully understand this side of Heaven, if ever.

However, that does not mean we don’t know anything about the Holy Spirit. Here are some facts:

  • According to Scott Hahn, we get much of what we can know about the Spirit from the Book of Wisdom:

It was common for Jews of the time to view divine Wisdom as a person (or personification) distinct from Yahweh, and Christians often interpreted the Bible’s wisdom passages as referring to the Holy Spirit. It was a reasonable surmise. For example, in the Book of Wisdom, chapters 7–9, God’s Wisdom is referred to as “holy spirit,” and then described in terms that are strikingly divine (“all-powerful,” “all-knowing,” “overseeing all,” and “more mobile than any motion,” 7:22–23). And, since the Hebrew word for Wisdom, hokmah, is also feminine, Wisdom was addressed in bridal terms (“irresistible,” “more beautiful than the sun,” 7:22, 29).

  • We need the Holy Spirit in order to comprehend God’s thoughts (1 Cor. 2:11), and the Spirit has spoken through the prophets in order to help us gain this understanding.
  • St. Catherine of Siena gives us this beautiful analogy: “Enrich your soul in the great goodness of God: The Father is your table, the Son is your food, and the Holy Spirit waits on you and then makes His dwelling in you.”
  • We know we are “sealed” in the Spirit at Confirmation. That “mark,” says St. Paul, is made because we believe in Christ Jesus.
  • The Holy Spirit is a gift-giver! He shares with us wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. Of course, like any gift, we can choose to use these or we can stuff them back in the proverbial box, shove them in a dark corner of our closet and forget about them. The Spirit gives the gifts, but He will never strong-arm us into using them.
  • And the gifts just keep on giving! The Holy Spirit (just as St. Catherine of Siena said) brings to us luscious fruit as our “waiter:” charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, humility or gentleness, fidelity or faithfulness, modesty, continence or self-control and chastity. Again, we can give thanks and eat, or we can tell the waiter to take it back.

While we may not fully understand the Holy Spirit, it is clear from just these few thoughts that the Spirit is an abundant giver, powerful, and willing to serve us. The Holy Spirit is the love of God the Father and God the Son, poured out into this Third Person of the Trinity, speaking to us through Scripture and the Church. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a mystery – but a mystery willing to reveal itself bit-by-bit as we pray and study and contemplate.

Spirit of life, by whose power the Word was made flesh
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the woman of attentive silence,
make us docile to the promptings of your love
and ever ready to accept the signs of the times
which you place along the paths of history.

Come, Spirit of love and peace!

To you, Spirit of love,
with the Almighty Father and the Only-Begotten Son,
be praise, honour and glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

[Original art by Waiting for the Word.]

EH headshotElise Hilton is an author, blogger and speaker. Her role at Diocesan Publications is Editor & Writer with the Marketing Team. She has worked in parish faith formation and Catholic education for over 30 years. A passionate student of theology, Elise enjoys sharing her thoughts on parish communication, the role of social media in the Church, Franciscan spirituality and Catholic parenting. To enquire about booking her as a speaker, please contact her at ehilton@diocesan.com.

 

back to school
Posted on

Back To School: Happy New Year!

A priest once told me, “The calendar may say that January 1st is the New Year, but everybody knows it’s really September, when school starts again.”

There is some truth to that. Children head off to a new year of learning, navigating new skills with a new teacher and trying to figure out who they will sit with at lunch. (Don’t underestimate this last one; it can strike fear into the heart of a middle schooler.) Teachers must rouse themselves from their well-deserved summer downtime and get their classrooms in order. Parents scurry for school supplies, realize that everyone has grown since June and will therefore need new pants and shirts and socks and shoes. College freshmen unload trailers full of stuff for dorm rooms, and wonder if they will be able to handle the rigors of college life. Yep, it’s a new year, all right.

So what can this new year teach us about our spiritual life? First, we should all take time to pray for the students in our lives: may God grant them not only knowledge but wisdom, to not only follow the rules but to be kind, and that they learn to trust in the Lord in all things.

Why not take this time to add a new dimension of faith to your home? As a parent, did you know you can bless your child? Get some holy water (just take a small bottle to church and either get it from the baptismal font or the holy water dispenser.) Make it a habit to bless each child at bedtime or as they head off to school.

Maybe it’s time for you to go back to school, at least in terms of your faith. When was the last time you read a great spiritual book? Either read one on your own, or start a Catholic book club. (Check the list below for some suggestions.) Also, your parish or diocese offers adult small groups or classes. Consider joining one.

It could be that your prayer life isn’t as strong as you’d like it to be. Some of us do well with formal prayers, such as the rosary, while others just need time to be peaceful in God’s presence. Both require time, effort and commitment. Perhaps the “new year” is just the gentle “push” you need to spend time with Jesus.

If you don’t enjoy reading, there are many great Catholic CDs that you can listen to in the car or at home. If you have to drive to work every day, why not make it time spent learning?

Back to school and Happy New Year! May it be a time when we all are open to learning and to deepening our relationship with God!

(Here are just a few book suggestions:

  1. Graced and Gifted: Biblical Wisdom For the Homemakers Heart: Scott Hahn
  2. Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God: Scott Hahn
  3. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism: John Zmirak (If you haven’t yet read any of Zmirak’s books, you are in for a treat. He’s very funny, yet very serious about the Faith.)
  4. Waking Up Catholic: A Guide to Catholic Beliefs for Converts, Reverts, and Anyone Becoming Catholic: Chad R. Torgerson
  5. Be Not Afraid: A Book of Quotes for Catholic Men: Sam Guzman
  6. Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality: Raymond Arroyo
  7. Arise from Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense: Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R
  8. Why Go to Confession?: Father John Flader
  9. Loaded: Money and the Spirituality of Enough: Heather King
  10. My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir: Colleen Campbell King
Mary's Assumption
Posted on

Mary’s Assumption: A Poetic View

Since we began this week with the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is only fitting to explore this rich feast again, in a slightly different light. (By the way, Scott Hahn does an excellent job explaining and exploring this beautiful Solemnity.)

As we noted earlier here, this is possibly one of the oldest of the Church’s celebrations. Yet it can be a bit difficult to “wrap one’s head around,” so to speak. As anyone who has ever practiced the prayer method of Lectio Divina knows, our imaginations (grounded in prayer and gifted by God) can be a meaningful way to more deeply understand Biblical and historical events.

The author Madeleine L’Engle (best known for the classic A Wrinkle In Time) was also a gifted poet. In her lovely collection, A Cry Like A Bell, she inhabits and gives voice to various people from the Bible. In the poem, Mary speaks: from Ephesus, Mary is looking back on her life – one that surely is the most remarkable life any woman has ever led. And here, she is tired – it has been a long and tumultuous life, despite its joy. Mary reflects on her Son’s sacrificial life:

This was the sacrifice, this ultimate gift of love.
I thought once that I loved. My love was hundredfold less
than his, than the love of the wood-lice is to mine,
and even this I do not know. For has he not, or will he not
come to the wood-lice as he came to man? Does he not
give his own self to the lowing cattle, the ear of corn,
the blazing sun, the clarion moon, the drop of rain?
His compassion is infinite, his sacrifice incomprehensible,
breaking through the darkness of our loving-lack.

Oh, my son, who was and is and will be, my night draws close.
Come, true light, which taketh away the sin of the world,
and bring me home. My hour is come. Amen.

How could a Son deny His mother her greatest desire – to be reunited with her Son and Savior? In the Assumption, it is revealed that He did just that – bringing His mother (and ours) to her Heavenly home.

creed
Posted on

The Nicene Creed: “I Believe”

Credo: Latin for “I believe.” The Nicene Creed is an integral part of the Mass, and serves as a “mini-catechism” of our beliefs. But what exactly is a “creed” and why is it so important to our Faith?

Theologian Scott Hahn explains:

A creed is an authoritative summary of Christianity’s basic beliefs. In the articles of the creed, we profess our faith in mysteries—doctrines that could never be known apart from divine revelation: that God is a Trinity of persons, that God the Son took flesh and was born of a virgin, and so on … A creed is not the totality of Christian faith. It’s a summary that stands for everything that is taught by the Catholic Church, which is itself one of the mysteries we proclaim in the creed. A creed is a symbol of something larger—and, ultimately, of Someone we love, Someone who loves us and makes us who we are, by means of creeds and other graces.

There are a number of creeds that the Church recognizes, but the Nicene Creed (used at the Mass) and the Apostles’ Creed (prayed during the Rosary) are the two primary creeds. The Nicene Creed dates back to 325 A.D. (isn’t that amazing?), from the Council of Nicaea. Just as bishops and cardinals are called to meet in our times (think of Vatican II), the early Church fathers met to discuss articles of faith and make decisions for the universal Church.

The Council of Nicaea was particularly important. There were those in the Church who claimed that Jesus was divine, but not human. This became known as the Arian heresy: Jesus was divine but only appeared to be human, an idea promulgated by Arius, a Christian leader in Egypt. The Nicene Council declared this a heresy, that is, a teaching that was contrary to the Faith. In order to make firm the truth that Jesus was true God and true Man, the Church Fathers created the Nicene Creed. In this way, even illiterate people would know the Church teaching. While the creed did not become part of the Mass until the 6th century, it was taught universally after the Council of Nicaea.

“The Nicene Creed expressed what the early leaders of the Church found to be Biblical, traditional and orthodox in their Christian faith – a faith in Jesus Christ that we continue to proclaim 1,700 years later.” Again, Scott Hahn:

The Creed is the capstone of the Liturgy of the Word, a summation of the mighty works of God, past, present and future. We have heard the Law and the prophets and sung the praises of the Psalms. We have received the Gospel as truly as St. Peter’s congregation did on that first Pentecost. Now, as we recite the Creed, we say our “yes,” our Credo, like the first believers in Jerusalem.

It’s significant that, in our liturgy, the Creed follows after the Bible readings, since the Creed is a summary of the history of salvation.

Every time we pray this Creed, we not only state the basis of our faith, we unite ourselves with the entire Church. We also renew to ourselves and to God our baptismal promises. The Nicene Creed is both ancient and new. This creed reminds us, and all the Church, of what we believe. We join our “I believe” with the voices of all the faithful around the world in prayer.

 

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Pentecost: now what
Posted on

So, Yeah: Pentecost. Now What?

Pentecost is a big deal for Catholics. The musicians pull out all the stops, the priest wears distinctive red garments we don’t see very often, and there is that whole thing about wind and tongues of flame and the birthday of the Church. The Holy Spirit was promised and sent.

So now what?

Pentecost can definitely seem like one of those historical events we learned about in school, but it’s never happened since. Just what does that event have to do with us, hear and now?

One of the problems we have is that Pentecost focuses our attention on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a mystery. Now, this doesn’t mean that the Hardy Boys are going to set off in search of clues, ultimately leading to the unveiling of the Holy Spirit, who was really Mr. Snively the bookkeeper, all along. No, a mystery – in the Catholic Faith – is something we cannot fully understand. We trust God and the Church to help us learn, but on this side of Heaven (and maybe even on the other side!) we are not going to put all the pieces together. That doesn’t mean we should stop trying, though.

Scott Hahn, the Catholic speaker and writer, believes that the key to understanding the Spirit is love. The Holy Spirit is, in essence, the overflowing love between the Father and the Son – that love poured out for us on the Cross but on the Church on Pentecost.

Think about it: the Holy Spirit drove out the fear the Apostles had. They boldly proclaimed God’s word. The Spirit allowed them to communicate with those they could not understand before. Doesn’t love do just this? Doesn’t love make us fearless? (Why else would we get married? Have babies?) Doesn’t love make us more understanding of others? Doesn’t love drive us out into the world to bring Christ to others?

Pentecost may have come and gone, but the Holy Spirit remains. Be bold. Be loving. It is your Catholic heritage, a gift from the Holy Spirit.