CATECHISM CC - Pt. 1 - Chap. 3 - I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

SC Borromeo ^

[NYer]

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION

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PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO
THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

CHAPTER THREE
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit."¹ "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"'² This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son.

Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit.³

Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ."⁴ But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, explains this progression in terms of the pedagogy of divine "condescension":

The Old Testament proclaimed the Father clearly, but the Son more obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and grants us a clearer vision of himself. It was not prudent, when the divinity of the Father had not yet been confessed, to proclaim the Son openly and, when the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted, to add the Holy Spirit as an extra burden, to speak somewhat daringly. . . . By advancing and progressing "from glory to glory," the light of the Trinity will shine in ever more brilliant rays.⁵

To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified."⁶ For this reason, the divine mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Trinitarian "theology." Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine "economy."

The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these "end times," ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

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1 1 Cor 12:3.
2 Gal 4:6.
3 St. Irenaeus, Dem. ap. 7: SCh 62,41-42.
4 Jn 17:3.
5 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio theol.,5,26 (= Oratio 31,26):PG 36,161-163.
6 Nicene Creed; see above, par. 465.

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[NYer]

Past CATECHISM CC Series threads

Note - Today's posting is the introduction to Chapter 3. The complete section on "I Believe in the Holy Spirit" will be posted next Saturday.

[NYer]

For the benefit of new members to this thread, the catholics in the Religion Forum are posting the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Two threads are posted each week, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the men folk who are dads. You know who you are!

[NYer]

The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation.

[Salvation]

Wonderful that you are posting this today!

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity!

Father
Son
Holy Spirit

[Salvation]

Gospel
Mt 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

[drstevej]

***He [the Holy Spirit] comes to meet us and kindles faith in us.***

Great statement, very Calvinistic -- I might add.

[Salvation]

Interesting. In what way?

[NYer]

Great statement, very Calvinistic -- I might add.

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. 

Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. 

Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. 

Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. 

Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. 

Amen.

 

[drstevej]

Augustine -- great quote

[drstevej]

I read the statement to indicate that the Holy spirit initiates and produces faith.

[NYer]

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

In his homily at Mass today, the priest spoke about St. Patrick who, around the year 400AD, tried to explain the Trinity to the pagans. He chose a 3 leaf clover - 3 leaves into 1 stem.

Around the same time, St. Augustine was also wrestling with the Trinity. He went for a walk, asking God to give him inspiration. Along the way, he came across a young boy who had dug a hole in the sand on a beach. Using a conch shell, he ran back and forth between the ocean and the hole. St. Augustine asked the boy what he was doing. The child explained that he was trying to put the ocean into the hole. Recognizing the futility of such a task, St. Augustine thanked God for this moment. For in it he understood that it is impossible to explain the "infinite" to the "finite".