The Holy Spirit .

Probably the most misused and misunderstood member of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit.  The Disciples were warned not to start their work after the Ascension until the Holy Spirit had come and turned their knowledge into a deep understanding of the truths behind their knowledge.  For example as a child I learned in my Catechism - Where is jesus Christ and the answer was - As God Jesus Christ is everywhere but as God made man, he is in heaven and in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.    Well I understood this a little since everyone was receiving Holy Communion so reverently but the depth of my knowledge was not there.   I had to grow in Faith so that I could look in wonder and kneel in Adoration as with Adulthood the full meaning became clear - "Behold I am with you always even till the end of the World"   My teacher in this growth of Faith was the Holy Spirit, the Guardian and Teacher of Truth.  Of course my last sentence is unfortunately a controversial one among those who seek the truth independently outside the Catholic Church who claim a personal understanding of the Holy Sprit and within the Catholic Church there are also those who claim a personal ownership of the Holy Spirit.   Yet it was on the Church and on individuals totally committed to all the teachings of Christ that the Holy Spirit came to on that first Pentecost.  The truths taught by the early Church survived despite people breaking away and teaching contradictory truths in the name of the Holy Spirit.  And despite an attack from within by the Reformers of the 1970's this truth that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and that its truth cannot be contradicted is still there, the  ordinary Catholics   still know in their hearts that the Church will never err.  There was the amazing document Humanae Vitae in 1967 written by a Pope not knows to be orthodox, and the recent attempts to change the Church as regard to marriage.   The hostility was strong but the Truth Survived.   Am I being Triumphalist.  Am I saying that those born into another Church do not have the Holy Spirit.   There was a statement in Vatican II that 'in so far as they accept Catholic Teachings those outside the Catholic Church are in an incomplete union with the Catholic Church.   Now this does not read as some would have us believe that we are all one Church, there is no way this passage could  be read that way, and yet disgracefully it was.   It means that the Holy Spirit is present in these Communities guiding then towards the Truth and indeed today there would have been greater unity among Christians if those who took power at that stage had kept true to the teachings of Christ.  The name of the Holy Spirit is unfortunately used as a means of self justification and pride by many individuals who work against the Church

But what about an ordinary loving Catholic Family?.  We must now turn to the gifts of the Holy Spirit  which are there not to just help the Church spread the Faith but to teach young people how to live their lives in a way that is not only pleasing to God but will safeguard their future.   The refusal to teach the full Catholic Faith in our schools did not just lead to young people losing their Faith, it led to the destruction of their lives.   There are those within the Church who never even give a thought to all this unmarried mothers, all those homes broken by divorce, leading to real suffering and the destruction of a positive image in our children.      In shaping a Church around their image of Jesus they forgot the the work of the Holy Spirit is the 'renew the face of the earth'   I will talk about this in my next blog.  

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