All posts tagged Holy Spirit
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
Isn’t the task of the the Holy Spirit to introduce some madness and intoxication into the world? Why this propensity for balance and safety? Don’t we all long for one moment of raw risk, one moment of divine madness?
Ron Rolheiser (via thecommoncup)
YES! One of the indications that something may be an authentic call from God is that it pulls you out of your comfort, into something that seems utterly ridiculous. We dream small, but God dreams big, bigger than we can imagine!
Athanasius compared the Trinity to a lighted candle: the lighted candle is a flame; the flame is light and the flame is heat, but it is all one flame. The One God is the creator of all, the one God is the incarnated light of Jesus, and the one God is the warming presence of the Holy Spirit. All of these manifestations are at the same time the flame of the lighted candle. This remains the best analogy I have found to describe the Trinity.
We are called to be prayerful witnesses and prophets,
attentive to the poor, the small, and the abandoned,
and to the compassionate action of the Father who cares for them.
Prayerful witnesses and prophets united to Jesus,
consecrated for their disciples up to the point of giving our lives for them.
Prayerful witnesses and prophets in an apostolic community,
sent and moved by the Spirit who propels us to share our faith,
aware that
‘in community life, the power of the Holy Spirit at work in one individual
passes at the same time to all.
Here not only does each enjoy his own gift,
but makes it abound by sharing it with others;
and each one enjoys the fruits of the other’s gift as if they were his own.’
Who are we? Are we what we do? Are we what others say about us? Are we the power we have? It often seems that way in our society. But the Spirit of Jesus given to us reveals our true spiritual identities. The Spirit reveals that we belong not to a world of success, fame, or power but to God. The world enslaves us with fear; the Spirit frees us from that slavery and restores us to the true relationship. That is what Paul means when he says: “All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons [daughters] of God, for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:15). Who are we? We are God’s beloved sons and daughters!
Henri Nouwen (via azspot)
Amen, Hallelujah!
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Undercover Nun realizes that she often finds statements like this to be densely-packed with ideas and difficult to parse out. When I’m preparing to read Scripture during Sunday worship, I tend to break it down into shorter lines so that it looks like poetry. Suddenly, the meaning becomes clear to me.
In him you also,
when you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation,
and believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it,
to the praise of his glory.
Undercover Nun has said more than once that the only way to understand Paul’s letters from the New Testament is to diagram every sentence. I suspect that’s merely a slight exaggeration.
