NEWSLETTER INSERTS - ON THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

‘The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the living tradition of prayer’.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2672.

'Let us ask the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us a fervent longing to be saints for God’s greater glory, and let us encourage one another in this effort'.

Pope Francis, Rejoice and Be Glad, 177.

'Jesus can bring all the young people of the Church together in a single dream, a great dream, a dream with a place for everyone. The dream for which Jesus gave his life on the cross, for which the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost and brought fire to the heart of every man and woman, to your heart and mine'.

Pope Francis, Christ is Alive, 157

St Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) was known as “the lyre of the Holy Spirit” – because the holiness of his life produced beautiful music by its harmony with the Holy Spirit.

For St Gregory of Nyssa (335-395), “Our life is stamped with the beauty of his (Christ’s) thought. The inner and the outer person are harmonized in a kind of music” (A Treatise on Christian Perfection).

‘The Holy Spirit is the soul of the evangelizing Church’

Directory for Catechesis, 39.

‘Without the Holy Spirit, God is distant, Christ is in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is simply an organisation, authority is domination, mission is propaganda, worship is the summoning of the spirits and Christian action is the morality of slaves.

But in the Spirit, the risen Christ is here. The Gospel is the power of life. The Church means Trinitarian communion. Authority is a liberating service. Mission is a Pentecost. Liturgy is memorial and anticipation and human behaviour is deified’.

Ignatius Hazim