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Fr. Mike explores the different symbols the faithful use when discussing the Holy Spirit, such as fire, water, and anointing. We examine how these symbols help us more fully apprehend the person of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Mike unpacks the meaning of each symbol, as well as each symbol’s connection to the Old Testament. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 694-701.
Click on link to play video: https://youtu.be/uA4EMiHTDXc
Fr. Mike continues to examine the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s mission. We explore the joint mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. When the Son and the Spirit act, they act together. Fr. Mike emphasizes that though the Son and the Spirit are two distinct persons, they are inseparable. We also examine the proper name of the Holy Spirit and the different titles we use for the Holy Spirit. Today’s readings from the Catechism are paragraphs 689-693.
Click on link to play video: https://youtu.be/lHRznF6t3H0
Together, with Fr. Mike, we begin our examination of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and how God reveals himself as the Holy Spirit in our lives. Fr. Mike emphasizes the words of St. Irenaeus that, “in order to be touched by Christ, we must first be touched by the Holy Spirit.” We also explore eight ways the Catechism lays out for us to be able to understand the Holy Spirit. Today’s readings are Catechism Paragraphs 683-688.
Click on link to play video: https://youtu.be/1Bik8850Qho
The Catechism introduces us to the Holy Spirit and describes how the Spirit reveals the Father and the Son to us. It also gives us some background and context regarding the way we describe the Holy Spirit in the Roman Catholic Church compared to the way that the Eastern Orthodox Church describes the Holy Spirit. Fr. Mike breaks it down for us and gives us some hope for a future reconciliation between Eastern and Western Churches. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 243-248.
Click on the link to play video: https://youtu.be/JpWe10yGaLs
Consciousness, our soul, the Holy Spirit, on both the individual and the shared levels, has sadly become unconscious! No wonder some call the Holy Spirit the “missing person of the Blessed Trinity.” No wonder we try to fill this radical disconnectedness with various addictions. There is much evidence that so-called “primitive” people were more in touch with this inner Spirit than many of us are. British philosopher and poet Owen Barfield (1898–1997) called it “original participation” and many ancient peoples seem to have lived in daily connection with the soulful level of everything—trees, air, the elements, animals, the earth itself, along with the sun, moon, and stars. These were all “brother” and “sister,” just as St. Francis would later name them. Everything had “soul.” Spirituality could be taken seriously and even came naturally. Most of us no longer enjoy this consciousness in our world. It is a disenchanted and lonely universe for most of us. We even speak of the “collective unconscious,” which now takes on a whole new meaning. We really are disconnected from one another, and thereby unconscious. Yet, religion’s main job is to reconnect us (re-ligio) to the Whole, to ourselves, and to one another—and thus heal us. We have not been doing our job very well.
—from the book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
by Richard Rohr
We all experience fear from time to time. Ben tells the story of Pentecost and teaches us to ask the Holy Spirit for courage when we’re afraid.
Click on link to watch:
https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/plus/blessed/first-reconciliation-3-5.html
If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do both Step 7 and Jesus say, each in their own way: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7)? Are we trying to talk God into things? Does the group with the most and the best prayers win? Is prayer of petition just another way to get what we want, or is it to get God on our side? In every case, notice that we are trying to take control. In this short chapter, I will address that one simple, often confused, but important mystery of asking. Why is it good to ask, and what is really happening in prayers of petition or intercession? Do we need, are we encouraged, to talk God into things? Why does Jesus both tell us to ask and then say, “Your Father already knows what you need, so do not babble on like the pagans do” (Matthew 6:7–8)?
Let me answer in a few brief sentences, and then I will backtrack to explain what I mean. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. Prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. (That is why Jesus says all prayers are answered, which does not appear to be true, according to the evidence!) God knows that we need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want. As Jesus says in Luke’s Gospel (11:13), the answer to every prayer is one, the same, and the best: the Holy Spirit! God gives us power more than answers.
—from the book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps by Richard Rohr