VATICAN - The Pope’s teaching at the General Audience: “We learn from Paul that the working of the Spirit orients our life towards the great values of love, joy, communion and hope. It is up to us to experience this every day heeding the promptings of the Spirit”

Thursday, 16 November 2006

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - For the third Wednesday running Pope Benedict XVI devoted his General Audience teaching to the thought of Saint Paul: “We have before us a giant not only at the level of concrete apostolate - the Pope said -, but also at the level of extraordinarily profound and inspiring theological doctrine … today we will see what Paul says about the Spirit and His presence in us”.
Recalling what St Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles, the Pope said: “The Spirit of Pentecost brings a vigorous call to assume commitment for mission to bear witness to the Gospel along the roads of the world ... Saint Paul in his Letters speaks about the Spirit from another angle. Not content with illustrating the dynamic and operative dimension of the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, he examines the Spirit’s presence in the life of every Christian whose very identity is marked by the Spirit. In other words Paul reflects on the Spirit explaining the influence on the acting and being of the Christian”. Saint Paul says the Spirit of God “lives in us” and that "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts". “So the Christian, even before he acts, possesses a rich and fecund interiority received in the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, an interiority which places him in objective and original filial relationship with God. And this is a call to live this filial relationship and to be ever more aware that we are adopted children in the great family of God”.
Paul teaches us that “there can be no authentic prayer without the presence of the Spirit in us … the Spirit, in fact, always alert in us, makes up for our inadequacy and offers to the Father our adoration and our deepest aspirations. Naturally this demands a level of deep vital communion with the Spirit. It is a call to be ever more aware and attentive to the Spirit’s presence in us, to transform it in prayer, to experience this presence and learn to pray and to speak with the Father as sons and daughters in the Holy Spirit.”
Another aspect we learn from Paul regards the Holy Spirit’s connection with love. “It is significant that when Paul mentions the various components of the fruits of the Spirit, he places love in first place - the Pope recalled -. And since by definition love unites, this means first of all that the Spirit creates communion within the Christian community… On the other hands it is also true that the Spirit urges us to build relationships of charity with all men and women. So that when we love we give space to the Spirit, allowing Him to fully express himself”.
The Pope concluded that according to Saint Paul the Spirit “is a generous pledge from God a foretaste and promise of our future heritage” and he urged those present to learn from Paul “that the working of the Spirit orients our life towards the great values of love, joy, communion and hope. It is up to us to experience this every day heeding the promptings of the Spirit”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/11/2006, righe 38, parole 558)


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