I've been thinking about the question David asked me in the comments to my post below ..... What, Crystal, do you think we're called to do differently if the Holy Spirit is so essential to faith and understanding? ..... I read something on Fr. Marsh's blog that speaks to this question. Here's a part of it ...
The spirit isn’t something you have but something you do. The spirit is life, is a way of being alive. It’s a way you or I can be alive. It’s a way our communities can be alive—or can be dead. St Paul has the list of the ways the spirit can die among us: jealousy, quarrels, disagreements, factions, and all kinds of falling out and falling apart. But he also has the list of all the ways the spirit can be alive in us. “What the spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control” ...... when we listen to God’s voice in us, the Holy Spirit comes alive in us, burns like a flame in us, fills us with a breath of fresh air, and makes us patient, kind, good, trustful, and gentle.
7 comments:
What a lovely quotation! It echoes my sense that truth is a verb, not a noun. That the Quaker way is to live the life of truth, not to have truth. The same can apply to compassion, service, and ministry.
To a great extent, religion has been been chopped into little bits that can be discussed and marketed independently of each other. They are little religion mcnuggets. What should be verb is now noun.
I wonder to what extent this is a by-product of four centuries of capitalism.
Hi Nancy - thanks for your comment. I appreciate the Quaker way ... the Catholic way, idealy, is not so different :-)
Crystal,
Thank you for this beautiful quote. I love those markers for the Holy Spirit alive within us - burning like a flame filling us with a breath of fresh air, with patience, kindness, trustworthiness, and gentlenss. In the manner of a verb, Holy Spirit is a way of living, of being. Across any human induced boundaries or differences, this spirit lives in each of us.
You're certainly on the right track, Crystal. It's Christ in you; God in you; the activity of H.S.
Thanks, you guys ... Fr. Marsh deserves the credit. If you want to read the whole post from which I took the quote, it's here - Pentecost.
Great reference Crystal.
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