Thoughts for the Journey

May 12, 2013


 ON  PENTECOST

On Sunday, 05/19/2013, we will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. I thought it would be useful to look at the Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, Lumen Gentium, which was promulgated on November 21,1964.
Chapter I, Paragraph 4 states:

When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth (see Jn 17:4) was completed, the Holy Spirit was sent on the Day of Pentecost to sanctify the church continually and so that believers might have access to the Father through Christ in the one Spirit (see Eph. 2:18). This is the Spirit of life, the fountain of water springing up to eternal life (seeJn. 4:14; 7:38-39), through whom the Father gives life to human beings dead in sin, until the day when, in Christ, he raises to life their mortal bodies (see Rom. 8:10-11). The Spirit dwells in the church and in the hearts of the faithful as a temple (see 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19), prays and bears witness in them that they are his adopted children (seeGal 4:6; Rom 8:15-16 and 26). He guides the church in the way of all truth (see Jn. 16:13) and uniting it in fellowship and ministry, bestows upon it different hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs it and adorns it with his fruits (see Eph 4:11-12; I Cor 12:4; Gal 5:22). By the power of the Gospel he rejuvenates the church, constantly renewing it and leading it to perfect union with its spouse. For the Spirit and the Bride both say to Jesus, the Lord, Come! (see Apoc 22:17). Hence the universal church is seen to be "a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."