An extraordinary witness: fully God, the Holy Spirit: the Advocate who descended on the Church at Pentecost. Jesus promised His Spirit to remain with the Church. How do we know which spirit is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit brings truth and peace and unity. What is the tradition of the Church? The Holy Spirit living within the Church, the body of Christ.
Extraordinary means this: that the Person announced by the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit corresponds to the needs of my heart beyond its capacity (my cup overflows). The heart (reason, affectivity, will) recognizes its merciful Master, its tender Creator, the Good Shepherd: Jesus Christ Yesterday, Today, and Forever.
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Is there ANY place for the Bible in Catholic life?
Some Protestants live as if the sacraments were an "optional add-on." This post makes me wonder whether Catholics and Protestants are mirror images of each other...
Yes, certainly: the Bible is an indispensable element in the Church's testimony to Christ.
The Catholic Mass has two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. In the Liturgy of the Word, Scripture is proclaimed in a living way through cycles that include Old and New Testament readings. This lectionary cycle means that the priest or deacon preaching must expound on the totality of Scripture and not just a couple of favorite passages. The Sacraments themselves especially the Mass are profoundly Scriptural in their gestures and in their words.
In devotional life, the main prayers that Catholics pray are Biblical: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Benedictus, the Magnificat. The Liturgy of the Hours (prayed by monks and some laypeople) is a daily meditation on the Psalms, with other readings from Scripture and tradition. The Rosary is a meditation on the events of Jesus's life, and is often a way of deepening one's affection and understanding of Scriptural events (for the repetitive aspect, see Luke 18).
Sacred art has always been deeply rooted in Scripture, and a significant way for most people to learn the contents of Scripture.
"How do we know which spirit is the Holy Spirit?" it seems to me is the spark, rather the breath of fresh air, that enkindles the spark of Divine Truth, (Lucifer after all is a "spark"), the ruach (o'ershadowing) of the Old Testament that prevents ill winds from extinguishing the Truth:
Joseph Ratzinger in "The Holy Spirit as Communio: Concerning the Relationship of Pneumatology and Spirituality in Augustine" has this to say:
"There is a certain difficulty in speaking about the Holy Spirit, even
a certain danger. He withdraws from us into mystery even more than
Christ. It is quite possible that this topic has sparked only idle speculation and that human life is being based upon self-made fantasies rather than reality. This is why I hesitated to offer just my own reflections. It seems
to me that three conditions must be fulfilled to speak meaningfully,
reliably, and defensibly about the Holy Spirit. First it cannot be talk based upon pure theory but must touch _an_experienced_reality_ that has been interpreted and communicated in thought. But xperience alone does not suffice. It must e_tested_and_tried_experience so that “one’s own spirit” does not take the place of the Holy Spirit. Third: in consequence, suspicion will always arise when someone speaks on his own account, “from within.” Such speech contradicts the Holy Spirit’s mode of being, for he is characterized precisely “by not speaking on his own” (Jn 16:13). In this respect, originality and truth can easily lead to a paradox. But that means that trust is only appropriate when one does not speak on a purely private account, but from an experience of the Spirit _tested _in _front_of_and_standing_in_the_context_of _the_whole_, i.e. when one submits the experience of “spirit” to the entirety of the Church. This presupposes as an axiom of Christian faith that the Church herself — when she truly exists as Church — is a creation of the Spirit."
http://www.communio-icr.com/articles/PDF/ratzinger25-2.pdf (my emphases)
I first learned of Ratzingers thought via footnotes in this book:
http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/Stephen-B-Clark/Catholics-and-the-Eucharist-A-Scriptural-Introduction/1569551332.html
Instead of a dualist error of mirrored images (sola scriptura vs sola sacramenta?) as gnostic heresy, consider the two trees in the garden of Genesis. The Mass has the same aspect, the holy of the sacred sacrifice is word made life "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
Clare - great quote from Ratzinger. If you'd like an invite to be a contributor here, send me an email to fpk3@sbcglobal.net
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