{"id":854,"date":"2010-11-30T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/11\/the-holy-spirit-and-me\/"},"modified":"2010-11-30T09:01:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-30T09:01:00","slug":"the-holy-spirit-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/11\/the-holy-spirit-and-me.html","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Spirit and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

\u201cAll you need to do,\u201d said the Mormon missionary at the door, \u201cIs to pray to the Holy Spirit before you sit down to read the Book of Mormon. Say, \u2018Open my eyes, my mind, my heart, and if what I read is true, make me realize it in my heart of hearts.'\u201d Then guess what? The new convert says, \u201cI prayed that prayer and as I read my eyes really were opened and I realized that the whole thing was true!!\u201d Gawrsh!\u00a0 Amazing!!<\/p>\n

Of course, this is only a short hop from \u201cIf you close your eyes and wish hard enough your wish will come true.\u201d or \u201cIf you believe in fairies clap your hands and Tinkerbell will come back to life\u2026\u201d Nevertheless I have heard this same argument used by Catholics, Evangelicals and other Christians of all stripes. \u201cIf you simply pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance\u201d says Brian,\u00a0my Baptist preacher friend, \u201cand then read the Bible with an open heart you will see that the Catholic Church is in error and my religion is right.\u201d Uh huh. My reply was, \u201cBrian\u2013that is exactly what I have been doing for the last twenty years and the Holy Spirit led me to become Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have a very individualistic understanding of the Holy Spirit in our individualistic age. It amounts to individual, unique divine inspiration. Each person, filled with the Holy Spirit will \u201cjust know\u201d what is true. Hogwash. Every Christian operates within a theological framework. We all select and interpret the Scripture within\u00a0a particular theological and denominational tradition. We view Scripture through a lens. The Scriptures are filtered and interpreted to us through the extra-Biblical sources that we access\u2013the preaching we hear, the Bible studies we attend, the books on the faith we read, the radio and TV we listen to, the influence of family and friends, the course we take, the conversations we have, the cultural assumptions with which we live. For the non-Catholic this web of \u2018interpretative authorities\u2019 are unacknowledged and even denied. They want to believe that they really do \u201cread the Bible on it\u2019s own with an open and sincere heart as led by the Holy Spirit\u201d and that all their views come from this simple, straightforward reading of Scripture. Because they deny the extra-Biblical sources of interpretative authority these sources are even more powerful in their lives.<\/p>\n

This is why the Catholic Church insists that an acknowledged, extra-Biblical interpretative authority is necessary. You\u2019re going to have such an authority whether you know it or acknowledge it or not. Might as well have one that you know, that you acknowledge;\u00a0an authority that transcends your own limited time and place and culture, and authority bigger and wiser and smarter and older than you,\u00a0and one\u00a0that claims to be directed and guided by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Catholics certainly believe in the individual\u2019s infilling with the Holy Spirit, but we hold this in balance with the equally important truth that the Church herself is inspired and filled and guided by the Holy Spirit. The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, and as such is a living, moving, breathing, Spirit filled organism\u2013against which the gates of hell will never prevail. It is this Spirit filled Church which provides the balance and ballast for our own individual experience of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit-filled Church which provides the correction and qualification of our claims. It is the Spirit-filled Church which validates God\u2019s guidance in our lives and it is the Spirit filled lives of the saints, the teaching of the Church and the liturgy of the Church which deepen, broaden, complete and sacramentally seal the personal infilling of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

This is why the illustration of Pentecost above is so vivid and real. It shows the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the tongues of flame do indeed touch each individual, but this experience takes place in the context of a temple, the apostolic church gathered together around the Mother of God\u2013and it is only in this fellowship that the individual\u00a0experience of the Holy Spirit can be objectively validated and confirmed.<\/p>\n

The rest is sentimentality.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll you need to do,\u201d said the Mormon missionary at the door, \u201cIs to pray to the Holy Spirit before you sit down to read the Book of Mormon. Say, \u2018Open my eyes, my mind, my heart, and if what I read is true, make me realize it in my heart of hearts.’\u201d Then guess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Holy Spirit and Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""All you need to do," said the Mormon missionary at the door, "Is to pray to the Holy Spirit before you sit down to read the Book of Mormon. 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