Meeting 3. - Who Is and How Does the Holy Spirit Work? ****************************************************** .. tags:: content|holy-spirit|Holy Spirit, content|truth|Truth, content|mission|Mission, content|old-testament|Old Testament, content|word-of-god|Word of God, method|group-work|Group work, method|text-work|Text work, type|biblical|Biblical Introduction for the animator ============================= This meeting may seem short. There is a time buffer in it regarding the whole retreat, to ask the group about the action of the Holy Spirit, maybe a conversation about epiphany charisms will come out etc. I think our flexibility is needed here. Reference to what has already been ================================== Tent of Meeting - sharing. Reminder of basic facts about who the Holy Spirit is ==================================================== Before we reach for the Holy Scripture let's try to "start" the topic and ask a few questions referring to the participants' current knowledge about the person of the Holy Spirit (controlling the time and making sure not to "drift away"): * What do you know about the Holy Spirit? What kind of figure is He? Why is He so important? * What would we say about Him dealing with a Wikipedia fan? The Holy Scripture is a treasury of knowledge, so let's reach for It to remind ourselves, refresh and maybe discover something. We will read a few fragments from the Old and New Testaments. The animator has prepared cards with a signature on each of them. He draws cards one by one (participants do not see how many the animator still has) and everyone reads the fragment given on it and then writes on a piece of paper "what we know about the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit in the OT: The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. -- Gen 1:2 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; -- Gen 8:1 The Lord said, ‘Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah. -- 1 Sam 16:12-13 The Spirit in the NT: Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ -- Luke 3:21-22 In the NT we also find more details regarding the Holy Spirit. Here are some of them: The Holy Spirit is a person, not an abstraction (has intellect, will and loves) For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. -- 1 Cor 2:11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. -- 1 Cor 12:11 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, -- Rom 15:30 The Holy Spirit is God equal to the Father and the Son Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, -- Matt 28:19 The Holy Spirit – Spirit of Jesus Christ, He is filled with Him, anointed, He directs Him Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, (...) Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. (...) When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, -- Luke 4:1,14,16-18 Jesus Christ (anointed with the Holy Spirit) sends us the Holy Spirit so that He may complete the work of salvation in us And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (...) But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. -- John 14:16-17,26 ‘You heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ -- Acts 1:4b-8 Participants while discovering subsequent puzzle pieces will probably try to arrange them on an ongoing basis - let's not disturb them in this. At the end, the puzzle pieces with signatures ran out, and some puzzle pieces are missing. We have holes. * What elements might we be missing? * Why don't we have them? What do you think? Here participants can go very different ways in interpretation. It's cool if heresies don't fall (e.g. "The Holy Scripture is not complete" :D) - then correct. Two thoughts that we catch or guide to: * The experience of the Holy Spirit is missing here. One can read a lot about the Spirit, but one can know Him only in experience and this is an important "feature of the Spirit" * Some puzzle pieces are missing here because no one knows what shape they have and what they are. The Holy Spirit has one important feature - He is elusive. Even the Church does not know everything about Him. There is a mystery in Him. He constantly eludes our attempts to systematize knowledge about Him. That is why He enlivens and surprises, because He brings the New and unknown. * How do you understand this? (inconspicuous question, but key!) * What does this mean to you? (inconspicuous question, but key!) The Spirit gives and reveals meaning to us ========================================== Much more could be said about the Spirit, but for the needs of this meeting let's emphasize especially this last fact - the Holy Spirit as the one whom we receive so that He enables us to believe ("you will receive power... and you will be my witnesses..."), as the missing piece of the puzzle which is our faith, without which it remains only pious chatter, something we can repeat all our lives without feeling it completely. Just like e.g. the author of this demotivator: .. image:: demotivator.* :align: center This is an extreme, maybe slightly exaggerated (but we meet milder examples every day) example of what happens in the mind of a person not knowing and not accepting the action of the Spirit. THIS CHRISTIANITY will never make sense if He - the Spirit - is missing. Only then can we speak of mature faith - faith whose author in us is the Spirit. The tool which the Church uses to lead towards just such maturity in faith is the sacrament of CONFIRMATION. The confirmation and sealing of the candidate's personal openness to receiving the Holy Spirit are the words in the liturgy of this sacrament (depending on the age of the participants, one can also refer to their knowledge and ask if they know/remember): .. centered:: **We desire that the Holy Spirit whom we will receive strengthen us to confess the faith courageously and to act according to its principles** * What is the accent placed on in these words? On this particular action of the Spirit related to enabling and strengthening for faith. We do not say - We desire that the Holy Spirit make me feel Him strongly and never forget that He hovered over the waters as the Book of Genesis says... - not so much emotions and knowledge, as "courageous confession of faith" From listening and reading to calling! ====================================== And what results from this? Because we talk a lot here at this retreat. Let's try to gather it somehow together. I will read you a few conclusions we are reaching and which are slowly looming before us. These will be sentences from the outline, but we are a small group so we will try to translate it into our language and previous experience. We will try to answer each point, briefly whether we agree with it or not and what it means to us. * Problems with faith, with accepting its truths is not an abnormal phenomenon that we should be ashamed of, and what is worse stifle and claim that everything is really okay - precisely THERE the Holy Spirit is needed and precisely there He fulfills His task - to tidy up, strengthen, confirm. * What is more and more interesting - He does not bring any new, dazzling content, but only (or as much as!) organizes what is already in us. * So it is also the Spirit who enables us to accept the resurrection as a joyful truth that changes life. * Thanks to Him you no longer have to understand, you start to give yourself more and believe precisely because you do not grasp with senses. It really is grace. To believe despite, to believe a little maybe contrary. * And a thought for the future: Let's not try to understand Christianity without the Holy Spirit, because it makes no sense. Before us is the evening prayer with calling for the Holy Spirit. Since we came to the conclusion that He is elusive in definitions, let's not try to do it at the end of this meeting. Therefore, in this place we will not tell and define such a prayer, its characteristic features and we will not outline the graph of "prayer fervor" in the following minutes. This is the place for the animator's testimony. Goal? To testify that the Spirit radically changes everything in life, gives birth anew, kindles fire, changes optics, pours in zeal and enthusiasm, transforms hearts, enables to believe, leads us to places we would not have thought of before, sustains creation in existence, constantly connects the Church with bonds of love, crushes unbelief, helps in proclaiming Christ, prays in us when we cannot... and everything starts with the call "Come Creator Spirit!". As creators of the outline we have a deep conviction that there is a lot to choose from and you certainly know what to choose. Good luck! * Do you think you are able to come to prayer without an idea of what it will look like and how you will lead it just letting yourself be led? Summary ======= At the end of the meeting it should resound once again that a few puzzle pieces were left empty. Let it be crowned with the conclusion that we cannot "finish the Elusive", that in the Spirit there are such areas, such features that we cannot serve on a plate at this group meeting. Elements that You will know in relation with the Spirit and will be "yours" and that we are invited to know this. The Spirit wants to cooperate with us and wants to show us this, He always waits for our call with the heart "Come Holy Spirit". This call will be possible tonight. Application =========== Think and name by name the matter/area/thing in Your life, in which maybe you are not quite ready yet to be open to the action of the Spirit. Once you name this opening, tell God that it is so. Just simply e.g. "Lord God I know that in the matter of... it seems to me that I am least able to open myself to the action of Your Spirit. I am aware of this and I stand before You with this." God will not chase you away... He likes and appreciates sincerity. It would be good if you managed to do it at any time before the evening prayer. Application =========== There is one person who was radically open to everything the Spirit brought her. That is Mary. Therefore we will end this meeting with a decade of the rosary with dopowiedzenia (clauses).