THE HOLY SPIRIT

Pope Benedict XVI, Shepherd of Truth

Notable quotations from Pope Benedict XVI and official
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church

"A SAILBOAT WITHOUT THE WIND"

The Church ... lives constantly from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, without which she would exhaust her own strength, like a sailboat without the wind.

MARY AND PENTECOST

... There is no Church without Pentecost... I would like to add that there is no Pentecost without the Virgin Mary... Wherever Christians gather in prayer with Mary, the Lord grants His Spirit.

A GIFT FROM JESUS

The Spirit is ... the gift that Jesus asked and continues to ask of His Father for His friends: the first and principal gift that He obtained for us through His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.

UNITED BY THE SPIRIT

The Spirit triggers a process of reunification of the divided and dispersed parts of the human family. People, often reduced to individuals in competition or in conflict with each other, when touched by the Spirit of Christ open themselves to the experience of communion...

"THE FIRE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT"

The fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit, is that of the bush that burned but was not consumed... It is a flame that blazes but does not destroy, on the contrary, that, in burning, brings out the better and truer part of man, as in a fusion it elicits his interior form, his vocation to truth and to love.

TRANSFORMED BY THE SPIRIT

The flame of the Holy Spirit ...enacts a transformation, and thus must also consume something in man, the waste that corrupts him and hinders his relations with God and neighbor.

FRIGHTENED BY THE FIRE

This effect of the divine fire ... frightens us; we are afraid of being "scorched" and prefer to stay just as we are. This is because our life is often based on the logic of having, of possessing and not the logic of self-gift.

"COME, HOLY SPIRIT!"

Come, Holy Spirit! Enkindle in us the fire of Your love! We know that this is a bold prayer, with which we ask to be touched by God's flame; but ... we know that this flame and it alone has the power to save us... We need the fire of the Holy Spirit, because only Love redeems.

(Sources: Homily, Pentecost Mass, 5/23/10 and Regina Caeli, 5/23/10)