Pope Francis: The Holy Spirit is the Inexhaustible Source of God’s Life in Us Wednesday, May 8 2013

The Holy Spirit is the inexhaustible source of God’s life in us.

[…] Man is like a traveller who, crossing the deserts of life, has a thirst for living water…. And Jesus gives us this living water: it is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and who Jesus pours into our hearts.

Jesus tells us that “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Jesus promised the Samaritan woman that he would donate an eternally abundant ‘“living water” to all those who recognize him as the Son sent by the Father to save us (John 4:5-26; 3:17).

Jesus came to give us this “living water” that is the Holy Spirit, so that our life may be guided by God, may be animated by God, may be nourished by God.

When we say that a Christian is a spiritual man, this is what we mean: a Christian is a person who thinks and acts according to God, according to the Holy Spirit.

[…] In the Epistle to the Romans we find this sentence: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (5:5).

The ‘“living water,” the Holy Spirit, the Gift of the Risen One who comes to dwell in us, cleanses us, enlightens us, renews us, transforms us because rendering us partakers of the very life of God who is Love.

This is why the Apostle Paul says that the Christian’s life is animated by the Spirit and by its fruits, which are “love, joy, peace, generosity, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The Holy Spirit leads us to divine life as “children of the Only Son.”

[…] St. Paul sums it up in these words: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And you… have you received the Spirit who renders us adoptive children, and thanks to whom we cry out, ‘Abba! Father’.

“The Spirit itself, together with our own spirit, attests that we are children of God. And if we are His children, we are also His heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we take part in his suffering so we can participate in his glory” (Romans 8:14-17).

This is the precious gift that the Holy Spirit brings into our hearts: the very life of God, the life of true children, a relationship of familiarity, freedom and trust in the love and mercy of God.

[…] The Holy Spirit teaches us to look with the eyes of Christ, to live life as Christ lived, to understand life as Christ did.

Pope Francis (b. 1936): General Audience, Wednesday May 8^th, 2013, translated by Vatican Radio.

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Pope Francis: The Fruit of a Torn Heart, Reconciled by a Love that Overwhelms Us Thursday, Mar 14 2013

Yes, it is possible that all is made new and different because God remains “rich in kindness and mercy, always willing to forgive” and He encourages us to begin anew time and again.

[…] Today, the words of the prophet Joel are strong and challenging: Rend your heart, not your clothing: be converted to the Lord, your God.  These words are an invitation to all people, nobody is excluded.

Rend your heart, not the clothing of artificial penance without [an eternal] future.

Rend your heart, not the clothing of technical fasting of compliance that [only serves to keep us] satisfied.

Rend your heart, not the clothing of egotistical and superficial prayer that does not reach the inmost part of [your] life to allow it to be touched by God.

Rend your heart, that we may say with the Psalmist:  “We have sinned.”

“The wound of the soul is sin: Oh, poor wounded one, recognize your Doctor!  Show him the wounds of your faults.  And, since from Him our most secret thoughts cannot hide themselves, make the cry of your heart felt [to Him]. 

“Move him to compassion with your tears, with your insistence ¡beg him!  Let Him hear your sighs, that your pain reaches Him so that, at the end, He can tell you:  The Lord has forgiven your sins” (St. Gregory the Great).

[…] This is not a matter of discrediting one’s self-worth but of penetrating, to its fullest depth, our heart and to take charge of the mystery of suffering and pain that had tied us down for centuries, for thousands of years, in fact, forever.

Rend your hearts so that through this opening we can truly see.

Rend your hearts, open your hearts, because only with such a heart can we allow the entry of the merciful love of the Father, who loves us and heals us.

Rend your hearts the prophet says, and Paul asks us — almost on his knees – “be reconciled with God.”

Changing our way of living is both a sign and fruit of a torn heart, reconciled by a love that overwhelms us.

This is [God’s] invitation, juxtaposed against so many injuries that wound us and can tempt us temptation to be hardened:  Rend your hearts to experience, in serene and silent prayer, the gentle tenderness of God.

Rend your hearts to hear the echo of so many torn lives, that indifference [to suffering] does not paralyze us.

Rend your hearts to be able to love with the love with which we are beloved, to console with the consolation with which we are consoled and to share what we have received.

Pope Francis (b. 1936): Cardinal Bergoglio’s Lenten Letter, 2013 (extract); translation of full text here @ Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

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