The Holy Spirit as the soul of the Church

Abstract

The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church and its life-giving beginning. He bestows the divine life and unity upon all members of the Church. It is the Holy Spirit who through his grace "is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to «know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ»" (CCC 684). The Holy Father John Paul II emphasizes that "the Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful as in a temple; in them he prays and bears witness to the fact that they are adopted sons" (Dominum et vivificantem, 26). The Holy Spirit is thus a breath of all life in the Church. "First, he rests on each and then brings all of them together in fellowship. To each he gives a gift, and then gathers them all into unity. In other words, the same Spirit creates diversity and unity, and in this way forms a new, diverse and unified people: the universal Church" (Francis). Thanks to many gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us, we can develop a Christian attitude and become more capable of living the Gospel and serving our neighbor through prayers, words and acts of mercy and charity. With such an attitude, permeated with the power of the Holy Spirit, man is called to build the common good, contribute to the development of culture, strengthen economy, perfect the Christian order and bring peace between people.