Overview

The eternal Spirit of God filled Jesus of Nazareth. This same Spirit who was upon Jesus, is given to all who accept this Gift (Jn 16-17; Acts 2:1-4). The Spirit helps and guides Jesus’ disciples, making it possible for them to live as he taught. Jesus’ followers continue to build God’s Reign, helped by the Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, goodness, strength or fortitude, courage, good counsel, awe and reverence for God, and wonder (Isaiah 11:1-3). Some signs of the Spirit’s action are; love, goodness, peace, gentleness, kindness, self control, patience (Galatians 5:22-23).

More Information

 

“In the beginning God created the heaven’s and the earth.
Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep,
and God’s spirit hovered over the water.” (Genesis 1:1-2)

“...on him the Spirit of God rests,
a spirit of wisdom and insight,
a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and fear of God...
He does not judge by appearances, he gives no verdict on hearsay,
but judges the wretched with integrity,
and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land.” (Isaiah 11:1-4).

‘The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me.
He sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight,
to set the down trodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.’ (Luke 4:18-19)

‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth’ (John 14:16-17)

“He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord,
and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me,
So I am sending you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.” (John 20:19-23)

“When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak foreign languages as the Sprit gave them the gift of speech.” (Acts 2:1-4)

‘For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink’ (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Catechism of the Catholic Church

 (Paragraph numbers for the Catechism are shown - Click the Nos section to view)

THE HOLY SPIRIT  Nos 683-686, Nos 687-688,  Nos 691-701, Nos 702-716, Nos 717-730, Nos 731-741 
The Mission of the Son and the Spirit  Nos 689-690 
IN BRIEF   Nos 742-747