Practicing Hope by Watching for the Holy Spirit
We are each made to receive the Holy Spirit and to find our joy in welcoming his life into ours. God gives his Spirit as a gift to transform human hearts and minds from within. By this transformation the Lord wants each of us to grow and flourish; the only thing we lose is our sin; everything else is good. So we need never be afraid to watch for the Holy Spirit around us nor allow him to work. As we let Him we will be discovering ourselves, our real beauty and dignity and the real dignity and beauty in others. This is our hope, so, how do we hold it, grow in it and live by it? We live it simply by treating the Holy Spirit as the real person that he is. Since he is real and at work in the world we can look out for him as a presence around us.
Editor's Notes: Faith, Hope and Love
Faith, Hope and Love: the three ‘theological virtues’. And what is a ‘virtue’? Virtues are described by the Church as ‘habits’, ‘firm dispositions’, ‘powers’. They are capacities that we have been given. Why are they called ‘theological’? Because they are the holy habits, sacred habits, that lead to life eternal.
Faith, Hope and Love are, first of all, gifts, to be appreciated and lovingly received. We cannot earn them. We cannot gain them by our own efforts. Only God can place them in our lives. They are supernatural gifts. They take us beyond our natural capacities. They are more than the natural giftedness that comes to us at birth. They are the fruits of rebirth, the free gift of grace given to us in Baptism. No-one can make another believe, hope or love; and neither can we generate these virtues out of ourselves, by sheer will-power.
On the Spot: Mary, Questions and Answers
This column highlights some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by catechists, teachers and parents. It outlines the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us (cf I Pet 3:15).
We look at how Mary helps us to ask the most important questions about our lives, and to find the answers to those questions.
