Inspired by the Holy Spirit

Broken Bay Diocesan News, February 1998 - Issue #7

Welcome to 1998 – the Year of the Holy Spirit.  Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical on the Third Millennium has designated 1998 as the Year of the Holy Spirit. Following on from last year (the Year of Jesus Christ) this year takes us another step towards the celebration of the 3^rd Millennium when in the year from Easter 2000 to Easter 2001 the world will come together to celebrate not only 2000 years of Christian heritage in our world, but a blueprint for the future.

The very core of our faith is the revelation of the Trinity - the great truth of God’s revelation of his unity in three Persons. With this revelation we are armed with a truth that allows us an entrée into the mind of God.

Religion is a natural part of every civilisation and group of people who have graced this earth. Yet our faith is decidedly different from any other - where the natural bent of the human mind is to search for the Creator, we have the Creator searching for us. The history of the Old Testament is the history of God reaching out to our human family and culminating in that same God actually joining our human family as a means of sharing his love and giving eternal meaning to our lives.

Last year we explored that wonder in the person of Jesus Christ,  born of one of our own kind, and living our life, and dying our death. In Jesus Christ, God shares our existence, but more than that, Jesus Christ points us in the direction our Creator wants us to steer in order that we might find that happiness we were meant to have. It was within that context that Jesus Christ promised us an Advocate who would inspire us. The Holy Spirit is that Person, and this is His year.  The Spirit in fact, makes present in the Church of every time and place the unique revelation brought by Jesus to humankind, making it alive and active in the soul of each individual.

"The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (Jn.14.26)

So, here in 1998 we move a step forward in our preparation for the Great Jubilee by taking a personal renewal of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in our life. If last year, the presence of Jesus Christ was highlighted by the Sacrament of Baptism, so this year the spotlight falls on the great Sacrament of Confirmation.

Confirmation is that Sacrament that gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to live in our world as a witness of Jesus. The impact of the Spirit on the Apostles was dramatic to say the least. But for that drama to have been so effective, the Apostles themselves had to take hold of their lives.

The Holy Spirit only acted in them with their co-operation, and it was only then that the Apostles could go out to every corner of the earth and evangelise the world.

Here in the Diocese of Broken Bay, Bishop Walker will use his Lenten discussions talks around the Parishes to highlight this Year of the Holy Spirit. This is the practical way we can walk in tandem with Pope John Paul 11 and express our faith realistically.

(Click here to see Broken Bay Diocese page for Lenten dates and times in our diocese).
(1998 Lenten Program removed from Broken Bay web site, so we link to the main page)