Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Memoria and History

 “The Holy Spirit is always somewhat ‘the unknown’ of the faith...Even now, many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is. And you sometimes hear: ‘But I get on well enough with the Father and with Son, because I pray the Our Father to the Father, I have communion with the Son, but I do not know what to do with the Holy Spirit. . .' Or people say, ‘The Holy Spirit is the dove, the one that gives us the seven gifts.’ But in this way the poor Holy Spirit always comes last and finds no place in our lives.

"[Holy Spirit is] God active in us, God who helps us remember, [who] awakens our memory... A Christian without memory is not a true Christian: he or she is a prisoner of circumstance, of the moment, a man or woman who has no history. He or she does have a history, but does not how to enter into history. It is the Spirit that teaches us how to enter into history. Historical memory ... When in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says: ‘Remember your fathers in the faith’ – memory; ‘remember the early days of your faith, how you were courageous’ - memory. A memory of our life, of our history, a memory of the moment when we had the grace of meeting Jesus, the memory of all that Jesus has told us...That memory that comes from the heart, that is a grace of the Holy Spirit... [Remembering] also means remembering one’s own misery, that which makes us slaves, and together with them, the grace of God that redeems us from our miseries.

"Our God is moving forward on the road with us, He is among us, He walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Be mindful of all that, and life becomes more fruitful, with the grace of memory.”
--Pope Francis, Homily on May 13, 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-the-holy-spirit-and-historical-memory

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