STUDY MATERIALS FOR CONFIRMATION

CHAPTER: 7
THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH IN THE LAST DAYS

1. What is the implication of the Pentecost event?
   
   On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ, through the outpouring of the Spirit, manifested, gave and communicated the Holy Spirit as a divine person, to the disciples.
   
    
2. How can we say that The Holy Spirit is God’s best gift to us?
   
   “God is Love” and love is his first gift, containing all others. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy spirit who has been given to us. The communion of the Holy Spirit in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin.
   
    
3. What can we do when we receive the power of the Spirit?
   
   By this power of the Spirit, God’s children can bear much fruit, “the fruit of the Spirit: i.e., love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal; 5:22-23)
   
    
4. When we renounce ourselves, how does the Holy Spirit change our life?
   
   When we renounce ourselves, “we live by the Spirit”; and “walk by the Spirit.” (Gal; 5:25; Mt; 16:24-26)
   
    
5. How does the Holy Spirit help us to become children of the Kingdom of Heaven?
   
   Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven and adopted as children, given confidence to call God “Father” and to share in Christ’s grace. We are called children of light and are given a share in eternal glory. (St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, 15, 36: PG 32, 132)
   
    
6. Where do we find the completion of the mission of the Holy Spirit?
   
   The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
   
    
7. In what manner does the Holy Spirit reveal Christ’s Mystery to us?
   
   The Spirit manifests Christ’s Mystery by revealing the risen Lord to us, recalls his word to us and opens our minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile us, to bring us into communion with God, that we may “bear much fruit.”
   
    
8. How does the Church partake of the mission of the Holy Spirit?
   
   The Church partakes of the mission of the Holy Spirit by announcing, bearing witness, making present and spreading the mystery of the communion of the Holy trinity.
   
    
9. How does the Holy Spirit unite us all into one body?
   
   All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are united with one another and with god. Christ, together with the Father’s and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. The one and undivided Spirit of god, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity. (St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. Ev., 11. 11: PG 74, 561.)
   
    
10. Why does Jesus impart His Spirit to us?
    
    Jesus imparts his spirit among his members to nourish, heal and organize them as one community, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and associate them to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world.
    
     
11. How Joes the Holy Spirit help us in our prayer life?
    
    “the Spirit helps us when we become weak in our prayer. We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Rom; 8:26) The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God’s works, is the master of prayer.