杏MAP导航 at Audience: The Holy Spirit makes Scripture living and active
By Christopher Wells
The Holy Spirit not only inspires Sacred Scripture, but also 鈥渕akes them inspiring,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis said at Wednesday鈥檚 General Audience.
The 杏MAP导航 highlighted the divine inspiration of the Bible in his catechesis at the Audience, as he focused on the role of the Holy Spirit in divine revelation.
However, the work of the Holy Spirit does not end with inspiration, 杏MAP导航 Francis explained. The Holy Spirit is continually at work in the Church to explain the meaning of Scripture and make the sacred writings 鈥減erennially living and active.鈥�
He gave the example of being inspired by a passage of Scripture that perhaps we have read many times 鈥渨ithout emotion.鈥� 鈥淥ne day we read it in an atmosphere of faith and prayer,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 said, and 鈥渢he text is unexpectedly illuminated鈥� by the Holy Spirit.
Nourished by Scripture
The Church, too, 鈥渋s nourished by the spiritual reading of Sacred Scripture,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 said, 鈥渢hat is, by reading under the guidance of the Holy Spirit Who inspired it.鈥� He emphasized, 鈥淭he Church, the Bride of Christ, is the authorized interpreter of the inspired text, the mediator of its authentic proclamation.鈥�
While highlighting the value of lectio divina, the practice of personal and meditative reading of the Bible, 杏MAP导航 Francis insisted that 鈥渢he quintessential spiritual reading of the Scripture is the community reading done in the liturgy, and in particular in the Holy Mass.鈥�
鈥淎mong the many words of God that we listen to every day in Mass or in the Liturgy of the Hours, there is always one that is meant specially for us,鈥� he said, adding that, when 鈥渨elcomed into the heart, it can illuminate our day and inspire our prayer.鈥�
Love of God at the heart of Scripture
杏MAP导航 Francis concluded his catechesis with 鈥渁 thought that can help us to fall in love with the Word of God.鈥� Citing Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great, he said the Scripture is like a letter from God to His creatures, that does nothing but speak of the abundance of God鈥檚 love.
And he prayed, 鈥淢ay the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures and now breathes with them, help us to grasp this love of God in the concrete situations of our life.鈥�
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