Homework 2-25/2-29
February 26, 2008
This week we will be talking about the Holy Spirit!!
Because so many students are sick this week, I will be posting all of the class notes. I know it is a lot of information, but it’s a whole week’s worth of lectures! 
. Just do your best, and I hope you feel better!
Monday: The Holy Spirit — Who He Is, What He Does, Who He’s Not, What He Brings.
Who He Is: The Holy Spirit is God. He is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is equal to the Father and the Son (He’s not “less God” because He’s the 3rd Person). He is the love between the Father and the Son — the love between the Father and the Son is so complete and so real that it’s a person! This is a great mystery. Finally, because the Holy Spirit is God, He has all of the attributes of God:
1) all holy
2) all good
3) all knowing (omniscient)
4) all present (omnipresent)
5) all powerful (omnipotent/almighty)
6) eternal (that is, He never had a beginning and will never have an end. We are immortal, but not eternal. This means that we did have a beginning, but will never have an end. God has no beginning and no end.)
7) unchanging (immutable)
What He Does: The primary work of the Holy Spirit is our sanctification – to make us holy. He does this by giving us sanctifying grace which we receive through the Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Confession, Marriage, Holy Orders, Anointing of the Sick). Each time we receive one of the sacraments, we are receiving sanctifying grace, which is the life of God within our souls. Sanctify means “to make holy,” so sanctifying grace makes us holy if we cooperate with it.
The primary work of the Father is creation, the primary work of the Son is redemption (we talked about this at length three weeks ago), and the primary work of the Holy Spirit is sanctification. However, because the Trinity is three persons in One God, whatever one Person of the Trinity does, all of the persons of the Holy Trinity do. So, the entire Trinity created the world — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All three Persons of the Trinity redeem us, and all three Persons of the Trinity sanctify us. It is the teaching of the Church, though, that while each of these functions (creation, redemption, sanctification) belong to the entire Trinity, we speak of each one being the primary work of one of the Persons. (If you have any questions about this, please let me know and I will try to explain it more clearly).
Again, the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy, to sanctify us, which He does by sending His gifts (see “what He brings”), and giving us sanctifying grace through the Sacraments of the Church. He does other things as well, though. He is the consoler, our advocate, our counselor, and He inspires us.
What He’s Not: The Holy Spirit is not a dove! The Holy Spirit is not tongues of fire. He is not water. He is frequently appears in the Scriptures under these images, because we can’t see a Spirit, God helps us to understand who the Holy Spirit is through these images. Remember, the work of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify us, to make us holy, to purify us. Look at the images — what does fire do? It cleans. To sterilize a needle, you put it in fire. To clear old fields, they are frequently burned to get rid of the weeds and rubbish. Fire cleans. What does water do? It cleans, it purifies. Why a dove? Doves have traditionally been understood as symbols of peace and purity — what the Holy Spirit brings us.
The Holy Spirit is not a ghost. A ghost has been understood to be the soul of a dead person, so some people used to think the Holy Spirit was the soul of Jesus. This is wrong. First, Jesus is not dead, He is Risen! Secondly, the Holy Spirit is His own Person, and He is not a ghost!
Finally, it may sound obvious, but it’s important to note that the Holy Spirit is not the Father, and He’s not the Son.
What He Brings: The Holy Spirit comes bearing gifts! Today we’ll just list off what the gifts are, and we’ll talk about them more tomorrow.
1) Knowledge
2) Fortitude
3) Counsel
4) The Fear of the Lord
5) Wisdom
6) Understanding
7) Piety
This is a pretty strange way of remembering them, but it helped me learn them as a kid… if you like fried chicken, think of KFC — knowledge, fortitude, counsel. Then, TWUP is just a really cool word (that has no meaning but is fun to say) — the fear of the Lord, wisdom, understanding, piety. If it helps you, you can use that… if it doesn’t help you, then try to come up with your own way of remembering them! They don’t need to be in any particular order.
Monday Homework: Memorize the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Know “Who He Is,” and His primary work.
Tuesday: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We’ll review all of yesterday’s information, because it was a lot! After we’ve reviewed, we’ll discuss the 7 Gifts at greater length.
Knowledge: to know and grow in our faith
Fortitude: to do what’s right and stand up for God even when it’s difficult
Counsel: to make good and moral decisions, and help others to do the same
The Fear of the Lord: awe, wonder and reverence before God — knowing who He is and who we are in relation to Him (go one by one through the attributes of God and see if you have any of them), and fear of offending God because of your love for Him
Wisdom: seeing things as God sees them (knowing what’s truly important in life)
Understanding: having a caring and compassionate heart
Piety: worship, love, and honor shown to God
These 7 gifts are given to us by the Holy Spirit first in Baptism, and then are strengthened in Confirmation. If you’ve been baptized, you already have these gifts, you need to pray to the Holy Spirit to help you to use them! Here’s the really awesome part — if you use the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then the result will be the following 12 “fruits of the Holy Spirit”
1) patience, 2) peace, 3) joy, 4) fidelity (faithfulness), 5) kindness, 6) goodness, 7) long suffering (perseverance), 8- chastity, 9) love (charity), 10) generosity, 11) continence (self control), 12) mildness.
These fruits (and many others) come out of practicing the gifts. These are the virtues of the saints — those who have been sanctified. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, and He helps us by sending His gifts which, if practiced, will bear the fruits.
Tuesday’s Homework: Memorize the meanings of each of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Try to think of ways in which you can practice each one of these gifts you’ve been given by your Baptism.
Wednesday: Pentecost
Today we’ll be reviewing the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit, and reading Chapter 23 aloud in class and discussing what happened during Pentecost.
Wednesday’s Homework: Know the basic story of what happened at Pentecost. How many people were converted/baptized that day? Which of the Apostles preached? What was the miracle that happened concerning languages? What were the Apostles like before they received the Holy Spirit, and what were they like afterwards? How many days after Easter was Pentecost?
Thursday: Review of last night’s homework, and review for tomorrow’s quiz. No homework tonight except to review your notes to prepare for tomorrow’s quiz.
Friday: Today we’ll take a quiz on Chapter 23.
No homework tonight. Enjoy your weekend!
The pope reports will not be due for a little while yet. Since we are doing this in place of a book report, these projects need to be rather extensive. I will give further instructions in the near future.
Comments
Got something to say?
