Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit

The Vatican and the church rely on four key factors to keep itself together; those factors are the strong words, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. By incorporating these four words the church is able to stay so magnificent and in unison with itself. Each of these words has a separate and well-built definition that helps the church stay as great as it is. As the result of one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, the church has been shaped the way that we know it today. The first element that…

McNeil. Explorations in Theology: Creator Spirit. Vol. III. San Francisco, Calif: Ignatius, 1993. Print. In section II, chapters two and seven of Explorations in Theology: Creator Spirit, Balthasar provides us with a particular Johannine oriented pneumatology. The bulk of his argument seems to be situating the Holy Spirit within an understanding of the Holy Trinity, which establishes the Spirit as truly divine, rejecting any notions to just reduce the Holy Spirit to an afterthought or as a…

Moral Decisions,” the topics of gifts, guides, and forgiveness and reconciliation are discussed. We learn what it means to live as a moral person and what gifts God gives us to live a moral life. We also learn about what guides us in making moral decisions and what happens when we miss the mark. Most importantly, we learn that God gives us everything we truly “need to live a holy, happy, and healthy life”(228). In article 47, various topics about the call to be holy are discussed. The goal of…

ideals. These ideals have been condensed in a modern-day explanation of The Ten Point Program for Orthodox Life, a guide to translating Orthodox Christian values into daily activities. They include “praying daily, worshiping and participating in the Seven Holy Sacraments, participating in the fasts and feast days of the church calendar, saying the Jesus Prayer constantly, setting priorities and living a Christian life, being watchful of your life and others’, being aware of your sins and trying…

The Azusa Street revival had firmly established the centrality of baptism in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues, but that was not the only distinguishing factor that would set Pentecostalism apart creating tension with and influencing the rest of Christianity. Freedom in the Spirit meant drastically different worship from mainstream Christianity. As Grant Wacker writes, “Any service – indeed any part of any service – that…

Christ and the keeping power of the Holy Spirit. I spend time daily in prayer, meditation and reading of the scriptures. As the Apostle Creed States: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by…

All Catholics are called to be baptized to immerse, or surround themselves fully, into the Church. Baptism translates to “immersion.” “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13). All baptized Catholics are joined into one Body of Christ. In other words, through Baptism, we become one community and one people under God. Catholics tend to be baptized as…

desire for money, wealth, and power, the attitude of ‘bigger is better’, or the need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ are fittingly reminiscent of the original list of eight vices developed centuries ago by Evagrius of Pontus and eventually narrowed to seven by Aquinas. The list includes vainglory, envy, sloth, avarice, wrath, lust, gluttony with pride being the root of them all (DeYoung, 2009). Attractive as they are, the vices provide a “subtle and deceptive imitation of the fullness of the…

John 10:10; 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly. Even the devil can disguise himself when approaching the children of God. Our defense is God, love and humility. Let us embrace the good news that no evil scheme can ruin us if we abide in the light of the glorious Gospel of true freedom, which is in Jesus Christ and Him alone. 2 Corinthians 4:6-12; 6 For God, who commanded the light…

Ticket to Heaven To the modern viewer, the word Gothic may suggest darkness, but to the medieval viewer, the innovation of Gothic architecture allowed villagers to escape their lives of toil and to enter a spiritual realm, a Heaven on Earth. Previous medieval architecture was characterized by thick walls which did not allow light to come into the building. In Gothic cathedrals, light was used as a building material. The walls of cathedrals were no longer made from stone, but from glass. Stained…