Pope: the Holy Spirit is "our traveling companion"

"A Christian life, which calls itself Christian, which leaves no place for the Spirit and does not allow itself to be carried forward by the Spirit, is a pagan life, disguised as a Christian. The Spirit is the protagonist of the Christian life "

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Holy Spirit is "our traveling companion", the one who "makes us rise above our limits" and without whom "we can do nothing” said Pope Francis at today’s Mass at Casa Santa Marta. He was  commenting on Jesus' response to Nicodemus (Jn 3: 3-15) "Do not be surprised if I told you: you must be born from above".

Linking this message to Easter and the Lord’s Resurrection, the Pope recalled the fact that in the first apparition of Jesus to the apostles, on the Sunday of the Resurrection, the Lord breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit”. “This is our strength! We cannot do anything without the Spirit”, he said.

Reminding those present that a Christian life is not only about behaving well and doing the right things, the Pope said we can write our lives in “flourishing penmanship” but we are reborn only from the Spirit, therefore we must make room for it: “It is the Spirit that allows us to rise from our limitations, from our deaths, because there are so many necrosis in our life and in our soul”, he said.

The Pope explained that “a life, that may call itself Christian, but that leaves no room for the Spirit and does not allow itself to be carried forward by the Spirit, is a pagan life, disguised as Christian”. “The Spirit” he said, “is the protagonist of Christian life”. It is the Holy Spirit, he said, who accompanies us, transforms us, and overcomes sin with us.

“No one has ever ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven: Jesus. He came down from heaven, and at the moment of the resurrection, he said to us ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’, the companion of Christian life”. “One cannot walk the path of  a Christian life without the Holy Spirit”, he said.There cannot be a Christian life without the Holy Spirit, who is “our daily companion”, the Pope continued: “a gift from the Father, a gift from Jesus”.

“Let us ask the Lord” the Pope said, “to give us this awareness that we cannot be Christians without walking with the Holy Spirit, without acting with the Holy Spirit, without letting the Holy Spirit be the protagonist of our lives”. We must ask ourselves, therefore – he concluded – what place does the Spirit have in our lives, and we must ask the Lord for the grace to understand this message: "Our companion on our way is the Holy Spirit”.

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• Holy Spirit
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• Christian life