Life In The Church Because In The Church There Is Spirit

Life In The Church Because In The Church There Is Spirit — My brothers and sisters, if you want the Holy Spirit to dwell in you, listen carefully. Our spirit, by means of which each individual lives, is called the soul.

And look at what the soul does in the body. It gives life to all the limbs. It sees with the eyes, hears with the ears, smells with the nose, speaks with the tongue, works with the hands, walks with the feet. It is present at one and the same time in all the limbs to make them live. It gives life to all the limbs and to each limb its function. It is not the eye that hears, not the ear that sees, not the eye or the ear that speaks. Yet they are nonetheless alive. The ear is alive, the tongue is alive. Their functions are different, the life is the same.

The Church of God is like that. By means of some believers she preforms miracles. By means of others, she teaches the truth; by means of some she keeps virginity, by means of others she respects marital fidelity.

The tasks are different, the life is the same.

What the soul is to the body of a human being, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, the Church.

The Holy Spirit does for the whole Church what the soul does for the body of the individual. Look then and see what you ought to fear and what you ought to avoid.

If the body suffers an amputation (for example of a finger or a hand or a foot) does the soul go with the limb that has been cut off? While it was in the body that limb was alive, yet when it is cut off it loses its life.

It is like that with Christians. They are alive only while they are in the Body. If they are cut off from the Body, the Holy Spirit is not longer with them.

St. Augustine of Hippo

Life In The Church Because In The Church There Is Spirit

Life In The Church Because In The Church There Is Spirit

Courtesy of Holy Myrrh-Bearers Church of Swarthmore.

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