ARTICLE 8 "I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT"

PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO I. THE CREEDS

CHAPTER THREE I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

ARTICLE 8 "I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT"

687 "No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of
God."7 Now God's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us
Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of
himself. the Spirit who "has spoken through the prophets" makes us
hear the Father's Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know
him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and
disposes us to welcome him in faith. the Spirit of truth who "unveils"
Christ to us "will not speak on his own."8 Such properly divine selfeffacement
explains why "the world cannot receive (him), because it
neither sees him nor knows him," while those who believe in Christ
know the Spirit because he dwells with them.9

688 The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which
she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:

- in the Scriptures he inspired;
- in the Tradition, to which the Church Fathers are always timely
witnesses;
- in the Church's Magisterium, which he assists;
- in the sacramental liturgy, through its words and symbols, in which
the Holy Spirit puts us into communion with Christ;
- in prayer, wherein he intercedes for us;
- in the charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up;
- in the signs of apostolic and missionary life;
- in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and
continues the work of salvation.

I. The Joint Mission of the Son and the Spirit

689 The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of
his Son, is truly God.10 Consubstantial with the Father and the Son,
the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity
and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, lifegiving,
consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church's faith also professes
the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always
sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are
distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible
image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him.

690 Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and
everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this
fullness.11 When Christ is finally glorified,12 he can in turn send the
Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he
communicates to them his glory,13 that is, the Holy Spirit who
glorifies him.14 From that time on, this joint mission will be
manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his
Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ
and make them live in him:

The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between
the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body
and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any
intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so
that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first
encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered
by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is
made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming
from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.15

II. The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit

The proper name of the Holy Spirit

691 "Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and
glorify with the Father and the Son. the Church has received this name
from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.16
The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its
primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory
image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness
of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit.17 On the
other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the
three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and
theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy
Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms
"spirit" and "holy."

Titles of the Holy Spirit

692 When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit,
Jesus calls him the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's side,"
advocatus.18 "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler," and
Jesus is the first consoler.19 The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the
Spirit of truth."20

693 Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit," which is most
frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also
find in St. Paul the titles: the Spirit of the promise,21 The Spirit of
adoption,22 The Spirit of Christ,23 The Spirit of the Lord,24 and the
Spirit of God25 - and, in St. Peter, the Spirit of glory.26

Symbols of the Holy Spirit

694 Water. the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in
Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the
efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our
first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies
that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As
"by one Spirit we were all baptized," so we are also "made to drink of
one Spirit."27 Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling
up from Christ crucified28 as its source and welling up in us to eternal
life.29

695 Anointing. the symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the
Holy Spirit,30 to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit.
In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of
Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full
force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing
accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew
"messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were
several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently
King David.31 But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the
humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
the Holy Spirit established him as "Christ."32 The Virgin Mary
conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel,
proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come
to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.33 The Spirit filled Christ
and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing
and of saving.34 Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the
dead.35 Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious
over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the
saints" constitute - in their union with the humanity of the Son of God
- that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ":36 "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's expression.

696 Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in
the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy
Spirit's actions. the prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire"
and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven
on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel.37 This event was a "figure" of the
fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the
Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah,"
proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire."38 Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon
the earth; and would that it were already kindled!"39 In the form of
tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the
morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself40 The spiritual
tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most
expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions.41 "Do not quench the
Spirit."42

697 Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the
manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old
Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living
and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory - with
Moses on Mount Sinai,43 at the tent of meeting,44 and during the
wandering in the desert,45 and with Solomon at the dedication of the
Temple.46 In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. the Spirit
comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might
conceive and give birth to Jesus.47

On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed"
Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out
of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'"48
Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of the sight of the disciples on the day
of his ascension and will reveal him as Son of man in glory on the day
of his final coming.49

698 The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set
his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him.50 Because this seal
indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in
the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image
of the seal (sphragis) has been used in some theological traditions to
express the indelible "character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable
sacraments.

699 The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying
hands on them.51 In his name the apostles will do the same.52 Even
more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy
Spirit is given.53 The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of
hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching.54

The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy
Spirit in its sacramental epicleses.

700 The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out
demons."55 If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger
of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the
apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of
stone, but on tablets of human hearts."56 The hymn Veni Creator
Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right
hand."57

701 The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to
Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree
branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable.58 When
Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the
form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him.59 The
Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized.
In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in
the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian
iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.

III. God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises

702 From the beginning until "the fullness of time,"60 The joint
mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at
work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully
revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and
welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this reason, when the Church
reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who
has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ.61
By "prophets" the faith of the Church here understands all whom the
Holy Spirit inspired in living proclamation and in the composition of
the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish
tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or
Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books)
and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular
the Psalms).62

In creation

703 The Word of God and his Breath are at the origin of the being and
life of every creature: 63

It belongs to the Holy Spirit to rule, sanctify, and animate creation, for
he is God, consubstantial with the Father and the Son.... Power over
life pertains to the Spirit, for being God he preserves creation in the
Father through the Son.64

704 "God fashioned man with his own hands [that is, the Son and the
Holy Spirit] and impressed his own form on the flesh he had
fashioned, in such a way that even what was visible might bear the
divine form."65

The Spirit of the promise

705 Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God,"
in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God,"66 of his
"likeness." the promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of
salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that
"image"67 and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its
Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life."

706 Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham,
as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit.68 In
Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This
progeny will be Christ himself,69 in whom the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered
abroad."70 God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his
beloved Son and "the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee
of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it."71

In Theophanies and the Law

707 Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the
promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions
that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition
has always recognized that God's Word allowed himself to be seen and
heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both
revealed him and concealed him in its shadow.

708 This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of the Law.72
God gave the Law as a "pedagogue" to lead his people towards
Christ.73 But the Law's powerlessness to save man deprived of the
divine "likeness," along with the growing awareness of sin that it
imparts,74 enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The lamentations of
the Psalms bear witness to this.

In the Kingdom and the Exile

709 The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have
governed the hearts and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's
faith gave birth. "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, . . .
you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."75 But after
David, Israel gave in to the temptation of becoming a kingdom like
other nations. the Kingdom, however, the object of the promise made
to David,76 would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to
the poor according to the Spirit.

710 The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in
death: it is the Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in
fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a
promised restoration, but according to the Spirit. the People of God
had to suffer this purification.77 In God's plan, the Exile already
stands in the shadow of the Cross, and the Remnant of the poor that
returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent prefigurations of
the Church.

Expectation of the Messiah and his Spirit

711 "Behold, I am doing a new thing."78 Two prophetic lines were to
develop, one leading to the expectation of the Messiah, the other
pointing to the announcement of a new Spirit. They converge in the
small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in hope the
"consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem."79
We have seen earlier how Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning
himself. We limit ourselves here to those in which the relationship of
the Messiah and his Spirit appears more clearly.

712 The characteristics of the awaited Messiah begin to appear in the
"Book of Emmanuel" ("Isaiah said this when he saw his glory,"80
speaking of Christ), especially in the first two verses of Isaiah 11: 81
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

713 The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant
songs."82 These songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus' Passion and
show how he will pour out the Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not
as an outsider, but by embracing our "form as slave."83 Taking our
death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own Spirit of life.

714 This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good
News by making his own the following passage from Isaiah:84
The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has
anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to
bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of
the LORD'S favor.

715 The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy
Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the
language of the promise, with the accents of "love and fidelity."85 St.
Peter will proclaim their fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost.86
According to these promises, at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit will
renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather
and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the
first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace.

716 The People of the "poor"87 - those who, humble and meek, rely
solely on their God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of
men but of the Messiah - are in the end the great achievement of the
Holy Spirit's hidden mission during the time of the promises that
prepare for Christ's coming. It is this quality of heart, purified and
enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in the Psalms. In these
poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord."88

IV. The Spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time
John, precursor, prophet, and baptist
717 "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."89 John
was "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb"90 by
Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy
Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to
his people.91

718 John is "Elijah (who) must come."92 The fire of the Spirit dwells
in him and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the
precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of "[making] ready a
people prepared for the Lord."93

719 John the Baptist is "more than a prophet."94 In him, the Holy
Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the
cycle of prophets begun by Elijah.95 He proclaims the imminence of
the consolation of Israel; he is the "voice" of the Consoler who is
coming.96 As the Spirit of truth will also do, John "came to bear
witness to the light."97 In John's sight, the Spirit thus brings to
completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing of
the angels.98 "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain,
this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. and I have seen and have
borne witness that this is the Son of God.... Behold, the Lamb of
God."99

720 Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the
restoration to man of "the divine likeness," prefiguring what he would
achieve with and in Christ. John's baptism was for repentance; baptism
in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.100

"Rejoice, you who are full of grace"

721 Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of
the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For the
first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared
her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit
could dwell among men. In this sense the Church's Tradition has often
read the most beautiful texts on wisdom in relation to Mary.101 Mary
is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy as the "Seat of Wisdom."
In her, the "wonders of God" that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ and
the Church began to be manifested:

722 The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace. It was fitting that the
mother of him in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily"102
should herself be "full of grace." She was, by sheer grace, conceived
without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of
welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty. It was quite correct
for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the "Daughter of Zion":
"Rejoice."103 It is the thanksgiving of the whole People of God, and
thus of the Church, which Mary in her canticle104 lifts up to the
Father in the Holy Spirit while carrying within her the eternal Son.

723 In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving
goodness. Through the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth
to the Son of God. By the Holy Spirit's power and her faith, her
virginity became uniquely fruitful.105

724 In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now
become the Son of the Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive
theophany. Filled with the Holy Spirit she makes the Word visible in
the humility of his flesh. It is to the poor and the first representatives of
the gentiles that she makes him known.106

725 Finally, through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the
objects of God's merciful love,107 into communion with Christ. and
the humble are always the first to accept him: shepherds, magi, Simeon
and Anna, the bride and groom at Cana, and the first disciples.

726 At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman,
the new Eve ("mother of the living"), the mother of the "whole
Christ."108 As such, she was present with the Twelve, who "with one
accord devoted themselves to prayer,"109 at the dawn of the "end
time" which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of Pentecost
with the manifestation of the Church.

Christ Jesus

727 The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness
of time, is contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the
Father's Spirit since his Incarnation - Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
Everything in the second chapter of the Creed is to be read in this
light. Christ's whole work is in fact a joint mission of the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Here, we shall mention only what has to do with Jesus'
promise of the Holy Spirit and the gift of him by the glorified Lord.

728 Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has
been glorified through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little
by little he alludes to him even in his teaching of the multitudes, as
when he reveals that his own flesh will be food for the life of the
world.110 He also alludes to the Spirit in speaking to Nicodemus,111
to the Samaritan woman,112 and to those who take part in the feast of
Tabernacles.113 To his disciples he speaks openly of the Spirit in
connection with prayer114 and with the witness they will have to
bear.115

729 Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus
promise the coming of the Holy Spirit, since his Death and
Resurrection will fulfill the promise made to the fathers.116 The Spirit
of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the Father in answer to
Jesus' prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus' name; and Jesus
will send him from the Father's side, since he comes from the Father.
the Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us for
ever; he will remain with us. the Spirit will teach us everything, remind
us of all that Christ said to us and bear witness to him. the Holy Spirit
will lead us into all truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the
world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

730 At last Jesus' hour arrives:117 he commends his spirit into the
Father's hands118 at the very moment when by his death he conquers
death, so that, "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,"119 he
might immediately give the Holy Spirit by "breathing" on his
disciples.120 From this hour onward, the mission of Christ and the
Spirit becomes the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me,
even so I send you."121

V. The Spirit and the Church In the Last Days

Pentecost

731 On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come
to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his
fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance.122

732 On that day, the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the
Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in
him: in the humility of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the
communion of the Holy Trinity. By his coming, which never ceases, the
Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the "last days," the time of
the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet
consummated.

We have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we
have found the true faith: we adore the indivisible Trinity, who has
saved us.123

The Holy Spirit - God's gift

733 "God is Love"124 and love is his first gift, containing all others.
"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us."125

734 Because we are dead or at least wounded through sin, the first
effect of the gift of love is the forgiveness of our sins. the communion
of the Holy Spirit126 in the Church restores to the baptized the divine
likeness lost through sin.

735 He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance:
the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as "God (has) loved
us."127 This love (the "charity" of 1 Cor 13) is the source of the new
life in Christ, made possible because we have received "power" from
the Holy Spirit.128

736 By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit.
He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us bear "the fruit
of the Spirit: . . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."129 "We live by the Spirit"; the
more we renounce ourselves, the more we "walk by the Spirit."130
Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the
Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call
God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light
and given a share in eternal glory.131

The Holy Spirit and the Church

737 The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to
completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple
of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful
to share in his communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. the
Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to
draw them to Christ. the Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them,
recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of
his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ,
supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them
into communion with God, that they may "bear much fruit."132

738 Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and
the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her
members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present,
and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity (the
topic of the next article):

All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy
Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God.
For if Christ, together with the Father's and his own Spirit, comes to
dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and
undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, . .
. and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ's
sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that
in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in
all, leads all into spiritual unity.133

739 Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ who,
as the head of the Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to
nourish, heal, and organize them in their mutual functions, to give
them life, send them to bear witness, and associate them to his selfoffering
to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world.

Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and
sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body. (This will be the topic of
Part Two of the Catechism.)

740 These "mighty works of God," offered to believers in the
sacraments of the Church, bear their fruit in the new life in Christ,
according to the Spirit. (This will be the topic of Part Three.)

741 "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep
for words."134 The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God's works, is the
master of prayer. (This will be the topic of Part Four.)

IN BRIEF

742 "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"' (Gal 4:6).

743 From the beginning to the end of time, whenever God sends his
Son, he always sends his Spirit: their mission is conjoined and
inseparable.

744 In the fullness of time the Holy Spirit completes in Mary all the
preparations for Christ's coming among the People of God. By the
action of the Holy Spirit in her, the Father gives the world Emmanuel
"God-with-us" (Mt 1:23).

745 The Son of God was consecrated as Christ (Messiah) by the
anointing of the Holy Spirit at his Incarnation (cf Ps 2:6-7).

746 By his Death and his Resurrection, Jesus is constituted in glory as
Lord and Christ (cf Acts 2:36). From his fullness, he poured out the
Holy Spirit on the apostles and the Church.

747 The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members,
builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church. She is the sacrament of the
Holy Trinity's communion with men.

PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO

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