Today's Gospel says of the Holy Spirit: "This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. you know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you." (Jn 14: 17) We sometimes need to be reminded how precious the gift of baptism is. The Holy Spirit acts on the people of the world but it is we, who have been baptised, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. The prayer of exorcism prayed during an infant baptism says: "We pray for this child: set him (her) free from original sin, make him (her) a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell with him (her)." In a world of relativism to some think sacraments are an optional extra or, even worse, irrelevant. To us, who believe, the Holy Spirit is essential and we cannot live without the sacraments. How can this divergance come about? St Paul wrote: "Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things , and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny. 'For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Cor. 2: 14-16)
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