Those who publish this information claim to be telling us what is happening in the world, but in our wiser moments we remember to question whether they are offering us the truth.

From experience, we know that the loudest voices belong to persons and institutions whose enormous wealth lets them fill the pages of newspapers, or radio and television channels.

Their stories enhance their own image and increase their profits.

Truth and lies

The daily news may give us the basic facts about a plane crash or a court trial, but when it comes to the truth about why a war is being fought, or about global warming, we need to be more cautious.

In fact we can identify several areas where the mainstream media in our "western" nations consistently distort the truth about our world.

Lie number one

One basic lie which is quietly promoted is that "White" people are of more value - are more important - than "people of colour".

More column-space and air-time is given to the death of a few "White" people than the death of hundreds or even thousands of Blacks, Asians or Palestinians.

Refugees from those populations are seen as a problem, usually treated callously.

They're not usually treated as the victims of wars provoked by our "White" nations, or of famines resulting from the global warming caused by centuries of our industrial activity.

We assume that we have a right to plunder "Third World" resources, as we earlier took the land of non-Whites.

We even justify that theft, whether it happened in North America during colonisation, across Australia after 1788, in Africa during the 19th century, or in Palestine since 1948.

In the latter case, mainstream media mostly ignore or conceal the genocide which now is completing that land theft, and demonises those - such as tertiary students - who dare protest against it.

Lie number two

Another fundamental untruth almost completely overlooked is that the "growth" of every nation's GDP cannot continue.

This is because every resource on earth - fresh water, iron, oil, gas, forests; even our capacity to capture sunlight - is limited.

Although some resources - coal - are more abundant than others, our civilisation will not survive unless we change to a world economy based on genuine re-cycling.

Lie number three

A third basic lie spread by (most) media is their denial of the rapidly approaching but unpredictable "tipping points" that will soon be triggered by the heating of our planet.

Resulting from several centuries of our burning fossil fuels and building cities, these tipping points may come in various ways.

They may involve the irreversible melting of ice-caps and glaciers; the sudden extinction of inter-dependent species - including rain forests; or the altered flow of ocean currents and jet-streams.

Although national leaders talk together regularly, and politicians make promises, none has so far had the will to stop the ruthless greed of fossil-fuel merchants.

They won't even admit the elephant in the room, the disaster that is rapidly approaching.

The Holy Spirit

But at Pentecost we reflect on the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned hundreds of times in the pages of the New Testament.

This Spirit moves people to speak in prophesy - Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, John the Baptist.

The Spirit overwhelmed the adult Jesus at his baptism, driving him out into the desert and then leading him on his mission.

By the Spirit's power he healed people and drove out demons.

He told his followers that they can call on the Spirit within them when they were attacked for speaking the truth.

John's later gospel calls it the Spirit of Truth (14:17, 15:26, 16:13), and reflects how we can each receive this divine Spirit.

At our present time of grave world crisis, it must be obvious to anyone believing in God, that God's Spirit is not the exclusive property of any one faith tradition or clergy.

On the contrary, we each need urgently to call on this tremendous gift within us, using the Divine power it gives to unite our human family and to heal our fragile planet.

• First published in Finding the Treasure
• Peter Murnane O.P. is a Melbourne-based Dominican Friar, author and political activist. (Originally, CathNews was in error, saying Peter was New Zealand based.)

The disciples not only linked the dots but were convinced without a doubt that ‘their mutual friend' was the Son of the Living God.

He was the Saviour their ancestor had pined for. Jesus' execution on the Cross at Calvary wasn't just a scandal.

His assent into Heaven at the Mount of Olives wasn't about abandonment, nor was His grave that Joseph of Arimathea had hacked out for himself, His permanent resting place.

God's entry into our human history began when Jesus was born in a barn in the dead of night.

All quite the opposite to the dramatic arrival of God's Holy Spirit, which was more ‘out-there'.

In broad daylight, with high winds and fire-shaped flames, speaking of different languages and the people gathered, being directed out.

Pentecost made sure God's enduring presence in the Church was undeletable and irreversible. It overturned any thoughts that God might become flesh for just 33 years.

What other reason could explain the Church's survival down through the centuries, particularly when grace and sin went head-to-head?

Consider the major split between East and West in 1054, fuelled more so by the stubborn Patriarch of Constantinople Cerularius and the hot-headed Cardinal Humbert, who excommunicated each other!

Then 300 years later when 3 popes each claimed to be the true leader. St Catherine of Siena diplomatically returned the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

When England's Queen Elizabeth 1st declared in 1558 Mass was unlawful, never deterred Catholics and priests from gathering to celebrate the Sacraments despite being barbarically tortured to death if caught.

Jewish teacher Gamaliel may have been accurate when he boldly stated.

If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin, it will break up on its own accord: but if it does come from God, you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourself fighting against God. (Acts 5:38-39).

Pentecost is referred to as the birthday of the Church.

Like our own birthdays, it annually marks an entry point. Unique times of reflecting over one's life to recognise Jesus' spirit were there in the dark heartaches and joys all along. Seeing the big picture brings its own personal consolation.

I accompanied my mother for a decade as she declined from a neurological debilitating disease. Only when God called her home did I see that Jesus' spirit was most involved when I was tempted when I'd had enough and wanted her to die then and there.

Hindsight is a revelation.

My Pentecost experience wasn't a light bulb moment.

Rather it was a gradual maturing of simultaneously coming to ‘understand' and of ‘responding'.

This real or imagined story helped.

Two friends had spent a beautiful Holy Week at a nearby monastery.

Driving home, their hearts were still skipping after being soaked in the spirit.

Suddenly they saw a man lying on the roadside. They quickly decided to drive past, fearing it could be a trap.

Safely home, they had lost the spirit of that Holy Week and were feeling flat.

For 7 days, they had accompanied Jesus from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday yet failed to even alert the authorities to investigate as basic prudence would have dictated.

As Catholics in a faith community, we often neglect to figure out that gathering around the Altar to celebrate Sunday Eucharist isn't just for me - or you? There are responsibilities.

God's Holy Spirit enables us - authorizes us to become missionary disciples and to invite others to join us.

Just how am I to make disciples? Matthew 28:19-20

Not by indoctrinating another or using guilt, but as Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium suggests, by attraction.

It's a matter of keeping our antennae attentive when others around us may desire for themselves that same inner Gospel beauty they experience in us.

We don't have to become a rocket scientist or hold degrees in scripture or church history.

How do we go forth? Matthew 28:19-20

We all live in a secular society.

Going forth simply means giving ourselves permission to risk stretching ourselves from the safety of our comfort zones and engaging with simple, mutually respectful dialogue.

The power to do so is within us.

We just need to feel the fear, but do it.

Give it a go this Pentecost day!

• Sue Seconi - is a member of the Catholic Parish of Whanganui - Te Parihi Katorika Ki Whanganui

Bishop Daniel Flores, who has been coordinating the synod process for the United States bishops, said the meeting was "very encouraging".

Francis speaks "very beautifully about the Church and about how close to his heart is the issue of participation and building up communion," Flores said.

"Francis knows some people have exaggerated expectations for the synod while others have exaggerated anxiety because it is not completely clear where the process is leading.

"This is despite the fact the pope has spoken frequently about strengthening a "synodal church", where all baptised members listen to one another and share responsibility for the Church's life and mission."

In the synod's local, national and continental phases, people made a "great investment of spiritual and personal energy and of time," reading, praying and listening to one another.

It became very clear to Flores that he and others in his diocese must be much more intentional and creative in "reaching out to people who, because of their own personal circumstances, don't feel free or confident" about joining their parish or diocese's life.

"The Church sometimes can become a little too comfortable and only the comfortable feel comfortable there," he said.

Flores explained the Vatican meeting was an "orientation" meeting. Members will read and review all the reports from the synod's continental stage reflection, help prepare the synod working document and help during the synod itself.

The Commission members don't know yet if they will be full voting members of the synod, but Flores said it's likely.

If so, Mercedarian Sister Shizue Hirota from Tokyo, the Commission's only woman, would be a voting member of the synod.

Francis has already said that whoever participates in a synod as a member "has the right to vote. Whether male or female".

Hirota said the meeting included a presentation on the "episcopal mission" and bishops' special responsibility in the synodal discernment process.

As a member of God's people, a bishop has a responsibility to listen to his people," she said.

So, although most synod members will be bishops, many other people's contributions will be like a memory or reminder "of the ecclesial journey that we have made".

Source

• United Stated Catholic Bishops Conference

Afraid, Mary and the apostles were hiding, but in complete contrast, the Holy Spirit directs the 'door be opened' and redirect the initial Church's focus outward.

New energy dawned with the birth of the Church and the Holy Spirit charged the Apostles and Mary to the missionary task of showing, being and voicing Jesus among the world.

What might Matthew (28:19-20) mean today when he writes Go out to all nations?

Christian Baptism is not a Sacrament for us to be tucked away!

For some, Baptism means becoming a missionary in another country.

For most, it is to continually be alert to those ordinary moments of our day and the people we met in the activities in our day; these moments and activities are opportunities for witnessing a Christ-like attitude and maybe moments for direct evangelisation.

Some years back, an injustice, caused a couple to lose confidence in the Church.

Each time I banged into them when out and about, I would always give them a good hearing as they repeated again the incident. Then I saw them at Mass!

Talking myself up? - hope not! - but for sure, listening was God's Holy Spirit.

Authentic evangelization centres around mutual respectful dialogue.

The evangelist knows that God is already within each person.

Evangelisation is never about winning an argument to convert another to our beliefs as if we are right and they are wrong.

Nor is evangelisation expecting instant results.

Evangelisation is a process of the Holy Spirit, it is without a time frame, model or programme to follow.

Further, Christian witness means we are a letter from Christ to others, "Not written with ink, but with the Spirit of a living God". (2 Corinthians 3:3)

Recently, a friend told me that radiation and chemotherapy have ceased to have any effect. She's decided to live fully with her husband and family until she dies.

"I don't want to die," she tells me leaving me speechless in my powerlessness.

Out of the blue, I begin singing ‘Come Holy Spirit, I need you' and she falls into my arms weeping uncontrollably. I assure her of her goodness and of God's passionate love for her.

Talking myself up? - hope not! - but for sure ‘out of the blue' was God's Holy Spirit.

Joy and encouragement are a constant theme in Pope Francis' document called The Joy of the Gospel - Evangelii Gaudium.

"There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter... I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress." (Evangelii Gaudium No 6)

Then again in No 10: "An evangeliser must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!"

We're not to live lives that seem like Lent without Easter Pope Francis says in article 6 or as if we have just come back from a funeral in article 10.

And to priests he writes: A missionary heart... never closes itself off, never retreats into its own security, never opts for rigidity and defensiveness. It realizes that it has to grow in its own understanding of the Gospel and in discerning the paths of the Spirit, and so it always does what good it can, even if in the process, its shoes get soiled by the mud of the street." (Evangelii Gaudium No 45)

For Pope Francis, the Church grows by attraction.

In the book 'How to Read the New Testament' Etienne Charpentier writes: "If a non-believer, utterly ignorant of Christianity, went into a place where Christians were worshipping, he would see from their attitude that something was happening: if he asked them what it was like, they would reply, 'The Lord Jesus is present among us, he invites us to his table, we eat with him, we listen to him and speak to him.'"

• Sue Seconi is a parishioner in the Catholic parish of Whanganui.

The problem appears in the Acts of the Apostles: "Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food" (6:1).

The problem was not table service. There are different aspects of the dilemma in other parts of Acts and in Paul's epistles, and even retroactively introduced into the Gospels.

The problem was, "What do we do with these Greek-speakers?" Christianity was originally a Jewish sect. What were these Hellenists doing in the community?

The challenge the Greek-speakers presented was not one of grammar, syntax or an alphabet. Greek was the common tongue of the Roman Empire.

So, the presence of Greek speakers meant that the larger world was infiltrating the Christian community, and the Church had to respond to that larger world.

One way might be exclusion. The people who enraged Paul by insisting upon circumcision and other Biblical laws for non-Jews joining the Church took this path. To be a Christian, one must give up Greek-ness.

We can see Paul's reaction to this in his letter to the Galatians where he bad-mouths Peter for kowtowing to the circumcisionists and wishes a gruesome fate on them: "I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!" (2:11-14; 5:12).

Apart from the surgery, Paul's position became the norm for the Church. The New Testament is written in Greek.

The Church went beyond merely accepting the language of the wider world. It adapted its ministry and life. Trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Christians created a totally new ministry that evolved into the deaconate.

Those early Christians realized that in order to proclaim the Good News to the whole world, they had to change. And they did, confident that the Spirit would be with them, giving them understanding and guidance. Rather than hold to the past, they invented a future.

Of course, the appearance of Greek-speaking widows was not the last time a new social, cultural and political reality challenged the Church to a radical change.

Perhaps the biggest after the widows was sparked by the beginnings of globalization.

Through the 15th-century journeys of Portuguese mariners around Africa and into Asia, and the realization of two whole continents across the Atlantic Ocean, the Church was forced to face theological challenges.

What is the eternal fate of people who have absolutely no way of hearing the Gospel?

Into this questioning there came a new technology that brought upheaval and new forms for the Church: the printing press.

With that new technology, a whole new culture was born. Literacy became common.

The exploration and exchange of ideas became general. Scripture that had been closed to all who could not read an ancient tongue now became common knowledge to anyone able to read their own language.

Scripture, books and pamphlets enabled people to become latter-day Greek widows. The part of the Church that embraced the new reality came to be called Protestant.

Catholicism took the technology, but rejected the reality it caused, fostered and epitomized.

Latin remained the language of liturgy, and theology and control of the Church remained the province of a caste increasingly out of touch with a world where the exchange of ideas, even if they threatened hallowed forms, was seen as the way to truth.

So, while the world moved toward the Enlightenment with its even-today developing ideas of human dignity, equality and science, that new reality was met with the Index of Forbidden Books that Catholics were not to read, last "updated" in 1948.

It was only in the mid-20th century that the Catholic part of the Church seriously approached the already centuries-old social and religious world in which it was supposedly proclaiming the Gospel.

But, circumcisionists remain. A current example is the question of whether or not the early Church ordained women to deaconal service. Only if the Church did so in the first-century might we do so in the 21st.

In other words, if ancient Christians confidently sought out new ways to embody ministry, only then may modern Christians use their results.

However, are answers to situations two millennia ago valid for situations today?

We face a new reality, a reality in which, for example, women are increasingly taking an equal place in society with men.

It is a globalized reality where communication has moved out of the "Gutenberg Galaxy" of print. Science and too much Church teaching seem to be in parallel universes that never interact. The only unchanging truth today is change.

We live in the presence of the same Holy Spirit who gave those ancient Christians the confidence to imagine new things.

The lesson to take from our forebears is not how they responded to new incursions by the world, but that they did so creatively, confident that the Holy Spirit would be with them.

We should imitate their daring, not their answers.

• William Grimm is a missioner and presbyter in Tokyo and is the publisher of the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
• Republished with permission.

Viersen police have shared a speed camera photo on Facebook that shows a dove in flight covering the face of a Renault Twingo driver caught doing 34 mph (54 kph) in an 18 mph (30 kph) zone. Read more

He says the current pontificate is marked by "chronic confusion". He warns Francis his teaching with a "seemingly intentional lack of clarity risks sinning against the Holy Spirit." Read more

Otherwise it would risk being like a country under a dictatorship, he told 30,000 people at a rally in St Peter's Square on July 3.

"There should be a time limit to positions (in the Church), which in reality are positions of service," the Pope said.

He made it clear that his comments were not confined to the clergy.

"Let's be clear. The only one who cannot be substituted in the Church is the Holy Spirit," he said.

But in an interview with a Mexican broadcaster earlier last year, Pope Francis rejected the idea of an automatic retirement age for popes.

Continue reading

Preaching at a Mass on May 8 at his Santa Marta residence, the Pope said if this movement of the Spirit is welcomed with prayer and a spirit of dialogue, it always generates unity between Christians.

The Pope was preaching on a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which dealt with the Council of Jerusalem.

At issue was whether Jewish laws should be imposed on early Christians.

Paul of Tarsus was strongly opposed to this.

Pope Francis asked "How do they resolve this problem?"

"They hold a meeting and each person gives his opinion, his views," the Pope said.

"They discuss this issue, but like brothers and sisters and not like enemies.

"They don't form external lobbies in order to win, they don't go to the civil authorities in order to win and they don't kill in order to triumph.

"They seek the path of prayer and dialogue. Those who had opposing views have a dialogue with the other side and they reach an agreement.

"This is the work of the Holy Spirit."

Pope Francis stressed that the Holy Spirit moves towards harmony and that was why the Council of Jerusalem was able to agree on a final decision.

"A Church where there are never problems of this type makes me think that the Holy Spirit is not very present within it," the Pope noted.

"And a Church where its people are always arguing and there are lobbies and people are betraying their brothers and sisters, is a Church where there is no Holy Spirit!

"It's the Spirit which creates change, which creates the momentum for going ahead, that creates new spaces, that creates that wisdom which Jesus promised: ‘It will teach you!'

"This moves things, but is also what at the end creates the harmonious unity between everyone."

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Image: The Church in Malta

"Every time we return to the source of Christian experience, new paths and un-thought of possibilities open up," the Pope said at a prayer vigil the night before the synod opened.

He recommended gazing on the face of Christ for unity and renewal.

"With the joy of the Gospel we will rediscover the way of a reconciled and merciful Church, poor and friend of the poor; a Church ‘given strength that it might, in patience and in love, overcome its sorrows and its challenges, both within itself and from without'."

The Pope asked the Holy Spirit for three things for the October 5-19 synod participants; the theme of which is "the pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation".

The first is the gift of listening as God does to the voices of people, "until they breathe the will to which God calls us".

The second is openness to sincere discussion, with confidence that Christ will unify all in the end.

The third is being able to gaze on the face of Christ, so that the synod discussions, loved in return with the gaze of Christ, might be a providential occasion for renewal of Church and society.

Opening the synod at a Mass the next day, the Pontiff commented on the readings, warning the synod fathers not to take over the vineyard entrusted to them.

He warned against "bad shepherds lay[ing] intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others, which they themselves do not lift a finger to move".

The pontiff also laid out clearly what the synod is not to do.

"Synod assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent," said Francis.

"They are meant to better nurture and tend the Lord's vineyard, to help realise his dream, his loving plan for his people."

The Pope warned synod participants not to "thwart God's dream" by failing to "let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit".

"The Spirit gives us that wisdom which surpasses knowledge, and enables us to work generously with authentic freedom and humble creativity," he continued.

The synod's deliberations are not open to the public, and the Vatican has said information released from it will be limited.

But reporters will get a daily briefing from a Vatican spokesman.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Catholic News Agency
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CBC

Preaching at a Mass at the Saint Martha residence where he lives on September 2, the Pope said people were amazed at Jesus' preaching because his word "had authority".

Jesus' authority came from a "special anointing of the Holy Spirit", the Pope continued.

Turning to the first reading of the day, the Pope cited St Paul, saying that we do not speak of these things "with words evoked by human wisdom".

St Paul did not preach because he took a course at a pontifical university, such as the Lateran or the Gregorian, Pope Francis said.

The source of his preaching was "the Holy Spirit", not human wisdom.

A person might have five theology degrees, the Holy Father said, but not have the Spirit of God.

"Perhaps you will be a great theologian, but you are not a Christian, because you do not have the Spirit of God! That which gives authority, that which gives you your identity and the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit."

Continue reading

But little by little, he came to see the good the movement is doing for members and for the Church, the Pope told 50,000 people at Rome's Olympic Stadium on June 1.

The gathering involved charismatic Catholics from 55 nations.

"In the early years of the charismatic renewal in Buenos Aires, I did not have much love for charismatics," Pope Francis told them.

"I said of them: They seem like a samba school."

But Pope Francis told the charismatics that their movement was begun by the Holy Spirit as "a current of grace in the Church and for the Church".

He asked charismatic groups not to try to organise everything or create a bureaucracy that attempts to tame the Holy Spirit.

The temptation "to become 'controllers' of the grace of God" is a danger, the Pope said.

Group leaders, sometimes without even meaning to, become "administrators of grace", deciding who should exercise which gifts of the Holy Spirit.

"Don't do this anymore," Pope Francis said.

"Be dispensers of God's grace, not controllers. Don't be the Holy Spirit's customs agents."

At one point during the Rome gathering, the crowd prayed that the Holy Spirit would fill Francis and he knelt on the stage, while they sang with their hands raised toward him.

After the song, many in the crowd kept their hands raised as they prayed in tongues, speaking in unfamiliar languages, the Catholic News Service reported.

Pope Francis also encouraged charismatics to exercise "spiritual ecumenism", by praying with members from other Christian churches and communities to help heal divisions.

He also invited the crowd to stay close to the Word of God, as charismatics had always been known for their love of the Scriptures.

Pope Francis invited the crowd to come to St Peter's Square for Pentecost in 2017 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the charismatic movement.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Asia News
• Image: Catholic Sun

The pontiff made the interplanetary approach during a speech during mass at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican City to highlight how there were no closed doors to the Holy Spirit.

He said the Spirit blows where it wills, but one of the most common temptations of those who have faith is to bar its path and drive it in one direction or another.

Commenting on the reading for the day from the Acts of the Apostles the Pope noted that a community of pagans welcomed the announcement of the Gospel and Peter was an eyewitness to the descent of the Holy Spirit on them.

First hesitated to make contact with what he had always considered "unclean" and then he suffered harsh criticism from the Christians of Jerusalem, shocked by the fact that their leader had eaten with the "uncircumcised" and had even baptised them.

A moment of internal crisis that Pope Francis recalled, with a hint of irony :"That was unthinkable. If - for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptised!' What would happen?" Continue reading

Festivals need to promise good times, strutting their stuff with music, laughter, food, entertainment and, if we allow them to, speaking subtly of a deeper connectivity, that becomes apparent through the creativity of the human spirit.

The ancient Artemisia festival had it all. People gathered from all over Turkey to enjoy food, wine, music, games and theatrical contests in honour of the Goddess. As well as providing a boost for the economy it was an opportunity to flutter eyelashes and flex muscles to impress a potential mate. Definitely a crowd puller, even Pliny the Roman writer thought so.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, said he had personally had two "strong signs" that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was "the chosen one" in the run-up to voting.

He said only divine intervention could explain the speed with which the Argentine cardinal — who did not feature on any of the main lists of likely candidates compiled by Vatican experts — was elected.

Speaking to an Anglican conference in London, he also said the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Justin Welby, had a "strange similarity" to the new Pope.

He said that the two elections were a "little miracle" and a "sign from the Lord" that the two churches should work towards closer unity.

Cardinal Schönborn said he was certain that on the evening of March 12, as the papal conclave began, none of the cardinals knew who would be chosen.

"It was a tremendous experience of the Holy Spirit," he said. "We were driven by the Holy Spirit to this man — he was sitting in the last corner of the Sistine Chapel: This man he is the chosen one."

He added: "I received at least two strong signs: one I can tell, the other was in the conclave I can't speak about — but real signs of the Lord giving me indication ‘he is the one'."

The cardinal said that just after a special Mass before the conclave began he came across a couple from Latin America who are friends of his.

He said: "I met them outside the basilica and I asked: ‘You have the Holy Spirit, can you give me advice for the conclave that will start in a few hours?'

"And the woman whispered in my ear ‘Bergoglio', and it hit me really: If these people say Bergoglio, that's an indication of the Holy Spirit.

"And I'm sure many of us have received similar signs during the conclave, [or] it wouldn't have been possible to have this election so soon and so rapidly."

Source:

The Telegraph

Image: Talking Points Memo

"We want to put the Holy Spirit to sleep," the Pontiff said. "We want to ‘tame' the Holy Spirit. And that doesn't work, because he is God. He is the wind that comes and goes and we know not from where.

"He is the power of God, what gives us consolation and strength to move forward. But move forward!"

The Pope said Catholics are often reluctant to "move forward" because they want to remain "comfortable". He used the aftermath of Vatican II as an example of reluctance to move with the Holy Spirit.

"The Council was a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit," he said. "Think of Pope John: he seemed a good pastor, and he was obedient to the Holy Spirit, and he did that.

"But after 50 years, have we done everything that the Holy Spirit said to us in the Council? In the continuity of the growth of the Church which was the Council?

"No, we celebrate this anniversary, we make a monument, but that does not bother us. We do not want to change.

"What is more: there are voices that want to go back. This is called being stubborn, this is called wanting to tame the Holy Spirit, this is called becoming fools and slow of heart."

"Even in our personal lives," the Pope added, "the Spirit prompts us to take a more evangelical path."

"Do not resist the Holy Spirit," he continued. "It is the Spirit that makes us free, with that freedom of Jesus, with the freedom of the children of God!"

Pope Francis concluded, "Do not resist the Holy Spirit: this is the grace that I wish all of us asked the Lord: the docility to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that comes to us and makes us go forward in the way of holiness, the holiness of Church which is so beautiful. The grace of docility to the Holy Spirit. So be it."

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Service

Image: Taylor Marshall