Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 113 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 113 - Part I. What does it mean to say: I believe in the Holy Spirit?

(Youcat answer) To believe in the Holy Spirit means to worship him as God just like the Father and the Son. It means to believe that the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts so that we as children of God might know our Father in heaven. Moved by God’s Spirit, we can change the face of the earth.        

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 683 a) "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"' (Gal 4:6). This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son.     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Before his death, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them “another Counselor” (Jn 14:16) when he was no longer with them. Then when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the disciples of the original Church, they learned what Jesus had meant. They experienced a deep assurance and joy in their faith and received particular charisms; in other words, they could prophesy, heal, and work miracles. To this day there are people in the Church who possess such gifts and have these experiences.     

 (CCC Comment)

(CCC 683 b) Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit (St. Irenaeus, Dem. Ap. 7: SCh 62, 41-42).    

(This question:  What does it mean to say: I believe in the Holy Spirit? is continued)