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Pope Francis has described the Second Vatican Council as “a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit” and said “stubborn” Catholics should not resist the Spirit as it pushes the Church forward.
“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.”
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Image: Taylor Marshall
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