We announce to you that you must convert from these vanities to the God living.
From the Acts of the Apostles Acts 14.5-18
In those days, in Iconium there was an attempt by the pagans and the Jews with their leaders to attack and stone Paul and Barnabas; they learned about it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and their surroundings, and there they went evangelizing.
There was in Lystra a man paralyzed in the legs, crippled from birth, who had never walked. He listened to Paul while he spoke and these, staring at him and seeing that he had faith in being saved, said in a loud voice: «Get up, stand on your feet!». He jumped up and started walking. The people then, seeing what Paul had done, began to shout, saying, in the Lycaonian dialect: "The gods have descended among us in human form!".
And they called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes", because it was he who spoke.
Intanto il sacerdote di Zeus, il cui tempio era all’ingresso della città, recando alle porte tori e corone, voleva offrire un sacrificio insieme alla folla. Sentendo ciò, gli apostoli Bàrnaba e Paolo si strapparono le vesti e si precipitarono tra la folla, gridando: «Uomini, perché fate questo?
We too are human beings, mortals like you, and we announce that you must convert from these vanities to the God vivente, che ha fatto il cielo, la terra, il mare e tutte le cose che in essi si trovano.
Egli, nelle generazioni passate, ha lasciato che tutte le genti seguissero la loro strada; ma non ha cessato di dar prova di sé beneficando, concedendovi dal cielo piogge per stagioni ricche di frutti e dandovi cibo in abbondanza per la letizia dei vostri cuori».
And so saying, they managed with difficulty to keep the crowd from offering them a sacrifice.
During that time, Jesus He said to his disciples, "Whoever receives my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by Father mine, and I too will love him and reveal myself to him."
Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him: "Lord, how did it happen that you must reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" She answered him Jesus: «If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and the Father mine will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not observe my words; and the word you hear is not mine, but of Father who sent me.
I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit who the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you."
Word of the Lord.
Simeon the New Theologian (ca 949-1022)
greek monk
Hymns 52, SC 196
“My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”
When Paul says to you: “God who said: Let light shine out of the darkness, he who shone in me…” (cf. 2 Cor 4:6), what else God, dimmi, t’invita a conoscere se non quello stesso che abita la luce insostenibile e che nessun uomo ha mai visto ancora.
Poiché è lui che, prima soprannaturale e increato, ha preso carne e si è rivelato a me come creatura divinizzandomi interamente, me che egli ha assunto in modo mirabile. (…)
So those who welcomed God by works of faith and deserved the name of gods, begotten of the Spirit, yes, he himself, they see him, he they Father che non smette di abitare la luce inaccessibile; lo hanno in loro stessi, in casa, e loro stessi abitano in lui, l’assolutamente inaccessibile.
Here is true faith, the work of God, here is the seal of Christians, communion with God, ecco la partecipazione, la caparra divina, ecco in cosa consiste la vita, il Regno, ecco il vestito del Signore che i battezzati rivestono per la fede, e non senza saperlo, te lo dico, né inconsciamente, ma grazie alla fede con consapevolezza e coscienza. (…)
Once you have fully realized what I have just said, come and stay with us, my brother, on the mountain of divine knowledge, of divine contemplation, and together we will listen to the voice of the Father!
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
In what does the mission of the Holy Spirit consist? Jesus promette in dono? Lo dice Lui stesso: «Egli vi insegnerà ogni cosa e vi ricorderà tutto ciò che io vi ho detto».
During his earthly life, Jesus he has already transmitted everything he wanted to entrust to the Apostles: he has completed divine Revelation, that is, everything that the Father meant to mankind with the embodiment of the Son. The task of the Holy Spirit is to bring to mind, i.e. to make people fully understand and lead to concretely implement the teachings of Jesus.
And this is precisely the mission of the Church, who realizes it through a precise lifestyle, characterized by certain needs: faith in the Lord and observance of his Word; docility to the action of the Spirit, which makes the Risen Lord continually alive and present; welcoming his peace and bearing witness to it with an attitude of openness and encounter with the other. (Regina Caeli, May 26, 2019)
