January 27, 2011 – Catechism 694-701

When I think of water I think of life.  It is the source that is needed for all life.  Here we see the Holy Spirit is like a well inside us that is a source of life.  And the water of Baptism instills in us that Grace of the Holy Spirit that can never be erased. 

I actually have to give a talk pretty soon on the “fire” of the Holy Spirit.  The part that I am pondering is the idea that fire changes everything it comes into contact with.  We burn wood and it turns to ash.  We light a candle and the wax melts away.  When the Holy Spirit touches us, we are changed in a way that we can not go back to.  We may try, but we can never return to that place in the same way because we are supernaturally different than we were before the Spirit changed us. 

Clouds are always pictured so light and fluffy and everything, it is sometimes hard to see them as the power of God.  The ones that bring storms and lightening maybe give us a sense of the power, but you don’t necessarily think “loving” God when you see those.  

The three unrepeatable sacraments.  So, a Protestant that may have been Baptized in their church and wants to become Catholic is not always Baptized again.  It depends on the ceremony of their baptism in the other church.  Also, once a person is ordained a deacon, priest, or bishop, they are always that.  They may be stripped of their duties as a clergy men or even excommunicated, but their ordination stays with them, even into the pits of Hell if that is their choosing. 

When it said the finger of God, all I could think of was God poking Satan in the eye.