When the Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost, the Christian community was endowed with different gifts so that there would be different ministries and different works.
All of us have been given to drink of the one Spirit, but that Spirit is manifested in different gifts, ministries, and works.
Our Church is indeed blessed with different gifts.
- We have in our own age seen the wonderful gift of enlightened leadership embodied in Pope Francis.
- We have seen the gift of martyrdom embodied in Archbishop Oscar Romero.
- We have seen the gift of contemplation joined with commitment to justice embodied in Thomas Merton.
- We have seen the gift of commitment to the poor embodied in Dom Helder Camara.
- We have seen the gifts of voluntary poverty and nonviolence embodied in Dorothy Day.
To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
What matters is not the nature of the gift but that through the gift the Spirit is working to renew the face of the earth.
We do not have to be heroes, like the people named above. Through our ordinary daily lives the Spirit of the Lord fills the whole world.
The laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and equipped to produce in themselves ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily labor, their mental and physical relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne—all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org