The profile of the Holy Spirit in the sacramental reality of the Church
Abstract
The profile of the Holy Spirit in the sacramental reality of the Church – undertaking this subject is an attempt of placing sacramentology more strongly in the context of pneumatology than it has been done up till now.
Pneumatologically directed sacramentology is a reflection issuing from the intra-Trinitarian distinguishing between the one and the only God, which first of all tries to develop the personal understanding of the sacraments. This is because the dynamics of God's life, pulsating in the communion of the Persons loving each other, leads to a dynamic, personal approach to the sacramental mysteries as real symbols of God's agape, as salutary events, opening this community of life and love that is contained in the three-Person God, and introducing man and the liturgical congregation of the praying Church to it. Hence, administering sacraments and receiving them opens the dynamic process of participation in God's personal love; liturgical celebration may be interpreted as acceptance into the movement of life and the relation of Jesus to Father in the Holy Spirit.
Contemporary theology of sacraments, in order not to lose strength and dynamics shaping the life of man's faith, should approach him and talk to him on the plane of the deepest layers of his personality – that is, it should address its postulates to man in his sphere of freedom. In such a context sacraments may be defined as „spaces of encountering the triune God creating a person in a man”.
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