I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the breath of God
on earth,
who keeps the Christ vision present
to souls yet in darkness,
gives life
even to hearts now blind.
Infuses energy
into spirits yet weary, isolated,
searching and confused.
The spirit has spoken
to the human heart
through the prophets
and gives new meaning
to the Word
throughout time.
The Holy Spirit stays with the Church to guide it, the tradition says. But in that case, we as institution
and we as individuals alike must be open to that guidance, no matter the direction from which it
comes. Even when it comes from science. Even when it comes from laity. Even when it comes from
women. Unless, of course, we want to argue that the Church belongs to clerics alone, in which case
the theology of the Holy Spirit upon which the authenticity and present inspiration of the Church
depends, shrivels, and dies.
To be a woman and read Wisdom literature–the meanderings of the spiritual mind through the dregs and
the divine of the human condition–is especially difficult. There Wisdom is a woman, but women have no
part in its development. Here, the Spirit that is called “Holy Wisdom,” “Sophia,” is also called “she.”
Scripture calls the Spirit ruah, a feminine word, to describe the feminine aspect of the Godhead, the
breath of God, the mighty wind that hovered over the empty waters at the beginning of life in the
process of Creation—all feminine images of a birthing, mothering God, of pregnant waiting and waters
breaking and life coming forth. But when Wisdom declares itself, it is always through a male message,
without a woman in sight. And so the Wisdom limps.
This Spirit, this living Wisdom that is God, lifts us above ourselves, tunes to the voice of the Creator
around us and within us, comes upon us with gentle force or terrible consciousness, and cares for life,
day in, day out, unrelenting in its urge for wholeness. The Spirit prods us, proves us, brings life in us to
creative fullness… And yet, having defined the Spirit as Wisdom, as ruah, as “she,” this feminine force of
life as feminine is promptly submerged, totally forgotten, completely ignored. The masculine images
reappear, the genderless God is gendered, and the fullness of God, the fullness of life, is denied in the
Church. The Church itself stays half whole. And the Spirit ceases to breathe in more than half.
--from In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister (Liguori)
the breath of God
on earth,
who keeps the Christ vision present
to souls yet in darkness,
gives life
even to hearts now blind.
Infuses energy
into spirits yet weary, isolated,
searching and confused.
The spirit has spoken
to the human heart
through the prophets
and gives new meaning
to the Word
throughout time.
The Holy Spirit stays with the Church to guide it, the tradition says. But in that case, we as institution
and we as individuals alike must be open to that guidance, no matter the direction from which it
comes. Even when it comes from science. Even when it comes from laity. Even when it comes from
women. Unless, of course, we want to argue that the Church belongs to clerics alone, in which case
the theology of the Holy Spirit upon which the authenticity and present inspiration of the Church
depends, shrivels, and dies.
To be a woman and read Wisdom literature–the meanderings of the spiritual mind through the dregs and
the divine of the human condition–is especially difficult. There Wisdom is a woman, but women have no
part in its development. Here, the Spirit that is called “Holy Wisdom,” “Sophia,” is also called “she.”
Scripture calls the Spirit ruah, a feminine word, to describe the feminine aspect of the Godhead, the
breath of God, the mighty wind that hovered over the empty waters at the beginning of life in the
process of Creation—all feminine images of a birthing, mothering God, of pregnant waiting and waters
breaking and life coming forth. But when Wisdom declares itself, it is always through a male message,
without a woman in sight. And so the Wisdom limps.
This Spirit, this living Wisdom that is God, lifts us above ourselves, tunes to the voice of the Creator
around us and within us, comes upon us with gentle force or terrible consciousness, and cares for life,
day in, day out, unrelenting in its urge for wholeness. The Spirit prods us, proves us, brings life in us to
creative fullness… And yet, having defined the Spirit as Wisdom, as ruah, as “she,” this feminine force of
life as feminine is promptly submerged, totally forgotten, completely ignored. The masculine images
reappear, the genderless God is gendered, and the fullness of God, the fullness of life, is denied in the
Church. The Church itself stays half whole. And the Spirit ceases to breathe in more than half.
--from In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister (Liguori)
WHERE DOES THE SPIRIT BREATHE?
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