The Spirit as Fire and as Water

In an OCDS group we were studying Chapter 19 of St Teresa’s Way of Perfection, and our saint seems to be fascinated by the paradox of water and fire, by which I mean that God’s indwelling Spirit is present in us at the same time as both (purifying, cleansing, nourishing) water and (inspiring, invigorating) fire.  How can this be?  I confess I had never thought about it, but it reminds me that our faith is full of paradoxes – seeming contradictions which coexist.  Starting with the Holy Trinity, the Three in One, and then the Church herself – in which we are obviously many and yet our faith tells us that we are all One.  When I was on my way into the Church I initially found such seeming contradictions a problem but my late wife had done a physics degree and she acquainted me with the paradox of light, which behaves at one and the same time as wave and as particle.  There are paradoxes in the natural sciences as well as in the supernatural sphere of theology.

Intercessions

RIP Chinaka, Jacqui

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Theresa K, Elena

Sophie – newborn having heart surgery; Sianna, young child in the post-operative phase; James, recovering from surgery

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (in recovery)

Illness:  Katy Keeling

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly