Dominum et Vivificantem

by Pope John Paul II

Publisher:

Libreria Editrice Vaticana

, 1986

Overview

Promulgated in 1986, Dominum et Vivifcantem (The Lord and Giver of Life) focuses on the action of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. It is the final letter in Pope John Paul II's treatment of the Trinity, following Redemptor Hominis on the Son and Dives in Misericordia on the Father. In the first section, "The Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Given to the Church," the pope explores the action of the Holy Spirit through the Church in history. The second section, "The Spirit Who Convinces the World Concerning Sin," considers the continuing forgiveness and redemption from sin offered to man through the Holy Spirit. In the third section, "The Spirit Who Gives Life," the pontiff explains that even in the face of the atheistic materialism of modern culture, openness between man and God remains through the work of the Holy Spirit, most perfectly in the Sacraments of the Church. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the guardian of hope.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil-in any sin at all-and who thus rejects Redemption.” (source)

“There is no sending of the Holy Spirit (after original sin) without the Cross and the Resurrection:” (source)

“In his intimate life, God ‘is love,’³⁶ the essential love shared by the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Therefore he ‘searches even the depths of God,’³⁷ as uncreated Love-Gift. It can be said that in the Holy Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an exchange of mutual love between the divine Persons and that through the Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this self-giving, of this being-love.³⁸ He is Person-Love. He is Person-Gift. Here we have an inexhaustible treasure of the reality and an inexpressible deepening of the concept of person in God, which only divine Revelation makes known to us.” (source)

“Christ’s ‘departure’ is an indispensable condition for the ‘sending’ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, but these words also say that what begins now is the new salvific self-giving of God, in the Holy Spirit.” (source)

“Church, therefore, instructed by the words of Christ, and drawing on the experience of Pentecost and her own apostolic history, has proclaimed since the earliest centuries her faith in the Holy Spirit, as the giver of life, the one in whom the inscrutable Triune God communicates himself to human beings, constituting in them the source of eternal life.” (source)

Product Details

• Title: Dominum et Vivificantem
• Author: Pope John Paul II
• Series: The Papal Encyclicals of John Paul II in English
• Publisher: Libreria Editrice Vaticana
• Print Publication Date: 1986
• Logos Release Date: 2012
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church › Doctrines; Holy Spirit › Papal documents
• Resource ID: LLS:DOMINVIVIF
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:36:56Z

About Pope John Paul II

Pope Saint John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła (18 May 1920–2 April 2005), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of The Holy See from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005. He was canonized along with Pope John XXIII on April 27, 2014.