A Meditation by Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) as We Begin Great Lent

Source: The Uppsala Report: Official Report of the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, July 4-20, 1968

Bishop Ignatius became Patriarch of Antioch in 1979 and served until 2012.

Without the Holy Spirit:

God is far away,

Christ stays in the past,

The Gospel is a dead letter,

The Church is simply an organization,

Authority a matter of domination,

Mission a matter of propaganda,

Liturgy is no more than an evocation,

Christian living a slave morality.

But with the Holy Spirit:

The cosmos is resurrected and groans with the birth-pangs of the Kingdom,

The risen Christ is there,

The Gospel is the power of life,

The Church shows forth the life of the Trinity,

Authority is a liberating service,

Mission is a Pentecost,

The liturgy is both memorial and anticipation,

Human action is deified.