Ray of Light: Father John Randall said, When the Holy Spirit is in the Church, he makes Jesus come alive in the Church.

RAY OF LIGHT: Father John F. Randall’s goal of illuminating the importance of the Holy Spirit in Catholics’ lives inspired him to write the book “No Spirit, No Church.” Father Randall said “When the Holy Spirit is in the Church, he makes Jesus come alive in the Church.”

Priest’s new book offers insight on Holy Spirit’s gifts
Posted May 21, 2009
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BY LAURA KILGUS, Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE, R. I. - Rhode Island Catholic Magazine

A new book written by Father John F. Randall offers theological and practical examination of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and aims to help people see the importance of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Father Randall, pastor emeritus at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Providence, explained that the title of his book, “No Spirit, No Church,” comes from his early experience hearing the phrase "the poor and forgotten Holy Spirit."

"We knew the Father and Jesus fairly well, but we were not that well acquainted with the Holy Spirit," Father Randall wrote in the preface. "In 1962, Blessed Pope John XXIII called the second Vatican Council on, as he said ‘an inspiration of the Holy Spirit.' He wanted to open the windows and let a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blow through the Church."
Father Randall said that the pope had delegated Western theologians to develop a first draft of “the Constitution on the Church.”

"When the Council opened, bishops from the East, who always had a living devotion to the Holy Spirit, read the draft and were horrified — there was little not mention of the Holy Spirit in it," said Father Randall "They said, 'No Spirit, no church!’ and rejected the document. Subsequently, the Council fathers came up with the new version giving the Holy Spirit his due — the beautiful ‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium.’”
Father Randall explained that “Lumen Gentium” paved the way for a "mass infusion" of the Holy Spirit into the life of the Catholic Church.
“Lumen Gentium” states that, “When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church, and thus, all those who believe would have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father.”

Father Randall began writing his book on the vigil of Pentecost three years ago, in 2006. He was recovering from hip replacement surgery and was watching EWTN when he saw Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square with 400,000 young people from different Holy Spirit movements.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, the Holy Spirit is at the heart of the Church.’"
Father Randall explained that his spirit "had fallen to the cellar," the next day, on Pentecost Sunday, when he did not hear or see a single reference to the Holy Spirit.

"My sister Mary, a Sister of St. Joseph, asked me, 'What are you going to do about it?’" Father Randall recalled. "I've seen what the Spirit can do and what happens when he is present and I have seen what happens when he is not present."
Father Randall says that his goal was not to write a book, but to give the Holy Spirit his due in the Church.

Ralph Martin, president of Renewal Ministries and the host of the weekly television program, “The Choices We Face,” said that he is grateful that Father Randall put a “lifetime of experience and wisdom into his new book.”
“It is truly a gift for the Church,” Martin said.

Father Randall expressed how pleased he was with how the book came out, released just in time for Pentecost — and as the well-known priest added — "in God's timing."
"The Holy Spirit makes things blossom and bloom," Father Randall said. "Where it is not, things die and wither. What the Holy Spirit does in the Church is the same thing he did to Mary. He implanted the Son of God into her womb so that Jesus come alive in her. When the Holy Spirit is in the Church, he makes Jesus come alive in the Church."
“No Spirit, No Church,” is available at all local Catholic bookstores in Rhode Island, as well as at the La Salette Shrine in North Attleboro, Mass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbsheBwT7YY