Man’s consciousness is the realm where God’s spirit can be experienced. It is endowed with being human. Conscience is the organ for perceiving the Holy Spirit. Every human being has the so-called inborn knowledge which s/he always takes for granted in him/ herself or others: I am absolutely obligated to the good. I constantly live under the strict demand to recognize and do the good and only the good. I am not totally fixed in my ways, not completely determined, but also free and responsible at the same time. I am constantly summoned by a word from above which I must respond to. Only in this way do I do justice to my responsibility. The right answer lies in my doing what is good, good for me, for others, for the world so that I become good thus raising the level of the good in humankind. In this manner, I have my utterly personal experience of the Holy Spirit, day by day, hour by hour.

But I also experience the working of the Holy Spirit in my personal environment and world- wide. Where people strive for the knowledge of the truth and good, where people are mindful of doing the good, especially where they must renounce their personal comfort, in extreme cases even their lives, that is where the working of the Holy Spirit and, thereby, the Holy Spirit itself come into the open. Where people pray and love sincerely, where they are honest and true, where in spite of adversity they do not become bitter and despair, where they give comfort and help, that is where the Holy Spirit is in action and can be experienced.

At one point in history, people had and still have an unbeatable Holy-Spirit-Experience: Jesus from Nazareth. Those that lived with earthly Jesus and opened up to him called him: Hebrew Messiah, Greek Christos, in German the Anointed: the one anointed by the Spirit of God, the one filled with the Spirit of God. In him they met the good as such, God. It became certain to them: if we live bonded to him and orientate our existence to him accordingly, then we reach the highest likelihood to become human and humane, to make the best of our life and to serve fellow humans in the best way possible.

“ (…) Wherever truly lived Christendom is experienced, even today the Holy Spirit is experienced as present and effective.” (Anton Schlembach)

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of peace, with its light and strength, may it lead all efforts to putting an end to the war in the Ukraine and Syria to success!

To you all a blessed feast of Pentecost!

Ortwin Gebauer

Translated from the German by York R. Buttler, Honorary Commander of the CBdSE Office Rhineland