Catechesis for Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
The Year of Saint Paul
Reading II
Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The way of faith
- The church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the soul, as it were, of the Mystical Body, the source of its life, of its unity in diversity, and of the riches of its gifts and charisms. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 809)
- The fruit of baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which we becomes adoptive children of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1279)
- The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 747)
To see how you might use one of these three points in your catechesis, see “How to lead a 90-minute catechetical session.”
Inscription on the font at the Lateran Basilica
Here is born a people of noble race, destined for Heaven,
whom the Spirit brings forth in the waters he has made fruitful.
Mother Church conceives her offspring by the breath of God,
and bears them virginally in this water.
Hope for the Kingdom of Heaven, you who are reborn in this font.
Eternal life does not await those who are only born once.
This is the spring of life that waters the whole world,
Taking its origin from the Wounds of Christ.
Sinner, to be purified, go down into the holy water.
It receives the unregenerate and brings him forth a new man.
If you wish to be made innocent, be cleansed in this pool,
whether you are weighed down by original sin or your own.
There is no barrier between those who are reborn and made one
by the one font, the one Spirit, and the one faith.
Let neither the number nor the kind of their sins terrify anyone;
Once reborn in this water, they will be holy.
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