Jun 9 Fri
When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.

When the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon Him. Thus, the Holy Spirit became accustomed to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit gave them new life in Christ.

The Holy Spirit was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we, who were once like a waterless tree, could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

  If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need a defender as well. And so, the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, bound up his wounds. He then left for his care two coins, each bearing the royal image, entrusting him to the Holy Spirit. Likewise, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coins committed to our charge and make them yield a rich profit for the Lord.
From the treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus