Acquisire lo Spirito

L’azione dello Spirito Santo nella testimonianza di Serafim di Sarov

Abstract

The action of the Holy Spirit in the believer is examined in this paper through the testimony of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, as laid out in the Conversations with his disciple Motovilov. The holy Russian starec sees the acquisition of the Spirit as being the aim of the christian life. This study concentrates in particular on the spiritual “transfiguration” as narrated towards the end of the Conversations. However the exceptional nature of this event, which involves the same corporeality of the two main characters, must not obscure the ordinary way by which the Spirit is made manifest: living faith, discernment which leads to peace, the experience of forgiveness and the opening of ones mind to the holy Scriptures.