The Holy Spirit draws the hearts of men to faith in Jesus Christ through various ways of proclamation of the word. Those who are drawn to Christ thirst for the Holy Spirit who formed Jesus and glorified him.

This intense desire leads them to baptism. The Ethiopian eunuch is an example of this (Acts 8:26-40). The chief celebration of faith is Baptism. The outcome of receiving Baptism is the flow of the Holy Spirit into the believers. At the same time the doors of eternal life are opened to them. "In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory"(Eph 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit prepares the believer for the next life. On receiving Baptism the believers are anointed by the Holy Spirit in the likeness of Christ for the Father. As a result, they become people who search for the will of the Father-Son-Spirit and fulfil their mandate. Baptism is the glorious sacrament that casts off the old man and puts on Christ, the new man (Eph 4:22-24). Through this sacrament the believers are led from darkness to light; they enjoy the kingdom of God and become members of the mystical body of Christ. Pope John Paul II describes the greatness of this sacrament: "Baptism is a divine gift; an outpouring of God’s grace; an anointing for the holy and royal plan of God; it is the radiance of the divine flame; the immersion of humanity in divinity; the sealing of a divine act in humanity ." In short, Baptism is the new covenant and fellowship between the love of God and man. Through it believers become God’s own people and God becomes their own God. Three wonders take place in Baptism; in the first place, the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer; they become his temple. Secondly, Christ pitches his tent in them; they put on Christ. Thirdly, God the Father is pleased with the believers and dwells in them; they become his children. According to Christian faith, Baptism is a four-fold union, Father-Son-Spirit-man communion. As a result of this, divinity is glorified and humanity reaches maturity.
 
 

Yves Congar opines that Confirmation is the public declaration of the growth and maturity of the Christ - oriented life in the Holy Spirit begun in Baptism. Through this sacrament the sacramental renewal in the Spirit takes place. Moreover, it is the last stage that marks the laying of the foundation of Christian life. In other words, through confirmation the believers become the possessors and spokesmen of Christ’s royal priesthood and his prophetic role. Consequently, their duty of bearing witness to Christ through word and act, is increased. If Baptism is the entrance to the door of the Church, Confirmation marks the setting out for the establishment of the kingdom of God, with the donning of the armour of God, the belt of truth, and the breastplate of righteousness (Eph 6:10-17).

If Baptism is the sacrament that makes the believer fit to journey on the shores of the sea holding the torch of faith aloft, Confirmation strengthens him to launch forth into the deep water as witnesses of Christ. If Baptism is an unfolding in the Holy Spirit for Christ, Confirmation is a soaring up for Christ. The growth of faith, step by step, is expressed through Confirmation. Confirmation reveals the transit from the fellowship of Christ’s servants to the intimacy of friends, from the listening crowd to the proclaiming community of his disciples. In short, through Confirmation, believers become the brothers and sisters of Christ, the sons and daughters of the Father, the permanent friends of the Holy Spirit and the ideal members of the Church.
 
 

The Holy Spirit was preparing Jesus to be the eternal sacrificial victim. Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35) was anointed in the same Spirit (Lk 3:2-22) and was thus prepared for the fulfilment of his mandate. In other words, this anointing of the Holy Spirit made Jesus the eternal priest. That is, Jesus became both the sacrificial victim and the priest who offers the sacrifice. Jesus prophetically offered the sacrifice in the Cenacle by the Holy Spirit. In the power of the Spirit Jesus physically fulfilled the priestly ministry on Calvary. In the same Spirit he comes down and offers the sacrifice sacramentally on the altar.

The Spirit whom Jesus received, he gave as a gift to the children of the Church when he was glorified. The Spirit, who is the gift of Christ, inspires and enables the Church to actualise the ministerial sacrifice of his priesthood daily on the altar. The Holy Spirit helped the early Church to keep her eyes fixed on the sacrifice of Jesus and formulate the mysteries of the Holy Mass. He guided the Church to make it daily subject to the external media of sight, hearing and touch. The believers gather around the altar in the Spirit; the sacrifice begins in the Holy Spirit; the offering of the sacrifice takes place in the Spirit. In the Spirit the words of consecration are uttered and are actualised; in the Holy Spirit the invocation of the Spirit is made and is received by the Father. In short, the Holy Mass becomes a reality in the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Mass is the acme of Christ’s descent in the Spirit. Likewise, the Mass is the peak of the believer’s progress in the Spirit.

While the Father’s creative love is seen in the universe and the Son’s redeeming love in the Paschal mystery, the sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit is experienced in the sacraments, particularly in the Holy Mass. Sanctification is chiefly the function of the Holy Spirit. In the Mass, he cleanses the believers of all impurity and makes them pure. At the same time he sanctifies the bread and wine and makes them the body and blood of Christ. That is, the Holy Spirit acts in the Mass in two ways at the same time. If the first is for the coming of Christ, the other is to enable the believer to stand before Christ, receive him into his heart and adore him. Through the transformation the Spirit achieves in the gifts of offering, the glorified Christ becomes present and most accessible to the believers. The believers become the temples wherein dwells Christ. That is, through the sanctification that the Holy Spirit achieves through the Mass, the distance between heaven and earth is eliminated. They become one.

In Congarian terminology, if the presence of Christ in the Mass must become efficacious, the Holy Spirit should have given it his breath, his fire and his power. The Spirit who gave flesh to the Word in Mary, gives life to the bread and wine offered on the altar through the words of consceration. The Mass is the supreme celebration of the God-man Covenant made in Christ, though the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Mass is the sacramental, spiritual comprehensive and communicative worship in the Spirit for the great things God the Father has done for the human race through the "Word" that was in the beginning (Jn 1:1).

Thus the Holy Spirit actualises the presence of the glorified Christ in the Mass and also himself exists as the life and giver of life in the Mass. Through the activity of the Spirit, the Father -Son-Spirit -filled gifts assume a Trinitarian nature.

Consequently, the bread and wine are infused with life and become a life -giving heavenly reality. The heavenly essence becomes dissolved in all its perfection, in the material essence and the gifts of offering assume fullness of life. Those who receive them also come into fullness of life. Along with it the reality of the universe symbolically attains perfection.