On the Octave of Pentecost....
During the Mass for Trinity Sunday we get to hear a very rare instance of the Holy Spirit speaking and telling about "herself" and her relationship to the Father. ( And, yes, the Old Testament author referred to the "Wisdom of God" in the feminine -- sophia, in the Greek language. The words are from chapter 8 of the Book of Proverbs.
Most of the Book of Proverbs consists of maxims and sayings telling the Jewish people how to act and how to be good Jews. In chapter 8, the Spirit, under the title of the "wisdom of God", tells how important it is for people to seek Wisdom. But first, Wisdom in effect gives us her resume, her credentials. The words attributed to the Holy Spirit (Wisdom) harken back to the story of creation in the book of Genesis. They end with the statement that Wisdom even takes delight in the human race.
Here are the words from a different translation than the one heard at Mass.
The Wisdom of God wrote:
The LORD poured me forth at the beginning of his work. I am the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was poured out, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was poured forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was poured forth-- when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first clods of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, playing before him always, playing in his inhabited world and taking delight in the human race. (Pro 8:22-31)
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