Our Blessed Lord ordered the Apostles to go out to the uttermost parts of the earth – but not at once. First they had to stay in the city of Jerusalem until they were “…clothed with power from on high…” (RSV, Luke 24:49) and had received the Holy Spirit whom he promised to send them from the Father (John 15:26; 16:7).

In order therefore that the credit and the glory of spreading the Christian Faith and of turning sinners into Saints should be given to the Holy Spirit of God to whom it was due, his agents were people who were obviously incapable of doing all this themselves. God chose, said St Paul, the “foolish…weak… low and despised in the world…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (RSV, 1 Corinthians 1:27,28,29).

The Apostles were in no doubt therefore about the activity of the Holy Spirit both in themselves and in their converts. When Ananias lied to St Peter about the price for which he had sold some land and pretended that he was giving the whole amount into the Church funds, St Peter said, “…why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…?” “You have not lied to men but to God” (RSV, Acts 5:3,4).

So St Paul reminded his congregation at Corinth, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (RSV, 1 Corinthians 3:16).