Transmission of Tradition, the Sensus Fidelium, and the Holy Spirit

<p>The presence of the risen Christ is actualized by innumerable traditions. This chapter begins by setting out twelve traditions or groups of traditions that embody or at least allude to the <italic>Christus praesens</italic>: for instance, baptism, the creeds, the Eucharist, Christian marriage, sacred music, church architecture, and such items as the use of palm branches, incense, holy water, candles, icons and other works of religious art, and, not least, glorious copies of the Book of the Gospels like the Book of Kells. The transmitters of Christian tradition include not only bishops and councils but also innumerable individuals and groups who have handed on the treasures of faith: for instance, writers, artists, and saints, not least the thirty-six doctors of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the primary bearer of tradition, and underpins the ‘sense of the faithful’, the instinctive insight of the baptized into their inherited faith.</p>