During his first visit to Athens, St. Paul found the streets and squares of the city filled with innumerable stone idols-images that had prompt ed Petronius to comment in a now famous satirical remark that "The gods walk abroad so commonly in our streets that it is easier to meet a god than a man." St. Paul's attention was attracted to an altar with the inscription: "To the unknown God." That altar provided an opportunity for his mag nificent speech in the Areopagus: "What therefore you worship, without knowing it, that I preach to you" (Acts 17:23).
Later, during a return visit to the city of Ephesus, the great Apostle found some disciples who had already embraced the Christian faith. "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" he asked them. "But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost" (Acts 19:1-2).
Incredible as it might seem after twenty centuries of Christianity, were St. Paul to ask the same question of a great many Christians today, he would receive an answer similar to the astonishing one of those first disciples of Ephesus. Even if the name of the Holy Ghost is familiar to them, the greater number of today's Christians know very little of Him. In view of this, we think it opportune to present the principal causes and the sad consequences of this regrettable forgetfulness of the adorable Person of the Holy Ghost.
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