The Holy Spirit “moves the Church”, but for many Christians today He is a stranger, or even a “royal prisoner”. This is what Pope Francis said in his homily at today’s mass at Santa Marta. The Holy Spirit does not make us “virtual Christians” but “real” Christians, the Pope said, also addressing a special thought during Mass to the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul who serve at Santa Marta, on the feast day of their foundress, Saint Louise de Marillac. “It is the Holy Spirit who moves the Church, who works in the Church, in our hearts; it is He who makes each Christian different and unique, whilst making all one”, the Pope explained. “It is the Spirit who leads us forward, opening doors, and encouraging us to bear witness to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is in us and teaches us to turn to the Father saying: ‘Father’. It is He who frees us from that condition of orphans to which the spirit of the world wants to lead us”. The Holy Spirit, he continued, is the “main actor in the living Church: it is He who works in the Church!”. However, he warned, “when we do not experience this, when we do not live up to the mission of the Holy Spirit”, we run the risk of “reducing the faith to moralism, to ethical principles”. Indeed, the Christian life is not a “code of ethics: it is an encounter with Jesus Christ”. But we, “in our lives, keep the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a royal prisoner: we do not let Him guide us, we do not let Him move us”, Pope Francis said, adding that there is only one thing the Holy Spirit cannot do: “He cannot make armchair Christians! He cannot make ‘virtual Christians’! He can only make virtuous Christians! He makes real Christians!”. So “let us think of the Spirit and talk to Him” in this week before Pentecost.