THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE reminder of two things: (i) that matter and spirit are not eternally at enmity, but that matter may be the vehicle of spirit — a truth taught at its very highest in the fact of the Incarnation itself, when God took to Himself a human body and made it as His own;* (2) that the Supernatural Life does not abolish the natural life and take its place, but enters into the natural life and supernaturalizes it. Here then is man: a member of Christ’s Mystical Body by baptism, open to the inpouring of the Supernatural Life. THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST But there is another great truth about man’s membership of the Mystical Body. Our Lord, while constantly speaking of Himself, as the Life, also speaks of the Holy Ghost whom He is to send, and associates Him most intimately with the continuing work of man’s salvation. St. Paul speaks almost interchangeably of life in Christ and life in the Holy Spirit. When Christ promised to live in us, something more was involved than our sharing * This consecration of matter, seen in the Incarnation and in the Church’s Sacraments, is carried to its furthest conclusion in the Church^^^pt^tice with regard tp-v^at is called Sacramental^ These riuidikejhe Sacramento, areynotyinstituted by Our LorcC^ut by“The^ Yet they follow ff5m Our Lord’s own practice. As He blessed bread before He ate it, so the Church blesses the material things man uses in his daily life: and further attaches her blessing to material things (as in Holy Water) and material actions (as in the sign of the Gross) which man may use in his prayer. In all these cases material things are brought into the full stream of the Church’s prayer and so into a special relationship with God.