The word "paraclete" is one of the few words in the New Testament that many translators simply reproduce in an English sounding word. It means something like "a person who stands alongside another." Comparable English words might be advocate, intercessor, counsellor, protector, support. In John's Gospel as Jesus bids his disciples farewell he says that he will send them "another paraclete" (14:16,) implying that he himself was the first paraclete. In meditating on the Holy Spirit and on Jesus, I find it rewarding to consider them in each of these roles in my life and in the life of the Church.
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