Through the lens of the Gospels of Matthew and John Shannon explains differences in our experience of church as related to the Holy Spirit. "Matthean ecclesiology makes for stability, but with a tendency toward rigidity; Johannine ecclesiology is much more flexible, but easily leads to instability and lack of harmony," Shannon writes. "The ideal would be to combine the two, and it is the genius of the Church Catholic that it accepted into its canon of scripture, not Matthew alone, not John alone, but both Matthew and John. For this we can be grateful."