Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year

[Stone]

182. WAITING
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION

PRESENCE OF GOD - Grant Lord, that my heart may ever be turned toward heaven where You await me.


MEDITATION


1. This Sunday is like a prolongation of the Feast of the Ascension. The Introit reflects the feelings which the Apostles must have experienced during the time between the departure of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit: “Hear, O Lord, my voice calling to You.... I seek Your face, O Lord, do not hide Your face from me.” As on the day of the Ascension, the eyes of the Apostles are turned toward heaven, where they saw their Master disappear, and their hearts sigh after Him. As long as we are on our earthly pilgrimage, far from God, He must be the constant yearning of our souls. But we should not remain idle while we are waiting to go to our fatherland. In the Epistle of the day (1 Pt 4,7-11), Peter teaches us what we must do to make our life on earth a real preparation for our meeting with God: “Watch in prayers. But before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves.” ‘This is exactly what the Apostles did as they waited for the Holy Spirit: together in the Cenacle they were persevering in prayer in the unity of fraternal love. God does not look with favor on the prayers and sacrifices of one who does not love his neighbor—no matter who he may be—with  sincere benevolence. Jesus has expressly said: “If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee; leave there thy offering. ..and go first to be reconciled to thy brother” (Mt 5,23.24). Prayer alone will not suffice to draw down divine graces, nor will it acquire eternal life for us. Fraternal charity, the surest pledge of the sincerity of our love for God,
is an absolute requisite.

The Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of charity, who is substantial love, cannot enter a heart which is narrow and mean in its relations with its neighbor; lack of charity is one of the greatest obstacles to His action, because it is directly opposed to His essence. Just as water paralyzes the action of fire, so does lack of charity paralyze the action of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, as long as we live on earth, we are all liable to fall; all of us, therefore, need Pardon, “charity,” says the Epistle, “covers a multitude of sins.


2. In today’s Gospel (Jn 15,26.27 — 16,1-4) Jesus reiterates His promise concerning the descent of the Holy Spirit: “When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father...you shall give testimony [of Me].” As on the day of His Ascension, He connects the coming of the Holy Spirit with the mission of the Apostles, that mission which will consist essentially in giving testimony of Christ. “ You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit...and you shall be witnesses unto Me...even to the uttermost part of the earth” (Ep : Feast of the Ascension). Today’s Gospel explains the scope of this testimony which the Apostles, as well as all future Christians, will be called upon to give. “They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God.” Jesus died on the Cross to give testimony to the Father; His disciples will have to suffer, undergo persecution, and even death itself, to give testimony to Him.


We cannot follow a road different from the one which Jesus has trodden: “If any man will come after Me, let him... take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16,24), He repeats to us. A calm, tranquil testimony, which is made without facing danger—still less of risking life—will always have only relative value and ordinarily gives no guarantee of its genuineness or its strength; on the contrary, the more it costs, the greater its value in proving the fidelity of him who renders it. To witness to Christ, without regarding the difficulties, sufferings or struggles that may be encountered, is the program of the true Christian. But who will give us courage? To us as to the Apostles, courage will come from the Holy Spirit, from His gift of fortitude; it will come from assiduous meditation on the example which Christ has given us; it will also come from His own words, spoken of coming persecutions : “ I have told you these things, that you may not be scandalized in Me.”


COLLOQUY

O Lord, make me worthy to give testimony of You, not only in words, but especially in deeds, in spite of the difficulties and sufferings I may encounter. The Apostles gave testimony of You to the extent of facing death for love of You; grant that I may give testimony of You at least by a life worthy of You.

To give testimony of You, O Lord, “I would travel the world over to preach Your name, O my Beloved, and raise on heathen soil the glorious standard of the Cross! One mission alone would not satisfy my longings. I would spread the Gospel in all parts of the world, even in the farthest isles. I would be a missionary, but not for a few years only. Were it possible, I should wish to have been one from the world’s creation and to remain one till the end of time. But the greatest of all my desires is to win the martyr’s palm....

“When I think of the fearful torments awaiting Christians at the time of Antichrist, my heart thrills within me and I wish that these torments could be reserved for me. Open, O Jesus, the book of life in which are written the deeds of all Your saints; each one of those deeds I long to accomplish for You.... Great deeds are forbidden me; I can neither preach the Gospel nor shed my blood...but what does it matter? My brothers labor in my stead while...I remain close to the throne and love You for all those who are in the strife” (cf. T.C.J. St, 13).

Yes, O Lord, grant me a true love, so that I may always be faithful to You in little things, since it is not given me to perform great ones. Grant especially that I may always give You the testimony of a sincere profession of faith, of behavior which is wholly conformed to Your law, no matter where or in what circumstance I may be, never letting myself deviate through human respect.

183. MARYS PRAYER

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, faithful adorer of God, show me how to make my life a continual prayer.


MEDITATION

1. In order to have even a slight understanding of Mary’s prayer, we must try to penetrate the sanctuary of her intimate union with God. No one has ever lived in closer intimacy with Him. Let us reverently observe this intimacy from the viewpoint of the divine maternity. Who can imagine the secret communications between Mary and the Incarnate Word while she carried Him in her virginal womb? Although there was nothing to distinguish her exteriorly from other women in the same condition, yet, in the secrecy of her heart she led a life of the closest possible union between God and a mere creature. “Omnis gloria ejus ab intus”; all her glory is from within (cf. Ps 44,14).

All Mary’s glory and grandeur were interior. In this true sanctuary which concealed the Holy of Holies, Mary, living ciborium of the Incarnate Word, was aflame with love, absorbed in adoration. Carrying within her the “ burning furnace of charity, ” how could Mary not remain all inflamed by it! The more she was inflamed with love, the more she understood the mystery of love which was taking place within her. No one ever penetrated the secrets of Christ’s heart as Mary did, or had a greater knowledge of the divinity of Christ and of His infinite grandeur. No one ever felt, as Mary did, the consuming need to give herself to Him, to lose herself in Him like a little drop in the immensity of the ocean. This was Mary’s unceasing prayer: to adore perpetually the Word made Flesh within her; to unite herself closely with Christ; to be immersed in Him and completely transformed in Him by love; to join the infinite homage and praise which ascended continually from the heart of Christ to the Trinity, and to offer this praise unceasingly as the only homage worthy of the divine Majesty. Mary lived in adoration of her Jesus and, in union with Him, in adoration of the Trinity.

There is one moment in the day when we, too, can share in this prayer of Mary in a most excellent way: the moment of Holy Communion, when we receive Jesus, real and living, into our heart. How we need Mary to help us profit from this ineffable gift! She teaches us to submerge ourselves with her, in her and our Jesus, that we may be transformed in Him; she teaches us to unite ourselves to that adoration which ascends from the heart of Jesus to the Trinity, and she offers it with us to the Father, thus supplying for the deficiencies in our adoration.


2. Mary spent thirty years in Bethlehem and Nazareth in sweet family intimacy with Jesus. He was her center of attraction, the object of her affections, her thoughts and solicitude. The life of Mary was centered on Him; she took care of Him, always seeking new ways of pleasing, serving, and loving Him with the greatest devotion. Her will vibrated in unison with His; her heart beat in perfect harmony with His. She “shared the thoughts of Christ and His secret wishes, in such a way that it can be said that she lived the very life of her Son” (Pius X : Ad Diem Illum). Like Mary’s life, her prayer was ever Christocentric, and Christ bore it to the Blessed Trinity. It was really the mystery of the Incarnation which brought Mary into the fullness of the Trinitarian life. Her unique relations with the three divine Persons began when the Angel told her that she was to be the Mother of the Son of the Most High and would be so by the power of the Holy Spirit. She was, from that moment, the beloved Daughter of the Father, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of the Word. These relations were not limited to the time when Mary carried within her the Incarnate Word, but were to continue throughout her whole life, throughout eternity. Thus Mary is the temple of the Trinity. “ Nearer than all to Jesus Christ, although at a distance that is infinite,” Mary is, “the great ‘praise of glory’ of the Blessed Trinity” (E.T. M, 15).

In Mary, we find the most perfect model for the souls aspiring to intimacy with God; at the same time, she is the surest guide for them. She leads us to Jesus and teaches us to concentrate all our affections on Him, to give ourselves entirely to Him, until we are completely lost and transformed in Him. Then, through Jesus, she guides us to the life of union with the Trinity. By reason of sanctifying grace, our soul is also a temple of the Trinity, and Mary teaches us how to abide in this temple as a perpetual adorer of the three divine Persons who dwell therein. “I do not need to make any effort,” said Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, “to enter into the mystery of the divine indwelling in the soul of our Lady; my soul seems to abide there habitually, in the same attitude that was hers : adoring the God hidden within me” (L). May it also be given to us to live, under Mary’s direction, in this attitude of continual adoration of the Trinity dwelling within our soul.


COLLOQUY

“O Mary, I can imagine how you must have felt when, after the Incarnation, you had within you the Word made flesh, the Gift of God! In what silence, what adoring recollection, must you have withdrawn into the depths of your soul to embrace the God whose Mother you were! Your attitude, O Blessed Virgin, during the months preceding the Nativity of Jesus, seems to be the model for interior souls, for those whom God has chosen to live within, deep in the unfathomable abyss. What peace and recollection accompanied your every action! You made ordinary things divine, because through them all, you remained the adorer of the Gift of God” (cf. E.T. L~J, 10).

“O Mary, you are the throne of God, the ostensorium of His love. You are the living monstrance of Jesus, and when I adore Jesus within you, it is as if I am really adoring the Blessed Sacrament exposed, adoratio in ostensorio, adoration in the monstrance. O Mary, all theology confirms your beautiful title: Ostensorium of Christ! Ostensorium of Christ at Bethlehem, at the Presentation, at Cana, on the Cross, in the Eucharist, in heaven. Yes, even in heaven. Do we not say  ‘After this our exile show us (ostende) Jesus, the blessed Fruit of your womb?’... O Mary, teach me to see and love Jesus as you see and love Him. Teach me to long for Him with your love, to give myself to Him, to be wholly His as you are, and to adore Him with your own sentiments. O sweet Mother, teach me how to find Jesus and to pray to Him; fill me with Jesus, transform me into Him. O Mary, show me how to contemplate the life, the work and the divinity of your Son. Be the way which leads me to Jesus, the bond which unites me to Him, and which, with Him and in Him, unites me to the Most Blessed Trinity ” (cf. E. Poppe).

184. MARY’S APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, Queen of Apostles, obtain for me the heart of an apostle.


MEDITATION

1. Mary is, at the same time, the model of both contemplative and apostolic souls. Furthermore, by combining in herself the highest contemplative life with the highest apostolic life, she teaches us that contemplation and the apostolate, far from being opposed to each other, complement, support, and maintain each other. When the contemplative life—considered as an assiduous seeking after union with God—is really fervent, it cannot fail to enkindle in the soul the burning fire of the apostolate. One who has experienced, in an intimate contact with God, the ineffable reality of His love for men, cannot fail to burn with the desire to win all to that love.

So it was with the Blessed Virgin, but in the most sublime way. Having enjoyed and penetrated God’s love, and being more on fire with it than any other creature, Mary desired more than anyone else to bring all mankind to God. Indeed, no one has collaborated more with Christ in saving the human race. Hers was an intimate and profound collaboration, for by her blood, she supplied the Son of God with the humanity which made it possible for Him, the eternal Word, to become one of us, and to suffer and die for us on the Cross. Mary’s collaboration was of the highest value, since she was willingly, knowingly the Mother of the Savior. She gave her consent, knowing well from the Sacred Scriptures that the Messiah was to be the Man of Sorrows, immolated for the redemption of the world. By consenting to become His Mother, she thereby consented to link her fate with His and share in all His sufferings. To give a Redeemer to the world, to be willing to see her beloved Son die in torment, was Mary’s sublime apostolate, born of her immense love of God.

The greater the love for God, the greater and more effective the apostolate which is derived from it. The reverse is equally true. Every apostolic work which is not animated by charity is nothing. “If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor,” says St. Paul, “and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing ” (1 Cor 13,3).


2. Intimately associated with the redemptive work of Jesus, Mary accomplished a universal, apostolic mission for the benefit of all mankind. Her apostolate, however, was a quiet one, free from ostentation; it was accomplished in the most humble, hidden and silent way. Mary gave the Redeemer to the world, but in the dark of night, in a poor stable. She shared the whole life of Jesus, but in the obscurity of the little house at Nazareth where she performed the lowly household tasks, amidst the difficulties and sacrifices of a life abounding in unusually toilsome and trying conditions. Even when Jesus, during the three years of His apostolic life, appeared publicly to accomplish the mission entrusted to Him by His Father, Mary remained in obscurity, although she followed Him and took part in all that happened. She never appeared when her Son was teaching the multitude, nor did she take advantage of her maternal authority to approach Him. On one occasion, when she sought to speak to Him while He was teaching the people in a house, she humbly waited outside (cf. Mt 12,46). Mary’s apostolate was wholly interior, an apostolate of prayer and, above all, of hidden sacrifice, by means of which she adhered with great love to the will of God. He would ask her to separate herself from her Son after thirty years spent in sweet intimacy with Him, to withdraw apart, as if to leave to the Apostles and the crowd the place near Jesus which belonged to her as His Mother. Thus in obscurity and silence, Mary shared in the apostolate and sufferings of her Son: Jesus had no sorrow which Mary did not feel and live over again within herself. Her greatest sacrifice consisted in seeing Him, her beloved Son, persecuted, hated, condemned to death, and finally crucified on Calvary.

Her mother’s heart felt the profound bitterness of all this, but at the same time she accepted everything for love, and offered it all for the salvation of souls. It was precisely through her hidden immolation, animated by pure love, that Mary reached the uttermost heights of the apostolate. "A little pure love,” says Saint John of the Cross, “is more precious in the eyes of God...and of more value to the Church. ..than all other works put together (SC, 29,2). Mary shows us how far we are from the truth when, pressed by the urgency of our works, we make our apostolate consist solely in exterior activity, underestimating the interior apostolate of love, prayer, and sacrifice, on which the fruitfulness of our exterior acts depends.


COLLOQUY

“O Mary, you are our life, our sweetness, and our hope! ‘You alone have taken away the world’s universal guilt, for you alone gave birth to the Savior. You are the Mother of mercy, the Mother who washes away the stains of our sins. You pacified us when we cried in our cradle, you fed us and carried us in your arms. You are not only our Mother, but you also want to be the remedy for all our ills....

“Tn addition, O Mary, you became for us a sea of bitterness because of the pity you felt for your crucified Son and for all men.... Why, O Mary, have you loved us so much? Why do you overwhelm us with your love? Why do you overwhelm us with our God? Why, I ask, do you inebriate us with love for your Son, while we are unable to repay you in any way? What benefit is it to you, O lover of souls, if we love you, as well as your Son, with great love? Are not the things of heaven enough for you? Why do you seek earthly hearts, which are soiled and fetid? Take us, huntress of souls, take us and gather us into the bosom of your grace. Who can escape the rays of your goodness? No one can avoid the fire of your love, for heaven and earth are full of your favors...always and everywhere you lay the snares of your kindness. We cannot flee very far from you, O most sweet Mother, but we rest always in the bosom of your kindness” (cf. Saint Bonaventure).

“Q Mary, you are more mother than queen! When I meditate upon your life, as the Gospel presents it to me, so humble and simple, I do not fear to approach you. I see you living in poverty and obscurity, with no transports or ecstasies, no splendid miracles or brilliant deeds. You show me that I, too, can follow your steps and climb the rough road of sanctity by practicing the hidden virtues. Close to you, O Mary, I like to remain little, and I get a better view there of the vanity of human greatness” (cf. T.C.J. NV — Poems).

O Mary, you gave Jesus to the world in silence and retirement; unnoticed, you shared His whole life, His works, His Passion. Teach me the secret of the interior apostolate of prayer and hidden sacrifices, known to God alone.

185. MARY OUR MEDIATRIX

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, since Jesus willed to come to us through you, grant that I may go to Him through you.


MEDITATION

1. The Church teaches us to invoke Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. This title summarizes what the Blessed Virgin is for us, in our relations with her beloved Son: the Mediatrix of grace, of mercy, the treasurer of all the graces which Jesus merited for us. “By the communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary,” says St. Pius X, “she merited to become the dispenser of all th benefits which Jesus acquired for us by shedding His Blood” (Encyclical: Ad Diem Illum). Mary, who was associated in the closest and most intimate way with the life, the work, and the Passion of her Son, cooperated with Him in our redemption to such an extent that the grace, which Jesus alone could merit for us condignly, was merited also by Mary, although in a secondary way and by congruity only. Thus Mary obtained real power over all the supernatural treasures acquired by her Son; and since she obtained them together with Him, she also distributes them to us with Him. Leo XIII says, “It may be affirmed that, according to God’s will, nothing comes to us without going through Mary’s hands. Just as no one can approach the Almighty Father except through the Son, so no one can approach Christ except through His Mother” (Encyclical: Octobri Mense).

After Jesus, who is the only Mediator, Mary is the Mediatrix: as Jesus continually intercedes with the Father in heaven on our behalf, so Mary intercedes with Jesus for us; she obtains and dispenses to us all the graces we need. The Introit of the Mass for the Feast of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces very fittingly applies to Mary the words spoken by St. Paul about Jesus: “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, to obtain mercy and pardon.” Next to Jesus, Mary is really the “throne of grace,” and she can obtain everything for us from her Son. She is the omnipotentia supplex, the all-powerful intercessor: all-powerful in her prayer as Mother.


2. Mary is the Mediatrix between her Son and us for a twofold reason: she gives Jesus to us and she brings us to Him. The Gospel tells us this several times, showing us the typically maternal attitude of Mary as she brought Jesus to mankind. Our Lady offered the Infant Jesus to the adoration of the shepherds and the Wise Men; she took Him to the Temple and presented Him to Simeon; by her intercession at Cana, she obtained the first miracle from her Son. On Calvary, Mary received into her arms the martyred, lifeless Body of her beloved Son, whom she offered to mankind as the price of its redemption. In the Cenacle, she begged the plenitude of the Holy Spirit for the Apostles and, from that day to the day of her Assumption, she sustained the infant Church by her prayers and maternal encouragement. To find Mary is to find Jesus. This is the whole reason for her existence and her mission: to give Jesus to the world and to souls, and with Jesus, to give His grace and blessings. As St. Bernard says, Mary is truly the channel which carries the living water of grace to mankind; furthermore, she brings Jesus, the very source of grace.

As Mediatrix, Mary also leads men to Jesus by teaching them the way to her Son and by showing them how to please Him. We are always poor little children incapable of making presentable gifts to God, but Mary our Mother, with maternal delicacy, arranges and embellishes our gifts, our acts, our prayers and sacrifices, and offers them with her own hands to her divine Son. She, like a true mother, gives particular attention to our hearts, which she desires to make pleasing to Jesus: Mary wants to form in each one of us a heart which is pure, full of love and goodness, a heart which can beat in unison with the heart of her Son. Let us then, place our hearts in Mary’s hands, that she may fill them “with grace and truth, life and virtue” (RM).


COLLOQUY

“O Blessed Lady, most holy Mother of God, full of grace, inexhaustible ocean of the intimate divine liberality and gifts of God, after the Lord of all, the Blessed Trinity, you are Lady of all; after the Paraclete, you are the new Consoler of all; and after the Mediator, you are the Mediatrix for the entire world. Behold my faith and my desire inspired by heaven; do not despise me although unworthy, neither let the ugliness of my sins suspend the immensity of your mercy, O Mother of God, O name which surpasses all my desire!” (St. Ephraem of Syria).

“O Mary, God has given you the plenitude of all His benefits, to show us that all hope, all grace, all salvation come from your superabundance. Grant, therefore, O Mary, you who have found grace and have given us life, that through you we may approach your divine Son, O Blessed Mother of Salvation! Grant that through you we may receive Him who was given to us through you. Let your spotless purity excuse before His eyes the faults of our malice. May your humility, so pleasing to God, obtain pardon for our pride! May your immense charity cover the multitude of our sins, and may your glorious fruitfulness make our good works fruitful!

“O Lady, our Mediatrix and our advocate, reconcile us with your Son, recommend us to your Son, present us to your Son! You are blessed by the grace you have found, by the privileges you have merited, by the mercy you have brought to the world. Obtain for us that Jesus, who through you deigned to share our infirmity and our wretchedness, may grant us also through you a share in His glory and in His beatitude ” (St. Bernard).

186. THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, teach me to know You, to want You, to love You, and to prepare myself to second Your action in my soul.


MEDITATION

1. The approach of Pentecost reminds us to turn our mind and heart to the Holy Spirit; with His help, we want to know Him better so as to love Him more ardently, invoke Him more fervently, and dispose ourselves in the best manner possible for the furtherance of His action in our soul.

The catechism teaches us that there are three Persons, equal and distinct, in God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ab aeterno the Father, knowing Himself, generates His Word, the perfect, substantial Idea in whom the Father is expressed and to whom He communicates all His goodness, lovableness, divine nature and essence. The Father and the Word, mutually beholding Their infinite goodness and beauty, love each other from all eternity, and the expression of this unitive love is a third Person, the Holy Spirit. As the Word is generated by the Father by way of knowledge, so the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love.

The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the terminus, and the effusion of the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, an effusion so substantial and perfect that it is a Person, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, to whom the Father and the Son, by the sublime fruitfulness of their love, communicate their very own nature and essence, without losing any of it Themselves. Because the Holy Spirit is the effusion of divine love, He is called “Spirit,” according to the Latin sense of the word which means air, respiration, the vital breath. In us, respiration is a sign of life; in God, the Holy Spirit is the expression, the effusion of the life and love of the Father and the Son, but a substantial personal effusion, which is a Person. It is in this sense that the third Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the “ Spirit of the Father and the Son,” and also “the Spirit of love in God,” that is, the “breath” of love of the Father and the Son, the “breath” of divine love. It was in this sense that the Fathers of the Church called the Holy Spirit “osculum Patris et Fili,” the kiss of the Father and the Son, a “sweet, but secret kiss,” according to the tender expression of St. Bernard. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, so that He may come to enkindle in our hearts the flame of charity.


2. According to our human concept, a person is a being who is complete and distinct from other beings; a subsistent being, existing by itself; an intelligent being, free and capable of willing; and an affectionate being, capable of loving. All this is verified in the Holy Spirit in the most perfect manner: He, the breath of love of the Father and the Son, is a Person, and a divine Person. He is a complete being. He is God,
and wholly God, not a part of God; although absolutely equal to the other two divine Persons, He is distinct from them; He is subsistent in Himself, knowing and loving. Because the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, we can have relations with Him just as we do with the Father and the Son. The Church invites us to do so proposing to us many beautiful invocations to the Holy Spirit, especially in the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, in which she mentions all the titles by which the divine Paraclete can be addressed with confidence. The hymn
begins by calling the Holy Spirit “Creator Spirit,” reminding us that He, together with the Father and the Son, is one only God, our Creator.

Then, she invokes Him as our Sanctifier, that is, as the One who diffuses grace in our souls: Imple superna gratia, quae tu creasti pectora, fill with heavenly grace the souls which You have created. Although all the external acts of God—such as creation, sanctification of souls, redemptions—are common to the three divine Persons, “by a certain relation and, as it were, an affinity which exists between the exterior works and the character proper to each Person, these works are attributed to one Person rather than to another” (Divinum Illud). Thus the work of sanctification, which is a work of love, is especially attributed to the Holy Spirit, who is the breath of divine love. Leo XIII teaches: “The Holy Spirit gives a sweet, strong impulse, and puts, so to speak, the final touch to the noble work of our eternal predestination” (ibid.). Under this special aspect of Sanctifier, then, the Church urges us to invoke the Holy Spirit. Altissimi donum Det, fons vivus, ignis, caritas et spiritalis unctio, gift of the Most High God, gift given to our souls to lead them to sanctity; living fount of grace, fire, divine love, spiritual sweetness. And again: Septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae, dispenser of the seven gifts by which He makes our spiritual life perfect, finger of the right hand of the Father which indicates to us the road to sanctity. With what
joy, love, and desire we should invoke the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier!


COLLOQUY

“O marvelous union in heaven, marvelous on earth, marvelous and most secret, perfect bond of the divine nature, by which the Holy Spirit, the bond of love, in an ineffable manner, unites the divine Persons! Oh, how He unites in perfect unity the Holy Trinity: unity of essence, of substance, and of love! You, O Holy Spirit, are its sweet bond! O divine Spirit, with the same bond by which You join and bind eternally the Father and Son in perfect union, You also unite the soul with God, in a way similar to that divine union. You do so by freeing its faculties so perfectly that because of its close union with God, it neither wishes nor is able to wish, to recall, know, or desire anything but divine charity. Oh! how happy would the soul be, if, like the blessed in heaven, it could nevermore be freed from such a close and blessed bond!

“O Holy Spirit, You come to us by a loving operation of grace... like an overflowing fountain in the soul, wherein the soul is submerged. As two rivers join and unite their waters so that the smaller one loses its name and takes that of the larger, so do You, O divine Spirit, come into the soul to unite Yourself to it. But it is necessary that the soul, which is the lesser, lose its name and leave it to You, O Holy Spirit, that it may be transformed in You, so as to become one spirit with You.

“Holy Spirit, I see You coming down into the soul like the sun which, finding no obstacle, no impediment, illumines everything; I see You descending like a fiery thunderbolt which, in falling, goes to the lowest place it finds and there it reposes, never stopping on the way nor resting on the mountainous or high places but rather in the center of the earth. Thus You, O Holy Spirit, when You come down from heaven with the fiery dart of Your divine love, You do not repose in proud hearts or in arrogant spirits, but You make Your abode in souls that are humble and contemptible in their own eyes” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

187. THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, You who had complete dominion over the holy soul of Jesus, deign to direct my poor soul.


MEDITATION

1. In Sacred Scripture, the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ ” (Rom 8,9), an expression that is pregnant with meaning. Christ is the Incarnate Word. Although He became Man, He remains the Word, the Son of God. From Him, as from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds; therefore, the Holy Spirit is properly termed the Spirit of Christ, because the Person of Christ is none other than that of the Word. When we speak of Christ, however, we do not speak of Him as God only, but also, and especially, as Man, that is, as the Incarnate Word. In this sense too, it can be said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.

We know, in fact, that the divine Paraclete, with the Father and the Son, dwells in every soul that is in the state of grace, and not only does He dwell there, but He delights to abide there. The higher the degree of grace He finds in a soul, the greater is His delight, for wherever grace is more abundant, there is a more intense and luminous reflection of God’s nature and goodness. This is why the Holy Spirit took such great
complacency in the soul of the Blessed Virgin, who, although she was full of grace, continually grew from plenitude to plenitude. Yet the grace possessed by Mary was but a pale reflection of the grace which filled the soul of Jesus, grace which theologians call “infinite.”

If, then, Jesus possessed grace in an infinite manner, it can be said that the Holy Spirit took complacency in the soul of Christ in an infinite manner and dwelt there as in His temple of predilection. This idea is expressed in the Encyclical Mystici Corporis, when it says that the divine Paraclete “finds His delight in dwelling in the soul of the Redeemer as in His favorite temple.” And if we can say that the Holy Spirit is ours because He dwells in our souls sanctified by grace, with infinitely greater reason can we say that He is “ Christ’s,” whose sacred soul possesses grace in an immeasurable degree.


2. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and dwells in Him as in His chosen temple. The Holy Spirit is in the soul of Christ to bear it continually to God, to direct it in the accomplishment of its redemptive mission and to the fulfillment of the will of the heavenly Father. We see this in the Gospel where St. Luke, after describing Jesus’ baptism, when the Holy Spirit “descended in a bodily shape, as a dove, upon Him” (3,22), adds: “ Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert” (4,1). This is an explicit statement of the immeasurable plenitude with which the Holy Spirit dwelt in the soul of Jesus; without doubt, this plenitude existed from the first moment of the Savior’s life, but God wished to make it sensibly manifest at the time of His baptism.

It is also a striking example of the unceasing operation of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ soul, inspiring all His actions and guiding Him to the accomplishment of His redemptive mission. According to St. Paul: “By the Holy Ghost, [Christ] offered Himself unspotted unto God” (Heb 9,14). If we wish a more profound understanding of this mysterious action of the divine Paraclete in the sacred soul of Jesus, it will suffice to think of what He accomplishes in a soul who has reached the transformation of love. St. John of the Cross teaches that, in this very exalted state, the Holy Spirit invades the soul, henceforth totally docile to His motions; He directs it and moves it in all its acts, impelling it unceasingly toward God by a perfect adherence to His divine will. The Holy Spirit accomplished immeasurably more in the soul of Christ which was supremely capable of docility and correspondence to His inspirations. The divine Spirit encountered the sublime creature, the soul of Jesus; He invaded it, directed it, guided it in the accomplishment of its mission and brought it to God with unparalleled transports, because it was completely under His sway.


COLLOQUY

“O Holy Spirit, only Your clemency and ineffable love could have held the Son of God nailed to the wood of the Cross, for neither nails nor cords would have been able to hold Him there without the bonds of love. And then, when Christ returned to His Father at His Ascension, You, O Holy Spirit, were sent into the world with the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, and Your own mercy, to strengthen the way of the doctrine which Christ left in the world.... O Holy Spirit, come into my heart; by Your power, draw it to You, true God; grant me charity with fear, guard me from every evil thought, warm me, inflame me with Your most sweet love, so that every pain will seem slight tome. O Holy Father and my sweet Lord, help me now in all my actions" (St. Catherine of Siena).

“O Jesus, I offer You my poor love, placing it in the arms of Your ardent Spirit, in the furnace enkindled by Your love. O my Beloved, by Your divine power prepare me for spiritual warfare with the weapons of Your Spirit, since I do not rely upon myself, but on Your goodness alone. By Your unfathomable charity, root out of me anything that is not wholly Yours, so that, by the grace of Your love, invited and restored by Your loving sweetness, I may love You alone. The sweet outpourings of Your Spirit make the burden of life seem brief and light. Deign to cooperate with my works, so that my soul may magnify You eternally. May my life be consecrated to You, and may my spirit rejoice in You, my Savior; then every thought and act will be praise and thanksgiving to You” (St. Gertrude).

O Holy Spirit, You who worked with such plenitude in the most holy soul of Jesus, deign to operate also in my poor soul and take it entirely under Your direction, so that every act, interior as well as exterior, may be according to Your inspirations, Your choice, Your good pleasure.

188. SWEET GUEST OF THE SOUL

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, You who deign to dwell in me, help me to open my soul completely to Your action.


MEDITATION

1. The Encyclical Mystici Corporis states that “the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church.” Because soul means “principle of life,” this statement equivalently says that the divine Paraclete is the One who gives life to the Church. As the soul is the principle of life in the body, so the Holy Spirit is the principle of life in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. Divinum Illud).

We have seen that the Holy Spirit was in Christ’s soul to direct Him in the accomplishment of His redemptive mission. Jesus could have carried out this mission alone, but He wished the Church to participate in it. Since the Church continues Christ’s work, she needs the same impetus which guided His soul; she needs the Holy Spirit. Jesus merited His Spirit for us on the Cross; by His death, He atoned for all sin, the chief obstacle to the action of the Holy Spirit, and when He had ascended into heaven, He sent Him to the Apostles, who represented the whole Church. Now, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, He intercedes continually for us, He is always sending the Holy Spirit to the Church, as He promised. The Holy Spirit operates in the Church now, just as He once did in the blessed soul of Christ.

He gives her impulse, moves her, and drives her to accomplish God’s will, thus enabling her to fulfill His mission, the continuation down through the ages of the redemptive work of Christ. With reason, then, did the early Fathers call the Holy Spirit the Soul of the Church; the Church herself invokes Him in the Credo: “Dominum et vivificantem!” Lord and life-giver. As the soul vivifies the body, the Holy Spirit vivifies the Church. He is the impulse of love who kindles in her zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls; He gives light and strength to her shepherds, fervor and energy to her apostles, courage and invincible faith to her martyrs.


2. The Church, because she is the “society” of the faithful, is constituted by their union: it is the faithful, it is we ourselves, who form the Church. Hence, to say that Jesus merited the Holy Spirit for His Church is equivalent to saying that He merited Him for us; to say that Jesus, together with the Father, has sent and continues to send His Spirit to the Church, is equivalent to affirming that He has sent and continues to send Him to us. The Encyclical Mystici Corporis asserts that the Holy Spirit “is communicated to the Church abundantly, so that she herself and each one of her members may become, day by day, more like our Redeemer.”

Thus the Holy Spirit exercises His influence not only in the Body of the Church, but also in each soul in which He dwells as the “sweet Guest.” He is in us: to take possession of our souls, to sanctify them, to form them in the likeness of Christ, and to urge us to continue His redemptive mission; He is that impulse of love which urges us to do God’s will, guides us towards the glorification of the Most Holy Trinity, and brings us to God.

But if the Holy Spirit is an impulse of love that comes into us to sanctify us and bring us to God, why do we not all become saints? The mystery of human responsibility enters here. The Holy Spirit, with the Father and the Son, has created us free beings and He wishes us so; therefore, in coming to us, He respects our liberty and does no violence to it. Although He is eager to enter our souls and to possess it, He will not act thus unless we give Him free access. It is an example of the great principle on which St. Teresa of Jesus liked to insist : “ God docs not force anyone, He takes what we give Him; but He does not give Himself wholly to us, until we give ourselves wholly to Him” (Way, 28). If we do not become saints, it is not because the Holy Spirit does not will it—He was sent to us and comes to us for this very purpose—but it is because we do not give full liberty to His action. This is the point in which we fail: we do not use our liberty to wholly yield our soul to His powerful, loving invasion. If our will would open the doors wide, the Holy Spirit would take us under His direction, and, with His help, we would become saints.


COLLOQUY


“O Holy Spirit, You formed our Redeemer in the pure womb of the Virgin Mary; You gave life to Jesus, and directed Him in all He thought, said, did, and suffered during His earthly life, and in the sacrifice He Himself offered to the Father for us on the Cross. When Jesus ascended into heaven, You came upon earth to establish the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, and to apply to this Body the fruits of the life, Blood, Passion, and death of Christ. Otherwise, Jesus would have suffered and died in vain. Furthermore, O Holy
Spirit, You descended to us at holy baptism to form Jesus Christ in our souls, to incorporate us into Him, to give us birth and life in Him, to apply to us the effects and merits of His Blood and of His death, to animate and inspire us, and to guide and direct us in all that we should think, say, do, and suffer for God. What, then, should our life be? Oh! it should be completely holy, divine, and spiritual, according to the words of Jesus: ‘that which is born of the Spirit is spirit!’

“O Divine Spirit, I give myself entirely to You. Take possession of my soul, direct me in everything, and grant that I may live as a true child of God, as a true member of Jesus Christ; grant that, born of You, I may totally belong to You, be totally possessed, animated, and directed by You” (St. John Eudes).

“O Holy Spirit, Soul of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, fortify me, console me. Tell me what I should do, give me Your orders. I promise to be submissive to all that You ask of me and to accept everything that You permit to happen to me” (Cardinal Mercier).