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

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189. THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
PENTECOST SUNDAY

PRESENCE OF GOD - Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart and enkindle in it the fire of Your Love.


MEDITATION

1. Pentecost is the plenitude of God’s gift to men. On Christmas Day, God gives us His only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus, the Mediator, the Bridge connecting humanity and divinity. During Holy Week, Jesus, by His Passion, gives Himself entirely for us, even to death on the Cross. He bathes us, purifying and sanctifying us in His Blood. At Easter, Christ rises, and His Resurrection, as well as His Ascension, is the pledge of our own glorification. He goes before us to His Father’s house to prepare a place for us, for in Him and with Him, we have become a part of the divine Family; we have become children of God, destined for eternal beatitude. But the gift of God to men does not end there; having ascended into heaven, Jesus, in union with the Father, sends us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

The Father and the Holy Spirit loved us to the point of giving us the Word in the Incarnation; the Father and the Word so loved us as to give us the Holy Spirit. Thus the three Persons of the Trinity give Themselves to man, stooping to this poor nothing to redeem him from sin, to sanctify him, and to bring him into Their own intimacy. Such is the excessive charity with which God has loved us; and the divine gift to our souls reaches its culminating point in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the Gift par excellence: Altissimi Donum Dei, Gift of the Most High God. The Holy Spirit, the bond and pledge of the mutual love of the Father and the Son, He who accepts, seals, and crowns their reciprocal gift, is given to our souls through the infinite merits of Jesus, so that He will be able to complete the work of our sanctification. By His descent upon the Apostles under the form of tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit shows us how He, the Spirit of love, is given to us in order to transform us by His charity, and having transformed us, to lead us back to God.


2. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not a temporary gift, but a permanent one; in fact, for a soul who lives in charity, He is the sweet Guest who dwells within it. “If anyone love Me,” says Jesus in the words of today’s Gospel (Jn 14,23-31), “...We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.” However, this indwelling of the Trinity— and hence of the Holy Spirit—in the soul which is in the state of grace, is a gift which can and should increase; it is a continual giving. The first donation was made when we were baptized; it was renewed later, confirmed, in a special way, by the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Sacrament that is, so to speak, the Pentecost of every Christian soul. Progressive renewals of this gift were made with every increase in charity. And what of the present? The Holy Spirit, in union with the Father and the Son, continues to give Himself to the soul more completely, more profoundly and possessively. Today’s Gospel speaks very forcefully about charity, which is at the same time both the condition for and the result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls. It is the condition, because, according to Jesus Himself, the three divine Persons dwell only in a soul who loves; it is the result, because “ the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom 5,5). Divine love completely preceded us at baptism; without merit on our part and solely through the merits of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was given to us, and His charity was gratuitously diffused in us.

Thereafter, each time we corresponded to the divine invitations, by making generous acts of charity, He renewed His invisible visit to our soul, giving us always new grace and charity. Thus our supernatural life has developed under the action of the Holy Spirit; it is caught up in the life-giving transforming current of His love. In this way we understand how the Feast of Pentecost can and should represent a new out-pouring of the Holy Spirit in our souls, a new visit in which He fills us with His gifts:

Veni, Creator Spiritus — mentes tuorum visita,
Imple superna gratia — quae tu creasti pectora.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
And in our hearts take up Thy rest,
Come with Thy grace and heavenly aid,
To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.


COLLOQUY

“O Holy Spirit, substantial Love of the Father and the Son, uncreated Love dwelling in the souls of the just, come down upon me like a new Pentecost and bring me an abundance of Your gifts, of Your fruits, and of Your grace; unite Yourself to me as the most sweet Spouse of my soul.

“I consecrate myself entirely to You; invade me, take me, possess me wholly. Be the penetrating light which illumines my intellect, the gentle motion which attracts and directs my will, the supernatural energy which gives energy to my body. Complete in me Your work of sanctification and love. Make me pure, transparent, simple, true, free, peaceful, gentle, calm, serene even in suffering, and burning with charity toward God and my neighbor.

“Accendat in nobis ignem sui amoris et flammam aeternae caritatis, kindle in me the fire of Your Jove and the flame of eternal charity. Multiply in me these holy transports of love which will bring me rapidly to transforming union.

“Make not only my will, but all my senses and faculties completely submissive to Your divine will, so that I shall no longer be ruled by my pride, but solely by Your divine impulse. Then everything in me will be moved by love, in love, in such a way that when I work, I shall work through love, and when I suffer, I shall bear everything through love. Grant that the supernatural may become the ‘natural’ atmosphere in which my soul moves.

“Make me docile and prompt to follow Your inspirations. Grant that I may never neglect even one, but may always be Your faithful little spouse. Make me ever more recollected, more silent, and more submissive to Your divine action, more alert to receive Your delicate touches. Draw me into the inmost depths of my heart where You dwell, O sweet, divine Guest, and teach me to ‘ watch continually in prayer.’

“Come, O life-giving Spirit, to this poor world and renew the face of the earth; preside over new organizations and give us Your peace, that peace which the world cannot give. Help Your Church, give her holy priests and fervent apostles. Fill with holy inspirations the souls of the good; give calm compunction to sinful souls, consoling refreshment to the suffering, strength and help to those who are tempted, and light to those in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

190. THE ACTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, make me realize Your action in my soul; teach me to recognize it and correspond with it.


MEDITATION

1. Just as the Holy Spirit dwelt in the most holy soul of Christ in order to bring it to God, so He abides in our souls for the same purpose. In Jesus He found a completely docile will, one that He could control perfectly, whereas in so He often meets resistance, the fruit of human weakness; therefore, He desists from the work of our sanctification because He will not do violence to our liberty. He, the Spirit of love, waits for us to cooperate lovingly in His work, yielding our soul to His sanctifying action freely and ardently. In order to become saints, we must concur in the work of the Holy Spirit; but since effective concurrence is impossible without an understanding of the promoter’s actions, it is necessary for us to learn how the divine Paraclete, the promoter of our sanctification, works in us.

We must realize that the Holy Spirit is ever active in our souls, from the earliest stages of the spiritual life and even from its very beginning, although at that time in a more hidden and imperceptible way. However, His very precious action was there, and it consisted especially in the preparing and encouraging of our first attempts to acquire perfection. By giving us grace, without which we could have done nothing to attain sanctity, the Holy Spirit inaugurated His work in us: He elevated us to the supernatural state. Grace comes
from God; it is a gift from all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity: a gift created by the Father, merited by the Son in consequence of His Incarnation, Passion, and death, and diffused in our souls by the Holy Spirit. But it is to the latter, to the Spirit of love, that the work of our sanctification is attributed in a very special manner. When we were baptized, we were justified “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”; nevertheless, Sacred Scripture particularly attributes this work of regeneration and divine filiation to the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself pointed out to us that Baptism is a rebirth “of...the Holy Spirit” (Jn 3,5), and St. Paul stated: “For in one Spirit were we all baptized” and “the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God ” (1 Cor 12,13 ~ Rom 8,16). Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit who has prepared and disposed our souls for the supernatural life by pouring forth grace in us.


2. Besides this, in order to enable us to perform supernatural acts, the Holy Spirit comes to strengthen our powers—the intellect and the will—by the infused virtues: charity, together with the other theological virtues of faith and hope, and the moral virtues. Thus, through His intervention, we become capable of performing supernatural acts. But the Holy Spirit does not stop there; like a good teacher, He continues to help us in our work, urging us to do good and sustaining our efforts. He invites us by His interior inspirations, as well as by exterior means, especially Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church.

Sacred Scripture is the word of God, written by men under -the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine Paraclete who speaks to us therein, enlightening our intellects with His light and spurring our wills by His motions; hence, meditation on the sacred texts is somewhat like “attending the school” of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit continually teaches us and stimulates us to do good by the living word of the Church, since all those in the Church who have the mission to teach are under His influence when they expound sacred doctrine to the faithful. If we listen to the inspirations of the divine Paraclete, and accept His invitations, He unites Himself to us, aiding us by actual graces, so that we are able to perform virtuous acts. It is clear, therefore, that even when the spiritual life is in its first stages, and is concentrated on the correcting of faults and acquiring of virtues, the activity of the soul is entirely permeated and sustained by the action of the Holy Spirit. We give too little attention to this truth and therefore, in practice, we tend to ignore the constant work of the divine Spirit in our souls. Let us give thought to this, lest His inspirations and impulses go unheeded. “By the grace of God, I am what I am,” said St. Paul, and he could add: “His grace in me hath not been void” (1 Cor 15,10).


COLLOQUY

“O Holy Spirit, divine Guest of our souls, You are the noblest and most worthy of all guests! With the agility of Your goodness and love for us, You fly rapidly to all souls who are disposed to receive You. And who can tell the wonderful effects produced by You when You are welcomed? You speak, but without noise of words, and Your sublime silence is heard everywhere. You are always motionless, yet always in movement, and in Your mobile immobility, You communicate Yourself to all. You are always at rest, yet ever working; and in Your rest You perform the greatest, worthiest, and most admirable works. You are always moving, but You never change Your place. You penetrate, strengthen, and preserve all. Your immense, penetrating omniscience knows all, understands all, penetrates all. Without listening to anything, You hear the least word spoken in the most secret recesses of hearts.

“O Holy Spirit, You stay everywhere unless You are driven out, because You communicate Yourself to everyone, except to sinners who do not want to rise from the mire of their sins; in them You can find no place to rest, nor can You endure the evil emanating from a heart which obstinately persists in wrong-doing. But You remain in the creatures who, by their purity, make themselves receptive to Your gifts. And You rest in me by communication, operation, wisdom, power, liberality, benignity, charity, love, purity; in short, by Your very goodness. Diffusing these graces in Your creature, You Yourself prepare him suitably to receive You” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

191. THE INITIATIVES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, come and direct my soul in the way of sanctity.


MEDITATION

1. Although our soul is supernaturalized by sanctifying grace, our powers strengthened by the infused virtues, and our actions preceded and accompanied by actual grace, still the manner of our acting always remains human, and is therefore incapable of uniting us perfectly with God, of bringing us to sanctity. In fact, our intellects, although invested with the virtue of faith, are always inadequate in regard to infinite Being, and are always incapable of knowing God as He really is. Even following the truths of revelation, which tell us that God is One and Three, the ideas which we form about the Most Holy Trinity, the three divine Persons, and the perfections of God, always remain far short of the reality. As long as we are on earth, we shall know God “through a glass in a dark manner ”; only in heaven shall we see Him “ face to face” (1 Cor 13,12). The inadequacy of our knowledge of God extends equally to our ideas of sanctity; the same short-sightedness that characterizes our view of divine things affects our notions of the way of perfection. In many cases we cannot even discern what is more perfect, and despite our good will, we often make mistakes, believing some things to be good and holy which really are not.

However, complete union with God, which is sanctity, requires a perfect orientation toward Him, according to the first and greatest commandment of Jesus: “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind” (Mt 22,37); we have seen that this perfect orientation exceeds our powers, precisely because our knowledge of God and of the way which leads to Him is far too imperfect. Must we then renounce sanctity? Not at all! God, who wants our sanctification, has provided us with the means of attaining it : He has given us the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: “You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you” (Acts 1,8).


2. The Holy Spirit, who “ searcheth...the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2,10), has a perfect knowledge of the divine nature and mysteries; He who penetrates all things and knows perfectly the delicacy and secrets of the highest virtue, as well as the needs and deficiencies of our souls, comes to take us by the hand and lead us to sanctity. As long as we advance by our own initiative, our orientation toward God will always be imperfect and incomplete, because we shall be acting in a human manner, but when the divine Spirit intervenes, He operates as God, in a divine manner; that is why He draws us and directs us completely toward Himself.

In human actions, thought precedes the determination of the will, and since our capacity for thought is so limited, our actions are, of necessity, limited too. This is especially true in regard to divine things. But when the Holy Spirit intervenes, He acts directly on the will by drawing it to Himself. He inflames our heart and enlightens our mind. This is the genesis of that “sense of God” which is impossible for us to express, but which makes us know God and taste Him; it directs us toward Him, more than any reasoning on our part could ever do. Then we feel that God is “the only One,” that all creatures are infinitely distant from Him, that He is worthy of all our love—which is nothing compared with His infinite, divine lovableness; we feel that any sacrifice, even the greatest, is but a trifle when made for such a God.

This is how the Holy Spirit guides us on the road to sanctity. At the same time, He helps us to overcome actual difficulties. For example, we very often find ourselves struggling against a fault which we seem unable to overcome, or trying unsuccessfully to acquire a certain virtue, or endeavoring to solve some problem; but at a certain point, without our knowing how, things change: our former doubt is resolved and we are able to accomplish with ease what at first seemed impossible. This, too, is the result of the action of the Holy
Spirit in our soul; it explains why His initiatives are so precious for us, and why we should desire Him and invoke Him with so much confidence.


COLLOQUY

“O Love of the eternal God, sacred communication between the omnipotent Father and His blessed Son, all-powerful Paraclete, most merciful Consoler of the afflicted, penetrate the innermost depths of my heart with Your powerful virtue; brighten with Your shining light any dark corners of that neglected dwelling of my soul. Visit it, fructifying with the abundance of Your dew, all that a long period of drought has dried up and choked. Pierce with the dart of Your love, the depths of my soul; penetrate the very center of my enervated heart and inflame it with Your salutary fire; strengthen Your creature by illumining, with the light of Your holy fervor, the inmost depths of my mind and heart.

“I believe that each time You come into a soul, You prepare there a dwelling for the Father and the Son. Blessed is he who is worthy to have You as Guest! Through You, the Father and the Son establish their dwelling in him. Come then, most benign Consoler of suffering souls, Protector in all circumstances and Support in tribulations. Come, Purifier of faults, Healer of the wounded. Come, Strength of the weak, Restorer of those who fall! Come, Master of the humble, rejecter of the proud! Come, O charitable Father of orphans, merciful Judge of widows! Come, hope of the poor, strength of the weak! Come, guiding star of sailors, harbor of the shipwrecked! Come, O unique beauty of all the living, and only salvation of the dying!

“Come, O Holy Spirit, come and take pity on me! Clothe me with Yourself, and graciously hear my prayers, that, according to the multitude of Your mercies, my littleness may be pleasing to Your greatness, and my weakness to Your strength, through Jesus Christ, my Savior, who, with the Father, lives and reigns in unity with You, forever and ever. Amen ” (St. Augustine).



192. OUR COOPERATION


PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, make me docile to Your action and always willing to be guided and directed by You.


MEDITATION

1. In what concerns sanctity, we are always like school children, apprentices who, having only a rudimentary knowledge of the art they are learning, are always in need of direction and suggestions from their teacher. Our Teacher of sanctity is none other than the Holy Spirit; Jesus, speaking of Him, said, “He will teach you all things, and bring. . .to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you” (Jn 14,26). He teaches us what we must do in order to love God with all our strength; He teaches us all that we do not know, whether about God, or about the spiritual life; and to perfect His teaching, He guides us in the accomplishment of it. Actually, by directly influencing our wills, He strengthens them, attracts them, impels them forcefully to God, orientating them perfectly toward Him. In this way the Holy Spirit “helpeth our infirmity” (Rom 8,26), which being constitutional—inherent in our human nature—causes us to be continually in need of Him.

In truth, He never leaves us: our whole spiritual life is enveloped in His action. We have seen how, from the very beginning, He comes to help us by preparing and encouraging our own personal initiatives; but then, if He finds us docile to His invitations, He Himself takes the initiative. That is why the whole work of our sanctification may be reduced to a question of docility to the divine Paraclete. Before all else, we must be very attentive and docile to His invitations: “Utinam hodie vocem ejus audiatis; nolite obdurare corda vestra,” Oh, today, if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts! (Ps 94,8). The promptings of the Holy Spirit can come to us in the words of Sacred Scripture, preaching, the teachings of the Church, the various circumstances of life, good thoughts and holy inspirations. Let us cooperate with them at once, proving our good will by our ready acceptance of and obedience to them.


2. But very often, alas! our will still remains hard, stubborn, and intractable because it is so attached to creatures, especially to that one creature, the “ego,” which we blindly cherish. Hence, to cooperate with the action of the Holy Spirit, the first requirement is the painstaking effort to detach ourselves from everything, especially from ourselves. Detachment will free us from numerous bonds which, like cords, tie us to creatures, making our docility and submissiveness to the Holy Spirit an impossibility. Let us be mindful of the fact that a fine thread, that is, any little attachment, is sufficient to bind our souls to creatures. “It comes to the same thing whether a bird be held by a slender cord or a stout one; since, even if it be slender, the bird will be as well held as though it were stout, for so long as it breaks it not it cannot fly away” (J.C. AS J, 11,4). Detachment breaks the thread which fastens us to earth, and our soul, thus freed,
can follow every slightest impulse of the Holy Spirit, who will then take possession of it and direct it according to His good pleasure.

We have said that the Paraclete is not content simply to invite us to what is good, but He wishes to take the initiative, impelling us more effectually toward God. However, He respects our liberty, and will not make Himself Master of our will unless we are disposed to give it to Him freely. And here we can set up another obstacle to His action : the Holy Spirit would like to elevate us and bring us to God, but we do not accept His initiative and our lack of generosity retards the divine work. Perhaps we cooperate partially, giving Him something of what He asks, but we do not give Him “all.” We must, therefore, cultivate the spirit of “totality ” which puts no limits to our giving. We must have a magnanimous heart and not retard the work of the Holy Spirit, who wills to bring us, not only, to good actions but to generous, heroic, saintly ones.


COLLOQUY

“O merciful God, my sweetness and my love, send Your Holy Spirit from paradise and create in me a new heart and spirit. Your unction teaches me everything, because I have chosen You among thousands and I love You above all else, more than my own soul. O Holy Spirit, God of love, receive me into Your sweet, merciful charity, so that, during the whole course of my life, I may have You as Master, Teacher, and sweet Lover of my heart” (St. Gertrude).

“O Holy Spirit, teach me to value even Your slightest inspiration. ‘The smallest, were it only to refrain from a word or a glance, is more precious in fact than the entire world, for it is a call, an invitation to enter more deeply into divine intimacy. By faithfully corresponding to it, I grow in grace and love. O Holy Spirit, make me understand well that perfection consists in saying “Amen” every time You ask anything of me through the voice of obedience or by Your inspirations. Help me to avoid every slight infidelity or hesitation, to refuse You nothing; then Your light will grow in me continually and love will become an unfathomable abyss. But, O Holy Spirit, I know very well that I shall often fall, and that I shall commit faults; O my God, let them not be voluntary! However, You teach me that, even in this event, I must rise at once and, by an act of love, place myself under Your influence again. You do not want me to be troubled or discouraged by my infidelities, for Your Spirit is all sweetness. ‘Oh! how sweet is Your Spirit, O Lord!’ and ‘ where the Spirit of the Lord is, there also is liberty, ’ joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit ” (cf. Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

193. CONFORMITY WITH CHRIST THROUGH THE ACTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, make me conformable to Jesus, make me an “alter Christus,’ another Christ.


MEDITATION

1. The Holy Spirit is given to us to sanctify us, but how will He accomplish His mission? The Encyclical Mystici Corporis tells us that the divine Paraclete “is communicated to the Church. ..so that she and each of her members may become daily more and more like to our Savior.” ‘The Holy Spirit comes into our souls to make us conformable, and even assimilated to Christ : this is the immediate end of His action in us, this is the way by which He will lead us to sanctity.

All the elect are predestined by God “to be made conformable to the image of His Son” (Rom 8,29): we shall be saints according to the degree of our resemblance to Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to us that He may imprint in us the traits of this divine resemblance, and make us “daily more and more like to our Savior.” Oh! how necessary it is that no day should ever pass without some increase in this likeness! Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, profoundly impressed by this truth, used to pray to the Holy Spirit to make of her “an added humanity wherein He may renew all His mystery” (E.T. IMI). If Jesus is the model to whom we should all be conformed, there is no presumption in aspiring to become so like Him that our life may be a “prolongation” of His, and that He may continue in us His work of unceasing adoration and glorification of the Father, as well as that of the redemption of mankind.

Of ourselves, we are unable to reach such perfect conformity with Christ, but the divine Spirit is in us to bring it about. Christ is the Holy One par excellence. In order to make us like Him, the Holy Spirit initially communicates to us Christ’s sanctity by pouring grace into us; this grace penetrates our being, our activity, and our life in such a way that it makes of each one of us an alter Christus, another Christ. Let it be noted that the grace given to us by the Holy Spirit is identical in its nature with the grace that sanctifies the soul of Jesus: although it is given us in an infinitely lesser degree— Christ possessing it “without limit”—it is the same seed, the same principle of sanctity. This is why the full development of grace can really bring us to identification with Christ, to becoming other images of Him. To the degree of our transformation in Him corresponds the degree of our participation in His sanctity and also in His work. Christ will renew His mystery in us : in us He will continue to glorify the Most Holy Trinity and to save souls.


2. The norm of life for Jesus was His Father’s will, and we have seen how the Holy Spirit guided Him continually in the accomplishment of that will. In the same way, the Holy Spirit wishes always to guide us further along the way traced out by the will of God. Practically speaking, “sanctity consists in conformity to the divine will” (Benedict XV), in a conformity so complete that, as St. John of the Cross teaches: “there may be naught in the soul that is contrary to the will of God, but that, in all and through all, its movement may be that of the will of God alone” (AS J, 11,2).

It is not easy to reach this point, and we shall never be able to do so without the help of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we must not forget that conformity to the divine will finds its expression in a “continual, exact fulfillment of the duties of one’s state in life” (Benedict XV). Now, to be always faithful to duty, in all things and everywhere, is no small matter. It requires continual sacrifice, generosity, and constancy. Let us look at Jesus on the Cross, and we shall understand what the perfect accomplishment of our duty and God’s will can exact. This is the way we must follow, constantly renewing our efforts and realizing, at the same time, that however much good will we may have, we are so weak, so inconstant, so deeply attached to ourselves, and so limited in our strength, that we will not always succeed in keeping ourselves to the perfect fulfillment of our duties; we often tall, and do not even know how to rise. Let us humble ourselves then, and make use of these falls to realize better our impotence and frailty: humility, yes; discouragement, never! Instead of weeping over ourselves, let us turn our eyes toward the Holy Spirit, call upon Him to come to our aid, and begin again humbly and confidently. When the Holy Spirit sees us renewing our efforts, He will come to meet us, take us by the hand, and in an instant will lead us to a degree of perfection which we have not been able to reach even after years of effort. We can be sure of this, for Jesus merited it for us, and sends us His Spirit “in a most copious outpouring.”


COLLOQUY

“My beloved Jesus, I desire to follow with You the rule of love, the rule of the will of God, by which I can renew and spend my whole life in You. Place it in the care of Your Holy Spirit, so that at all times I shall be most prompt to keep Your commandments and fulfill all my duties. I am only a poor twig, planted by You. Of myself, I am nothing, and less than nothing, but You can make me flourish in the abundance of Your Spirit. What am I, O my God, life of my soul? Ah! how far away from You I am! I am like a speck of dust, raised and blown away by the wind. Oh! by virtue of Your charity, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, and at the pleasure of Your Providence, may the violent wind of Your omnipotent love cast me into You with such force that I may really begin to die to myself in order to live solely in You, my sweet love. Make me lose myselfin You, abandoning myself so completely that no trace of self will remain in me, just as an invisible speck of dust disappears without being noticed. Transform me wholly in the tenderness of Your love, that, in You, all my imperfection will be reduced to nothingness and I shall have no life outside of You” (St. Gertrude).

“O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love! Come down into me and reproduce in me, as it were, an incarnation of the Word; that I may be to Him an added humanity, wherein He may renew all His mystery!” (E.T. II).

194. THE WAY OF THE CROSS

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, teach me the value of suffering, so that I may esteem it and love it as a means of sanctification.


MEDITATION

1. We must be thoroughly convinced that if the Holy Spirit works in our souls to assimilate us to Christ, He can do so only by opening to us the way of the Cross. Jesus is Jesus Crucified; therefore, there can be no conformity to Him except by the Cross, and we shall never enter into the depths of the spiritual life except by entering into the mystery of the Cross. St. Teresa of Jesus teaches that even the highest contemplative graces are given to souls only in order to enable them to carry the Cross. “His Majesty,” says the Saint, “ can do nothing greater for us than to grant us a life which is an imitation of that lived by His beloved Son. I feel certain, therefore, that these favors are given to us to strengthen our weakness, so that we may be able to imitate Him in His great sufferings” (Int C VII, 4).

Yes, conformity to Jesus Crucified has more value and importance than all mystical graces! The whole spiritual life is dominated by the Cross and, as the Cross is the central point in the history of the world, so it is the central point in the history of every soul, The Cross gave us life; it will imprint upon our souls the traits of the most perfect resemblance to Jesus; the mor we share in His Cross, the more shall we resemble Him and cooperate in the work of Redemption.

In order to attain sanctity, it is evident that we need the Cross. To accept God’s will always and in every circumstance implies the renouncement of one’s own will; it is impossible to be conformed to Jesus in everything, “ who in this life had no other pleasure, nor desired any, than to do the will of His Father” (J.C. AS J, 13,4), without renouncing one’s own selfish pleasures. And all this means: detachment, crosses, sacrifice, self-denial. It means setting out steadfastly on the way indicated by Jesus Himself: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16,24). This is the path which the Holy Spirit urges and invites us to follow. Whenever we find ourselves looking for things that are easier, more commodious, or more honorable; whenever we notice that we are satisfying our self-love, our pride, or see that we are attached to our own will, let us remind ourselves that all this is far removed from the inspirations of the Holy Spirit and, what is worse, it is an obstacle to His action in us.


2. By courageously practicing self-denial, we begin the way of conformity to Jesus Crucified; but here, too, our initiatives are disproportionate to the end to be attained; the acts of mortification and self-denial which we make are wholly insufficient to strip us of the old man and clothe us with Christ, with Christ Crucified. That is why the Holy Spirit, after setting us on the road of the Cross by His inspirations—which tend to make us accept, for the love of God, all that is hard and painful to nature—takes it upon Himself to complete our purification. He does this by sending us trials, both exterior and interior. “We must know,” says St. John of the Cross, “that this divine fire of love. . .is wounding the soul, and destroying and consuming in it the imperfections of its bad habits; this is the operation of the Holy Spirit wherein He prepares it for divine union and the transformation of love in God” (LF, 1,19).

Therefore, we must not imagine that the Holy Spirit’s action will always be consoling—quite the contrary! Suffering is necessary for our purification and, flowing from this, our participation in the redemptive work of Jesus. The farther we advance along the road of the Cross, the more we shall be sanctified and the more fruitful the apostolate we shall exercise in the Church. It is evident then, that in order to sanctify us the Holy Spirit cannot lead us by any way other than that of the Cross. It is for us to second His action, primarily by willingly accepting everything hard and painful that comes to us in our daily life. Often we neglect the Cross of daily trials and prefer one that is far away, and which perhaps, may never be sent to us. We must not seek the Cross in these extraordinary sufferings, seldom, if ever, encountered; we must look for it in the duties, the life, the difficulties, and the sacrifices of each day and each moment. Here we shall find unfathomable treasures, recognizing them by the light of faith, by the aid of the Holy Spirit who urges us to embrace these daily crosses, not merely endure them-to accept them and offer them willingly, saying with all our heart: “Yes, I want this, even though it seems to crush me!”


COLLOQUY

“O Spirit of truth, make me know Your Word; teach me to remember all He has said; enlighten me, guide me, make me conformable to Jesus as an ‘alter Christus,’ another Christ, by giving me His virtues, especially His patience, humility, and obedience; let me take part in His redemptive work by making me understand and love the Cross.

“O Holy Spirit, I come before You like a little green fruit which will ripen in the sun, like a bit of straw which is to be burned, like a drop of dew to be absorbed by the sun, like an ignorant child who must be taught. O Holy Spirit, giving Yourself to little souls, poor and humble, I present myself to You as one of these, and in this disposition I invoke You: ‘Veni, Sancte Spiritus, sanctifica me!’ Come, Holy Spirit, sanctify me! My desire for holiness is so great! Sanctify me Yourself; make haste to make me holy and a great saint, without my knowing it, in the self-effacement of my daily life.

“If wish to cast myself into You, O Holy Spirit, divine Fire, so that You will complete my purification, destroy my miserable self-love and transform me wholly into love. It is for this that I beseech You to come upon me and direct me according to Your good pleasure. ‘Dirige actos nostros in beneplacito tuo.’ Direct our actions according to Your good pleasure.

“O consuming Fire, divine Love in person, inflame me, burn me, consume me, destroy all self-love in me, transform me entirely into love, bring me to the ‘nothing’ that I may possess the ‘All’; bring me to the summit of the ‘mountain' where dwells only the honor and glory of God, where all is ‘peace and joy’ in You, O Holy Spirit! Grant that here below—through suffering and loving contemplation—I may arrive at the most intimate union with the Blessed Three, until I go to contemplate Them in the face-to-face vision of heaven, in the peace, joy, and security of the ‘ perpetual banquet °” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

195. THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, develop Your gifts in me, so that I may respond generously to Your divine motions.


MEDITATION

1. We have already seen that it is impossible to arrive at perfect union with God, at sanctity, without the help of the Holy Spirit. This help is not reserved for privileged souls; it is offered to every Christian. In fact, each soul receives at Baptism, together with sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The infused virtues are supernatural principles of activity, whereby we are enabled to act virtuously, from a supernatural, rather than from a human point of view; thus we can perform meritorious acts and apply ourselves actively to the acquisition of holiness. ‘The gifts, on the other hand, are supernatural principles, permanent dispositions with which God has enriched our faculties; they prepare and enable us to receive the help of the Holy Spirit, to recognize His inspirations, and follow them. St. Thomas compares them to the sails of a boat: just as the ship, by means of its sails, can be driven by the wind, so our souls, by means of the gifts, have the capacity to be moved and directed by the Holy Spirit. If a mariner sets the sails on his ‘boat, he intends to move it not only by rowing, but also by the force of the wind.

In like manner, when God infuses the gifts of the ‘Holy Spirit into our souls, He wishes them to advance, not alone by an active practice of the virtues, but also by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. And while the sailor can hoist the sails on his ship but cannot stir up a breath of wind, God, on the contrary, has not only bestowed on us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but He also has the power to put them into action when and as He wills. The very fact that God has willed to put the gifts into our spiritual organism, is the most evident proof that He wishes to intervene in the work of our sanctification, and to grant us the help of the Holy Spirit.


2. The Encyclical Divinum Illud teaches: “The just man, who is already living the life of grace and acting with the aid of the virtues, needs these seven gifts which are rightly attributed to the Holy Spirit. By means of them, man becomes both more docile and stronger in following with greater readiness and promptness the divine impulse.” This “divine impulse” is nothing but the inspiration and motion of the Holy Spirit. Now man, though by his very nature endowed with the keenest intellect and possessing good will, is incapable of understanding and following this impulse. “The sensual man” says St. Paul “ perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand” (1 Cor 2,14). See then, how the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been given us precisely to make us aware of this “ divine impulse” ; without them we could not receive the motions of the Holy Spirit. This fact should deepen our understanding of the great value of these gifts, and hence, of the importance of their growth in us in all their plenitude. In fact, the gifts we have received as a seed, at Baptism, are intended, like sanctifying grace and the infused virtues, to grow and develop until we die. It is a very consoling thought that, due to the profound unity of our supernatural organism, grace, the virtues, and the gifts increase simultaneously with and in proportion to the growth of charity. If we want the gifts to be fully developed in our soul, we must practice charity constantly, for with every advance in divine love, there will be a corresponding new development of the gifts. They are the sails of the soul, but these sails can be let down, weighted by our egoism, our self-love and attachment to ourselves and to creatures. Charity, on the contrary, frees them from every impediment and turns them toward the gentle breeze of the Holy Spirit. The more open and full the sails are, the better they will be able to receive the least impulse of the divine Paraclete.


COLLOQUY

“I behold You, O God, Father, Word, and Spirit, and I know You are looking for Your creature with sovereign wisdom and eternal goodness; so that it seems that You have no glory or pleasure except in. Your creature who is yet so vile. Your Spirit is the love by which You try to attract him. And his heart which receives this Spirit is like the bush that Moses saw, burning but not consumed. With supreme purity, it burns with the desire that God may never be offended, and it is consumed with the desire that God be honored, although it does not seem to be consumed.

“Come, come, Holy Spirit! Come, union of the Father, contentment of the Word, glory of the angels. O Spirit of Truth, You are the reward of the saints, the refreshment of souls, light in darkness, wealth of the poor, treasure of those who love, abundance of food for the hungry, comfort of pilgrims, and in a word, the One who contains all treasures.

“O Holy Spirit, with everlasting wisdom you gently urge rational creatures who want to receive Your gifts, but You do not take away their liberty. You knock at all hearts, but You knock gently, urging each one to prepare to receive these gifts. Softly singing, You are the source of sweet tears. Rejoicing and lamenting, You strive ardently that everyone may be disposed to receive You. May the intellect admire, the will and memory understand Your immense goodness, O Holy Spirit, in infusing Yourself and all Your gifts into the soul! O Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Word, You infuse Yourself into the soul so gently that it does not understand You, and, not being understood, Your ineffable gift is esteemed by few. Yet besides Your goodness, You infuse into the soul the power of the Father, and the wisdom of the Son. The soul, having thus become powerful and wise, is made fit to bear You within itself as a sweet Guest, cherishing You, that is, behaving in such a way that You take pleasure in it and do not leave it” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).