"I have yet many things to say to you, but you
cannot bear them now. But when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will
teach you the truth....the
will teach you all things and
bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to
you."
PRAYER BEFORE READING THE BIBLE O KING of glory, Lord of hosts, who didst triumphantly ascend the heavens, leave us not as orphans, but send us the Promised of the Father, the Spirit of Truth.
We implore thee, O Lord, that the Counsellor who proceedeth from thee will enlighten our souls, and infuse into them all truth, as thy Son hath promised. O God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, vouchsafe to grant us, according to the riches of thy glory, that Christ, by faith, may dwell in our hearts, which, rooted and grounded in charity, may acknowledge the love of Christ, surpassing all knowledge. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Saviour gave the name Paraclete to the Third Divine Person. The word means one who exhorts and comforts. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14;17)
"The Holy Ghost is given in this life to strengthen the weak, to make victorious the soldiers of Jesus Christ, to give counsel to the doubtful, to enlighten the mind and inflame the heart of such as love God." (St. Lawrence Justinian).
"O what blindness! Man repines when he loses an earthly treasure and he cares not if he lose faith, charity, justice, virtue, heavenly treasures of the Holy Ghost." (St. Bonaventure).
It goes without saying that there is an indivisible oneness in all the activities of the Divine Nature, as exercised outside the circle of the Divine Life proper. Yet the utter distinction of the Divine Persons from one another is a truth on the same level as the absolute oneness of the Divine Nature which each possesses in its fullness. The Second Person alone became incarnate. Neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost took flesh. Only the Son alone, through His humanity He assumed the role of cancelling out sin and meriting redemption for mankind. His part in this divine drama ended, in a certain sense, with His ascension into heaven. The Third Divine Person then appears on the stage as the chief protagonist in all the succeeding scenes which have their denouement in eternity. He carries out the work of redemption by forming the souls of men to the life won for them by Christ: He had inaugurated the work of redemption by forming Christ Himself in the womb of Mary.
GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST are... seven in number * WISDOM * UNDERSTANDING * KNOWLEDGE * COUNSEL * FORTITUDE * PIETY * FEAR OF THE LORD
THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST
"There are those blessed fruits of the Holy Ghost enumerated by the Apostles: 'Charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity.' These fruits the Holy Ghost produces and shows forth in the just even in THIS LIFE; fruits filled with all sweetness, inasmuch as they proceed from the Spirit." (Leo XIII.)
Under the influence of a good climate and other favorable circumstances, a tree can produce most beautiful and luscious fruit. On the contrary, bad climatic conditions, or a plague of worms and insects, can hinder its production or destroy and corrupt that which is produced. Our souls may be compared to trees planted in God's own garden. Under the favorable influence of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, they can produce fruits that are sweet and refreshing to the soul. St. Paul enumerates twelve of them as already mentioned above. If however, we allow the seven capital vices to gnaw upon our souls, they will destroy the good fruit and leave only the vilest kinds of fruit of corruption, which are as St. Paul tells us: enmities, dissensions, immodesty and many other vices. These are the fruits of the evil spirit. Let us look to ourselves and see that the Spirit of God reigns in our souls, lest the spirit of evil begin within us his work of corruption, through the seven capital sins.
WHY IS TRUE DEVOTION TO THE HOLY GHOST SO RARE?
"Perchance there are still to be found among Christians," wrote the learned Pope Leo XIII.,"some, who if asked, as were those of old by St. Paul the Apostle, whether they have received the Holy Ghost, might answer in like manner: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost." At least there are certainly many who are very deficient in their knowledge of HIM. They frequently use HIS name in their religious practices but their faith is involved in much darkness. This may be one reason why devotion to the Holy Spirit is rare; for we do not love what we do not know.
Another reason may be, because this devotion is so opposed to the spirit of the times. Even in their devotions men are forever trying to compromise; and hence a devotion which is so spiritual and sublime, does not apeal to the popular mind, in an age when the atmosphere is dense with dust, scattered by the votaries of pleasure, wealth and sensuality.
Cardinal Manning also gives a very plausible reason why this devotion is not more widespread. He says: "The conception of the fatherhood of God and of our sonship to HIM is a conception altogether natural to our hearts. We learn it in our home from our earliest consciousness in the relation we bear to our earthly father. The Incarnation of the Son of God brings HIM also within the sphere and range of our intelligence and of our heart; so that we conceive of HIM as incarnate, visible upon earth, and invested with all our sympathies, and with the love of HIS Sacred Heart full of compassion for us. These two conceptions are, I may say, within the range of nature. They come to us at once. But the Holy Ghost, a Spirit that has never been seen, has never been incarnate, inscrutable, present everywhere, never manifest except by the operations of HIS power -- this is a reality like the motion of the earth, which we know by our reason but cannot detect by any sense; or it is like the circulation of the blood which we know as a fact, but never perceive all the day long. So the indwelling and the work of the Holy Ghost in the soul is a divine truth, so altogether inscrutable, so impalpable, so insensible, that we pass it by. Therefore, we do not so often adore the Author and Giver of all grace, the Holy Ghost, with a special worship."
A CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY GHOST
Spirit of Light, of Love and of Life, be with us every hour of this day, Illumine, vitalize, enkindle us. Lift up our hearts; keep in strength and in honor the body which thou has chosen for thine own temple. Grant to us integrity of purpose; cleanse us of self-love and self-deceit. Reveal to us the beauty of holiness, O thou who art the Spirit of Truth and not less the Comforter! Speak to us above the voices of the world, and give us grace evermore to hear thee -- who together with the Father and the Son art one God for all eternity. Amen
SYMBOLISM OF THE HOLY GHOST
The mighty wind symbolized the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, the fire was significant of His consuming zeal and charity, and the tongues represented HIS teaching and illuminating office. When Christ was being baptized by St. John the Baptist, the Holy Ghost descended upon him as a dove, thus typifying the gentleness with which HE enters into, and works within, the soul of man. RELIGION: Doctrine and Practice by Cassilly
Source of above information concerning THE HOLY GHOST is from "The Holy Ghost Prayer Book" by Rev. Frederick T. Hoeger, C.S.Sp. 1939 with Nihil Obstat * Imprimi Potest * Imprimatur 1939 -- The information about SYMBOLISM from "RELIGION: Doctrine and Practice by Cassilly
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