III — SPOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Presence of God. — O Mary, spouse of the Holy Spirit, make me docile to his divine motions.

Meditation

1 — Mary Most Holy, says St. Augustine, “was the only one who merited to be called mother and spouse” of God. And she was Mother of God because she was spouse of the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk. 1, 35), the Angel said to her, explaining the mysterious and divine way by which she would become mother of the Son of God. In that moment the Holy Spirit, who already possessed Mary’s soul from the first instant of her immaculate conception, came upon her with so singular a fullness as to form within her the Most Holy Body of Jesus. Rightly, therefore, Mary merits the name spouse of the Holy Spirit: Mary is his possession, his sanctuary, his temple.

To her the divine Paraclete can indeed address those words of the Canticle: “A garden enclosed you are, my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed” (4, 12). A garden enclosed that was never violated, not even for an instant, by the shadow of sin, that was never subject to the winds of disordered passions, that was never occupied by any affection for creatures. “Our most glorious Lady,” declares St. John of the Cross, “never had in her soul any form of creature that moved her to action, but always her motion was from the Holy Spirit” (As. III, 2, 11). Full of grace from birth, Mary was always the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit, attentive and docile to his every impulse, to his every inspiration.

If Mary’s most exalted privileges are reserved to her alone, we can nevertheless imitate her interior dispositions by seeking that, as with her heart, so with ours it may always be ready and docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.

2 — Full docility to the Holy Spirit’s motion is precisely the characteristic of the state of union with God. To this state, as St. John of the Cross teaches, Mary Most Holy was “raised from her very origin” (As. III, 2, 11); and this is evident if one reflects that Mary, not only was created in grace, but from her very birth had a degree of grace far superior to what the greatest saints reach at the end of their life. Therefore that state of perfect union with God, which constitutes our ideal and the goal of all our efforts, was Mary’s portion from the beginning of her life; and, on the other hand, Mary, through her free correspondence and fidelity to grace, did nothing but progress vertiginously in this most exalted state. After Jesus, Our Lady is therefore the surest model and guide for those who aspire to union with God; indeed, her condition as mere creature makes her more accessible to us, more imitable. Mary teaches us that the great secret for quickly reaching union with God is total detachment from creatures and, principally, from that creature we love so much and that is our “I.” Mary lives only for God: studying her life through the Gospel, we never see her moved by selfish motives, by personal interests; one spring alone impels her: God’s glory, the interests of Jesus and of souls. In her humble and hidden condition, in her work, in her poverty, in the privations and suffering she had to undergo, never a turning back on herself, never a complaint, but always forward, totally forgetful of her suffering, totally intent on fulfilling the divine will. It is the Holy Spirit who guides her, who impels her, who sustains her, and Mary’s secret lies in this: to let herself in everything be ruled and moved by Him. As by the work of the Holy Spirit the Virgin conceived the Son of God, so all her actions are conceived under the motion of the divine Spirit. It is precisely in this that we must imitate Mary: eliminate from our life all that is fruit of our egoism, self-love, pride, in order to conceive only actions moved by grace, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit.

Colloquy

“O Mary, You are holy in body and in spirit. In a wholly special way You can say: ‘My conversation is in heaven’ (cf. Phil. 3, 20). You are the enclosed garden, the sealed fountain, the Lord’s temple, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. You are the prudent Virgin who is not only furnished with oil, but who has hidden its fullness in her lamp. O Mary, how have You been able to reach the inaccessible Majesty of God, if not by knocking, asking, seeking? Yes, You have found what You sought, and the Angel said to You: ‘You have found grace before God.’ But in what way do You, already full of grace, still find grace? Oh, You are truly worthy of finding grace, You who are not satisfied with your own fullness but ask for a superabundance of grace for the salvation of the world! ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon You,’ the Angel said to You, and this precious balm pours upon You in such abundance that from the first the Holy Spirit overflows from You upon the whole earth... If before the Holy Spirit was in You with the richness of grace, now He comes upon You with grace superabundant, as if to signify the overflowing fullness of grace poured out upon You. If before grace filled only Your soul, now instead it pervades also Your womb... divine power makes You fruitful, and You shall conceive of the Holy Spirit” (cf. St. Bernard).

O Mary, most faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit, look upon my misery and weakness. God has placed in You the fullness of all His gifts so that I may understand that every hope, every grace, every salvation comes from You! You see the hardness of my heart. You see the blindness of my mind; help me then, O faithful Virgin, to overcome every resistance of my pride, my egoism, my cowardice, so that my soul may open itself totally to the invasion of grace, abandon itself docilely to the Holy Spirit’s action, and promptly follow his impulses, inspirations, and invitations.