XVII — THE HOLY SPIRIT

Triduo of Pentecost

Presence of God. — O Holy Spirit, teach me to know you, to desire you, to love you, to dispose myself for your action.

Meditation

1 — The approach of Pentecost invites us to direct our mind and heart to the Holy Spirit in order, with his help, to know Him a little more, to invoke Him with greater fervor, and to dispose ourselves better to second his action in our souls.

Catechism teaches us that in God there are three equal and distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, knowing himself, generates his Word, perfect and substantial Idea in which the Father expresses and to which He communicates all his goodness, loveliness, divine nature, and essence. The Father and the Word, because of their infinite goodness and beauty, from all eternity love each other, and from this love that binds them to one another proceeds 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 term, the outpouring of the Father’s and the Son’s love, an outpouring so substantial and perfect as to be a Person, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, in whom the Father and the Son, by the sublime fecundity of their love, pour forth their same nature and essence without being stripped of it. And precisely because the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of divine love, He is called “Spirit,” according to the Latin sense of the word meaning breath, respiration, vital wind. As in us breathing is manifestation of life, so in God the Holy Spirit is expression, outpouring of the life and love of the Father and the Son, an outpouring however substantial, personal, which is Person. In this sense the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity is called the “Spirit of the Father and of the Son” or also the “Spirit of love in God,” that is, the “breath” of love of the Father and the Son, the “breath” of divine love. In this same sense the Holy Fathers call the Holy Spirit “osculum Patris et Filii,” the kiss of the Father and the Son, “most sweet but most secret kiss,” according to St. Bernard’s tender expression (Serm. in Cant. 8, 2).

This Holy Spirit, Spirit of love, we invoke that He may come to kindle in our hearts the flame of charity.

2 — According to our human concept, a person is a complete being, distinct from other beings, subsisting, existing in itself, intelligent and therefore free, capable of willing, loving, and therefore lover. All this is verified in the most perfect way in the Holy Spirit: He, breath of the Father’s and Son’s love, is a Person and a divine Person. He is a complete being, He is all God and not a part of God; though perfectly equal to the other two divine Persons, He is distinct from Them; He subsists in himself, knowing, loving. Being therefore a divine Person, we can have particular relations with the Holy Spirit as with the Father and the Son. To this the Church invites us by proposing so many beautiful invocations to the Holy Spirit, and particularly the hymn Veni creator Spiritus in which she places before us all the titles by which the divine Paraclete is to be invoked by us with confidence. The hymn begins by addressing the Holy Spirit as “Creator Spirit,” reminding us that He, together with the Father and the Son, is one God, is our Creator; then it 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 hearts You have created. In fact, although all God’s external works - such as creation, sanctification of souls, etc. - are common to all three divine Persons, nevertheless, “because of a certain relation and almost affinity that passes between external works and each Person’s proper character, [these works] are attributed more to one than to the others” (Enc. Divinum illud). Thus to the Holy Spirit, who is the breath of divine love, is particularly attributed the work of sanctification, which is work of love: “The Holy Spirit,” teaches Leo XIII, “gives strong and gentle impulse and, as it were, the finishing touch to the lofty work of our eternal predestination” (Divinum illud). It is precisely under this particular aspect of Sanctifier that the Church invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit. Altissimi donum Dei - fons vivus, ignis, charitas et spiritalis unctio: gift of the Most High God, gift given to our souls to sanctify them, to lead them to holiness; living fountain of grace, fire, sweetness, spiritual unction. And again: septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae: Dispenser of the seven gifts by which He will perfect our spiritual life, finger of the Father’s right hand who must indicate to us the path of holiness. With what impetus, then, with what love and desire must we invoke the Holy Spirit, sanctifying Spirit.

Colloquy

“O marvelous Union in heaven, marvelous on earth, marvelous in that most secret and most perfect bond of the divine nature, where the Holy Spirit, who is bond and knot of love, unites in ineffable way the divine Persons. Oh, how united in most perfect unity is the Most Holy Trinity! Unity of essence, of substance, and of love. And You are this sweetest knot, O Holy Spirit! O divine Spirit, from the bond with which You eternally unite and tie in most perfect union the Father and the Son, draw a bond and a knot by which You unite the soul to God, in likeness of that divine union. And unite it with most perfect relaxation of its powers, so that it may not will, and in a certain way may not be able, by grace that holds it so tight and united to its God, to remember other, understand other, will other than divine charity. Oh, who could, like the blessed in heaven, never be loosed from so blessed and so tight a knot!

“O Holy Spirit, You come to us by loving operation of grace... and You come as a fountain pouring Yourself into the soul and the soul is submerged in You. And as two rivers, flowing out, unite together so that the lesser leaves its name, that is, loses its name taking that of the greater, so do You, O divine Spirit, who come into the soul to unite Yourself with it. But the soul, which is lesser, must lose its name and leave it to You, Holy Spirit, and it will do so by being transformed into You until it becomes one and the same thing with You.

“O Holy Spirit, I see You descend into the soul as the sun does, which finding no obstacle or impediment illumines all things; You descend like a fiery dart which, falling, goes to the deepest place it finds and there rests, not stopping on the way, nor resting in mountainous, elevated places, but rather in the center of the earth. So You, Holy Spirit, descending from heaven with the fiery darts of your divine love, do not rest in proud hearts and haughty minds, but rather set your dwelling in humble souls and in those contemptible in their own eyes” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).