To the Oblates of St. Charles
DELATES OF S. CHARLES.
REVEREND AND DEAR FATHERS:
Nearly ten years ago I dedicated to you a very slendei book on The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost. And now once more I add another, which traces at least the outline of the same subject.
The former book was on the special office of the Holy Ghost in the one visible Church, which is the organ of His divine Voice. The present volume deals with the universal office of the Holy Ghost in the souls of men. The former or special office dates from the Incarnation and the Day of Pentecost; the latter or universal office dates from the Creation, and at this hour still prevades by its operations the whole race of mankind. It is true to say with S. Irenteus, Uli Ecdesiaibi Spiritus — Where the Church is, there is the Spirit; but it would not be true to say, Where the Church is not, neither is the Spirit there. The operations of the Holy Ghost have always pervaded the whole race of men from the beginning, and they are now in fall activity even among those who are without the Church; for God " will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."1
I have, therefore, in this present volume, spoken of the universal office of which every living man has shared, and
Tl INTRODUCTION.
does share at this Lour; and I have tried to draw the out line of our individual sanctification. Nobody can be more fully aware how slender and insufficient are both these books. They are only put out as provocations, in the hope of rousing you to fill up the outline.
It is my hope that some of you may be stirred up to edit, in one volume, the treatises of S. Didymus, S. Basil, and S. Ambrose on the Holy Ghost; and also certain portions of 8. Bonaventure, S. Thomas, S. Dionysius the Carthusian, and S. Bernardino of Sienna on the Graces and Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, and on the Beatitudes which spring from them. These united, would make a precious store for students and for preachers.
My belief is that these topics have a special fitness in the nineteenth century. They are the direct antidote both of the heretical spirit which is abroad, and of the unspiritual and worldly mind of so many Christians. The presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church is the source of its infallibility; the presence of the Holy Ghost in the soul is the source of its sanctification. These two operations of the same Spirit are in perfect harmony. The test of the spiritual man is his conformity to the mind of the Church. Sentire cum Ecdesia in dogma, discipline, traditions, devotions, customs, opinions, sympathies, is the countersign that the work in our hearts is not from the diabolical spirit, nor from the human, but from the Divine.
S. Ambrose, S. Francis, S. Philip, S. Teresa, had an ardent devotion to the Holy Ghost. S. Teresa in her Life tells us that one day after Mass, on the vigil of Pentecost, in a very retired place where she often used to pray, she was reading a work on the feast of Pentecost by a Carthusian. I have always thought and hoped that it may have been the work of Dionysius, from whom I have quoted in these pages. His spiritual treatises are of singular beau'y an 3
INTRODUCTIONS. Vl depth; uniting the subtlety and accuracy of a scholastic with the spiritual light and sweetness of a mystical theologian.
It would seeni to me that the development of error haa constrained the Church in these times to treat especially oi the third and last clause of the Apostles' Creed: " I believe ir the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints." The definitions of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, of the Infallibility of the Vicar of Christ, bring out into distinct relief the twofold office of the Holy Ghost, of which one part is His perpetual assistance in the Church, the other His sanctification ol the soul, of which the Immaculate Conception is the first-fruits and the perfect exemplar.
The living consciousness which the Catholic Church has, that it is the dwelling-place of the Spirit of Truth and the organ of His Voice seems to be still growing more and more vividly upon its pastors and people, as the nations are falling away. Hi sunt, qui segregant semetipsos animates^ Spiritum non habentes.2 This prophecy of the Apostle ia visibly fulfilling before our eyes; while the unity, outward and inward, the unanimity and supernatural expansion of the Catholic Church by its own imperishable life and intrinsic force, bear witness of a Presence, a Mind, a Will, and a Power which is not of man, but of God. We seem to see and touch the evidence of the promise: " I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever."
" It is expedient for you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you," " the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
but you Khali know Him, because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you."
My purpose, however, is not to enter upon this large field in a preface, but only to commend to you, as the mat3 ter of your special study and the burden of your constant preaching, <% the ministration of the Spirit " under which we are. S. Ambrose says. Si appelare dominum Jesum sine Spiritu non possumus, utique sine Spirit u prcedicare non possumus.* I can desire for you, therefore, no better gift than that you may all be pleni Spiritu Sancto et Sapientia.'f Et vos, unctionem quam accepistis ab Eo. maneat in vobis. Et non neccsse habetis ut diquis doceat vos: sed sicut unctio ejus docet vos de omnibus, et verum est, et non est mendadum. Et sicut docuit vos, manete in Eo.\
Believe me, Reverend and dear Fathers,
Yours very affectionately in Jesus Christ, ift HENRY EDWARD,
Archbishop of Westminster. Uh Wednesday, 1875.
Footnotes
Chapter 1 of 18