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I.6. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus

Summary. — The doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit completes the exposition of the Divine Plan: capital importance of this subject. — I. The Holy Spirit in the Trinity : He proceeds from the Father and the Son through love ; the work of sanctification is appropriated to Him because it is a work of love, of achievement and union. — JI. Operations of the Holy Spirit in Christ: Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit ; sanctifying grace, virtues and gifts bestowed upon the Soul of Christ; The human activity of Christ directed by the Holy Spirit. — I. Operations of the Holy Spirit in the Church ; the Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church. — IV. The action of the Holy Spirit in the souls He dwells in. — V. In particular, the doctrine of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. — V1. Our devotion to the Holy Spirit: to invoke Him and be faithful to His inspirations.

Among the books of the Sacred Scriptures, we have under the title of the Acts of the Apostles the history of the first days of the Church. This account, due to the pen of St. Luke, who witnessed many of the facts he relates, is full of charm and life. We see in it how the Church, founded by Jesus upon the Apostles, developed in Jerusalem, and then extended gradually beyond Judea, chiefly owing to the preaching of St. Paul. The greater part of this book records the missions, labours and struggles of the great Apostle. Weare able to follow him in nearly every stage of his evangelical career. These pages taken from life reveal to us what incessant tribulations St. Paul endured, what numberless difficulties he encountered, the adventures that befell him, the sufferings he bore during the many journeys he undertook for the spreading abroad of the name and glory of Jesus.

It is recounted in these Acts that when, in the course of his missions, St. Paul came to Ephesus, he met there with some disciples and asked them: ” Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” The disciples replied:

We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost 7”.

We are certainly not ignorant of the existence of the Holy Ghost. Yet how many Christians there are nowadays who only know His name and hardly anything of His work in souls!’ However the Divine economy cannot be perfectly conceived unless we have as clear an idea as possible of what the Holy Ghost is for us.

In almost every text where St. Paul exposes the eternal designs concerning our supernatural adoption, and whenever he speaks of grace or of the Church, he speaks at the same time of ” the Spirit of God”, ” the Spirit of Christ ” or ” the Spirit of Jesus”. ” We have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba (Father)?! ” God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” so that we may call God our Father*. ’Know you not”, he says elsewhere, ” that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you+” ? And again : ” Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you”: An nescitis quoniam membra vestra templum sunt Spiritus Sancti, qui in vobis est®. It is in Christ that all the well ordered edifice is raised to form a holy temple in the Lord; it is in Him that we are to be made, through the Holy Spirit, a temple which God inhabits ®. So that as we form but one body in Christ, so we are all animated by one Spirit: Unum corpus et unus Spiritus’. The presence of this Spirit in our souls is so necessary that St. Paul says : ’”Tf any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His”, Si quis Spiritum Christi non habet, hic non est ejus *.

You now understand why the Apostle, who longed for nothing so much as to see Christ live in the souls of his disciples, asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost. It was because they only are God’s children, in Jesus Christ, who are led by the Spirit of God: Quicumque enim Spiritu Dei aguntur, hi sunt filu Det.

We shall only perfectly grasp the mystery of Christ and the economy of our sanctification, if we fix our attention upon this Divine Spirit and His action within us. We have

  1. Act. xix, 2, — 2. Rom. vm, 15. — 3. Gal. 1v, 6. — 4. I Cor. m,

  2. — 5. Ibid. v, 19. — 6. Ephes. 11, 21-22. —7. Ibid. 1v, 4. — 8. Rom. Vill, 9.

THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS. IOI seen that the aim of all our life is to enter with great humility into God’s thoughts and to adapt ourselves to them as perfectly as possible with childlike simplicity. These thoughts being divine, their efficacy is intrinsically absolute. They infallibly produce fruits of sanctification, if we accept them with faith and love. Now, to enter into the Divine Plan, we must not only receive Christ+, but, as St. Paul points out, we must also ” receive the Holy Spirit” and be submissive to His action so as to be ” one with Christ ”.

Consider Our Lord Himself. In that wonderful discourse after the Last Supper, when He reveals to those He calls His ” friends” the secrets of the Eternal life He brings them, He speaks of the Holy Spirit almost as often as He does of His Father. He tells them that this Spirit will take His place amongst them when He shall have ascended into Heaven; that this Spirit will be for them the Master of their inner life, a Master so necessary that Jesus Himself prays to His Father that this Spirit may be given to them and may abide in them.

And why should our Divine Saviour have been so intent on speaking of the Holy Spirit at this solemn hour and have done so in such pressing words, if what He tells us was to remain for us as a dead letter ? Would it not be to do Him a wrong and at great detriment to ourselves, if we were to pass over in silence a mystery so vital for us? ?

I will therefore try to show you, as clearly as I can, what the Holy Spirit is in Himself in the Adorable Trinity; — His action over the sacred Humanity of Christ; — and the ceaseless benefits He brings to the Church and to souls.

We shall thus complete the exposition of the Divine economy considered in itself.

1.Joan. 1, 12, — 2. In his Encyclical upon the Holy Spirit (Divinum illud munus, May gth 1897), Leo XIII, of glorious memory, bitterly deplores that “Christians have only a very poor knowledge of the Holy Ghost. They often use His name in their spiritual exercises, but their faith is encompassed with great darkness.” The great Pontiff likewise energetically insists that " all preachers and those who have charge of souls, should consider it as a duty to teach the people carefully and at length, diligentius atque uberius, concerning the Holy Ghost.” Doubtless he wishes "all subtle controversy to be avoided as well as all rash attempt to pry into the deep nature of the mystery,” but it is also his wish ” that the many and great benefits the Divine Giver has brought and ever brings to our souls should be recalled and clearly shown forth ; for error or ignorance concerning these great and fruitful mysteries (error and ignorance unworthy of children of light), ought totally to disappear :" prorsus depellatur.

Without doubt, this subject is a very deep one, and we ought only to treat of it with profound reverence ; but since Our Lord has revealed it to us, our faith ought also to consider it with love and confidence. Let us humbly ask the Holy Spirit Himself to enlighten our souls with a ray of His divine light. He will assuredly hear our prayer.

I

All we know about the Holy Ghost is what has been taught us by Revelation. And what has it taught us?

It belongs to the Infinite Essence to be one God in Three Persons: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That is the mystery of the Holy Trinity?. Faith confesses in God both unity of nature and distinction of Persons.

The Father, in knowing Himself, declares and expresses this knowledge in the Infinite Word; this act is simple and eternal; and the Son, begotten of the Father, is like and equal to Him, because the Father communicates to the Son His nature, life and perfections.

The Father and Son are drawn to one another by a common and mutual love: the Father is of such absolute perfection and beauty, the Son is so perfect an image of His Father ! Thus each gives Himself to the other, and this mutual love which springs from the Father and the Son as from one source is, in God, a subsisting love, a Person distinct from the other two Persons, named the Holy Ghost. This name is mysterious, but Revelation gives us no other.

The Holy Ghost is the ultimate term in the interior operations of the Divine life: He achieves, if we may thus lisp in speaking of such mysteries, the cycle of intimate activity in the Holy Trinity. But like the Father and the Son, He is God; He possesses, like Them and with Them, one and the same Divine nature, equal knowledge, equal power, equal majesty, equal goodness.

This Divine Spirit is named Holy, He is the Spirit of Holiness; holy in Himself, He makes holy. In announcing x. Fides autem catholica haec est: ut unum Deum in Trinitate et Trinitatem in unitate veneremur... neque confundentes personas, neque substantiam separantes. Creed attributed to St. Athanasius. — 2. See above p. 10, note 1, what we have said of sanctity in the Holy Trinity a the reason for which, according to St. Thomas, the Spirit is named holy. the mystery of the Incarnation, the Angel said to the Virgin: ” The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,... and therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”, Ideoque et quod nascetur ex te sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei*. Works of sanctification are especially attributed to the Holy Spirit. To understand this and all that will be said of the Holy Spirit, I must explain briefly what is called in theology appropriation.

As you know, there is in God, only one intelligence, only one will, only one power, because there is only one Divine nature; but also there is distinction of persons. This distinction results from the mysterious operations that are accomplished in the intimate life of God and from the mutual relations derived from these operations. The Father begets the Son, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. ” To beget, to be a Father”, is the exclusive property of the First Person; ” to be Son” is the personal property of the Son, as ” to proceed from the Father and the Son by way of love”, is the personal property of the Holy Ghost. These personal properties establish the mutual relations between the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, from whence the distinction arises. But setting apart these properties and these relations, all is common to the Three Persons and indivisible among them: the same intelligence, the same will, the same power, the same majesty, because the same indivisible Divine nature is common to the Three Persons. That is what we may know of the intimate operations in God.

As to what concerns the ” exterior” works, the actions accomplished outside God, whether in the material world, as the action of directing every creature towards its end, or in the world of souls, such as the action of producing grace, these are common to the three Divine Persons. Why so ? Because the source of these operations, works and actions is the Divine nature and this Divine nature is, for the Three Persons, one and indivisible; the Holy Trinity acts in the world as one and the same Cause. But it is God’s will that men should confess and honour not only the Divine Unity but also the Trinity of Persons. That is why the Church, for example in her liturgy, attributes to one or other of the

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Divine Persons certain actions which are produced in the world and, although common to the Three Persons, have a special relation or an intimate affinity with the place, if I may so speak, which this Person occupies in the Holy Trinity and with the attributes which are particularly and exclusively His own.

Thus, the Father being the source, origin and principle of the two other Persons — without this implying either hierarchical superiority or priority of time — the works produced in the world that especially manifest power or the character of origin are attributed to the Father. For example, the creation by which God drew the universe out of nothing. We sing in the Credo: "TI believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth”. Had therefore the Father a greater part, did He manifest more power in this work than the Son and Holy Ghost ? No, it would be an error to suppose so; the Son and the Holy Ghost acted in this as much as the Father, for God works eternally by His almighty power, and almighty power is common to the Three Persons. Why then does Holy Church speak after this manner ? Because in the Holy Trinity, the Father is the first Person, the Principle without principle, whence proceeds the two other Persons. This is His exclusive personal property distinguishing Him from the Son and Holy Ghost, and it is in order that we may not forget this property that the ” exterior” actions which, by affinity of nature, place it in relief, are attributed to the Father.

It is the same for the Person of the Son. He is, in the Holy Trinity, the Word proceeding from the Father by way of intelligence; He is the Infinite expression of the Divine Thought; He is above all considered as Eternal Wisdom. That is why those works in which wisdom especially shines forth are attributed to Him.

It is again the same for the Holy Ghost. What is He in the Holy Trinity? He is the ultimate term of the Divine operations, of the life of God in Himself; He closes, so to speak, the cycle of the intimate Divine life: it is His personal property to proceed from both the Father and the Son by way of love. This is why, ali that is a work of achievement, of perfection, all that is a work of love, of union and consequently of holiness — for our holiness is measured by our degree of union with God — is attributed to the Holy Ghost.

Is it because He sanctifies more than the Father and the Son? No, the work of our sanctification is common to the Three Divine Persons; but, once again, as the work of sanctification in the soul is a work of perfecting, of achievement and union, it is attributed to the Holy Ghost because in this way we more easily remember what are His personal properties so as to honour and adore Him in that which distinguishes Him from the Father and the Son.

God wills that we should have it as much at heart to honour His Trinity of Persons as to adore His unity of Nature, and therefore He wills that the Church even in her language, should recall to the minds of her children not only that there is but one God but also that He is in Three Persons.

This is what is called appropriation. It is founded on Revelation; it is employed by the Church’; it has for its aim to place in relief the attributes proper to each Divine Person. In doing this, it makes these properties known to us and makes us love them more. St. Thomas says it is to help our faith that the Church, following Revelation in this, observes the law of appropriation: Ad manifestationem fidei. During all eternity, our life, our beatitude will be to contemplate God, to love and enjoy Him, as He truly is, that is to say in the Unity of His nature and the Trinity of His Persons. What is there astonishing in the fact that God, Who predestines us to this life and prepares this beatitude for us, should will that, even here below, we should remember His Divine perfections as much those of His nature as the properties that distinguish the Persons. God is infinite and worthy of praise in His Unity, He is equally so in His Trinity; and the Divine Persons are as admirable in the unity of nature which they possess in an indivisible manner, as in the relations they have with each other and on which their distinction is founded.

” Almighty God, Eternal God, Blessed God, I rejoice in Thy Almighty Power, Thy Eternity and Thy Blessedness. When shall I behold Thee, O Principle without principle! When shall I behold Thy Son, equal to Thyself, coming forth from Thy bosom! When shall I behold Thy Holy Spirit proceeding from this union, being the term of Thy fruitfulness and consummating Thy Eternal action®” !

  1. In his Encyclical letter of May 9th 1897, Leo XIII says how aptly1

II

You will now have no difficulty in understanding the language of the Scriptures and of the Church when they speak of the operations of the Holy Ghost.

Let us first consider these operations in Our Lord. Let us reverently approach the Divine Person of Jesus Christ that we may contemplate something of the marvels realised in Him, in the Incarnation and since the Incarnation.

As I have said to you when explaining this mystery, the Holy Trinity created a soul. which it united to a human body so as to form one human nature, and united this human nature to the Divine Person of the Word. The Three Divine Persons concurred together in this ineffable work, although it is necessary to add immediately that it had for its final term, the Word alone; only the Word, the Son, became Incarnate*. This work is then due to the entire Trinity, but it is especially attributed to the Holy Ghost; and this is what we say in the Creed: ” I believe... in Jesus Christ our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost...” The Credo only repeats the words of the Angel to the Virgin: ” The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee... and therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”.

You will perhaps ask why this special attribution to the Holy Spirit ? Because, among other reasons given by St. Thomas ?, the Holy Spirit is substantial love, the love of the Father and the Son; now if the Redemption through the Incarnation is a work of which the fulfilment demanded infinite wisdom, it has however its first cause in God’s love for us. “God so loved the world”, Jesus Himself told us, “as to give His only begotten Son”: Sic Deus dilexit mundum ut Filium suum Unigenitum daret ®.

And think how fruitful and wonderful the virtue of the Holy Spirit is in Christ! Not only does He unite the human nature to the Word but to Him is attributed the effusion of sanctifying grace in the soul of Jesus.

In Jesus Christ there‘are two distinct natures, both perfect, but united in the Person who embraces them, i. e. the Word. _ 1. To employ an image given by certain Fathers of the Church, a person in putting on his vestments is helped in this action by two other persons ; all three concur in the accomplishment of this action, but only one is2

It is the ” grace of union” that causes human nature to subsist in the Divine Person of the Word; this grace is of an altogether unique, transcendent and incommunicable order; through it, the humanity of Christ belongs to the Word; it has become the humanity of the true Son of God and the object of the Eternal Father’s infinite delight. But the human nature, while being thus united to the Word, is not annihilated and does not remain in immobility: it retains its essence, its integrity, as likewise its energies and capacities; it is capable of action; now, it is ” sanctifying grace” that raises this human nature so that it can act supernaturally.

To state the same idea in other terms, the grace of hypostatic union unites the human nature to the Person of. the Word and thus renders everything divine in Christ; Christ és by this grace a divine ” subject”; this is the work of the grace of union of which the character is unique. But it is befitting that this human nature should also be adorned with ” sanctifying grace” in order to operate divinely in each of its faculties. This sanctifying grace which is connatural to the ” grace of union”, (that is to say which is derived from the grace of union in a manner as it were natural) places the soul of Christ in the state befitting its union with the Word ?; this is done in such a way that the human nature — which subsists in the Word by virtue of the ” grace of union ” — can act as befits a soul raised to so eminent a dignity, and can produce Divine fruit.

And that is why this sanctifying grace has not been given to the soul of Christ in a limited measure as it is with the elect, but carried to its highest degree: Et vidimus eum PLE- NUM GRATIAE. Now the pouring forth of this sanctifying grace in the soul of Christ is attributed to the Holy Spirit *.

  1. Gratia habitualis Christi tntelligitur ut consequens unionem hypostaticam, sicut splendor solem. S. Thom. III, q. vu, a. 13. — 2. Therefore, in Christ, the effect of the ” grace of union” of which the object is the union of the human nature with the Person of the Word, is different from the effect of ”sanctifying grace”; the latter gives the capacity of acting supernaturally to this human nature, which remains (even after the union with the Word is accomplished) integral in its essence and faculties. Therefore this sanctifying grace, being distinct from the grace of union, is not superfluous, as might appear at first sight. (S. Thom. II, q. vu, a. 1 a 13.) Cf. Schwalm, Le Christ d’aprés S. Thomas d’Aquin.

It is also to be observed that the " grace of union” is only to be found in Christ, whilst sanctifying grace is likewise in the souls of the just.

In Christ sanctifving grace is in all its fulness and it is of this fulness that all receive it in a more or less extensive measure. But it is above

At the same time, the Holy Spirit has poured forth on the soul of Jesus the fulness of the virtues? and the fulness of His gifts: Et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domim*. Hear what Isaias sang of the Virgin and of the Christ Who was to be born of her: ” There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse (that is the Virgin) and a flower shall rise up out of his root (Christ). And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness. And He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.”

In a remarkable circumstance related by St. Luke, Our Lord applied to Himself this text of the prophet. You know that at the time of Christ, the Jews assembled in the synagogue on the Sabbath day; a doctor of the law chosen from among those present, took the scroll of the Scriptures to read the part of the sacred text appointed for that day. St. Luke relates how, one Sabbath day, Our Divine Lord, then at the beginning of His public life, entered the synagogue of Nazareth. The book of the Prophet Isaias was given into His hands and, having unfolded it, He found the place where it was written: ” The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, wherefore He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He hath sent Me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Having folded the book, He restored it and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. Then He said to them: ” This day is fulfilled this scripture in your ears ”. Our Lord made His own the words of Isaias which compared the action of the Holy Spirit to an unction. The grace of the Holy Spirit is poured forth upon Jesus, like an oil of gladness which first anointed Him Son of God and the Messias, and then filled Him with the plenitude of His gifts and the abundance of divine treasures: Unzxit ie Deus oleo laetitiae prae consor- all necessary to observe that Christ is not the adoptive Son of God such as we become by sanctifying grace. He is the Son of God by nature. In us, sanctifying grace establishes divine adoption; in Christ, the function of sanctifying grace is to act in such a way that the human nature of Christ — once united to the Person of the Word by the grace of union and become, by this same grace, the Humanity of the very Son of God — is able to work in a supernatural manner.

  1. See above p. 36. — 2. Isa. x, 2. —3. Luc. tv, 16 a sq. — 4. In the Liturgy (Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus) the Holy Spirit is called Spiritalis unctio,

THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS. 10g tibus tuts*. It was at the very moment of the Incarnation that this blessed unction was conferred: and it was to signify this, to manifest it to the Jews, to proclaim that He is the Messias, the Christ, that is to say the Lord’s Anointed, that the Holy Spirit visibly descended upon Jesus under the form of a dove on the day of His baptism when the Incarnate Word was about to begin His public life. It was indeed by this sign that Christ was to be recognised as was declared by His Precursor, St. John the Baptist: ’” He upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending... He it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ?”.

From this moment, the Evangelists show us that in all things the Soul of Christ is directed by the Holy Spirit and His activity inspired by Him. It is the Holy Spirit Who leads Him into the desert to be tempted : Ductus est in desertum a Spiritu ut tentaretur a diabolo*. After His sojourn in the desert it is ” in the power of the Spirit *” that He returns into Galilee; by the action of this same Spirit, He casts out devils from the bodies of those possessed ; it is under the action of the Holy Spirit that He rejoices when He thanks His Father for revealing His Divine secrets to little ones: In ipsa hora exsultavit Spiritu Sancto®. Finally, St. Paul tells us that in the chief work of Christ, the one in which His love for His Father and for us shines out — namely His bloody sacrifice upon the cross for the salvation of the world — it was by the Holy Ghost Christ offered Himself: Quit per Spiritum Sanctum semetipsum obtulit immaculatum Deo.

What do all these revelations show? That in Christ, the human activity was directed by the Spirit of love. The One Who acts is Christ, the Incarnate Word. All His actions are the actions of the one Person of the Word in Whom the human nature subsists; but it is under the inspiration, by the promptings. of the Holy Spirit, that Christ acted. The human soul of Jesus had, through the grace of the hypostatic union, become the soul of the Word; it was filled like to none other with sanctifying grace, and lastly, it acted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And this is why all the actions of Christ Jesus were holy.

  1. Ps. xtiv, 5. Cf. Act. x, 38: Jesum a Nazareth, quomodo unxit eum Deus Spivitu Sancto. See also Matth. xu, 18. — 2. Joan. 1, 33. —

  2. Matth. rv, 1. — 4. Luc. tv, 14. — 5. Matth. xu, 28. — 6. Luc, x,21. — 7. Hebr. 1x, 14.

IIo CHRIST, THE LIFE OF THE SOUL.

Certainly His soul is created, like every soul; but it is all-holy, first because it is united to the Word; it is thus constituted, from the first moment of the Incarnation, in a state of union with a Divine Person which makes it not merely the soul of a saint, but of the Saint of saints, the very Son of God: Quod nascetur ex te sanctum vocabitur Filius Dei. It is holy too, because it is adorned with sanctifying grace which makes it capable of acting supernaturally, and in a manner worthy of the supreme union which constitutes its inalienable privilege. In fine, it is holy because all its actions, all its operations, although being and remaining the actions of the one Incarnate Word, are wrought through the movement, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Holiness.

Let us adore these marvels produced in Christ: the Holy Spirit renders holy the being and activity of Christ; and because, in Christ, this holiness attains the supreme degree, because all human holiness is to be modelled upon it and must be subject to it, the Church sings daily: Tu solus sanctus, Jesu Christe, ” Thou only art holy”, O Christ Jesus. Only Thou art holy because only Thou art by Thy Incarnation the true Son of God; only holy, because Thou possessest sanctifying grace in its fulness that so Thou mayest distribute it to us; only holy because Thy soul was infinitely docile to - the promptings of the Spirit of Love Who inspired and ruled all Thy movements, all Thy acts and made them pleasing to Thy Father: Et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini.

III

These marvels which were operated in Christ under the inspiration of the Spirit, are reproduced in us, at least in part, when we allow ourselves to be guided by this Divine Spirit. But do we possess this Spirit ? Yes, without any doubt.

Before ascending into Heaven, Jesus promised His disciples that He would ask the Father to give them the Holy Spirit. He made the gift of this Spirit to our souls the object of a special prayer: Rogabo Patrem, et alium Parachitum dabit vobis, Spiritum veritatist. And you know how the prayer of Jesus was granted and how abundantly

  1. Joan. xiv, 16, 17.

THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS. Tit the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. This marvel marked, as it were, the taking possession of the Church, Christ’s mystical body, by the Divine Spirit. We may say that if Christ is the Chief, the Head of the Church, the Holy Spirit is the soul of it. It is the Holy Spirit Who guides and inspires the Church, keeping her, as Jesus said, in the truth of Christ and in the light He has brought to us: Docebit vos omnem veritatem et suggeret vobis omnia quaecumque dixero vobis }.

This action of the Holy Spirit in the Church is varied and manifold. I have said above that Christ was anointed the Messias and High Priest by an ineffable unction of the Holy Spirit; all those whom Christ wills to make participants of His priestly power that so they may continue here below His sanctifying mission, are made partakers of it by the unction of the Holy Spirit: Accipite Spiritum Sanctum... Spiritus Sanctus posuit episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei?. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks by their mouth and gives value to their testimony . In the same way, the authentic means that Christ has given to His ministers, whereby they may transmit life to souls, namely the Sacraments, are never conferred without the Holy Spirit being invoked. It is He Who fructifies the waters of baptism ‘ ; it is necessary to ” be born again of water and the Holy Ghost to enter into the Kingdom of God”; St. Paul says that God saves us ” by the laver of regeneration” in renewing us by the Holy Ghost *. In Confirmation, the Holy Ghost is ” given” to be the unction which is to make the Christian a valiant soldier of Jesus Christ; it is the Holy Ghost Who, in this sacrament, gives us the fulness of the state of Christian and clothes us in Christ’s own strength. It is to the Holy Ghost, as is especially shown in the Eastern liturgy, that the change is attributed whereby the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. Sins are forgiven, in the Sacrament of penance, by the Holy Ghost’. In Extreme Unction, He is besought that His grace may cure the sick of their languors

  1. Joan. xiv, 26. — 2. Ibid. xx, 22; Act. xx, 28. — 3. Joan. XV, 26; Act. Xv, 28; xx, 22-28. — 4. See further on, the conference on Baptism. — 5. Joan. m, 5. — 6. Tit. m, 5. — 7. Joan. xx, 22-23. Spiritus Sancti proprium est quod sit donum Patris et Filii ; remissio autem peccatorum fit per Spiritum Sanctum tamquam per donum Dei. S. Thom. III, q. Il a. 8, ad 3. The missal likewise says: Ipse Spiritus Sanctus est remissto omnium peccatorum. Feria III after Pentecost. See also the postcommunion of the prayer pro petitione lacrymarum. (Orationes diversae.) and sins. In the Sacrament of Matrimony, the Holy Ghost is invoked in order that the Christian bridegroom and bride may, by their lives, imitate the union that exists between Christ-and the Church.

Do you not see how full of life, how penetrating and constant, is the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church? Yes, He is indeed, as St. Paul says, ” the Spirit of Life*”’, a truth the Church repeats in her Credo when she chants her faith in ’the Holy Ghost... the life-giver”: Credo... in Spiritum Sanctum... VIVIFICANTEM; He is truly the soul of the Church, He is the vital principle animating and governing her, uniting all her members one with another and giving them spiritual strength and beauty *.

In the first days of the Church’s existence, this action was much more visible than in our own days; it entered into the designs of Providence, for it was necessary that the Church should be firmly established by manifesting, in the sight of the pagan world, striking signs of the Divinity of her Founder, of her origin and mission. These signs, the fruits of the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, were wonderful. We marvel when we read the account of the beginnings of the Church. The Holy Spirit descended upon those who through baptism were made Christ’s disciples. He filled them with miraculous gifts as numerous as they were astonishing: graces of miracles, gifts of prophecy, gifts of tongues and many other extraordinary favours granted to the first Christians in order that the Church, adorned with such an abundance of eminent gifts, might be recognised as the true Church of Jesus. Read in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians how the great Apostle rejoices in enumerating these marvels of which he was himself a witness; and at almost each enumeration of these various gifts, he adds: but it is “the same Spirit ” Who is the source of them, because He is Love and love is the principle of all these gifts. In eodem Spiritu®. He it is Who makes fruitful this Church which Jesus has redeemed by His blood that it might ” be holy and without blemish *”.3

IV

If the visible and extraordinary character of the effects of the workings of the Holy Spirit have in great part disappeared, the action of this Divine Spirit ever continues in souls and is not the less wonderful for now being chiefly interior.

I have told you that holiness for us is nothing else than the complete unfolding, the full development of that first grace of our divine adoption, that grace given at baptism by which we become children of God and brethren of Christ Jesus. The substance of all holiness is to draw from this initial grace of adoption all the treasures and graces which it contains and that God causes to flow from it. Christ is the Model of our divine filiation. He has moreover merited that it should be given to us, and He Himself has established the means whereby it should come to us.

But the fruition within us of this grace, rendered possible by Jesus, is the work of the Holy Trinity ; it is however, and not without motive, especially attributed to the Holy Spirit. Why is this ? Always for the same reason. This grace of adoption is purely gratuitous and has its source in love: Videte qualem caritatem dedit nobis Pater ut Filii Dei nominemur et simus. Now, in the adorable Trinity, the Holy Spirit is substantial love. St. Paul tells us that ” the charity of God” (that is to say the grace that makes us children of God) ” is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost”: Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis ?.

And' from the moment of the infusion of grace in us by baptism, the Holy Ghost abides in us with the Father and the Son. ” If anyone love Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make our abode with him”, Ad eum veniemus et MANSIO- NEM apud eum faciemus*. Grace makes our soul the temple of the Holy Trinity. Our soul adorned with grace is truly the abode of God ; He dwells within us, not merely as He does in all things, by His essence and His power, by which He sustains and preserves every creature in existence, but in an altogether special and intimate manner as being the

  1. I Joan, m, 1. — 2. Rom. v, 5. — 3. Joan. xiv, 23.

Christ, the life of the soul. 8 object of supernatural knowledge and love. And because grace thus unites us to God, because it is the principle and measure of our charity, it is especially the Holy Spirit who is said ” to dwell within us”, not in a manner that is personal to Him to the exclusion of the Father and the Son, but because He proceeds through love and it is He who unites the Father and the Son: Apud vos manebit et in vobis erit, said Our Lord}. Every man, even a sinner, still possesses in himself the vestiges of divine power and wisdom ; the just alone, those who are in a state af grace, are partakers of the supernatural charity which is like the exclusive sign of the Holy Spirit. This is why St. Paul, speaking to the faithful, says to them: ” Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God” ? An nescttis quoniam membra vestra templum sunt Spiritus Sancti qui in vobis est, quem habetis a Deo? ?

And what is it this Divine Spirit does in our souls ? For being God, being Love, He does not remain inactive. First of all, He gives testimony that we are the children of God : Ipse Spiritus testimonium reddit spiriiui nostro, quod sumus fil Dei*® ; He is the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Holiness, Whose will it is, because He loves us, to give us a share in His holiness that we may be true and worthy children of God.

With sanctifying grace which, so to speak, deifies our nature and renders it capable of acting supernaturally, the Holy Spirit places within us forces, ” habits’, which raise the faculties of the soul to a divine level. These are the supernatural virtues, above all the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, which are, properly speaking, the virtues characteristic of our state as children of God ; next there are the infused moral virtues which help us in the combat against the obstacles that are opposed to the development of the divine life within us.

Lastly there are the gifts : Dona Spiritus Sancti. Let us stay a few moments to consider them. Our Divine Saviour, Who is our Model, received them, as we have seen, but in a transcendent and eminent manner. The measure of the gifts in us is limited ; however this measure still remains so

  1. Joan. xiv, 17. — 2. I Cor. vi; 19. — 3. Rom. vu, 16.

THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS. T15 fruitful that it produces marvels of holiness in souls where these gifts abound. Why is this? Because it is chiefly by them that our state of adoption is especially brought to perfection as we are about to see.

What then are the gifts of the Holy Spirit ? They are benefits, as the name indicates, that the Spirit gratuitously distributes to us with sanctifying grace and the infused virtues. In her liturgy, the Church tells us that the Holy Spirit is Himself the highest Gift: Donum Dei altissimi} is for He descends into us even from the moment of baptism to give Himself as the object of love. But this Gift is divine and living. He is a Guest Who, full of liberality, wishes to enrich the soul that receives Him. Being Himself the uncreated Gift, He is the source of the created gifts which, with sanctifying grace and the infused virtues, fully enable the soul to live supernaturally in a perfect manner.

Indeed even supplied with grace and the infused virtues, our soul is not re-established in that original integrity in which Adam was before the Fall. Reason, itself subject to error, sees its power of sovereignty disputed by the inferior appetites and the senses; the will is prone to weakness. What follows from this state? It follows that in the principal work of our sanctification, we are under the necessity of being constantly and directly aided by the Holy Spirit. He provides for this by His inspirations which all go to perfect, to achieve our sanctity. And in order that these inspirations may be well received, He Himself places, in our souls, the dispositions that render us docile and pliable ; these are the gifts of the Holy Ghost ?.

The gifts therefore are not of themselves inspirations of the Holy Ghost, but dispositions which cause us to obey these inspirations promptly and easily.

By these gifts, the soul is made capable of being moved and directed in the path of supernatural perfection and of divine filiation; it possesses, as it were, a supernatural tact, a divine instinct of spiritual things. The soul that, in virtue

  1. Hymn Veni Creator. — 2. In Christ Jesus, the presence of the gifts of the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the necessity of aiding the weakness of the reason and will, Christ not being subject to any error or any weakness. These gifts were bestowed upon the soul of Jesus because they constitute a perfection, and it is befitting that every perfection should be in Christ. We have seen above the influence that the Holy Ghost exercises by His gifts in the soul of Jesus. of these dispositions, lets itself be guided by the Spirit, acts in all security as becomes a child of God. In all its spiritual life, it thinks and acts ”supernaturally to the point ” if I may thus express myself*. You will at once see that the gifts place and dispose the soul to move in an atmosphere where all is supernatural, where nothing natural, so to speak, is mingled. By His gifts, the Holy Spirit holds and reserves to Himself the supreme direction of all our supernatural conduct.

And this is a most important point for us, our holiness being of an essentially supernatural order. By the virtues, the soul in a state of grace acts supernaturally, it is true ; but it acts in a manner conformable to its rational and human condition as likewise by its own movement and initiative. By the gifts it is disposed to act directly and solely under the divine impulsion (whilst keeping, of course, its liberty which is manifested by acquiescence to the inspiration from on high), and this in a manner which does not always fit in with its rational, natural way of seeing and considering things. The influence of the gifts is then, in a very real sense, superior to that of the virtues?; it is true the gifts do not supply the place of the virtues but they marvellously complete their operations. For example, the gifts of understanding and knowledge perfect the exercise of the virtue of faith; this explains why souls, simple and uncultured, but upright and docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, have a certitude, a comprehension of supernatural things and a penetration into them that is sometimes astonishing; they have a spiritual instinct which warns them of error and makes them hold to the revealed truth with a singular assurance protecting them from all doubts. Whence does this arrive? From study? From deep examination into the truths of their faith? No, from the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth who by the gift of understanding or of knowledge perfects their virtue of faith.

As you see, the gifts constitute for the soul a perfection of great value on account of their exclusively supernatural character. They achieve the bringing to perfection of that

  1. Dona sunt quaedam perfectiones hominis quibus homo disponitur ad hoc quod bene sequatur instinctum Spiritus Sancti. S. Thom. I-II, q. LXVUI, a.3. — 2. Dona a virtutibus distinguuntur in hoc quod virtutes perficiunt ad actus humano modo, sed dona ultra humanum modum. S

Thom. Sent. III, dist.xxxtv, q. 1. a. 1. — Donorum ratio propria est ut per ea quis super humanum modum operetur, Sent. III,dist.xxxv,q.2, a.3. wonderful supernatural organism by which God calls our souls to live by the Divine life. Granted to every soul ina state of grace, in a greater or lesser measure, the gifts remain in a permanent state as long as we do not drive out, by mortal sin, the Divine Guest Who is their source. As it is always possible for them to increase, they moreover extend to all our supernatural life which they make extremely fruitful because by them our souls are placed under the direct action or immediate influence of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is God with the Father and the Son ; He loves us with unspeakable love ; He wills our sanctification ; His inspirations, all proceeding from His goodness and love, have no other end than to mould us to a greater resemblance to Jesus. And this is why, although it is not their proper and exclusive function, the gifts even dispose us to those heroic acts by which holiness is powerfully manifested.

What ineffable goodness is that of our God Who supplies us so carefully and richly with all that is necessary for us in order to attain to Him! And would it not be doing a wrong to the Divine Guest of our souls if we were to doubt His goodness and love, to fail in confidence in His bounty and liberality or show ourselves heedless about profiting by them ?...

V

Let us now say a word on each of the seven gifts. This number does not constitute a limit, for the action of God is infinite, but rather, like many other biblical numbers, it denotes plenitude. We will simply follow the order indicated by Isaias in his messianic prophecy without seeking to establish a gradation or any carefully marked characteristics in the relations between the gifts ; we will try to say, as far as we can, what belongs to each of them.

The first mentioned is that of wisdom. What does wisdom here signify ? It is a sapida cognitio rerum spiritualium, a supernatural gift in order to know or esteem Divine things by the spiritual taste with which the Holy Spirit inspires us. It is an intimate, a deep knowledge that relishes the things of God. We ask for it in the collect for the feast of Pentecost inself : Da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere. Sapere is to have not only the knowledge, but the relish for celestial and supernatural things ; it is not — far from it — what is called sensible devotion, but a spiritual experience of what is Divine, that the Holy Spirit wills to produce within us. It is the response to the Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus: ” O taste and see that the Lord is sweet?”. This gift makes us prefer, without any hesitation, the blessedness of God’s service to all earthly joys ; it is this gift which causes the soul to say: ” How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord !... better is one day in Thy courts above thousands ?” of years away from Thee! But to experience this, we must carefully put away all that draws us towards the unlawful pleasures of the senses.

The gift of understanding makes us search deeply into the truths of faith. St. Paul tells us that ” God hath revealed them by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God*”. Not that this gift diminishes the incomprehensibility of the mysteries or does away with faith; but it goes further into the mystery than the simple asquiescence of faith; it bears upon the appropriateness or the greatness of the mysteries, upon their relations with each other or with our supernatural life. It has also for its object, the truths contained in the Sacred Books, and it is this gift which seems to have been granted in a special measure to those in the Church who have shone by the depth of their doctrine, those whom we call ” Doctors of the Church”; but every baptised soul possesses within itself this precious gift. You read a text of Holy Scripture ; you have read and reread it many times without having been struck by it; but, one day, a sudden light flashes, illuminating to its depths, so to speak, the truth set forth in this text; this truth then becomes altogether clear to you and often a principle of supernatural life and action. Is it by your reflexions that you have arrived at this result? No, it is an illumination, and intuition of the Holy Spirit Who, by the gift of understanding, makes you penetrate further into the inmost and deep meaning of the revealed truths so that you may hold them the more firmly.

By the gift of counsel, the Holy Spirit responds to this prayer of the soul: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do *” ! He keeps us from all precipitation, from all levity, but, above

  1. Ps. Xxx, 9. — 2. Ps, Lxxxmm, 2-11. — 3. I Cor. u, 10. — 4. Act. 1x

THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF JESUS. TIg all, from all presumption, so dangerous in spiritual ways. A soul that only wishes to be guided by herself, who worships her own personality, acts without consulting God in prayer. She practically acts as if God was not for her the heavenly Father from Whom every light comes: OMNE donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum*. Consider our Divine Saviour. He says, the Son, that is to say Himself, does nothing ” but what He seeth the Father doing” : Non potest Filius a se facere quidquam nisi quod viderit Patrem facientem?. The soul of Jesus contemplated the Father to behold in Him the model of His works ; it was the Spirit of Counsel that showed Him the desires of the Father ; that is why all that our Lord did was pleasing to His Father : Quae placita sunt ei facio semper *. It is a disposition whereby the child of God is enabled to judge of things according to principles above those of human wisdom. Sometimes, natural prudence, always limited, points out how to act in such or such a way ; then, by the gift of counsel, the Holy Spirit shows higher principles of conduct which ought to direct the actions of the child of God.

It is not always enough for us to know God’s good pleasure. Owing to our fallen nature, we often need strength to carry into effect what God requires of us ; it is the Holy Spirit Who, by the gift of fortitude, sustains us in particularly difficult moments. There are pusillanimous souls that fear the trials of the inner life. It is impossible that these trials should be wanting ; they are even so much the deeper in proportion as God calls us higher. But let us fear nothing : the Spirit of Fortitude is with us: Apud vos manebit et in vobis erit*. Like the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, we shall be, by the Holy Spirit, endowed with power from on high : Virtute ex alto ®, so as to accomplish the Divine will generously, to obey, like the disciples, God rather than men, if the choice must be made °; to support valiantly the adversities we meet with as we come nearer to God. That is why St. Paul prayed so earnestly for the faithful of Ephesus that God would grant them ” to be strengthened by His Spirit with might unto the inward man™”. The Holy Spirit says to such as He fills with fortitude, what God said to Moses when he shrank from the mission given to him of delivering the Hebrew people from the yoke of the Pharaohs : Ego ero tecum: Fear nothing, ” I will be with thee:”. Such a one is strong with the very strength of God. It is this strength that makes the martyrs and sustains the virgins. The world wonders to see them so courageous, because it imagines they find their strength in themselves, while in reality they draw it from God alone.4

The gift of knowledge makes us see created things in a supernatural way as only a child of God can see them. There are many ways of considering what lies within us and around us. It is in a different manner that an unbeliever and one who believes in God contemplate creation. The unbeliever has only a purely natural knowledge, however wide and profound it may be; the child of God sees creation in the light of the Holy Spirit, as the work of God wherein His eternal Perfections are reflected. This gift makes us know created things, including ourselves, from God’s point of view ; it makes us know our supernatural end and the means of arriving at it, but with intuitions which preserve us from the false maxims of the world and the suggestions of the spirit of darkness.

The gifts of piety and of fear are the complement the one of the other. The gift of Piety is one of the most precious because it concurs directly in regulating the attitude we ought to keep, in our relations with God: the blending of adoration, respect and profound reverence towards the Divine Majesty ; of love, confidence, tenderness, perfect abandonment and holy liberty in presence of Him who is our Heavenly Father. Far from excluding each other, these dispositions can be perfectly allied ; but it is the Holy Spirit Who will teach us in what measure they are to be harmonised. In the same way, love and justice do not exclude one another in God. The gift of piety bears another fruit : it re-assures timid souls (there are such) who in dealing with God are afraid of not employing the right formulae in their prayers. This scruple is dispelled by the Holy Spirit when one listens to His inspirations. He is ”the Spirit of Truth”. If, says St. Paul, ” we know not what we should pray for as we ought ?”, the Spirit is within us to help us; He prays in an ineffable manner which makes us cry towards God and be heard by Him.5

Lastly there is the gift of fear. It seems strange, does it not ? to find, in the Prophecy of Isaias, this expression : Et replebit eum Spiritus timoris Domini, ” He shall be filled with the Spirit of fear”. How can this be ? How can Christ, the Son of God, be filled with the fear of God? It is because there are two kinds of fear of God : first there is the fear which only thinks of the chastisement due to sin; that is servile fear, wanting in nobility but not always without use. Then there’ is the fear which makes us avoid sin because it offends God ; that is filial fear but it remains imperfect as long as the fear of punishment is mingled with it. It goes without saying that neither this imperfect fear nor servile fear had any place in Christ’s all-holy soul ; there was only perfect, reverential fear, the fear that the angelic powers have before the infinite perfection of God ; Tremunt potestates* ; the fear that evinces itself by adoration and is altogether holy : Timor Domini sanctus permanens in saeculum saeculi?. Jf we could contemplate the Humanity of Jesus, we should see it prostrate in reverence before the Word to Whom His Humanity is united. This is the reverence that the Spirit places within our souls ; He keeps it there but in mingling it, by the gift of piety, with that love and filial tenderness which results from our Divine adoption and makes us cry out to God: ” Father”! This gift of piety implants in us, as in Jesus, the tendency to refer everything to our Father.

Such are the gifts of the Divine Spirit. They perfect the virtues by disposing us to act with a supernatural assurance which constitutes in us, as I have said, what is like a Divine instinct of heavenly things ; by these gifts which the Holy Spirit Himself places within us to render us docile to His action, He achieves the work of making us more and more the children of God : Quicumque enim Spiritu Det aguntur, ui sunt filii Der*.

When therefore we let ourselves be guided by the promptings of this Spirit of love ; when we are, in the measure of our weakness, constantly faithful to His holy inspirations — those inspirations that lead us towards God and what is pleasing to Him — the result is that we act in the full meaning of our Divine adoption ; then our souls produce those fruits which are at once the term of the Holy Spirit’s action in us and, by their sweetness, are like the anticipated reward of our fidelity to this action. These fruits, as enumerated by St. Paul, are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continence and chastity. These fruits, all worthy of the Spirit of Love and Holiness, are also worthy of our Heavenly Father Who finds His glory in them : In hoc clarificatus est Pater meus ut fructum plurimum afferatis? ; finally they are worthy of Christ Jesus Who merited them for us and to Whom the Holy Spirit unites us: Qui manet in me et ego in eo hic fert fructum multum *.6

The Holy Spirit Whom Christ, as the Word, sends us, is within us the principle, the source of those rivers of living water, of the grace which springs up within us into life everlasting *, that is to say that makes us bear fruits of everlasting life... Whilst awaiting the supreme beatitude, these waters ” make joyful the city” of souls : Fluminis impetus laetificat civitatem Dei®. St. Paul says too that all faithful souls, those who believe in Christ have ” in one Spirit... all been made to drink ®°”. That is why the liturgy, the echo of the teaching of Jesus and of the Apostles, causes us to invoke the Holy Spirit Who is also the Spirit of Jesus as the ” Living Spring”, Fons vivus’.

ME

Such then is the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in our souls. Like the Divine principle whence it emanates, this action is holy and tends to make us holy. What now shall be our devotion towards this Spirit Who dwells in us from our baptism and Whose virtue within us is, of its nature, so deep and efficacious ?

First of all we must often invoke Him. Like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is God ; He too desires our holiness. Moreover, it enters into the Divine plan that we should pray to the Holy Spirit as we pray to the Father and the Son to Whom He is equal in power and goodness. The Church is our guide in this. She closes the cycle of solemnities celebrating Christ’s mysteries with Pentecost, the Feast of the mission of the Holy Spirit ; during this time she has wonderful prayers, wherewith to ask grace from the Divine Spirit, aspirations full of love, such as the Veni Sancte Spiritus. O Infinite Love, proceeding from the Father and the Son, give me the spirit of adoption ; teach me to act always as a true child of God. Abide in me, grant that I may abide in Thee so that I may love as Thou lovest. I am nothing without Thee: Sine tuo numine nihil est in homine... 1 am good for nothing, but keep me united to Thee, fill me with Thy love that so I may remain united through Thee to the Father and the Son! Let us often ask for a greater share in the Holy Spirit’s gifts, the Sacrum septenarium. We ought to thank Him too and return humble thanks. If Christ Jesus has merited all for us, it is by His Spirit? that He guides and directs us; it is through the magnificent liberality of His Spirit that we hold those abundant graces which make us, little by little, like to Jesus. How can we fail to testify often our gratitude to this Guest Whose loving and efficacious presence fills us with such precious benefits? The first homage we must offer to this Spirit, Who with the Father.and the Son is God, is to believe with a practical faith in His Divinity, His power and His goodness.7

Next, let us be watchful not to oppose His action within us. Spiritum nolite extinguere, says St. Paul?, ” Extinguish not the Spirit” ; and again: Nolite contristare Spiritum, ” Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God*”. As I have said, the action of the Spirit in the soul is delicate because it is an action of completeness, of perfection ; His touches are of infinite delicacy. We must watch in order not to oppose the action of this Divine Spirit by our levity, our voluntary dissipation, our carelessness, or wilful deliberate resistances, by an ill-regulated attachment to our own judgment : Nolite esse prudentes apud vosmetipsos*. In the things of God, do not trust to human wisdom, for then the Holy Spirit will relinquish you to this natural prudence which, as you know, St. Paul says is ” foolishness ” in God’s sight, Stultitia apud Deum®. This action of the Holy Spirit

  1. When we say Christ guides us by His Spirit, we do not say the Holy Spirit is an instrument; He is God, the cause of grace; but we mean by this that the Holy Spirit is the principle (for us) of grace, Himself proceeding from a principle, from the Father and the Son ; Jesus Christ, as Word, sends us the Holy Spirit. S. Thom. I, q. xtv, a. 6, ad. 2. — 2. Thessal. v, 19. — 3. Ephes. 1v, 30. — 4. Rom. xu, 16. — 5. I Cor. m, 19. a: 124 CHRIST, THE LIFE OF THE SOUL. is quite compatible with those imperfections which so often overtake us by surprise and which we regret, compatible too with our infirmities, human limitations, and temptations ; our native poverty does not repel the Holy Spirit : He is the Pater pauperum, the ” Father of the Poor”, as the Church calls Him ?.

That which is incompatible with His action is calculated resistance to His inspirations. Why is this ? First because the Spirit proceeds from love, He is Love Itself ; and yet although His love for us is incommensurable, and His action infinitely powerful, the Holy Spirit absolutely respects our liberty and does not compel our will. We have the sad privilege of being able to resist Him ; but nothing thwarts love like obstinate resistance to its advances. Then, it is above all by His gifts that the Holy Spirit guides us in the path of holiness and makes us live as children of God ; now, in His gifts, it is the Holy Spirit Who urges and determines the soul to act: In donis Spiritus Sancti mens humana non se habet ut movens, sed magis ut mota? ; the soul’s part is certainly not to remain entirely passive, but to be ready to receive Divine inspiration, to listen to it, and be promptly faithful to it. Nothing blunts the action of the Holy Spirit in us like a rigid unbending attitude in regard to those inward movements which bear us Godwards, and urge us to the observance of His commandments, to the accomplishment of His good pleasure, to charity, humility and confidence. To reply “no” voluntarily, deliberately, even in little things, impedes the Holy Spirit’s action within us ; it becomes less strong and more rare, and the soul remains at an ordinary degree, a mediocre level of holiness ; its supernatural life lacks intensity : Spiritum nolite contristare.

And if these infidelities are multiplied, and become frequent and habitual, the Holy Spirit is silent; the soul thus given over to itself, without guide and inward support in the path of salvation and perfection, is very near to becoming the prey of the prince of darkness; it is the death of charity : Spiritum nolite extinguere. Extinguish not the Holy Spirit, for He is like a fire of love burning within our souls *,

1, Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritui. — 2. S. Thom. II-II, q. tu, a. 2 ad 1, — 3. Ignis, Hymn Veni Creator, Et tui amoris ignem accende. Mass for Whit-Sunday. sp i ad

Rather let us remain, in the measure of our weakness, but with generosity, faithful to the ” Spirit of Truth” Who is also the Spirit of holiness ; let us be souls promptly docile to the touches of this Spirit. What deep joy and what inward liberty a soul tastes that thus gives itself up to the action of the Holy Spirit ? This Divine Spirit will cause us to bear fruits of holiness, pleasing to God. As the Divine Artist — Digitus paternae dexterae — He will, with infinitely delicate touches, complete in us the work of Jesus, or rather, He will form Jesus within us, as He formed the Holy Humanity of Jesus, so that by His workings, we may teproduce in ourselves, to the glory of the Father, the traits of that Divine sonship that we have in Christ Jesus : Christus per Spiritum Sanctum est in sanctitate conceptus, ut esset Filius Dei naturalis ; alu per Spiritum Sanctum sanctificantur, ut sint Filii Dei adoptivi?.

Ewe liom. LL, Gg. XXXIt,) aut

Note

The Holy Spirit is truly the soul of the Church... p. 110. When we say that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, we evidently do not intend to say that He is the form of the Church, as the soul is, in us, the form of the body. Taking things from this point of view, it would be more theologically correct to say that the soul of the Church is sanctifying grace(with the infused virtues that are necessarily attendant upon it); grace is, in fact, the principle of supernatural life, which makes the members belonging to the body of the Church live with Divine life. However, even then, the analogy between grace and the soul is only imperfect; but this is not the moment to dwell on these distinctions. When we say that the Holy Spirit, and not grace, is the soul of the Church, we indicate the cause instead of the effect for it is the Holy Spirit Who produces sanctifying grace. We wish then by this expression (Holy Spirit=soul of the Church), to mark the inward influence, vivifying and * unifying”, if one may thus express it, that the Holy Spirit exercises in the Church. This manner of speaking is perfectly legitimate; it is employed by several of the Fathers of the Church, for example, St. Augustine: Quod est in corpore nostro anima, id est Spiritus Sanctus in corpore. Christi quod est Ecclesia (Sermo CLXXXVII de tempore). Many modern theologians speak after the same manner, and Leo XIII has consecrated this expression in his Encyclical upon the Holy Ghost. It is interesting to remark that St Thomas, in order to denote the internal influence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, compares it to that which the heart exercises in the human organism.

Footnotes

  1. this is done by the Church, aptissime. — 2 I, q. XXXIX, a. 7. — 3. Bossuet, Preparation for Death, 4th prayer. ↩

  2. adorned in these vestments. This image is necessarily only an imperfect comparison. — 2. III, q. xxx, a. 1. — 3. Joan. m, 16. ↩

    1. Rom. vil, 2. — 2. See the note at the end of this conference. — SpeCOr, (At, 1G, — 4. Ephes. v, 27.
    ↩
    1. Jac. 1, 17. — 2. Joan. v, 19. — 3. Ibid. vin, 29. — 4. Ibid. xvi, 17. — §. XXIV, 49. — 6. Act. IV, 19. — 7. Ephes. m1, 16.
    ↩
    1. Exod. 1, 12. — 2. Rom. vm 26.
    ↩
    1. Preface of the Mass. — 2. Ps. xv, 10. — 3. Rom. vil, 14.
    ↩
    1. Gal. v, 22-23. — 2. Joan. xv, 8. — 3. Ibid. 5. — 4. Hujusmodi autem flumina sunt aquae vivae quia sunt continuatae suo principio, scilicet Spiritui Sancto inhabitanti. S. Thom. In Joan. vu, lect. 5. — 5. Ps. xiv, 5. — 6, I Cor. xu, 13. — 7. Hymn Veni Creator.
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Chapter 8 of 21