Thursday, June 08, 2006

"Conformity with Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit"fragments from 'Divine Intimacy' by Fr Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen OCD

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, make me conformable to Jesus, make me an "alter Christus, another Christ.

MEDITATION
2. The norm of life for Jesus was His Father's will, and we have seen how the Holy Spirit guided Him continually in the accomplishment of that will. In the same way, the Holy Spirit guide us along the way traced out by the will of God. Practically speaking, "sanctity consists in conformity to the divine will" (Benedict XV), in a conformity so complete that ,as St. John of the Cross teaches: "there may be naught in the soul that is contrary to the will of God, but that, in all and trough all, its movement may be that of the will of God alone" (AS I, 11,2). It is not easy to reach this point, and we shall never be able to do so without the help of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we must not forget that conformity to the divine will finds its expression in a "continual, exact fulfillment of the duties of one's state in life" (Benedict XV). Now, to be always faithful to duty, in all things and everywhere, is no small matter. It requires continual sacrifice, generosity, and constancy. Let us look at Jesus on the Cross, and we shall understand what the perfect accomplishment of our duty and God's will can exact. This is the way we must follow, constantly renewing our efforts and realizing, at the same time, that however much good will we may have, we are so weak, so inconstant, so deeply attached to ourselves, and so limited in our strength, that we will not always succeed in keeping ourselves to the perfect fulfillment of our duties; we often , and do not even know how to rise. Let us humble ourselves then, and make use of these falls to realize better our impotence and frailty: humility, yes; discouragement, never! Instead of weeping over ourselves, let us turn our eyes toward Holy Spirit, call upon Him to come to our aid, and begin again humbly and confidently. When the Holy Spirit sees us renewing our efforts, He will come to meet us, take us by the hand, and in an instant will lead us to a degree of perfection which we have not been able to reach even after years of effort. We can be sure of this, for Jesus merited it for us, and sends us His Spirit "in a most copious outpouring."

COLLOQUY
...O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love! Come down into me and reproduce in me, as it were, an incarnation of the Word; that I may be to Him an added humanity, wherein He may renew all His mystery!" (E.T.III).