The Holy Spirit - click to read meditation

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EMBER FRIDAY

LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU (JOHN 15:12)

St. Paul points out three most important spiritual gifts, which we must all possess, and they includes: faith, hope and charity; but the greatest of them is charity (cf. 1Cor. 13:13). The reason for this is that all the other spiritual gifts will come to an end, but charity lasts forever (cf. 1 Cor. 13:8-12). Indeed, charity is the virtue that rules in heaven; it is there that charity is practiced in its perfect state. That is why there is also purgatory, where souls are detained and purified of any atom of selfishness or lack of charity in them; any act that opposes loving God and showing God's love to one another, even murmuring, scorning or wishing evil to one another must be purified before we can enter heaven where perfection reigns (cf. Psalm 15, Rev 14:4-5)

Jesus said: “My command to you is to love one another” (John. 15:17); “children, our love must not be just words or mere talk but something active and genuine”(1 John 3:18); “let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8, 1 John 3:14-15). At this level of chairty, we are called, first, to carry out spiritual works of mercy to one another. Support and encourage the spiritual growth of one another, never be envy of your brothers spiritual gifts, and help even by prayers and desires to see that the light of the gospel gets to those who are in darkness and in the shadow of death. Pity the poor miserable sinners who have obstinately refused to benefit from the merit of the incarnation, life and death of Jesus Christ; think of the everlasting sentence that stands waiting for them for rejecting God's love: eternal pains, suffering, anguish, sorrows and regret. If you truly love, pray and make sacrifices for the graces needed for their conversion. Remember your obligation to souls in purgatory. This is very vital because everyone must answer how much love he has shown to souls imprisoned above, who can easily be helped by those on earth- “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7); “judgment without mercy, to him that had not shown mercy” (Jn. 2:13); “I was in prison and you never visited Me” (Matt. 25:43).
The second aspect of love at this level is the corporal works of mercy. First of all, we must be charitable with our tongue and the way we use our mouth (cf. James 1:26). If you are truly a temple of the Holy Ghost (I Cor.3:16), your tongue most be a channel that convey gracious words to one another and not for cursing nor to injure his soul (cf. Matt. 5:22). Try always to defend the image of your neighbour in his absence, be kind in speeches and absolve injuries and misunderstanding from others and forgive them for God's sake. Be tolerant to those who do not hold your views; love enemies and pray for them, wishing them well. In your thoughts, always fight to push away evil thoughts of hatred, malice, revenge, envy, greed, lust and wishing evil to one another. Finally, show your love by coming to the material needs of your brothers and sisters especially those in difficult situations -“pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of Orphans and Widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world” (1 John 2:27); if one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on and one of you says to them; I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty; without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it is quite dead” (James 2:15-17, 1 John 3:17)

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NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS THAT ONE SHOULD LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS JN. 15:13
As already explained, love demands sacrifice. The depth of love one has for another can only be measured by the amount of sacrifice he offers for him. God sent His Son who is co-equal with Him in glory and dignity to come and partake in our human nature, so as to rise the poor miserable mortals to share in His glory (Roms. 8:17). This is love that surpasses all human comprehension. In addition to this, being in human nature, God the Son reduced Himself to the position of a slave (Ph. 2:6-9), and accepted all sorts of suffering, pains, insults, humiliation and shameful death on the Cross so as to atone for all the sins of man and reconcile him back to God.

Now, He is calling us to reciprocate the love He has shown to us by loving Him more than the transitory pleasures of the world -“do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him, because everything there is in the world: disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world, with all its disordered desires is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever” (1John 2:15-17). This love of the world include: dressing in the way that pleases the world, thereby creating scandals (cf Matt. 18:6-7) and attacking the holiness of the children of God (cf. Matt.5:28), evil gathering, seeking vainglories and empty praises of the world, training your family with the standard set by the modern world, deliberate act in conjugal love to prevent pregnancy (Gen. 38:9), enjoying worldly films, lack of justice, truthfulness and fear of God in the purist of the things of life. Indeed the world and all that it offers are mere shadows, vanities that may distract us and separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35).
The passage quoted above (Rom. 8:17) says that we must share in His suffering before we can share in His glory. And that is why God permits crosses, tribulations and sufferings to befall His lovers, through which He measures the love they have for Him (cf. James 1:2); sometimes, it demands giving up our life for Him. We are also expected to give up time for some worldly enjoyments, so as to create time for daily prayers, attending masses, visit of the Blessed Sacrament, time to work in the Lord's vineyard and time to acquire the knowledge of God.
St. Paul said: “my life is already being poured away as a libation” (2Tim. 4:6). Indeed, love of God must be expressed by often denying the flesh, those comfort and pleasures it loves and sacrifice them so as to acquire Divine graces. That is why giant lovers of God like St. Bridget of Sweden prays for nine hours in a day before the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed Cyprian Tansi do often pray the Rosary throughout the night, and lived in a monastery where each member has a specific number of words to speak in a day. St. Magdalen de Pazzi who often received visions and visits from the suffering souls in purgatory offers great sacrifices for their release; sometimes, she exposes herself to excessive cold or hot weather. This same love of God inspired the holy martyrs and virgins like St. Potamiena, St. Agatha, St. Lucy, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Maria Goretti, St. Philomena etc to reject all the earthly promises made to them and accepted to endure painful tortures till death; instead of offering sacrifice to false gods or defiling their bodies -“If any man wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow Me. For he that will save his life (i.e comfort of the flesh), shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it. For what does it profit a man; if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26).

Credit: picture is Giotto's "Pentecost"
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Ember Wednesday

GOD SO LOVE THE WORLD THAT HE SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE LIFE EVERLASTING JN.3:16

St. Paul said: “if I speak (i.e. languages) without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains. If I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess and even give up my body to be burned. If I am without love, it will do me no good whatever” (1Cor. 13:1-3). We may then begin to imagine here what aspect of love is he talking about.

The Holy Scriptures say: “You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children” (1Jn. 3:1); “This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent His only Son into the world that we might have life through Him. Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent His Son to expiate our sins” (1 Jn. 4:9 10). The depth of God's love was shown to the world by sending His Son to die on the cross and opened for us the grace of the Sacraments, as a fountain of graces necessary to lead us to eternal life- “on that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse themselves of sin and defilement” (Zach. 13:1-6). It is the cleansing power and merit of the expiatory sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross that make us worthy to be called children of God - “but as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God…who are born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (i.e. rebirth through the Sacraments, Jn. 1:12-13); “how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered Himself, blameless as He was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God” (Heb. 9:14).

The main purpose of sending His Son into this world is to restore for mortals, the life of grace; a sharing in the Divine life of God, which was lost in Adam, (without which we remain disgusting in the sight of God - "And we are all became as one unclean, and all our justice as the rag of a menstrous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away" Isa. 64:6). And this life of grace we receive through the Sacraments which Christ established with His death on the Cross. Christ continues to communicate this life of grace through the Sacraments, so that the merits and effects of His death will reach His children in all generations. Therefore, whenever we fail to cherish them with love, gratitude, reverence and good deposition, it amount to abuse of God's love - “No one who believes in Him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already,… and the judgment is this: though the Light has come into the world, people have preferred darkness to the Light” (Jn. 3:18-19).

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THE HOLY SPIRIT

Presence of God - O Holy Spirit, teach me to know, to want You, to love You, and to prepare myself to second Your action in my soul.

MEDITATION.
1. The approach of Pentecost reminds us to turn our mind and heart to the Holy Spirit; with His help, we want to know Him better so as to love Him more ardently, invoke Him more fervently, and dispose ourselves in the best manner possible for the furtherance of His action in our soul. The catechism teaches us that there are three Persons, equal and distinct, in God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ab aeterno the Father, knowing Himself, generates His Word, the perfect, substantial Idea in whom the Father is expressed and to whom He communicates all His goodness, lovableness, divine nature and essence. The Father and the Word, mutually beholding Their infinite goodness and beauty, love each other from all eternity, and the expression of this unitive love is a third Person, 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 the way of love. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the terminus, and the effusion of the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, an effusion so substantial and perfect that it is a Person, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, to whom the Father and the Son, by the sublime fruitfulness of their love, communicates their very own nature and essence, without losing any of it Themselves. Because the Holy Spirit is the effusion of divine love, He is called "Spirit", according to the Latin sense of the word which means air, respiration, the vital breath. In us, respiration is a sign of life; in God, the Holy Spirit is the expression, the effusion of the life and love of the Father and the Son, but a substantial personal effusion, which is a Person. It is in this scene that the third Person of the Blessed Trinity is called the "Spirit of the Father and the Son," and also "the Spirit of love in God," that is, the "breath" of love of the Father and the Son, the "breath" of divine love. It was in this sense that the Fathers of the Church called the Holy Spirit "osculum Patris et Filii," the kiss of the Father and the Son, a "sweet, but secret kiss," according to the tender expression of St Bernard. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, so that He may come to enkindle in our hearts the flame of charity.

2. According to our human concept, a person is a being who is complete and distinct from other beings; a substantial being, existing by itself; an intelligent being, free and capable of willing; and an affectionate being, capable of loving. All this is verified in the Holy Spirit in the most perfect manner: He, the breath of love of the Father and the Son, is a Person, and a divine Person. He is a complete being. He is God, and wholly God, not a part of God; although absolutely equal to the other two divine Persons. He is distinct from them, He is subsistent in Himself, knowing and loving. Becasue the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, we can have relations with Him just as we do with the Father and the Son. The Church invites us to do so proposing to us many beautiful invocations to the Holy Spirit, especially in the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, in which she mentions all the titles by which the divine Paraclete can be addressed. We can listen to the Hymn now



The Hymn begins by calling the Holy Spirit "Creator Spirit", reminding us that He, together with the Father and the Son, is one only God, our Creator. Then, she invokes Him as our Sanctifier, that is, as the One who diffuses grace in our souls: Imple superna gratia, quae to creasti pectora, fill with heavenly grace the souls which You have created. Although all the external acts of God - such as creation, sanctification of souls redemptions - are common to the three divine Persons, "by a certain relation and, as it were, an affinity which exists between the exterior works and the character proper to each Persons, these works are attributed to one Person rather than to another" (Divinum Illud). Thus the work of sanctification, which is a work of love, is especially attributed to the Holy Spirit, who is the breath of divine love. Leo XIII teaches: "The Holy Spirit gives a sweet, strong impulse, and puts, so to speak, the final touch to the noble work of our eternal predestination" (ibid.) Under this special aspect of Sanctifier, then, the Church urges us to invoke the Holy Spirit. Altissimi donum Dei, fons vivus, ignis, caritas et spiritalis unctio, gift of the Most High God, gift given to our souls to lead them to sanctity; living fount of grace, fire, divine love, spiritual sweetness. And again: Septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae, dispenser of the seven gifts by which He makes our spiritual life perfect, finger of the right hand of the Father which indicates to us the road to sanctity. With what joy, love, and desire we should invoke the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier.

COLLOQUY
..."Holy Spirit, I see You coming down into the soul like the sun which, finding no obstacle, no impediment, illumines everything; I see You descending like a fiery thunderbolt which, in falling, goes to the lowest place it finds and there it reposes, never stopping on the way nor resting on the mountainous or high places but rather in the center of the earth. Thus You, O Holy Spirit, when You come down from heaven with fiery dart of Your divine love, You do not repose in proud hearts or in arrogant spirits, but You make Your abode in souls that are humble and contemptible in their own eyes" (St Mary Magdalen de Pazzi).

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