Novena to the Holy Ghost - starts Friday after Ascension until Vigil of Pentecost.

Dear All, we need to start serious preparation for the Feast of Pentecost and traditionally we pray the Novena in honour of the Holy Ghost, the third Person of the Holy Trinity. I have chosen the best website offering the good selection of Holy Ghost Novena's to chose from and in particular can be helpful to those who are not familiar with praying Novenas. The oldest one is the Novena for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Please follow the link HERE to find the page of interest (not all links work on this website). Therefore I also present another link with the Novena from this blog HERE
and also petition Novena to the Holy Ghost HERE

I had a great difficulty to chose the picture for this post. After lengthy considerations I have decided in favour of the beautiful picture by Anton Raphael Mengs depicting the descend of the Holy Spirit on the Blessed Virgin Mary and Apostles. It looks great on my desktop.

Read whole post......

A promise of the Holy Spirit - from the writings of the Church Fathers:

The sending of the Holy Spirit - A reading from the treatise of Irenaeus Against the Heresies, 2nd century

The living water of the Holy Spirit - From a catechetical instruction by Cyril of Jerusalem, 4th century

The work of the Holy Spirit - From the Treatise On the Holy Spirit by Basil the Great, 4th century

The Spark of the divine Love within you - From the Detailed Rules for Monks by Basil the Great, 4th century

The coming of the Holy Spirit - From the Treatise On the Holy Spirit by Basil the Great, 4th century

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom - From the Treatise On the Holy Spirit by Basil the Great, 4th century

A promise of the Holy Spirit - Meditations:

The Father will send the Holy Spirit - a meditation on John 14:23-29

When the Counselor Comes - a meditation on John 15:26-16:4

The conviction of the Holy Spirit - a meditation on John 16:5-11

The Spirit will guide you into all the truth - meditation on John 16:12-15

Credit: Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations


Read whole post......

Glorious Mysteries
The Descent of the Holy Spirit, by Fr Hardon SJ

Introduction
The present meditation is on the Third Glorious Mystery of the Rosary, the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The Third Glorious Mystery, is the consummation of all the other Mysteries of the Rosary before what began at Nazareth on earth ended at Jerusalem on earth. We may safely say that the Person who came down on Our Lady at Nazareth was the same Divine Person who came down on those awaiting His coming in Jerusalem. At Nazareth the Angel told Our Lady that the Holy Spirit would come upon her so that she would conceive and bear a Son who would be the Son of the Most High. Thus the Holy Spirit began the work of the Incarnation. As the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary became the Mother of God become Man. That was the beginning. Some thirty-three years intervened then the purpose of that first coming of the Holy Spirit on Our Lady was finally fulfilled when He actually descended and the term we should use descended on the Church and has been descending ever since. I've checked my sources - one Pope after another for centuries back says it was because Mary was with those people in Jerusalem. It was her intercession, her prayer that obtained the coming of the Holy Spirit that her Son had promised but I repeat had promised indeed but conditioned on Mary's intercessory prayer. TO READ WHOLE TEXT CLICK HERE

Credits: after Our Lady of the Rosary - Marian Retreat from
Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association

Read whole post......

Mary Our Mediatrix

Presence of God - O Mary, since Jesus willed to come to us through you, grant that I may go to Him through you.

Meditation
1. The Church teaches us to invoke Mary as Mediatrix of all graces. This title summarizes what the Blessed Virgin is for us, in our relations with her beloved Son: the Mediatrix of grace, of mercy, the treasurer of all the graces which Jesus merited for us. "By the communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary," says St. Pius X, "she merited to become the dispenser of all the benefits which Jesus acquired for us by shedding His Blood" (Encyclical: Ad Diem Illum). Mary, who was associated in the closest and most intimate way with the life, the work, and the Passion of her Son, cooperated with Him in our redemption to such an extent that the grace, which Jesus alone could merit for us condignly, was merited also by Mary, although in a secondary way and by congruity only. Thus Mary obtained real power over all the supernatural treasures acquired by her Son; and since she obtained them together with Him, she also distributes them to us with Him. Leo XIII says, "It may be affirmed that, according to God's will, nothing comes to us without going through Mary's hands. Just as no one can approach the Almighty Father except through the Son, so no one can approach Christ except through His Mother" (Encyclical : Octobri Mense). After Jesus, who is the only Mediator, Mary is the Mediatrix : as Jesus continually intercedes with the Father in heaven on our behalf, so Mary intercedes with Jesus for us; she obtains and dispenses to us all the graces we need. The Introit of the Mass for the Feast of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces [May 8 in some places] very fittingly applies to Mary the words spoken by St. Paul about Jesus : "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, to obtain mercy and pardon." Next to Jesus, Mary is really the "throne of grace," and she can obtain everything for us from her Son. She is the omnipotentia supplex, the all-powerful intercessor: all-powerful in her prayer as Mother.

2. Mary is the Mediatrix between her Son and us for a twofold reason: she gives Jesus to us and she brings us to Him. The Gospel tells us this several times, showing us the typically maternal attitude of Mary as she brought Jesus to mankind. Our Lady offered the Infant Jesus to the adoration of the shepherds and the Wise Men; she took Him to the Temple and presented Him to Simeon; by her intercession at Cana, she obtained the first miracle from her Son. On Calvary, Mary received into her arms the martyred, lifeless Body of her beloved Son, whom she offered to mankind as the price of its redemption. In the Cenacle, she begged the plenitude of the Holy Spirit for the Apostles and, from that day to the day of her Assumption, she sustained the infant Church by her prayers and maternal encouragement. To find Mary is to find Jesus. This is the whole reason for her existence and her mission: to give Jesus to the world and to souls, and with Jesus, to give His grace and blessings. As St. Bernard says, Mary is truly the channel which carries the living water of grace to mankind; furthermore, she brings Jesus, the very source of grace. As Mediatrix, Mary also leads men to Jesus by teaching them the way to her Son and showing them how to please Him. We are always poor little children incapable of making presentable gifts to God, but Mary our Mother, with maternal delicacy, arranges and embellishes our gifts, our acts, our prayers and sacrifices, and offers them with her own hands to her divine Son. She, like a true mother, gives particular attention to our hearts, which she desires to make pleasing to Jesus : Mary wants to form in each one of us a heart which is pure, full of love and goodness, a heart which can beat in unison with the heart of her Son. Let us then, place our hearts in Mary's hands, that she may fill them "with grace and truth, life and virtue"
(RM).

Read whole post......

Mary's prayer

In preparation for the coming Feast of Pentecost it is profitable to the soul to concentrate on Mary and the Apostles gathered together in upper room where they spent time in prayer and fasting waiting for the promised coming of the Paraclete. We will say our Novena's to the Holy Ghost and I invite you to meditate with Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen OCD whose process of Beatification has already commenced, on Mary's charity, on her unceasing help as our Mediatrix and on the Holy Spirit in a series of meditations during the next week.

PRESENCE OF GOD: O Mary, faithful adorer of God, show me how to make my life a continual prayer.

MEDITATION

1. In order to have even a slight understanding of Mary's prayer, we must try to penetrate the sanctuary of her intimate union with God. No one has ever lived in closer intimacy with Him. Let us reverently observe this intimacy from the viewpoint of the divine maternity. Who can imagine the secret communications between Mary and the Incarnate Word while she carried Him in her virginal womb? Although there was nothing to distinguish her exteriorly from other women in the same condition, yet, in the secrecy of her heart she led a life of the closest possible union between God and a mere creature. "Omnis gloria ejus ab intus"; all her glory is from within (Ps 44:14). All Mary's glory and grandeur were interior. In this true sanctuary which concealed the Holy of Holies, Mary, living ciborium of the Incarnate Word, was aflame with love, absorbed in adoration. Carrying within her the "burning furnace of charity," how could Mary not remain all inflamed by it! the more she was inflamed with love, the more she understood the mystery of love which was taking place within her. No one ever felt as Mary did, or had a greater knowledge of the divinity of Christ and of His infinite grandeur. No one ever felt, as Mary did, the consuming to give herself to Him, to lose herself in Him like a little drop in the immensity of the ocean. This was Mary's unceasing: to adore perpetually the Word made Flesh within her; to unite herself closely with Christ; to be immersed in Him and completely transformed in Him by love; to join the infinite homage and praise which ascended continually from the heart of Christ to the Trinity, and to offer this praise unceasingly as the only homage worthy of the divine Majesty. Mary lived in adoration of her Jesus, in union with Him, in adoration of the Trinity. There is one moment in the day when we, too, can share in this prayer of Mary in a most excellent way: the moment of Holy Communion, when we receive Jesus, real and living, into our heart. How we need Mary to help us profit from this ineffable gift! She teaches us to unite ourselves to that adoration which ascends from the heart of Jesus, that we may be transformed in Him; she teaches us to unite ourselves to that adoration which ascends from the heart of Jesus to the Trinity, and she offers it with us to the Father, thus supplying for the deficiencies in our adoration.

2. Mary spent thirty years in Bethlehem and Nazareth in sweet family intimacy with Jesus. he was her center of attraction, the object of her affections, her thoughts and solicitude. The life of Mary was centered on Him; she took care of Him, always seeking new ways of pleasing, serving, and loving Him with the greatest devotion. Her will vibrated in unison with His; her heart beat in perfect harmony with His. She "shared the thoughts of Christ and His secret wishes, in such a way that it can be said that she lived the very life of her Son" (St Pius X: Ad Diem Illum). Like Mary's life, her prayer was ever Christocentric, and Christ bore it to the Blessed Trinity. It was really the mystery of the Incarnation which brought Mary into the fullness of the Trinitarian life. Her unique relations with the three divine Persons began when the Angel told her that she was to be the Mother of the Son of the Most High and would be so by the power of the Holy Spirit. She was, from that moment, the beloved Daughter of the Father, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of the Word. These relations were not limited to the time when Mary carried within her the Incarnate Word, but were to continue throughout eternity. Thus Mary is the temple of the Trinity. "Nearer than all to Jesus Christ, although at a distance that is infinite," Mary is, "the great 'praise of glory' of the Blessed Trinity" (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, 2:15). In Mary, we find the most perfect model for the souls aspiring to intimacy with God; at the same time, she is the surest guide for them. She leads us to Jesus and teaches us to concentrate all our affections on Him, to give ourselves entirely to Him, until we are completely lost and transformed in Him. Then, through Jesus, she guides us to the life of union with the Trinity. By reason of sanctifying grace, our soul is also a temple of the Trinity, and Mary teaches us how to abide in this temple as a perpetual adorer of the three divine Persons who dwell therein. "I do not need to make any effort," said Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity "to enter into the mystery of the divine indwelling in the soul of our Lady; my soul seems to abide there habitually, in the same attitude that was hers: adoring the God hidden within me" (Letters). May it also be given to us to live, under Mary's direction, in this attitude of continual adoration of the Trinity dwelling within our soul.

COLLOQUY
Let us pray with Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity: "O Mary, I can imagine how you must have felt when, after the Incarnation, you had within you the Word made flesh, the Gift of God! In what silence, what adoring recollection, must you have withdrawn into the depth of your soul to embrace the God whose Mother you were! Your attitude, O Blessed Virgin, during the months preceding the Nativity of Jesus, seems to be the model for interior soul, for those whom God has chosen to live within, deep in the unfathomable abyss. What peace and recollection accompanied your every action! You made ordinary things divine, because through them all, you remained the adorer of the Gift of God" (Letters 1:10).

Read whole post......

The Spirit of Christ - from "Divine Intimacy" by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen OCD

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, You who had complete dominion over the holy soul of Jesus, deign to direct my poor soul

MEDITATION
1. In Sacred Scripture, the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom 8,9), an expression that is pregnant with meaning. Christ is the Incarnate Word, the Son of God. From Him, as from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds; therefore the Holy Spirit is properly termed the Spirit of Christ, because the Person of Christ is none than that of the Word. When we speak of Christ, however, we do not speak of Him as God only, but also, and especially, as Man, that is, as the Incarnate Word. In this sense too, it can be said that the Holy Spirit is the divine Paraclete, with the Father and the Son, dwells there, but He delights to abide there. The higher the degree of grace He finds in a soul, the greater is His delight, for wherever grace is more aboundant, there is a more intense and luminous reflection of God's nature and goodness. This is why the Holy Spirit took such great complacency in the soul of the Blessed Virgin, who, although she was full of grace, continually grew from plenitude to plenitude. Yet the grace possessed by Mary was but a pale reflection of the grace which filled the soul of Jesus, grace which theologians call "infinite".
If then, Jesus possessed grace in an infinite manner, it can be said that the Holy Spirit took complacency in the soul of Christ in an infinite manner and dwelt there as in His temple of predilection. This idea is expressed in the Encyclical Mystici Corporis, when it says that the divine Paraclete "finds His delight in dwelling in the soul of the Redeemer as in His favourite temple." And if we can say that the Holy Spirit is ours because he dwells in our souls sanctified by grace, with infinitely greater reason can we say that He is "Christ's", whose sacred soul possesses grace in an immeasurable degree.....

COLLOQUY
....O Holy Spirit, You who worked with such plenitude in the most holy soul of Jesus, deign to operate also in my poor soul and take it entirely under Your direction, so that every act, interior as well as exterior, may be according to Your inspirations, Your choice, Your good pleasure.

Read whole post......