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Today,
we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends and
transforms the Church and the hearts of all His faithful. For, today, we ask
that this Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity to fill our hearts and come
before us, to bring us His divine gifts, His supernatural gifts, those Jesus
promised us as He departed from our sight, those that we have been praying for
these past 9 days.
7 simple and common words that are raised up, by the power of God, into extraordinarily powerful gifts, gifts that transform who we are so that they become the essence of our lives and we learn to live and move and have our being solely in God and in Him alone.
Gifts that not only sanctify us by our receiving them, but those that, literally, make us temples, cathedrals of the Holy Spirit, so that by wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord, we become living vessels of God Himself.
For, we, who though only human, have the very power of God within us, that is why unseen in any holy man or woman, unseen in the powerful preacher, speaker, or teacher of faith, unseen in the confessor and the healer is this most beautiful, most profound and most powerful Spirit.
And, while He is unseen, as God, His power is always seen, so that He is a strong, driving wind, a fire of tongues, a living water, a graceful dove, and the very breath of God Himself.
That is why we have such a special privilege to be able to call upon this most Holy Advocate that He not only bestow His 7 gifts upon us, but that He fill us with the 12 fruits of those 7 gifts, those of charity, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering and gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. For, the more we grow in holiness, the more God wants to give us, so that our lives are not just lived for God but we live our lives here ready for Heaven.
In fact, the more we are receptive to the Holy Spirit and all that He wants to offer, the more we learn how to imitate the saints. And, the more receptive we become, the more we begin to imitate one of the greatest saints in the world, Mary, the Mother of God and she whose title is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
In his spiritual classic, “The Sanctifier,” a book on the Holy Spirit by a former archbishop of Mexico, Archbishop Luis Martinez, he says the way Jesus is reproduced in our souls: “Two artisans must occur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary.”
Because, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, Jesus immediately dwelt in her womb, so that when the Holy Spirit overshadows us Jesus dwells within our souls, and it is Mary who shows us how this happens, it is Mary who reminds us how to accept that same Holy Spirit as an important guest in our lives.
That is why those who have a devotion to the Holy Spirit will almost always have a devotion to Mary and vice versa, because they recognize their importance in our sanctification, they recognize that though unequal in authority, they are both indispensable to our holiness.
For, today, in the upper room, with Mary and the Apostles, we celebrate this great feast of the Holy Spirit. Yet, this day, while always one of my favorites is especially important to me as well, because 6 years ago today, by the same power of the Holy Spirit, I prostrated myself before God and the Church and was made an Apostle of Christ.
And yet, given this, given all His gifts, given how He can change a mere man, myself included, into a priest, imagine what he can do for every one of you as well, imagine what He is capable of if only we let Him.
If we allow Him to ignite our souls with His fire and to be moved by the driving wind of His love, if we allow ourselves to foster and to experience the amazing and beautiful gifts He wishes to bestow upon us and live them to a heroic degree, not only would all of us be different, but the entire church would be different as well.
Therefore, I would like to leave you with a beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit by St. Augustine that, though written in the first person, I would invite you to make your own:
7 simple and common words that are raised up, by the power of God, into extraordinarily powerful gifts, gifts that transform who we are so that they become the essence of our lives and we learn to live and move and have our being solely in God and in Him alone.
Gifts that not only sanctify us by our receiving them, but those that, literally, make us temples, cathedrals of the Holy Spirit, so that by wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord, we become living vessels of God Himself.
For, we, who though only human, have the very power of God within us, that is why unseen in any holy man or woman, unseen in the powerful preacher, speaker, or teacher of faith, unseen in the confessor and the healer is this most beautiful, most profound and most powerful Spirit.
And, while He is unseen, as God, His power is always seen, so that He is a strong, driving wind, a fire of tongues, a living water, a graceful dove, and the very breath of God Himself.
That is why we have such a special privilege to be able to call upon this most Holy Advocate that He not only bestow His 7 gifts upon us, but that He fill us with the 12 fruits of those 7 gifts, those of charity, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering and gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. For, the more we grow in holiness, the more God wants to give us, so that our lives are not just lived for God but we live our lives here ready for Heaven.
In fact, the more we are receptive to the Holy Spirit and all that He wants to offer, the more we learn how to imitate the saints. And, the more receptive we become, the more we begin to imitate one of the greatest saints in the world, Mary, the Mother of God and she whose title is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
In his spiritual classic, “The Sanctifier,” a book on the Holy Spirit by a former archbishop of Mexico, Archbishop Luis Martinez, he says the way Jesus is reproduced in our souls: “Two artisans must occur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary.”
Because, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, Jesus immediately dwelt in her womb, so that when the Holy Spirit overshadows us Jesus dwells within our souls, and it is Mary who shows us how this happens, it is Mary who reminds us how to accept that same Holy Spirit as an important guest in our lives.
That is why those who have a devotion to the Holy Spirit will almost always have a devotion to Mary and vice versa, because they recognize their importance in our sanctification, they recognize that though unequal in authority, they are both indispensable to our holiness.
For, today, in the upper room, with Mary and the Apostles, we celebrate this great feast of the Holy Spirit. Yet, this day, while always one of my favorites is especially important to me as well, because 6 years ago today, by the same power of the Holy Spirit, I prostrated myself before God and the Church and was made an Apostle of Christ.
And yet, given this, given all His gifts, given how He can change a mere man, myself included, into a priest, imagine what he can do for every one of you as well, imagine what He is capable of if only we let Him.
If we allow Him to ignite our souls with His fire and to be moved by the driving wind of His love, if we allow ourselves to foster and to experience the amazing and beautiful gifts He wishes to bestow upon us and live them to a heroic degree, not only would all of us be different, but the entire church would be different as well.
Therefore, I would like to leave you with a beautiful prayer to the Holy Spirit by St. Augustine that, though written in the first person, I would invite you to make your own:
Breathe
in me, O Holy Spirit
That my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit
That my work too may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit
That I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me O Holy Spirit
To defend all that is holy.
Guard me then, O Holy Spirit
That I always may be holy.
Amen.
That my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit
That my work too may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit
That I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me O Holy Spirit
To defend all that is holy.
Guard me then, O Holy Spirit
That I always may be holy.
Amen.
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