Beloved Holy Spirit, You gentle soul guest,
let grow in us the spirit of gentleness,
that spirit that permeates everything,
that transforms and softens our heart,
purifying it from all hardships;
that is as mild as Your wonderful Bride, our Mother.
“Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as inheritance.” (Mt 5:4)
You do not need us, but rather lure us with Your love. You would rather let Your love taste like honey than give us bitter herb, even if we sometimes need it.
“But when I pour out My grace upon people and receive it back from them, I prepare in My divine heart the honey of eternal sweetness.” (Words of Jesus to Saint Mechthild of Hackeborn)
Time and again, a loving soul may ask itself how it can repay its Lord for all that He grants it in His lavish goodness. And yet it remains true: “How could I ever thank You enough for all Your goodness?” We will always fall short of what God gives us. And that is just as well, for He gives in a divine way, and we remember that He is the source from which love flows.
“God forces no one. He accepts what is given to Him, yet He gives Himself fully only to those who give themselves fully to Him.” (Teresa of Ávila)
If, as St. Teresa of Ávila rightly describes, we are not compelled by God on our path of discipleship, then we must deeply internalize this truth. The saint speaks here of the great respect our Father has for human freedom. He Himself gave it to us as a great gift of love, setting us apart from the irrational natural world.
Beloved Holy Spirit, come You, the eternal and pure light and penetrate us, so that nothing can remain hidden from You, no shadow can live on in our soul, every darkness may go away and everything be inflamed by Your love. Awaken us from all inertia and purify our heart so that it may love as God loves; love as You love, so that You and I may be intimately united in the praise of the glory of God.
“O God, create in me a pure heart, renew a right spirit within me” (Ps 51:10).
You, beloved Holy Spirit, are
“…intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, shrewd, irresistible, beneficent, friendly to human beings, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-surveying, penetrating all intelligent, pure and most subtle!” (Wis 7:22-23)
“God’s compassion for you is greater than your worries.” (Jean-Baptiste de la Salle)
Very often, Sacred Scripture urges us not to give in to worry. And indeed, from a spiritual perspective, excessive worry leads us into a state of profound unreality. This state consists in our seeing no way out; our worries constantly accompany us, sap our vitality, and even influence our appearance, so that we look out at the world, in a sense, with a “gloomy” expression. Who is not familiar with those faces furrowed by worry, which evoke our compassion?
“You Holy Spirit, you kiss of the Father and of the Son, you sweetest and most intimate kiss” (Saint Bernard of Clairveaux), we want to know and love you better. Therefore, descend into our soul, “like the sun which illuminates everything where it finds no obstacle. Reach out like an arrow of flame to the deepest part of our soul. You do not rest in proud hearts and high spirits; rather you open your dwelling in humble souls” (St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi).
Enlighten us in these days in which we are preparing the Solemnity of Your coming, You who are our Comforter and Teacher, the Bridegroom of our souls, the One who makes us holy.
Love is longsufferin (cf. 1 Cor 13:4)
Longanimity is your wonderful fruit, which lives in those souls that listen to you and do not lose heart over long distances. It is similar to patience, but even more strongly related to the goods of the spirit. It carries the perseverance in itself and makes the soul strong and capable of suffering. Thus it grows as the fruit of an intimate relationship with you. It is divine in nature, as the Apostle Paul testifies:
“The Holy Spirit is light and strength. It is He who enables us to distinguish truth from falsehood and good from evil. Just as binoculars magnify objects, the Holy Spirit enables us to see the good and the evil in their full magnitude. With the Holy Spirit, one sees everything in its full magnitude: one sees the greatness of the smallest acts performed for God and the gravity of the smallest mistakes.” (Saint John Vianney)
According to the traditional calendar, the feast of Saint John Baptist de La Salle is celebrated on May 15, and we will dedicate today’s meditation to him. For this occasion, the following Gospel passage has been chosen:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” (Mt 18:1–5)
Here the Lord presents us with two aspects regarding children. First, their simplicity and sincerity. That is the attitude with which we must approach our heavenly Father. In children who still retain their purity, we find a wonderful innocence that willingly receives what we offer them. By living such a relationship with our Father, we become receptive to God’s love, which can be transmitted to us directly. True greatness flows from this, for in the Kingdom of Heaven, the one who loves and serves others is great. If our heart is as open as a child’s, not only do we receive God’s love by the most direct path, but this love also becomes the motivation for action, since love drives us to carry out God’s works. Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit—the love between the Father and the Son—Who impels us to do good and enlightens our hearts.
The forty days during which the Risen Lord had instructed His disciples and led them even more deeply into their mission have come to an end. For the Lord, the hour has come to return to His Father in all His glory. He has completed the work He was commissioned to carry out on Earth and has laid the foundation for the message of salvation to be proclaimed throughout the world. Nothing is more important than the fulfillment of the mission the Lord entrusted to His apostles so that all people might come to know the Redeemer of all nations and follow Him. Jesus is the only way to the Father (Jn 14:6).
In recent days, the readings and the Gospel have spoken to us again and again of the Holy Spirit, who is absolutely indispensable for the authentic spread of the Gospel. Without Him, the fire of love would soon be extinguished, and the truth would be replaced by human fables and the deceptions of fallen angels. Today, on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, we hear the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that recounts this event:
Acts 1:1–12
In the first book, O Theoph′ilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.
“Whoever loves the Savior with a courageous love does not cease to love Him in times of temptation, aridity, and desolation.” (Alphonsus Liguori)
Dear St. Alphonsus, we believe you, and we too wish to show our fidelity to the Lord in this way. But how can we love in such situations—when our hearts feel cold, when we feel completely without strength and utterly desolate, or when we are torn apart by severe temptations? In such moments, a declaration of love to the Lord might almost seem like hypocrisy to us, because it is not sustained at all by warm feelings. Perhaps we are even in a dark inner state and feel aversion toward Your Word and all religious acts. Dear Alphonsus, we do not feel courageous in such moments, but rather indecisive and sluggish. What then?
