God The Holy Ghost part 9.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

The mystery of the Trinity is brought home to our lives by investing each of our spiritual relations with that particular divine Person, who is particularly and directly operative at a particular moment or occasion in it. St. Paul, assiduously, impresses us with, and instructs us in, this particular habit. Holy Scripture does not permit that practical abolition of the Three Persons, such as has no concern for the personality of the one immediately working in us. Practically, however, our manner of acting is tantamount to our saying or observing,—"Ah! what matters it? It is all one God!" There is, of course, in this attitude, practical fusion of the Divine Persons in our lives. Our lives proclaim that one person as such is the same as another. There is, nevertheless, a difference existing between the Divine Persons, and St. Paul's persistent reiteration of the several Persons proves that it is not matter of a dead letter or cold, impractical theory:—"This is our faith," says St. Augustine, "that we believe and confess that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God, but, we can not ever call the Son, Father, nor the Father, Son, nor call Him Who is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, either Father or Son. For these designations signify what they are to one another." (Eph. clxxiv.)

Having advanced another step in the mountain of Sion, we may pause and, reclining, look out upon the new beauties of Godhead that will transfigure more and more the soul and impress the heart afresh, as we inhale Godhead, lingeringly. With eyes heaven-bent, our bursting hearts will exclaim to the Author of all: "Thou art the Lord, the only God, and glorious over all the world." (Daniel, iii, 45.) "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts."—Godhead bewilders me; its soft mysteriousness charms me; ah, it is good to be here, it attracts me from the low earth. Sin hath separated me, like Israel, from His gaze, alas! too long. "We are admonished more than any nation, and are brought low in all the earth, this is done for our sins. Our lives have been unholy, we have not sought our only end, God." Like Lot's wife, we have turned back, but now all that, thank God, is changed, and "we follow Thee with all our heart, and we fear Thee and seek Thy face." (v. 41.) The prophet puts these words upon our lips and now they fit our minds and our hearts.

Fleshly no longer, low, creeping things, but,— "servants of the Lord;" "Spirits and souls of the just, lowly and humble of heart;" let us say it in one word—Saints. "Ustote sancti!"

The Father is Spirit, the Son is Spirit, and the Holy Ghost is Spirit. Ah! I, too, would be spirit, and, "the Spirit breatheth where He will, and they hear His voice." (St. John, iii, 8.)

How fragrant His breath as I ascend to the clouds of Sion "to seek His face," in prayer and meditation, and my soul catches the aroma of the mountain daisy, bathed in the early morning dew. How my shrivelled soul expands, as I uplift it, by prayer and meditation, I repeat,—the only path— to the lofty, invigorating air of the Divine essence and goodness, unfolding themselves before my soul, truth and judgment dawning in their unrivalled effulgence of color and symphony of tone and culminating in a glorious sun-burst of love for God.

The prospect of my soul widens. The Spirit's breath hath electrically stirred the currents of my sluggish, somnolent, aye, debilitated and even deadened soul; the mercury begins to rise once more and my icy heart melts. Yes, the soul's winter has passed and beautiful spring has come. Yes, I am, forsooth, spirit. Now! and ever shall the Spirit's voice, heard in yonder clouds of meditation, linger in my memory—"be holy because I am holy." (Lev. xi, 44.) This echo merges into, and is perpetuated in, the heart by the words of the Son of Man:—"Be ye therefore perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew v, 48.)

God The Holy Ghost part 8.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

CHAPTER III.

NAME—HOLY SPIRIT. —(CONTINUED).

The name, Holy Spirit, whilst not exclusively so, still, in a very distinguished manner, belongs to the Third Person. The prosecution of this theme is of immense value as developing a more distinct idea of, and showing, in finer lines, the machinery of piety. Lack of a certain amount of technical knowledge, that should culminate in a confusing of the three Divine Persons, would betray such an indifference to religious science as could not fail to militate against one's better and more complete, at least, spiritual interests. Such knowledge is practical. To proceed with our theme: Anastase, patriarch of Antioch, says: "God is called Spirit, and God is called a holy God; the blending of the two names, however, befits the one who is properly called the Holy Ghost just as the name

Principle— sine interjecto befits the Father, and the name Son suits Him, Who, directly, proceeds from the Principle." (Lib. Dogmatic.) St. Augustine adds a link to the chain of evidence. In the sense in which we find it matter of record that "God is Spirit" (John xiv, 24,) Holy Ghost may be predicated of all (Persons of the Trinity) because the Father is Spirit and the Son also is Spirit, the Father is holy and the Son also is holy. Nevertheless, in speaking of that Holy Ghost, which is not the Trinity, but which is understood to be in the Trinity, when we say that He is properly the Holy (Ghost) He is so declared in the relative sense; that is to say, His relationship to the Father and Son is set forth, therein, because the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. (Quinto Lib. De Trinit.) "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of Hosts," says Isaias (vi, 3.) "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," echoes Apocalypse (iv, 8.) "The other persons of the Blessed Trinity," says St. Ambrose, "have a proper name and the Third Person retains as proper a common name." "Although," says St. Augustine, "the Father is spirit and the Son is Spirit and the Father is holy and the Son is holy, only the Third Person is properly called the Holy Ghost." The saint goes on to give a reason for this, "because He, (the Third Person) is co-eternal with, and common to, both, (Father and Son) He is called that which is common to both." It should not waken surprise if a proper name, that is to say, in another sense than the appropriating of a common name, is not given to the Third Person as is the case with the First and Second Persons :—" As we are obliged to borrow from created objects names given to God, and know of no other created means of communicating nature and essence than that of generation, we cannot discover a proper name to express the manner in which God communicates Himself entire, by the force of His love. Unable, therefore, to express the emanation of the Third Person, by a proper one, we have recourse to the common name of Holy Ghost, a name, however, peculiarly appropriate to Him, Who infuses into us spiritual life and without Whose holy inspirations we can do nothing meritorious of eternal life. (Catech. Trent. Page 66.)

The Second Person has a proper name because His eternal birth from the Father is properly called generation, so the Person emanating from that generation is properly called the Son, and the Person from Whom He emanates, the Father. Inasmuch, however, as the Third Person proceeds from the First and Second Persons, and by what is called spiration, or their, as it were, concordant breath— not generation—we are quite at sea, when it comes to rinding an analogy or likeness, that will reflect this mode of emanation, amongst the things that are at hand or at all within our reach. The name, Holy Ghost, is, however, in a special manner, appropriate to the Third Person, from His mode of emanation from the Father and the Son, that is to say, and rudely speaking, inflation. Says St. Cyril:—" The Holy Ghost receives His name from air (breath) which we inhale and exhale, so that our respirations, aspirations, inspirations, suspirations and expirations should find, in the Holy Ghost, their source, their substance and their increase." (De Pente).


Surely, this leaves no loophole for one's escape from the all-importance of the Holy Ghost in the matter of our spiritual existence, life or death, according as we receive and cultivate Him or unfortunately banish Him from our hearts and lives.

God The Holy Ghost part 7.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

St. Paul imparts this blessing to us, "To be strengthened by His spirit, with the might unto the inner man. That Christ may dwell by faith, in your hearts, that being rooted in and grounded in charity you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, length, height, depth, etc. (Eph. iii, 16.) Many men live only for pleasure of one form or another or to make money.

This being accomplished, their fuse has exploded: —"Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Who, despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness." (Eph. iv, 18, 19.)

This is an overwhelming disgrace to a human being, to an immortal being, to a soul made to the image and likeness of God. Yet the world is more or less guilty of cooperation, by the effusive consideration it bestows on the rich, simply because they are rich and the dulled, stupefied sensibilities it displays in the presence of sensual indulgences and moral extravagances, which pass in their eyes for the gilded appurtenances and prerogatives of fashion and title. What a philippic, what a terrible doom God depicts, as He points the finger at this materialistic and voluptuous life, the life of such as are hard and unspiritual—"His heart is ashes and his hope is vain, earth, and his life more base than clay, for as much as he knew not his Maker, and Him that inspired unto him the soul that worketh, and that breathed into him a living spirit." (Wisdom, xv.) How can a human being sink below clay? By swerving from its end, its God. Like the princes, whom God so severely arraigned, "who have not judged truly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God." (Wisdom, vi, 5.) God is King,— "The Lord ruleth me." How shall the inward man discern His voice in the fierce thunder roll of busy life and in the clash and storm of earthly passions? —"Who shall know Thy voice, except Thou givest wisdom and send Thy Holy Spirit from above." (Wisdom, ix, 17.) We go to the Holy Ghost, the gift of Jesus Christ—Who baptizeth in the Holy Ghost.

(St. John); "Become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God, and be ye filled with the Holy Ghost." (Eph. v, 17, 8.) So much for the light; but, knowing my duty, how shall I fulfil it, beat and sustain a path through the living hell and the cordon of world, flesh and devil, and not be delivered by "the wickedness of men and by cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait for us?" (Eph. iv, 14.) How else, indeed, but by "Him Who is able to do all things, more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us." (iii, 20)—by the Holy Ghost:—"Let no one presume to counteract the influences of this world unless he be made strong in the Holy Ghost," says St. Gregory. (Hom, xxx in Eva Dg.)

Let the dust of Othiniel, let the bones of Jepthe, let the sabre of Gideon, let the skeleton of Samson burst into the Holy Ghost's loud acclaim in the gift, and prosecution, of extraordinary vocations; for they indeed exceptionally reveal the Holy Ghost's power. Let Besaleel tell the toiler at the bench with chisel and hammer, and the laborer in the trench with pick, bar and shovel that the ideal of the highest and noblest living is that " which in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the spirit." (Ephesus iii, 5.)—Jesus Christ, illumined by His Spirit," for we know that the law is spiritual" (Roman vii, 14) and the knowledge of Him and love of Him, hidden from others, but revealed to the saints, to you and to me, if we do cherish His Spirit. "If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus; to put off, according to conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who, according to God, is created injustice and holiness of truth—and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God" (Ephes. iv, 21-2-34, 30.) «So that we should serve God in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of letter" (Roman vii, 6.) Our ideal of the New Law is not the letters of our Lord's name scribbled in the darkness, but rather the illuminated character writing across the sky the depths of His interior Spirit.

God The Holy Ghost part 6.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

From the beginning of the world, men, who stood in the sanctuary of creation and erred have been blamed for not having seen God in them. Today God might say of their successors or religious descendants, "They probably err, seeking God, and desirous of finding Him," yet finally conclude as follows :—" How did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?" They have fallen slain in the vestibule of heaven. The lens they employed was not of the right quality. "Unhappy are they and their hope is among the dead." (v, 10.) Men do not seek God in life,— "They liked not to have God in their knowledge,' (Rom. i, 28.) "Holding these things for God's, which are the most worthless among beasts, living after the manner of children, without understanding." (Chap, xii.) "Professing themselves to be wise," says St. Paul, "they become fools." (Rom. i, 22.) All this deadly ignorance and idolatry of life evinces a radical blunder, something wrong. When Ignatius surveyed the starry beauties, he saw with a proper lens. The Holy Ghost was in him. He photographed God's works in the right light, from the proper position—the end of man:

To know, love, praise, reverence and serve God, in this life, so as to be forever happy with Him in heaven; he smoked the glass of his lens in the flames of his christian love. Withdrawing, he developed out of the view, not in his studio, but rather oratory, the lineaments of Godhead. There he "searched out the wisdom, that goeth before all things." (Eccl. i, 3.)—the power and goodness of their Maker. The plate he used was spiritual and not merely intellectual; and God the Creator became engraven upon his soul, a breathing, living force, transforming and uplifting; for' he studied the lines of Godhead so revealed and built his own life along these lines. He studied God in the direct purpose of inflaming his will and heart with love. He got interior views of Christ. "And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth, because He asketh for the saints according to God. And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.' (Rom. viii, 27:8.) The spirit of man is the divine element within him, as Tertullian puts it;— "limum in Deum Solidatum " —God turned a little God out of the slime. The breath of God raised the human creature above the mere slime. This breath imparted to the mind a moral and intellectual power. So far, however, man is no more than human, though, divinely-human. He can as yet, not enter the hidden counsels of Divinity and be free to go behind the veil. Something more than nature gives him is required. Darkness and mystery of Godhead is as yet his lot— "Wisdom is from the Lord." (Eccl. i, 1); "He created her in the Holy Ghost, and poured her out on all flesh according to His gift" (v. 10) "to them that love Him." This love is rooted in reverent fear:—"The fear of the Lord is the religiousness of knowledge," (v, 17.)—not indeed disturbance and terror, but reverent, calm awe, what the Breviary observes, on the feast of St Linus, to be "the fear of Saints." This keen perceptiveness of Divinity and true knowledge of love emanates from the Holy Ghost. The world at large is blind toward heavenly knowledge; it is carnal, animalistic or, at most, purely human. God-head is still hidden from them. The Holy Ghost does not illuminate where thrives the germ of darkness; the Prince of Gloom must be forced to furl his banner. Sin must fold her tents. This is the secret of the heart's intellectual and moral darkness, spiritual ignorance, vanity, idolatry and despair:—"Son, if thou desire wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to thee." (v. 33.)

The Holy Ghost makes the creature, that is merely human, humanly-divine; it becomes, thenceforth, man's right to cast his mind among the stars, for, his end is there, by virtue of the spirit's touch— starward! In the new economy all things are made convergent thereunto, in value and motive—"I will not hide from you the mysteries of God." The prophet trembled at the thought of such spiritually intellectual and moral darkness and crouched from spiritual ignorance touching Godhead; he feared, deeply, the alternative idolatry, which millions commit on earth every day, namely, that of living only for the world and being blind, in whole or in part, to supernatural destiny. The prophet shuddered at a possible lapse into this frightful source of human blunders— the unaided light of reason, —naturalism: "to worship the vilest creatures;" (Wisdom, xv, 18); "to have fled from the grace of God and from His blessing." (v. 19.) Shrill and loud and sustentato, his cry arose, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." (Ps. 1, 12, 13.) Hear the bugle note, with its quivering, far-reaching tones! But the prophet realized that the Holy Ghost, the Source of Light, must be removed from his soul, and night dews must needs gather and lie heavy on his life, unless his heart were constantly bent upon God and riveted to Him, above all His creatures. —"Create a clean heart in me, O God." This prayer clearly shows us that the prophet accepts God's invitation to come and dwell in Him; sin is to be stringently barred out; idols are to be speedily deported; images of sensuality, of money, of honors,—all are to be struck from their niches and crushed to the dust—"For two things shall they be punished, because they have not thought well of God, giving heed to idols." (Wisdom, xiv, 30.)

God The Holy Ghost part 5.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

Exodus informs us that the Spirit of God inspired, that is to say, moved Besaleel to construct the tabernacle:—"I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding and knowledge, in all manner of work. I have put wisdom in the heart of every skilful man." (xxxi, 3-6.) By metonymy, the canon of speech by which effect is substituted for cause, one is said to have the spirit which prompts the thing, the virtue or force, which causes its awakening to life and breathes motion into it. Thus, one moved to it is said to have the spirit of charity, of sweetness, of humility and the rest of the virtues. The spirit is the very life of the thing, without which the thing is inert, dead, unproductive. Actions and results declare the presence of spirit, of force, of life itself. When the fuse has gone out locomotion ceases in electrical vehicles; the power is said to be gone, and, the spirit has departed. A spirit may again signify an immaterial and incorporeal intelligence— "who maketh thy angels, spirits," says the prophet. (Ps. ciii, 4.)

The soul of man, inhabiting the flesh, is called spirit. Genesis says: —"The Lord formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." The human soul, disembodied, is called a spirit — "Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned!" exclaims Hamlet. We speak of the spirits of the just. The vital principle of other inanimate beings is also called spirit. Other definitions of the word, spirit, appear adown the pages of literature in greater or lesser license. Most of all, however, is that true and exact, which the Samaritan woman averred:—"God is spirit." (St. John iv, 24.)

Supremely true is it, I repeat, to predicate spirit of the divine nature, which is immaterial and incorporeal, most pure and simple. God is, however, in two ways spirit. He is so in an_ essential sense and in a distinctive one. In the former sense, the divine essence itself is spirit, the very being itself of God— Godhead. Under the name, disguise, or so to speak, nom de plume, of Wisdom, the Essential Being is portrayed as "the spirit of understanding, holy, one, manifold, subtle, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hindereth, beneficent, gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtle, for wisdom is more active than all active things, and reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity." (Wisdom vii, 26.) This is God-head, robed in the dazzling splendor of indivisible nature. Viewed "essentially," the three divine Persons are spirit; they are God, for, God is one, essentially, and there is but one divine nature. In a "distinctive" sense the Third Person is Spirit; He is, one might so express it, "the" Spirit.

By the words, "Holy Spirit," we understand, says the Church, "the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity." (Catech. Coun. Trent.) Says Hugo Etherianus:—"Some one might be tempted to ask, how the words Holy Spirit show the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Father and Son since the Father, inasmuch as He is spirit, is called spirit, and the Son, being spirit, is called Spirit and a Holy Spirit? To this query we answer that though the Father is spirit and is holy, He is not the spirit of anyone, neither is He called such. Likewise, the Son, though He is spirit and is holy is nowise called the spirit of any one, for, in that sense it means the very nature of God. The Holy Spirit is, however, the Spirit of God, and is, besides, called such, for, He is the spirit of the Father and the Son." (Cap. iii.) Though each of the Divine Persons is spirit and each is holy, when we speak of the Holy Spirit, we have thrown upon the mental canvas the Third Person of the Blessed and Adorable Trinity.

Such doctrinal mountain-climbing is irksome; we have to pause frequently, as the zigzag paths are steep, to refresh our human soul, to survey from each accomplished stage of our ascent the ground we have traversed with a view to dilate the heart, to inhale the invigorating air, to take notes on shrub, color, leafage, fruitage and cloudage and absorb into the soul the grandeurs and meanings of the wonders of God, proclaimed in silent sonority from the vast uplifting landscape—"Who shall ascend to the mountain of the Lord?" Who shall witness the thrilling visions of earth and sky from Sion's lofty peak?

From the thirteen provinces of Japan,the Buddhists view the mountain of Fuji-no-Yama. Not to ascend to the altar of the sun, once at least in a lifetime, should be accounted a breach of Japanese duty to the ancient gods. But, we have the true mountain of God, not the spectral, rising from the divine land of the Church, embroidered with valleys and gorges, and Peter's rock at its base. What vast, outstretched beauties wait upon our steps, —rosy dreams of spiritual wealth! What worlds of color-glories beckon us on! With the Holy Ghost we may mount, and with the eagle's eye gaze into the truths of God-head, aye, into the very face of the Eternal One. "Seen on close approach, the mountain of Fuji does not come up to expectation," says the Japanese proverb. Upon closer acquaintance with God-head, the cosmetic attractions of earth dissolve from memory and the grandeur of God-head unfolds itself in startling display, as we inspect the mind and heart of God, the workshop of the Trinity, where the vast machinery of earth and sky was forged, the sun, moon and stars were cast in their moulds, and the thunder-bolts of the empyrean were dropped from the anvil beside the flames that leaped up from the bosom of God: —" The Lord is high above the nations and His glory above the heaven." (Ps. cxii.) —"Great are the works of the Lord."

Mounting, by prayer and daily meditation, Sion's peak, we view these wonders, we drink in their supreme knowledge of the Divinity and divine ways. Wisdom tells us, "All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God." (Chap, xiii, 1.) The Holy Ghost leads us on and from "the fire, wind, swift air, circle of stars, the great waters, the sun and moon," (v, 2.)—we learn that "the first Author of beauty made all these things;" "that He made them, and He is mightier than they." This very creation is designed to lead us on to God-head. —"For by the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of them may bo seen, so as to be known thereby." (v, 5.) "Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity." (Rom. i, 19, 20.)

God The Holy Ghost part 4.

By Henry Aloysius Barry

Any pretence, of course, of setting up any such thing as inquiry into the mysteries of God-head, with only reason's pale and feeble ray to guide our footsteps, or, any effort to accomplish their demonstration, under the patronage of merely philosophical instruments or data, is, we ought to remark at the outset, a most highly reprehensible project.

However, on the other hand, if we take for granted a deep anchorage of faith in such mysterious sublimities and a suitable christian disposition, commendation is in order for one, who, relying on the instruments of faith, solely, delves into them in search of the treasure of knowledge. Their devout spirit-flights of the Fathers, in meditative mood, photographed in their words, go to inform us that such inquiry is not merely blameless, but, rather, a very praiseworthy deportment. The Trinity exhales mystery on all sides and, like a vapor-bath, drives the corruption from the soul. When we bear in mind the disabilities of the human mind and put this in concert with the corresponding characteristics of human language, especially in relation to the cavernous truths of Godhead, our one hope must consist in our discovering accidents and merely intentional likeness to the thing, but never, at all, the real, intrinsic, substantial mystery itself, which, for all that, we somewhat vainly, though reverently, have aspired to gauge and express. (Franz. De. Deo Trine, p. 410.) In the glare of the sanctuary lamp are we to study such depths,—"I study that I might know this thing, it is a labor in my sight. Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last end." (lxxii, 16, 17.)

Ah! clearly has the prophet-poet touched, in these words, the key-note of the art of understanding mysteries. The saints have sought out invariably the things of God, with a devout purpose and not to "set their mouth against heaven." They have, besides, never failed in remembrance of what David has said, that "The Lord is a great God and a great King, above all gods." (Ps. xciv, 3.) —"Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation. They shall abide in the light of Thy countenance." (Psalm lxxxviii, 16.) Let us as invariably seek out God as saints, with a right motive, namely, and we, like our reverend Fathers, shall be rewarded with pure knowledge and gladness: "Thou spokest in a vision to Thy saints," said David. (Verse 20.)—"Light is risen to the just, and joy to the right of heart." (Psalm xcvi, 11)
Alone, the human mind seeks in vain. God veils from the high-minded the things which He unveils before the eyes of His "little ones,"—"What Thou givest to them, they shall gather up; and when Thou openest Thy hand, they shall be filled with God." (Psalms ciii, 23.)—"The clouds and darkness are round about him." (Psalms xcvi, 2.) Enter the depths of Godhead with profound self sufficiency, puffed up with scientific pride; tread the hidden paths and the dark ways of heaven with the candle-glimmer of our own wretched and convalescent powers, and we shall be lost in the labyrinth of the deep and be confounded in its dark by-ways.—"If Thou turnest away Thy face, they shall be troubled. Thou shalt take away their breath and they shall fail and shall return to dust." The practical usefulness, however, of a meditative study of Godhead has been impressively and comprehensively asserted by St. Augustine. "The human mind," says this saint, "develops a fuller likeness to the Trinity when it knows and loves God than when it knows and loves itself."

The broader and deeper our knowledge of God, the more shall our love ascend God-ward and our souls become God-like, the deeper, broader, solider, the higher, firmer and purer will be our love, the more Divine-like will be our spiritual character. Having gotten down to it, at last, we would now proceed to consider what is meant when we use the designation, Holy Ghost! By such designation, we mean the third Person of the august Trinity. In a broader, more general or natural sense, a spirit is a tenuous, volatile, airy or vapor-like substance; the idea of breath or a current of air finds itself expressed by this word. Motion is, effectively, life. The force which sways, excites or prompts to action, is what we term and speak of as spirit, for, this is what is called "putting life into one." Does it urge us to good and enthuse us with the better emotions and sentiments, it is the good spirit. Does it waken passion and excite to violence, the impellant is a bad spirit, and, of such a kind would be the mythical Baresark. God is behind all the good impulses; the devil is the sire of the wicked, "and the spirit of the Lord was in him," (Judges, iii, 10;) that is to say, in Othoniel, "The spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon." (vi, 34.) "The spirit of the Lord came upon Jepthe." (xi, 29.) "The spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson." (xvi, 6.) When there is no movement whatever of the body, death is pronounced, life has departed.

God The Holy Ghost part 3

By Henry Aloysius Barry

Ignorance along any other line is admitted reluctantly and only with a blush. This holds good of the soldier, the banker, the pedagogue, the citizen; but, ignorance of our holy faith and its workings is avowed, however, with appalling equanimity. Yet how inconsistent is all this! We say we are christians, followers of Christ, believers in His doctrine— what doctrine?

The Church tells us that the Holy Ghost will make us wise and happy, which, of course, implies A that without Him, we are mere fools and miserably off. And true it is, because we live for the world; our golden dream is to amass its perishable gifts, to pluck its quick-fading glories, to exchange a crown of eternity for one of straw that we shall wear only for a day. America is materialistic. She may offer advantages to us politically that are infinitely less, in the end, than the moral loss her grasping spirit and commercial ideals have occasioned in us, by scandal and contact. The "Dollar" dominates the nation and the individual. It is epidemic and its germs are in the dust of the streets, playing round the oaken floors of the counting-house, floating about in the air we breathe in every day, every moment; it is the burden of men's conversation, upon all days, and, upon all occasions its theme rises to the surface; it is the supreme, all-dominant art of how to be affluent. Yet, "What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" All very true, but at the same time, how many there are who go in for a full meal of the world and relegate heaven to a sort of dessert; a bit of folly that, alas, has not the redeeming feature of a youth's decided preference of the dessert over all.

As a consequence, the millionaire, in his passing, stands a stranger before heaven's walls, and, in his death-shroud, he takes his place in the line of the foolish virgins, shut out, dumb, despairing, doomed. The poor, humble workman, with joints encased in the humblest garb, maybe tattered and frowsy, but with the Holy Ghost in his heart, will be no stranger in God's country. He already has learned its language from faith; he knows its habits and its inhabitants and will pass in and be at home for ever.

Ye business men, ye high-minded, ye socially proud, ye scientifically-proud, all ye who live first for earth, let your cry roll up from the depths of your darkened, icy souls, "Come, Holy Spirit! fill us with true knowledge and supernatural love." Ah, but one entertains no wishfulness toward an object, of which one knows nothing; so proclaimeth the proverb of our Latin forbears. Our love and interest in the Holy Ghost must, therefore, spring from our knowledge of the identity and personality of the Third Person. Upon this point, the world's ignorance is not mere nescience or the absence of unnecessary light, but ignorance of the positive type, of the criminal stamp. It is knowledge which, St. Paul says repeatedly, we ought to possess. The duty of diligent and adequate inquiry readily asserts itself. Inadequate measures to clear ourselves of this ignorance would still leave us in vincible and culpable ignorance. More reprehensible, of course, is the downright ignorance, which employs no endeavor whatsoever to dispel the darkness, which wraps our intelligence in its ebon folds. Most to be feared, however, is such ignorance as loves and cultivates the preclusion of light and studiously refrains from the pursuit of the proper christian enlightenment out of pure and simple predilection for the existing regime of one's life. Ah, yes, surcease of enlightenment would unveil new duties and a wider range of responsibilities, under the X-ray of the searching light of the Holy Ghost. Our fractured souls would appall the conscience with the portraiture of internal, moral disease, such as one's conscience cares not to have cured or, where it would fain be healed, it recoils from the painful operation essential to a restoration of the soul to complete health. The sheeted ghost of penance looms up before their eyes and freezes up their moral veins. The chains of existing duties burrow into their flesh, chafe and rankle;—it were enough! away with new links! Yet, when the laborer's hammer is heard no more in the trench, when the footfall of the banker is echoed no more from the marble ceiling of the exchange and the voice of the statesman is silent as the stone columns of the forum, when the roysterer's silvery laugh has melted into the silence of haunted castles,— aye, when all is done with this weary vale, what will it profit a man to have gained the world with its natural gifts, its human science, its dignities, its pleasures and riches, if, in the end, and that so near, one should have to suffer the loss of his own soul? O, witless, this night! Ah, no, come down Spirit of Light, immerse us in Thy majestic radiance, and in the lightning flashes of Thy sword and the thunder peal of Thy Voice banish hence the hostile, shrouding dragon-jungle darkness; touch, with Thy melting breath and Thy soft dews, our wintry lives; turn our hearts to gentler and more fragrant spring. Renew the air in and about our souls; waken our drowsy, ill-breeding minds and brutalized senses, bathe us in the antiseptic fluid of Thy grace. For my own part, from this very hour, I shall search to know Thee, O Holy Ghost, and knowing Thee, how can I fail to love Thee, and thus doing, I shall follow Thy Will in my life.


O, no, I am no sceptic on the pledge of the Church. The Church makes no false promises. Thou shalt make me "consummate in wisdom and supreme in happiness." O Thou Spirit of truth and love, Thou Kiss of Godhead, Thou Spirit of the Father and Son, O Thou loving God,—come, Holy Spirit!

God The Holy Ghost part 2

By Henry Aloysius Barry

Faith, qualified by inaction, is doomed to decadence and ultimate inanition; not, perhaps, a certain kind of abstract impersonal faith, which might be perhaps, after all, with more congruity termed spiritual patriotism, but the living sacramentally-nourished faith does, when only stubble and chaff are fed to the soul; when the imagination and lips only are brought into action,— and hurried at that—whilst the mind and heart lie in the stillness of spiritual slumber, which is incipient eternal death. We ought to personalize our faith, making it actual rather than habitual, making it a matter of earnest personal study and conviction, rather than the impersonal and habitual idea of lineage.

If, I repeat, one should plead a lack of poetic gift or the talent to see cities in forests, wherein one's ungifted eye perceives only a mass of timber but no cities or palaces, we do not reproach him nor quarrel with him. We declare in calm submissiveness to the decree of heaven that the poet, after all, is born and not made. "Unless man be born again, of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." This pronouncement removes all doubt that you and I are christian poets. Here we have the art, the temperament, that only awaits the science and the spirit to be productive. We are born so, in baptism. The wonders and glories of revelation, that recast and uplift the soul are spread around us on every side, wonders surpassing the human understanding, and, God has infused into us the

gift of divine poetr}', of spiritual imagination and ethereal temperament, the transcendental faculty of understanding, whereby, we are free with an eye for heavenly color to discern the noblest,hyperfleshly ideals and enrich our spirit-life with the contemplation of the most bewitching panorama, made up of unworldly beauties, fascinating soul-shapes, pictures inspired, and of—to the mere poet of nature unimaginable—glory and bliss.

In our faith, we have a mine more precious than that of gold and silver, but we must work it, burrow, else we must find ourselves standing bankrupt before heaven. We have to sink a shaft. We, all, without any exception, have to dig and percolate, if, eventually, our lives are to be rich in soul-treasure. The superior charm of the divine poetry of faith lies in its contemplation, not of dreams and romances nor of mere shadows dancing before one's brooding fancies, but, of the substantial, solid and ever-enduring realities, that improve the mind with knowledge, energize the will with a strength and iron determination and, at the same time, exhilarate the whole being with a sense of such pleasureableness as forereminds us of everlasting bliss and, out of its memories, aid and abet us against the seducer's art in dangerous hours. "He that is hungry dreameth and eateth, but when he is awake his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth and drinketh, and after he is awake is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty." (Is. xxix, 8.) To be sure, all are not required to have the same degree of spiritual knowledge. Our state in life, our talents, our relative circumstances, should regulate this matter; simply, each one will make the soul and salvation a matter of daily, strenuous study, the most serious, yes, the one, affair of life. This will suggest, of course, the supreme necessity of each one's using the means adequate to meet with success in the first business of life. How can a man practise his faith, unless he knows it or is in a position to employ the resources ordained for its accomplishment: "And I myself also, my brethren, am assured of you, that you also are full of love, replenished with all knowledge." (Romans, xv, 14.) Repose your love and religion on a basis of ignorance, a lack of solid enlightenment, and lo, "These men blaspheme whatsoever things they know not: and what things soever they naturally know, like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted." (Jude x.) The resultant fact of our ignorance speaks with eloquence to the effect that the eternal in us is swept by the board to make room in our lives for the corruptible body and its petty and phosphorescent interests. The body before the mind, the man before the Christian. This is the order or, rather, disorder, that follows as a sequel to our mundane enthusiasm, breeding such materialistic adages as "Breakfast before prayer" and such reckless folly as "Selling bread to purchase hyacinths."

God The Holy Ghost part1

By Henry Aloysius Barry

CHAPTER 1. "I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST." (Ap. Cr. Council Nice.)

Enlightenment on the Holy Ghost is most necessary from a view-point of practical salvation. Burning with the Spirit's supernal glow, St. Paul insisted upon this requirement at Ephesus: —"Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" The interrogation is straightforward, keen and practical and eliminates the subject from the batch of unliving theories or purely speculative truths. It was a realistic method of catechism, touching the structural, and reaching down to the roots, aye, to the very vital principles of the christian life. St. Paul is a physician on this occasion, with lancet in hand to open up the ignorance of the throng, to afford free action to their vital forces, full play or larger register to their congested lungs and cramped heart. There had been, of course, something symptomatic of this ignorance. With the unerring perception of the seer, he had read the signs well, for, the multitude, in replying to the apostle's query, owned, with painfully refreshing sincerity and lamentably ingenuous candor, that they "had not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost." (Acts xix, v 2.) Imagine St. Paul's tone and picture to yourself the apostle's attitude of surprise: "In what, therefore, were you baptized?" (Acts xix, 3.) To give the thing a touch of local coloring:—Good gracious; don't know what it is that makes you christians! "Give me understanding and I will search thy law." So had prayed David in his own behalf. The prophet forewarned us against a sterile, indolent, ignorant faith, that should suffer us, the flock of Christ, whilst set in the midst of a rich pasturage, to perish like the calf that will not chew the cud. He deprecates an unintelligent faith, one that is emaciated and hollow in its fruitage, the increment of uncultivated acreage. We must toil, delve, seek, expand, grow,—this is the inexorable law of life. Faith is soul-work, and the soul grows and prospers, first, on understanding, completing afterward its full growth, by the magnetism of light upon the will:—"I will give thee understanding," says the Lord; "Do not become like the horse and the mule that have no understanding," says the prophet. This is a solemn charge to us. The machinery of justification and hallowing is the Holy Ghost, yet, the world at large has only a hazy idea of its entity, a distinct ignorance, rather, of its operativeness. The results are all too sadly apparent up and down the earth: "My sores are putrefied and corrupted because of my foolishness." (Psalm xxxvii.) Darkness and weakness are prevalent on all sides. Tis a vast world's Jeremiad, for, the multitude have the machinery of sanctification and know not how to put it to use, because they are too indolent to acquire the holy art. The Church deduces from St. Paul's words that a distinct knowledge of this article, namely, the Holy Ghost, is most necessary to salvation. Pope Leo deplores the principle of ignorance: "It is rather 'ignorance' than ill-will," says the Holy Father, "which keeps multitudes away from Jesus Christ. There are many who study humanity and the natural world; few who study the Son of God. The first step, then, is to substitute 'knowledge' for 'ignorance' so that He may be no longer despised nor rejected because. He is 'unknown.' We conjure all christians A throughout the world, to strive all they can to. 'know' their Redeemer as He really is." That is to say, the living Lord, the reality and not the barren name, the interior of the Rabbi, the heart-pulse, the gurgling spring, the communication of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Father has very strongly put this to the bishops and clergy of the whole world, under the words, "True Knowledge." "You must look upon it as your chief duty," the Holy Father goes on, "to engrave upon the minds of your people the 'true knowledge' of their likeness to Jesus Christ; to illustrate His charity, His mercy, His teachings, by your writings, your words in schools and universities, from the pulpit, wherever opportunity is offered." Who knows not the Holy Ghost, however, knows not Jesus Christ truly and really and less than in name. The new art of producing a likeness to God in one's life is effectively the work of the Holy Ghost. Lamentable is, indeed, such ignorance in our lives as obscures the path to heaven and leaves us halting on our heavenward journey, with lamps in our hands but an empty faith— no oil in the lamps.

It is this delinquency or failure on our part, individually, to make our practical lives be consistent with the promptings of faith that offers a seeming occasion for the slur of the iconoclast and the philistine, to the effect that the day of ceremonial and dogma is past.—"I will instruct thee in the way in which thou shalt go." (Psalm xxxi.) "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?" "Shall thy wonders be known in the dark, and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?" (Psalm lxxxvii.) Come out from the shadows of your ignorance, ye benighted of the world. —"Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Serious and deep-thinking churchmen are nonplussed to find the explanation of how ignorance upon so necessary a point of salvation should so contumaciously perpetuate itself. Are the unpractical not duly taught, or are they taught but listen not,— which? One can condone the nescience of Belles Lettres and put forward a defence of an unacquaintance with polite learning in such persons as have a decided dearth of palate for such culture or in such again as, having a relish for such delights, find themselves without funds for such luxuries or leisure for such pursuits; but a knowledge, pronounced by the orthodox authority to be necessary for salvation, is no longer a matter of taste or of personal election. It enters into the domain of divinely-imposed duties, a territory wherein we are, nowise, arbiters.

No kind of environment or of vocation or of social status howsoever impoverished arms us with a dispensation that will make us secure in our ignorance on this salient point of religions cult and practical revelation. The requisites for eternal health were cast and promulgated in full view of the whole range of human conditions, and, were such required knowledge not reconcilable with the wide world's variant character or quality of pursuits, they had not, forsooth, been made canons of appointed and universal conduct by the Son of Man. Not to have and to hold such knowledge, despite all temptations, all illusions and false pretences, struck off in defence of religious ignorance, is not due, as a matter of fact, to the difficulty of attainment nor to the dimensions of the knowledge required, but rather to fatal apathy and sheer reluctance on the part of those, who fail seriously to make inquiry into the revelations of the Son of Man; in other words, the small taste for the kingdom of heaven, so abominably, inconsistently displayed by the ignorant and vulgar, is largely due to their intellectual and spiritual sloth. Inactive growth and life may be less unsuitable to a lower order of being, but, such a thing is a reproach and an anomaly to the very idea of a moral being. Spiritual life demands toil and strenuous unremitting endeavor. There is a zone of indispensable knowledge, that ought to be known and cultivated in detail; there are truths of faith, that are, in reality, the very bread of life, and not, indeed, what the rash and indolent discernment would insist are no more than luxuries and meant only for theologians and such dilettanti as may choose to go into the matter beyond the rind.

Within the pale of the Church, we stand in a garden of delights, with bloom and blossom and fruit of revelation, delicious, life-giving, pendant from a million boughs; yet these linger, in so far as most christian men are concerned, unplucked, untasted on their stems. Hence, many of us languish in bone, in muscle and tissue; the religious organism suffers from atrophy in the midst of plenty: "The earth is filled with thy riches." (Psalm ciii, 24.) As a matter of stern fact, the goal of the major part, if not all, of our strenuous endeavor and study is our own present, immediate, lower interests, involving, and practically ending with such plans and ambitions as terminate in self-glory, worldly and human. I say, practically, for we may not care to admit this in our own particular case; at the same time, self seeking of the omnivorous, all-exclusive type, is a world-disease, nothing short of a plague, disguised in myriad fashions, with masque and powder, employed with a

deft touch, but always insidious, self-deluding, hypocritical, always a wicked, malignant disease. Ignorance of the life and light of the soul—the Holy Ghost—accounts for this moral epidemic, for, "from a knowledge of the Holy Ghost we derive this special fruit—considering attentively, that whatever we possess, we do so by the bounty and beneficence of the Holy Ghost, we learn to think more modestly and humbly of ourselves, and to place all our hopes in the protection of God which is the first step towards consummate wisdom and supreme happiness." (Catech. Trent.)

The Holy Ghost vivifies; He is the eternal personal Savitar, the creator of,—not indeed the sun, which as the Brahmanic Savitar is supplicated impersonally, morning and evening, by the Brahmanic Savitri, or extracts of the Rig-Veda: "Let us meditate on that surpassing glory of the divine vivifier, may He bring light unto our understanding." The world is devitalizing to the soul. Devotion smoulders in us; we don't stir up the fires and eschew the clinkers of obnoxious and unasimilating elements. Failing to penetrate the truths with which we have a bare bowing acquaintance and, in no sense, intimate relations, we doubly err in not feeding the fires of the soul. We throw on a chip or shaving, that quickly perishes, but we do not supply to the furnace of the heart and mind those splendid, massive logs or bituminous chunks that seize and retain flame —the solid truths of faith, that grow larger and larger with more penetrant meditation and throw up to the sky those glorious conflagrations of the soul that make the scroll of canonized saintship, effulgent, luminant, ineffaceable, undimmed by any passage of centuries.

The Holy Spirit: The Kiss of the Mouth By St. Bernard

Sermon 8 on The Song of Songs

As I promised yesterday, and as you well remember, today we are to speak of the supreme kiss, that of the mouth. You must listen with more than usual attention to a theme that is sweet to the spirit above all others, that is so rare an experience and more difficult to understand. I think I should begin by considering the higher truths, and it seems to me that a kiss past comprehension, beyond the experience of any mere creature, was designated by him who said: "No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." For the Father loves the Son whom he embraces with a love that is unique...

Come Holy Spirit. Part 13.

An Explanation of the Ceremonies and

of the Wonderful Effects of the

Sacrament of Confirmation

By

A Sister of Charity of Providence

PRAYER FOR THE TWELVE FRUITS OF THE HOLY GHOST

Heavenly Spirit, make us persevere in the service of God, and enable us to act on all occasions v/ith goodness, and benignity, patience, charity and joy, longanimity, mildness and fidelity. Let the heavenly virtues of peace, modesty, continency and chastity adorn the temples Thou hast chosen for Thy abode. O Spirit of Holiness by Thy all-powerful grace preserve us from the misfortune of sin. Amen.

TO OUR LADY OF LIGHT

Our Lady of Light, Spouse of the Holy Ghost,

I give thee my whole self, soul and body. All that I have or may have, to keep for Jesus, that I may be His for evermore.

Come Holy Spirit. Part 12.

An Explanation of the Ceremonies and

of the Wonderful Effects of the

Sacrament of Confirmation

By

A Sister of Charity of Providence

PRAYER FOR THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST

O God, who givest Thy gifts to whom Thou wilt and as Thou wilt, illumine with Thy light the darkness of Thy faithful servants.

Descend upon us. Spirit of Wisdom, teach us to know true happiness and the means to obtain it.

Descend upon us, O Spirit of Intelligence, and so penetrate us that we may understand all the mysteries of our holy religion.

Descend upon us. Spirit of Counsel, make us understand what we must do to accomplish Thy divine Will.

Descend upon us. Spirit of Fortitude, and so attach us to God and our duties that His Divine law may be the rule of our life.

Descend upon us. Spirit of Knowledge, Thou alone canst aid us to know God and ourselves.

Descend upon us. Spirit of Piety, and make us accomplish with meekness and joy all that is pleasing to God.

Descend upon us, O Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, and aid us to avoid with faithful care, all that displeases our Heavenly Father.

Glory to the Father Eternal, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, who livest and reignest ever, world without end. Amen.

Bless us, O Lord, with Thy most precious benedictions, that Thy Holy Spirit may direct, animate, and sanctify our whole lives.

Come Holy Spirit. Part 11.

An Explanation of the Ceremonies and

of the Wonderful Effects of the

Sacrament of Confirmation

By

A Sister of Charity of Providence

OFFERING TO THE HOLY GHOST

On my knees, before the multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body, to Thee, Eternal Spirit of God! I adore Thee, great God, and acknowledge Thy dominion over me.

Thou art the light and the strength of my soul. In Thee I live and move and have my being. I desire never to grieve Thee by unfaithfulness to grace, and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against Thee. Make me faithful in every thought, and grant that I may always listen to Thy voice, watch for Thy light, and follow Thy gracious inspirations. I cling to Thee, and give myself to Thee, and ask Thee, by Thy compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus, and looking at His five Wounds, trusting in His Precious Blood, and adoring His Sacred Heart, lacerated for love of me, I implore Thee, Holy Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, so to keep me in Thy grace that I may never sin against Thee with the sin which Thou canst not forgive. Give me grace, O Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to Thee, always and everywhere, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

Come Holy Spirit. Part 10.

An Explanation of the Ceremonies and

of the Wonderful Effects of the

Sacrament of Confirmation

By

A Sister of Charity of Providence

LITTLE WAYS THAT WE MAY SHOW OUR LOVE FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT

Just as we like to gather flowers for Jesus whom we love, and are even more happy when we ourselves are permitted to place them on His altar; so too may we gather flowers to bring to our Divine Guest in our heart, and there decorate His temple. The flowers that we can bring will be more dear to Him than the most beautiful ones that grow in any garden, for they will be the little sacrifices that we make for His sake, the little things that we find hard to do, but which we make ourselves do just for love of Him. Every little act done during the day, no matter how small and unimportant it is,—our study, our obedience, our silence, our work, our little heartaches, our little acts of kindness,—all if done or suffered for love of God, will be fragrant blossoms to give Him when night comes. Let us bring Him a bouquet of these precious flowers each day, and laying them before Him, beg Him to make us love Him more and more.

Let us try to console Him for all the insults that He receives from so many who drive Him out of their hearts by committing mortal sin, or who never think of Him nor of all that He does for them.

Let us say His Name in our prayers with greater reverence.

Since Monday is His day, let us try to do more for Him then. Can we not give Him little surprises by gladly making some little sacrifice, by keeping silence in the classroom better, by doing some kind act for our neighbor at home or at school?

We can draw others to love Him more by telling them of His wonderful gifts, by encouraging them to ask for His help. When we see our companions having a hard time to learn their lessons, let us suggest to them to call on the Holy Spirit, for He is the most wonderful Teacher.

By thus loving and worshipping the Holy Ghost we will greatly please Jesus and our Eternal Father, whose dearest wish is that the Holy Spirit be greatly loved and honored.

By being devoted to Him, we shall find it easy to pray; we shall like to go to Holy Mass, and to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament every time that we can. He will teach us how to pray. He will fill our heart with the same wonderful joy that He gave to the Apostles, and He will make it also easy for us to be good.

Above all. He will lead us to Jesus, teach us to know Him better, help us to imitate Him, and make us love Him more and more.

Therefore, let us try to make others know and love the Holy Spirit better, by being ourselves His loving, grateful children.

“O Holy Spirit, sweet Guest of my soul, remain with me, and grant that I may ever remain with Thee.”

(300 days each time. Pope Benedict XV.)

Our Lady of Light, Spouse of the Holy Ghost, pray for us.

St. Joseph, faithful lover of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us.

Come Holy Spirit. Part 9.

An Explanation of the Ceremonies and

of the Wonderful Effects of the

Sacrament of Confirmation

By

A Sister of Charity of Providence

DIVINE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Since we are trying to know more about the Holy Ghost in order to love Him better, let us see in what ways He is like Jesus.

1. He is gentle like Jesus,—He never forces us to do anything, but urges us ever so gently.

2. He is patient like Jesus,—He knows how weak and forgetful we are, and therefore He calls us again and again to obey Him. He never wearies of trying to call us back to Him, when we have strayed from His love.

3. He is sensitive like Jesus,—He grieves to be left alone and forgotten. How many people never think of His presence in their hearts, never speak to Him or tell Him of their love, never thank Him, nor ask His help! How many too, insult Him, slight Him, and offend Him! Let us. His own dear children, do all that we can to console Him for this neglect. Let us often tell Him of our love, and thank Him for His gifts, and for remaining with us as our Guest. Above all, let us never grieve Him by the least deliberate venial sin.

4. He is generous like Jesus,—how many graces He gives us, how many mere He v/ould give us, if we would only let Him. But we are afraid to do too much, afraid to forget ourselves, to deny ourselves; so we refuse many of the gifts of grace which He would give us so gladly, if we were only more generous too, and more unselfish.

5. He is humble like Jesus,—we know that this was Jesus’ favorite virtue. The Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts is hidden. Humble people please Him most, for they realize that they are too weak to practise virtue by themselves, and they therefore always ask for His help.

6. He is a lover of children as Jesus is. It is truth and sincerity and open-heartedness that make children so dear to Him, for He is the Spirit of Truth. Let us then try to be as we were when very small, when we did not know what it meant to tell a lie, or to deceive anyone. Let us ask Him to let us be brave enough always to tell the truth, no matter what it costs us to do so.

7. He is faithful like Jesus; therefore He appreciates the smallest things that we do for Him. He pays more attention to little things than we do, and for the very least sacrifices that we make for His love. He gives us an abundance of joy and merit.