The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit In The Souls Of The Just. Part 24.

According To The Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas

IV

Although, therefore, God is everywhere and wholly present in every place, He is not equally present everywhere. There are certain places where He dwells in such a particular manner that one might call these places the home or dwelling house of God. It is in these privileged spots, according to St. John Damascene, that the Divine operation is most manifest. Such was the spot, in days of yore, where Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to Jacob in wondrous visions, and called by him "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Again, at the sight of the miracles performed in his favor, and of the mystical ladder between earth and heaven which he beheld in a dream, as well as in the marvelous promises made to him by the God of his fathers, the holy patriarch recognized a special presence of the Divinity even in the heart of the desert. Under the old law, God dwelt in a special way in the tabernacle built by Moses, and later in the temple of Jerusalem, where His presence was made manifest under the form of a mysterious cloud.

Finally, how can we fail to recognize a special presence of the Divinity (were it only as the efficient Cause), in the prophets to whose minds the Holy Ghost unveiled the future, and in the other inspired writers, as well as in the Apostles whom He assisted and enlightened; in the saints, who_receive more abundant graces; in the Church, which He safeguards from error, sanctifies and defends against her enemies: in a word, wheresoever His operation is more plainly felt, wheresoever His favors are distributed more lavishly, in the natural order as well as in the order of grace. And because it is in heaven that God's action displays itself with the greatest splendor, because it is there that His Divine bounty becomes, as it were, forgetful of all limitation— it is there, according to St. Bernard, that God is present in so special a manner, that by comparison in other places He is not present at all. This is why we pray in the Lord's prayer: "Our Father, Who art in heaven"