St Benedict 'The Black' (1526 - 1589)

Benedict was born in 1526, the son of Christopher and Diana, an Ethiopian couple who were kept as slaves in Sicily. When Benedict reached the age of 18, he was set free and after a while he joined a hermit called Jerome. His reputation for holiness was spread throughout the area and people flocked to him all the time. Eventually he moved to a Franciscan monastery where he spent the rest of his life serving his brothers as a cook. Even though he was a lay brother and without education, he was chosen to be their Superior and, at the end of his term of 6 years, he went back to the kitchen. People kept on visiting him seeking his advice and the help of his prayers. He died on 4 April, 1589. Humility, spirit of service, wisdom and powerful intercession were the special gifts bestowed on Benedict “The Black”. 

Saint Francis of Paola (1436 - 1507)

He was born in Paola in Calabria. He founded an order of hermits which later became the Order of Minims (“minimi,” meaning “least,” because they were to be the least of the religious orders). He died on Good Friday, 2 April 1507, at Plessis in France. 

St Deogratias (d. 457)

The Christians of the diocese of Carthage, who had remained without a bishop for fourteen years, welcomed the appointment of Deogratias with great joy. He was an outstanding priest, very much loved and supported by the people because of his charity and preaching. During his ministry as bishop he cared for all the people, especially for the many captives that had been taken to Northern Africa by the Vandal king Genseric. Bishop Deogratias was a pastoral leader, full of love for his people and ready to respond to their practical and spiritual needs. He died in the year 457.

St Cyril of Jerusalem (315 - 386)

Cyril was born in 315 of Christian parents and succeeded Maximus as bishop of Jerusalem in 348. He was active in the Arian controversy and was exiled more than once as a result. His pastoral zeal is especially shown in his Catecheses, in which he expounded orthodox doctrine, holy Scripture and the traditions of the faith. They are still read today, and several of the Second Readings of the Office of Readings are taken from them. He died in 386. He is held in high esteem by both the Catholics and the Orthodox, and he was declared a Doctor of the Church by the Pope in 1883.

St Frances of Rome (1384 - 1440)

She was born in Rome in 1384 and was married at the age of 13. Although she had wanted to be a nun, she was happily married for 40 years and had three sons. She distributed gifts to the poor and ministered to the sick. She was remarkable for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience in adversity (including her husband’s banishment, the death of two of her sons from plague, and the loss of all her property). She was a mystic and contemplative, part of the great flourishing of mysticism in that period, and after her husband’s death she retired to a convent she had founded, where she died on 9 March 1440. 

St Katharine Drexel (1858 - 1955)

She was born in Philadelphia to a rich banking family. In 1891, at the age of 33, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order dedicated to mission work among Indians and black people. (A survey of the situation in the United States at this time described “250,000 Indians neglected, if not practically abandoned, and over nine million of negroes still struggling through the aftermath of slavery”). She spent her entire life and her entire fortune to this work, opening schools, founding a university, and funding many chapels, convents and monasteries. She died on 3 March 1955, by which time there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the United States. 

Saint Gregory of Narek (c.950-1005)

He was born around 950 to a noble family in the region of Anzevatsik in Armenia: a region now on the borders of south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran. He received a cultured and literary upbringing. As a young man he entered the monastery of Narek, of which his great-uncle Ananias was abbot. He was educated by the famous school of the monastery and spent the rest of his life there, being ordained priest and eventually becoming abbot.
    His life was marked by an intense love of the Virgin Mary. He attained great heights of sanctity and mystical experience, and expounded his teaching in various mystical and theological works. In 1003 he wrote his outstanding work, the Book of Lamentations, and he died about two years later.
    The Book of Lamentations retains enormous importance as a foundation-stone of Armenian literature, and remains widely influential to this day. Gregory’s work is still little known in the West (no English translation has yet been produced by a major publisher); but he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015 and his memorial was added to the General Calendar in 2021.

Bl. Constantius of Fabriano OP ( - 1481)

Dominican Friar and Priest.

    Born at Fabriano at the beginning of the fifteenth , Blessed Constantius received the Dominican habit at the age of fifteen. He was noted for his austere and prayerful life, as well as his efforts in promoting peace. As prior at Fabriano, at Perugia, and at Ascoli he labored to restore regular life. He died at Ascoli on February 24, 1481.

St Peter Damian (1007 - 1072)

Peter Damian was born in Ravenna in 1007 and studied theology and canon law, becoming a renowned teacher in both Parma and Ravenna. In his late twenties he abandoned all this and joined the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio, where he became prior in 1043: a position he held until his death. He strongly promoted the religious life in many parts of Italy. The Church at that time was in a terrible state and he supported the Popes in their efforts at reform, both by his writings and as a papal envoy. Pope Stephen IX named him a cardinal and Bishop of Ostia. He died on 21 February 1072 and was immediately acclaimed as a saint. 

Saint Fintan of Clonenagh

Saint Fintan was born in Leinster. He received his religious formation in Terryglass, Co. Tipperary under the abbot Colum, and was deeply influenced by his penitential practices and the severity of the Rule. Fintan made his own foundation in Clonenagh, Co. Laois. He died in 603. 

ST. GUDWALL, B. C. (Butlers 1903 Saint of the day)

HE was born in Wales, and having consecrated himself to God with his whole heart from his cradle, he became abbot of a numerous monastery in the little isle of Plecit, which was a rock on the sea-coast surrounded with water, where one hundred and eighty-eight monks are said to have served God in constant unanimity and with perfect fervor.* He afterwards passed by sea to Cornwall, and travelling into Devonshire built himself a hermitage, which by the number of disciples who flocked to him, grew into a second monastery. Alford thinks this happened in the fourth, but he certainly flourished only in the seventh century, or at least in the close of the sixth as Henschenius shows, who yet mistakes in placing his death in Devon shire, for he is the same person who in the calendars of Brittany in France is honored on this day under the name of St. Gurwall, as is shown by F. Le Large, the canon regular.[1] This holy man passing into Brittany in France, continued there to lead a retired life in the heavenly exercises of contemplation and prayer, and never ceasing by watching and fasting to subdue his body, and consummate the sacrifice of his penance. St. Malo pitched upon him for his successor in the episcopal sec which he had founded at Aleth, and which since bears his name. St. Gudwall governed this diocese some time with great sanctity: but resigned it when broken in his old age, and retired to Guern, near St. Malo’s of Baignon in the diocese of St. Malo. Certain monks attended him though he lived in a grotto separated from them, devoting himself entirely to the preparation of his soul for his last passage. His death happened in that place about the end of the sixth, or beginning of the seventh century, on the 6th of June. In the inroads which the Normans made on the coast, certain monks carried away the treasure of his relics, first into Gatinois, where at Yevre-le-Chatel is still shown an old shrine in which they were deposited for some time; and one of the bones which was left is still preserved in another parish church in that country at Petiviers, or Pluviers.[2] The monks some time after removed with their treasure towards their own coast, but chose Montreuil in Picardy, then a place of strength, for their second retreat. These relics remained there till in the tenth century Arnold I., or the Great, count of Flanders, who carried on a long war against the Normans, caused them to be translated to the great monastery of St. Peter’s of Blandine at Gant. He is honored on the 6th of June in the British calendars, and called Gudwall; also in several churches in Gatinois, at Montreuil sur mer; and with singular veneration in the great monastery of St. Peter’s at Gant, which glories in possessing the treasure of his relics. By the corruption of a letter he is called St. Gurwall at St. Malo’s, and honored on the same day; but an ancient calendar of that church, quoted by the Bollandists, calls him St. Gudwall, bishop of St. Malo’s. He is titular patron of Guern. In an ancient calendar of that diocese he is called St. Gudual, and St. Guidgal in another of the abbey of St. Meen in that diocese; St. Goual in a parish of the diocese of Vannes, of which he is titular patron, and St. Gudwall in a priory which bears his name, in an island depending on the abbey of Redon in the same bishopric. See Henschenius, F. Le Large, and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de la Bretagne, p. 131.

ST. EADBERT, BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE

VENERABLE BEDE assures us, that this holy man excelled both in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, and in the observance of the divine precepts. All his lifetime he was remarkable for his almsdeeds, and it was a law with him to lay aside yearly the tenth part of his goods for the poor. He was ordained successor to St. Cuthbert, in the see of Lindisfarne, in 687, and most worthily governed that church eleven years. It was his custom twice a year, in Lent, and during forty days before Christmas, to retire into a solitary place, encompassed by the waters of the sea, where St. Cuthbert had for some time served God in private before he went to the isle of Ferne. St. Eadbert spent this time remote from all company, in abstinence, prayers, and tears. St. Cuthbert had been buried about eleven years, when the brethren desired, with the approbation of Eadbert, to take up the bones of that eminent servant of God, whose life had been signalized by many illustrious miracles. Instead of dust, to which they expected they were reduced, to their great surprise they found the body as entire, and the joints all as pliable as if it had been living: all the vestments and clothes in which it was laid were also sound, and wonderfully fresh and bright. The monks made haste to inform the holy bishop, who was then in his Lent retreat, and they brought him part of the garments which covered the holy body. These he devoutly kissed, and ordered that the blessed body should be laid in other garments, put into the new coffin which was made for the holy relics, and, for greater veneration, placed above the pavement in the sanctuary. He added, that the grave which had been sanctified by so great a miracle of heavenly grace, would not remain long empty. This was accordingly done, and presently after Eadbert, the bishop beloved of God, fell dangerously sick, and his distemper daily increasing, on the 6th of May following he departed to our Lord. His body was laid in St. Cuthbert’s grave, and over the place was deposited the uncorrupted body of that glorious servant of God. “Miracles here wrought from time to time, in curing the sick, bear testimony to the merits of them both,” says Bede. The same historian informs us, that St. Eadbert covered with lead the church of Lindisfarne, which was dedicated by the archbishop Theodorus, under the patronage of St. Peter. It had been formerly built by bishop Finan, after the Scottish fashion, of oak boards and thatched with reeds. See Bede, Hist. 1. 3, c. 25,1. 4, c. 29, 30, and his life of St. Cuthbert. St. Eadbert is named on this day in the Roman Martyrology. 

Butlers 1903

Penance And Self-Denial: Why? by Rev. John O'Brien PH.D

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINE FOR MODERN LIFE

“Lent is a relic from the Dark Ages. It is a shadow projected down the ages of gloom that falls athwart the sunshine of our modern life and happiness. As the Matterhorn that lifts its snow-crowned summit high into the skies of Switzerland, intercepts the slanting rays of the setting sun, and brings premature darkness to the little village nestling in the valley behind it, so Lent robs us of much of the brightness of social life and worldly amusement, casting prematurely across the noonday of our life the shadow of death and the here-after. Its doctrine of mortification runs counter to the very grain of our human nature. It is a killjoy, an anachronism in our enlightened twentieth century. We want a religion of joy and gladness, not of gloom.”
Such is the cry that we hear about us on every side -the cry of the epicurean, the cry of the cynic, the cry of the sophisticated, seeking through a thousand devious routes to find the Blue Bird of happiness. Is Lent really a barrier to our happiness? Is it the mere blind handing down of a custom from the hoary past, that has lost its purpose and its utility for our modern day? Let us face these questions frankly and fairly. For unless a person understands how the observance of Lent promotes his welfare and happiness he is not likely to enter into its spirit wholeheartedly.

EXAMPLE OF CHRIST

In the first place, Lent is but the following of the example of Our Divine Saviour Himself. For the Gospel tells us that immediately after His baptism in the Jordan and before beginning His public ministry, Christ went out into the desert and fasted forty days and forty nights. Through the lips of His precursor, St. John the Baptist, He said to the people: “Unless you do penance you shall likewise perish.” Unlike our modern generals who send their soldiers out into the front-line trenches, while they remain securely behind, Our Divine Master asks us to follow only where He Himself has led. For many centuries the Christian world followed the example of Our Saviour with a rigorousness which we to-day do not even remotely approximate. A few years ago I stood at the foot of Mt. Quarantana, within sight of the Jordan, where the Saviour spent forty days of fast. I saw the sides of the mountain studded with holes, where anchorites had come to dwell, and to follow literally the rigorous fast of the Saviour.
Until the ninth century but one meal a day was taken, and that at evening. During the Middle Ages not only the theatres but even the law courts were closed. War was forbidden under penalty of excommunication. Every activity that might distract the minds of the Christians from the consideration of the condition of their souls and the attainment of their eternal salvation was prohibited. It has only been in recent times that the severity of the Lenten fast has been so greatly mitigated that now we experience but little hardship in its observance.

ANALYSIS OF ST. PAUL

Catholics do not observe Lent, however, merely because Our Saviour fasted, but because of the reasons which lie behind His command-to do penance as the necessary condition for salvation. We do penance for a twofold purpose: First, to atone for our past sins and to satisfy the temporal punishment due for them; secondly, to strengthen our wills so as to prevent our falling in the future.
When psychology will have written its, final chapter on human nature, it will be found that it has given us no more penetrating revelation of its conflicting duality than that which St. Paul disclosed to the Romans when he said: “I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind., and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members.” And to the Galatians he said: “For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another, so that you do not the things that you would.” Because of this conflicting duality that lay at the very heart of his nature, he found himself yielding to the thralldom of the senses and to the imperious tyranny of flesh against the voice of reason and conscience, so that he was compelled to explain: “The good which I will. . I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do.”
How aptly do these words of St. Paul reflect the experience of all mankind. Because of this duality in our nature, we find a Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde, a saint and a demon struggling for the mastery in each of us. In the last analysis it will be found that the whole purpose of all the exercises of the spiritual life is to emancipate the will from the tyranny of the flesh, to make it the ready servant of the reason and the conscience of man.
In order to secure such mastery, self-denial and self-discipline are necessary. The appetite, which is always pampered, petted and indulged, becomes imperious and domineering. By denying oneself at times pleasures that are lawful, we strengthen the muscles of the will, so that it will be more capable of resisting pleasures which are unlawful. That is why in Lent we are asked to give up some pleasures and amusements which are lawful in themselves. We thereby fortify the enthronement of our conscience and our intellect over our appetites and cravings. Then when the temptation comes we shall be able to stand unshaken.

PROMOTES HAPPINESS

Strength of will, which comes through self-denial and discipline, is necessary to success in every line of endeavour-in literature, in science, in art, in commerce, in athletics. Look at the athletes who are training day after day on the cinder track. See those muscles of theirs, at first soft and flabby, change under the dint of daily discipline until they become as sinews of iron. So it is with the Christian, whose will, at first soft and flabby, gradually be-comes like iron under the lash of daily discipline during Lent. This strength of will developed by spiritual exercises carries over into every department of life-making for success in scholarship, in athletics, in business, in life.
Not only does it make for success, but it makes for that subjective correlate of success-happiness and peace of mind. True happiness is found not in the enslavement of the will to the passions, but in the enthronement of the conscience and the will over the appetites and the instincts of man. There is found that deeper and truer happiness which is not dependent upon external circumstances, but is found within-in the kingdom of the mind. Your entering generously into the spirit of Lent will have a far-reaching influence not only upon the success of all your manifold activities, but also upon your happiness and peace of mind.
Some time ago the students at the University of Illinois, U.S.A., honoured at a public mass meeting the young man who carried the colours of Illinois to victory at the Olympic games at Amsterdam by winning the welterweight wrestling championship of the world. After congratulating him upon his great achievement, I asked him how long he had trained for the contest. “Father,” he said, “scarcely a day has passed in the last seven years that I haven’t gone through some special exercise designed to prepare me for that encounter.” No wonder that he was as hard as iron and steel, and able to withstand the assaults of the best wrestlers among all the nations of the world. If men toil and discipline themselves through rigorous self-denial to win a race for an earthly prize, how much greater should be our zeal and earnestness in seeking to win the race of life that leads to a crown of imperishable glory!

CHRIST’S SELF-CONTROL

If one will study with care the character of Our Divine Saviour as portrayed in the Gospel stories, he will find it adorned in an eminent degree with all the qualities which have distinguished the illustrious heroes of the world. Wisdom, power, mercy, and love shine forth luminously from His sublime personality. But as one studies that complex character at greater length and secures a more penetrating insight into it, he gradually becomes conscious that there is some subtle quality there, blending all these into a harmonious whole, which is lacking in the character of the great heroes of the world. There is no jar, no jolt, none of the strange inconsistencies that glare out at us from the lives of the secular heroes.
That quality is the Saviour’s perfect self-mastery, self-control. Never for an instant in all the scenes of the Master’s earthly life is there an incident wherein a rash, hasty, headstrong action mars the even tenor and the surpassing beauty of the Saviour’s unfailing equanimity and perfect self-control. Washington’s greatness bears ever the tarnish of his profanity and ill-temper. Napoleon’s glory. is dimmed by his uncontrolled concupiscence. But when on trial for His life before the court of Caiphas, when buffeted and spat upon by His executioners, even when stripped of His garments and nailed to the Cross, the Master shows no sign of anger or vindictiveness. Never for a moment does He lose that marvellous mastery of Himself.
That is one of the reasons why the name of Jesus stands out among all the names in human history-the solitary example of perfect self-control. As Richter has said: “The purest among the strong, and the strongest among the pure, Jesus lifted with His wounded hands empires from their hinges and changed the stream of centuries.” He taught man the greatest of all arts-the art of self-control.
“Self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control
In these alone lie sovereign power;
Who conquers self, rules others,
Aye, is lord and ruler of the universe.”

ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

The person who would master the rudiments of the spiritual life must learn the lesson of self-discipline. It is one of the most essential elements for success in the earthly and spiritual warfare which we wage. The paths of life are strewn with the wrecks of men and women conquering others, mastering the arts, unlocking the secrets that lay hidden for countless centuries in the unfathomed bosom of the earth, only to fall victims to their own lusts, perishing in their own unconquered wilderness.
To me there is something tragically moving in the spectacle of Alexander the Great subjugating Greece, conquering imperial Rome, extending his little kingdom of Macedonia over the known world, until he found himself in distant Ecbatana, in Media, Asia, sitting astride his steed and weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer. Within a week Alexander the Great, conqueror of the world, making the earth tremble as his mighty battalion swept across Europe and Asia, lay dead in his tent, a victim to his own concupiscence-his unbridled passion for drink. Instead of sighing for new worlds to conquer, if he had but eyes to see, he would have perceived within himself a kingdom which stretched out as a huge jungle, untamed and unexplored. Alexander the Great will remain for all times as the classic example of the man who was able to conquer all the world, except himself-literally murdered at the very zenith of his greatness by his own untamed passions.
We need not go back to ancient Greece or Rome or Ecbatana, however, to witness the tragic wrecks of uncontrolled passions. Our insane asylums, our homes for wayward boys and girls, scream out at us their message of the frightful retribution meted out to those who allow their lust to subjugate their reason and their conscience. In the very bosom of our society are countless men and women in the untamed wilderness of whose hearts there surge unchecked, wild, primeval passions, pulling them down slowly but surely to the level of beasts, and murdering everything in their nature that is Godlike and divine. The ceaseless gnawings of remorse, the sapping of their manhood and virility by terrible diseases-these are the forebodings of the far greater punishments that await with inexorable justice the transgressors of the Divine law in eternity.

A DYING WRECK

One evening some time ago I was called to the bedside of a stranger, dying in one of the rooming houses for transients in the city. He had gone through all the stages of delirium tremens, and was a complete wreck. The doctor said that he had gone on one spree too many. For this one had caused complications, a ruptured blood-vessel, and his end was a matter of hours. Though only in middle age, his hair was streaked with grey, and his face was heavily lined. Worry and dissipation were stamped unmistakably upon the scarred countenance. Heartbroken, he told me his story. Possessing a good education, he had risen to a high position with a rail-road, when he contracted the habit of drunkenness. Losing his job after a prolonged fit of intoxication, he was ashamed to face his wife and children. He went from bad to worse, finally becoming an outcast among the barrel houses in a large city.
After I heard his confession, he broke into tears, and his whole frame shook with sobbing as he cried, “Father, I would have given anything in the world to have freed myself from this terrible vice of drink. It has brought shame upon my family, whom I love more than anything in life. It has pulled me down into a living hell.” I shall never forget to my dying day the look of desolating anguish akin to despair in his wistful eyes, as he lay there sobbing as though his heart would break.
As I left that bare, drab room, with its dying victim, and came down the creaking stairs of the dingy rooming house, the scene haunted my mind. While hurrying home through the darkness of that winter night, illumined only by the distant stars shining as God’s silent sentinels in the sky, I prayed that God might protect my students, my people, myself, from a tragedy such as I had left behind. For that is the fate which awaits the boy or girl, the man or woman who allows any passion to grow unchecked, until it transforms him from a saint into a demon incarnate-the terrible tragedy of the man who is murdered, not by the hand of the assassin, but by his own brutal passions, slowly strangled to death by his own self.
The whole world watched breathlessly a few years ago the frantic struggle of men to free a victim from the jaws of Sand Cave in the Kentucky hillsides. But they resisted all the assaults of men and machinery, and clung to their victim until life was extinct. So, any passion-intoxication, lust, anger, jealousy-that is allowed to go unchecked, develops into a monster that clings to its victim until it strangles him to a physical and spiritual death. Worse than the fall of a meteor from the sky is the fall of a young man or a woman from the beauty and sunshine of God’s grace into the foul swamp of uncontrolled vice. It is the most tragic note and the saddest that can be sounded in the whole gamut of human life.

THE REMEDY

What now is the remedy? Knowledge merely? “Quarry the granite rock,” says Cardinal Newman, “with razors, or moor the vessel with a thread of silk; then you may hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passions and the pride of men.” Not knowledge alone, but will power is needed. Self-control means strength of will applied to one’s own conduct. How can will power be developed? Our Divine Master has given us the answer when He said: “He that will be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” By daily discipline, daily self denial, such as Lent brings to us. In no other way under the heavens can there be developed willpower and self-control.
The same conclusion was reached by an altogether different method of approach by one of the greatest of all psychologists, William James, when he said: “Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.” Do something each day that is hard and more than is required in order that your faculty of effort, your will, may not become weak and atrophied through disuse. Thus, strikingly, does science reiterate and reinforce this age-old teaching of the Church.
Before the eyes of a world sick unto death with luxury and self-indulgence, the Church places during Lent the age-old picture drawn by the Master Artist, Christ, of will power developed through self-discipline, of self-control achieved through acts of self-denial. Greater than Napoleon Bonaparte, than Julius Caesar, than Alexander the Great, the conqueror of the world, is the man who has learned through the instrument of a vigorous will to conquer himself. For self-control is the open sesame to success in this life and to eternal happiness in the next. All the after ages have but confirmed the wisdom of those words of an obscure Flemish monk, Thomas a Kempis, written in his monastic cell at Zwolle centuries ago: “He who best knows how to endure . . . is conqueror of himself and lord of the world, the friend of Christ and an heir of heaven.”

“AND UNTO DUST. . . .”

In addition to the great lesson of self-mastery, Lent brings home to mankind the fickleness of the world’s applause and its insufficiency to satisfy the hunger in the soul of man. On Ash Wednesday the Church seeks by a colourful and impressive ceremony to drive home to her children the transiency of this earthly life and the wisdom of seeking to attain the life eternal. The palms which were blessed on the previous Palm Sunday, to remind us of the Saviour’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the multitudes waved them aloft, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and strewed them in profusion on the road over which He rode-these palms the Church burns to ashes. Then, summoning her children to the altar railing, she places these ashes on the brow of each in the form of a cross, while she whispers in the ear of each the words of warning: “Remember, man, thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.”
Why speak to youth in whose eager eyes there burn the fires of life, and on whose cheeks there rests the bloom of youthful vigour-why speak to them of dust and ashes, of death and the hereafter? Why lessen their zest for life and its pleasures? The Church thus speaks to them, not to lessen their zest for life, but to give them a sense of values. She shoves back the narrow horizon of youth, removes the veil from the senses, reveals the transient character of earthly things, and points out the folly of seeking enduring happiness in that which is so ephemeral. The thought of death and the hereafter is salutary at times for old and young, for it prompts one to answer aright that supreme question which the Master addresses to each of us: “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?”
The wholesome effect of a profound realisation of the transiency of human life and human beauty is illustrated by an incident in the life of St. Francis Borgia. Francis was Duke of Gandia and Captain-General of Catalonia, and one of the most honoured chevaliers at the Court of Spain. Isabella was known throughout Europe for her charm, her Spanish vivacity, and for the striking beauty of her countenance. Often had Francis braved death while carrying the banner of Aragon and Castile into the thick of the battle, knowing that he would be rewarded with a word of praise from his beloved Queen. He found his greatest happiness in basking in the sunshine of her smile and drinking in with greedy eyes her charming loveliness.

A LAST LOOK

In 1539 there fell to his lot the sad duty of escorting the remains of his beloved Queen to the royal burial grounds at Granada. In order to verify the body as that of Isabella, the coffin was uncovered. Eagerly Francis stepped forward to take one last, lingering look at the beautiful countenance of his beloved Queen. He had no sooner done so than his face grew livid, his eyes wild with terror, as he shrank back. “No! No! Good God!” he cried; “it can’t be! It can’t be! Those eyes, that face, that smile! They can’t have perished so utterly.” What was the sight that greeted his eyes? A face of wondrous beauty? No. A face hideous and ugly in its putrefaction, the loathsome prey of worms and maggots pulling it back to dust and ashes. “God grant,” cried Francis, “that I seek not to find my happiness henceforth in that flesh which perisheth so quickly, but only in that eternal Beauty which never knows decay.” Francis devoted his services thereafter to a heavenly King, seeking as a humble missionary to win souls for Christ.
From the most beautiful face in all Spain, for whose look of approval soldiers faced death with a smile, to a sight so foul and loathsome as to fill the spectator with revulsion-what a change! Gaze at the most beautiful face you have ever seen, with eyes that speak like a rapturous symphony, with a smile that warms and endears, and in a few short years will you be able to overcome your loathing to gaze upon it when death has touched it with its finger of decay? “Remember, man, that thou art but dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.”
We need not go back, however, to the sixteenth century for striking instances of the transiency of earthly fame and the fickleness of human applause. On March 4, 1917, I stood in a crowd of 90,000 people before the Capitol in Washington, to watch the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson into the Presidency for his second term. His name was cheered on every side. A gigantic parade marched proudly before him in review. At the triumphant close of the World War, when he sailed for France to dictate the terms of the Versailles Treaty of Peace, he had reached the eminence of world fame. His words about freedom and democracy and the autonomy of small nations had rekindled the hopes of all the oppressed nations of the earth. Unprecedented crowds greeted him at Paris with tumultuous cheering. The eyes of all the world were turned to him, as he stood on the pinnacle of human eminence as a new Moses, heaven-sent to lead the groping feet of the nations into the Promised Land of perpetual peace.

AN AGE-OLD CRY

A few years later I passed by a little home on H Street, where lived a broken old man, unable to take more than a few steps with the aid of his cane. Broken in body, broken in mind, broken in heart, his League of Nations plan contemptuously rejected by the Senate, his opponent swept into office by the greatest landslide in history, the nations of Europe shaking their fists at him for deluding them with false hopes. What a pitiable spectacle! As he gazed out of his window at night toward the Capitol ablaze with light, the scene of his brilliant feats, what memories must have stirred within him!
One night, it is narrated, Mrs. Wilson happened to step into the parlour. The room was dark. Seated in a chair near the front window, with his face resting in his hands, she perceived her husband. There was the sound of a few broken sobs. Placing her hand tenderly upon the bowed head, she asked softly: “Are you ill, dear?” The former President raised his head and looked for a brief moment through tear-dimmed eyes toward the great shining Capitol that had resounded so often with his name. “No, not ill,” he said, “but I realise now as never before the fickleness of the plaudits of the multitude and the emptiness of the glory of this world.” As he sat there, broken in heart and alone, he tasted of that world weariness, that pang of the heart which caused Solomon in his old age to cry out: “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, save in loving God and serving Him alone.”
It was echoed again by St. Augustine, when, after running through the whole gamut of sensual indulgence in pagan Rome, he cried out: “Our hearts have been made for Thee, O God, and they shall never rest until they rest in Thee.” Such are the great eternal truths which Lent, with its gospel of penance and self-denial, drives home to a world that is forever tempted to find its happiness over the more beguiling but mistaken paths of ease and self-indulgence.

Come Holy Ghost. Part 1

FROM MANY WRITERS ON DEVOTION TO THE THIRD PERSON OF THE ADORABLE TRINITY.

DIVINUM ILLUD MUNUS
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

That divine office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for the welfare of mankind, and most perfectly fulfilled, had for its final object to put men in possession of the eternal life of glory, and proximately during the course of ages to secure to them the life of divine grace, which is destined eventually to blossom into the life of heaven. Wherefore, our Saviour never ceases to invite, with infinite affection, all men, of every race and tongue, into the bosom of His Church: "Come ye all to Me," "I am the Life," "I am the Good Shepherd." Nevertheless, according to His inscrutable counsels, He did not will to entirely complete and finish this office Himself on earth, but as He had received it from the Father, so He transmitted it for its completion to the Holy Ghost. It is consoling to recall those assurances which Christ gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left the earth: "It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you" (1 John xvi., 7). In these words He gave as the chief reason of His departure and His return to the Father, the advantage which would most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of the Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the Holy Ghost is equally sent by-and therefore proceeds from-Himself and the Father; that He would complete, in His office of Intercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself had begun in His mortal life. For, in the redemption of the world, the completion of the work was by Divine Providence reserved to the manifold power of that Spirit, who, in the creation, "adorned the heavens" (Job xxvi., 13), and "filled the whole world" (Wisdom i., 7).

The Two Principal Aims of Our Pontificate

2. Now We have earnestly striven, by the help of His grace, to follow theexample of Christ, Our Saviour, the Prince of Pastors, and the Bishop of ourSouls, by diligently carrying on His office, entrusted by Him to the Apostlesand chiefly to Peter, "whose dignity faileth not, even in his unworthysuccessor" (St. Leo the Great, Sermon ii., On the Anniversary of hisElection). In pursuance of this object We have endeavoured to direct all that Wehave attempted and persistently carried out during a long pontificatetowards two chief ends: in the first place, towards the restoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the Christian life in civil and domestic society, since there is no true life for men except from Christ; and, secondly, to promote the reunion of those who have fallen away from the Catholic Church either by heresy or by schism, since it is most undoubtedly the will of Christ that all should be united in one flock under one Shepherd. But now that We are looking forward to the approach of the closing days of Our life, Our soul is deeply moved to dedicate to the Holy Ghost, who is the life-giving Love, all the work We have done during Our pontificate, that He may bring it to maturity and fruitfulness. In order the better and more fully to carry out this Our intention, We have resolved to address you at the approaching sacred season of Pentecost concerning the indwelling and miraculous power of the Holy Ghost; and the extent and efficiency of His action, both in the whole body of the Church and in the individual souls of its members, through the glorious abundance of His divine graces. We earnestly desire that, as a result, faith may be aroused in your minds concerning the mystery of the adorable Trinity, and especially that piety may increase and be inflamed towards the Holy Ghost, to whom especially all of us owe the grace of following the paths of truth and virtue; for, as St. Basil said, "Who denieth that the dispensations concerning man, which have been made by the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, according to the goodness of God, have been fulfilled through the grace of the Spirit?" (Of the Holy Ghost, c. xvi., v. 39).

The Catholic Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity

3. Before We enter upon this subject, it will be both desirable and useful to say a few words about the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. This dogma is called by the doctors of the Church "the substance of the New Testament," that is to say, the greatest of all mysteries, since it is the fountain and origin of them all. In order to know and contemplate this mystery, the angels were created in Heaven and men upon earth. In order to teach more fully this mystery, which was but foreshadowed in the Old Testament, God Himself came down from the angels unto men: "No man bath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He bath declared Him" (John i., 18). Whosoever then writes or speaks of the Trinity must keep before His eyes the prudent warning ofthe Angelic Doctor: "When we speak of the Trinity, we must do so withcaution and modesty, for, as St. Augustine saith, nowhere else are moredangerous errors made, or is research more difficult, or discovery morefruitful" (Summ. Th. la., q. xxxi. De Trin. 1 L, c. 3). The danger thatarises is lest the Divine Persons be confounded one with the other in faith orworship, or lest the one Nature in them be separated: for "This is theCatholic Faith, that we should adore one God in Trinity and Trinity inUnity." Therefore Our predecessor Innocent XII, absolutely refused thepetition of those who desired a special festival in honour of God the Father.For, although the separate mysteries connected with the Incarnate Word arecelebrated on certain fixed days, yet there is no special feast on which theWord is honoured according to His Divine Nature alone. And even the Feast ofPentecost was instituted in the earliest times, not simply to honour the HolyGhost in Himself, but to commemorate His coming, or His external mission. Andall this has been wisely ordained, lest from distinguishing the Persons menshould be led to distinguish the Divine Essence. Moreover the Church, in orderto preserve in her children the purity of faith, instituted the Feast of theMost Holy Trinity, which John XXII. afterwards extended to the Universal Church.He also permitted altars and churches to be dedicated to the Blessed Trinity,and, with the divine approval, sanctioned the Order for the Ransom of Captives,which is specially devoted to the Blessed Trinity and bears Its name. Many factsconfirm its truths. The worship paid to the saints and angels, to the Mother ofGod, and to Christ Himself, finally redounds to the honour of the BlessedTrinity. In prayers addressed to one Person, there is also mention of theothers; in the litanies after the individual Persons have been separatelyinvoked, a common invocation of all is added: all psalms and hymns conclude withthe doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; blessings, sacred rites, andsacraments are either accompanied or concluded by the invocation of the BlessedTrinity. This was already foreshadowed by the Apostle in those words: "Forof Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever"(Rom. xi., 36), thereby signifying both the Trinity of Persons and the Unity ofNature: for as this is one and the same in each of the Persons, so to each is equally owing supreme glory, as to one and the same God. St. Augustine commenting upon this testimony writes: "The words of the Apostle, of Him, and by Him, and in Him are not to be taken indiscriminately; of Him refers to the Father, by Him to the Son, in Him to the Holy Ghost" (De Trin. 1. vi., c. 10; 1. i., c. 6). The Church is accustomed most fittingly to attribute to the Father those works of the Divinity in which power excels, to the Son those in which wisdom excels, and those in which love excels to the Holy Ghost. Not that all perfections and external operations are not common to the Divine Persons; for "the operations of the Trinity are indivisible, even as the essence of the Trinity is indivisible" (St. Aug., De Trin., I. 1, cc. 4-5); because as the three Divine Persons "are inseparable, so do they act inseparably" (St. Aug., i6.). But by a certain comparison, and a kind of affinity between the operations and the properties of the Persons, these operations are attributed or, as it is said, "appropriated" to One Person rather than to the others. "Just as we make use of the traces of similarity or likeness which we find in creatures for the manifestation of the Divine Persons, so do we use Their essential attributes; and this manifestation of the Persons by Their essential attributes is called appropriation" (St. Th. la., q. 39, xxxix., a. 7). In this manner the Father, who is "the principle of the whole God-head" (St. Aug. De Trin. 1 iv., c. 20) is also the efficient cause of all things, of the Incarnation of the Word, and the sanctification of souls; "of Him are all things": of Him, referring to the Father. But the Son, the Word, the Image of God is also the exemplar cause, whence all creatures borrow their form and beauty, their order and harmony. He is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the Reconciles of man with God. "By Him are all things": by Him, referring to the Son. The Holy Ghost is the ultimate cause of all things, since, as the will and all other things finally rest in their end, so He, who is the Divine Goodness and the Mutual Love of the Father and Son, completes and perfects, by His strong yet gentle power, the secret work of man's eternal salvation. "In Him are all things": in Him, referring to the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost and the Incarnation

4. Having thus paid the due tribute of faith and worship owing to the Blessed Trinity, and which ought to be more and more inculcated upon the Christian people, we now turn to the exposition of the power of theHoly Ghost. And, first of all, we must look to Christ, the Founder of the Churchand the Redeemer of our race. Among the external operations of God, the highestof all is the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, in which the splendour ofthe divine perfections shines forth so brightly that nothing more sublime caneven be imagined, nothing else could have been more salutary to the human race.Now this work, although belonging to the whole Trinity, is still appropriatedespecially to the Holy Ghost, so that the Gospels thus speak of the BlessedVirgin: "She was found with child of the Holy Ghost," and "thatwhich is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. i., 18, 20). Andthis is rightly attributed to Him who is the love of the Father and the Son,since this "great mystery of piety" (1 Tim. iii., 16) proceeds fromthe infinite love of God towards man, as St. John tells us: "God so lovedthe world as to give His only begotten Son" (John iii., 16). Moreover,human nature was thereby elevated to a personal union with the Word; and thisdignity is given, not on account of any merits, but entirely and absolutelythrough grace, and therefore, as it were, through the special gift of the HolyGhost. On this point St. Augustine writes: "This manner in which Christ wasborn of the Holy Ghost, indicates to us the grace of God, by which humanity,with no antecedent merits, at the first moment of its existence, was united withthe Word of God, by so intimate a personal union, that He, who was the Son ofMan, was also the Son of God, and He who was the Son of God was also the Son ofMan" (Enchir., c. xl. St. Th., 3a., q. xxxii., a. 1). By the operation ofthe Holy Spirit, not only was the conception of Christ accomplished, but alsothe sanctification of His soul, which, in Holy Scripture, is called His"anointing" (Acts x., 38). Wherefore all His actions were"performed in the Holy Ghost" (St. Basil de Sp. S., c. xvi.), andespecially the sacrifice of Himself: "Christ, through the Holy Ghost,offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. ix., 14). Considering this, noone can be surprised that all the gifts of the Holy Ghost inundated the soul ofChrist. In Him resided the absolute fullness of grace, in the greatest and mostefficacious manner possible; in Him were all the treasures of wisdom andknowledge, graces gratis datae, virtues, and all other gifts foretold in theprophecies of Isaias (Is. iv., I; xi., 23), and also signified in that miraculous dove which appeared at the Jordan, when Christ, by His baptism, consecrated its waters for a new sacrament. On this the words of St. Augustine may appropriately be quoted: "It would be absurd to say that Christ received the Holy Ghost when He was already thirty years of age, for He came to His baptism without sin, and therefore not without the Holy Ghost. At this time, then (that is, at His baptism), He was pleased to prefigure His Church, in which those especially who are baptized receive the Holy Ghost" (De. Trin. 1., xv., c. 26). Therefore, by the conspicuous apparition of the Holy Ghost over Christ and by His invisible power in His soul, the twofold mission of the Spirit is foreshadowed, namely, His outward and visible mission in the Church, and His secret indwelling in the souls of the just.

The Holy Ghost and the Church

5. The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost. On that day the Holy Ghost began to manifest His gifts in the mystic body of Christ, by that miraculous outpouring already foreseen by the prophet Joel (ii., 28-29), for the Paraclete "sat upon the apostles as though new spiritual crowns were placed upon their heads in tongues of fire" (S. Cyril Hier. Catech. 17). Then the apostles "descended from the mountain," as St. John Chrysostom writes, "not bearing in their hands tables of stone like Moses, but carrying the Spirit in their mind, and pouring forth the treasure and the fountain of doctrines and graces" (In Matt. Hom. L, 2 Cor. iii., 3). Thus was fully accomplished that last promise of Christ to His apostles of sending the Holy Ghost, who was to complete and, as it were, to seal the deposit of doctrine committed to them under His inspiration. "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He will teach you all truth" (John xvi., 12-13). For He who is the Spirit of Truth, inasmuch as He proceedeth both from the Father, who is the eternally True, and from the Son, who is the substantial Truth, receiveth from each both His essence and the fullness of all truth. This truth He communicates to His Church, guarding her by His all powerful help from ever falling into error, and aiding her to foster daily more and more the germs of divine doctrineand to make them fruitful for the welfare of the peoples. And since the welfareof the peoples, for which the Church was established, absolutely requires thatthis office should be continued for all time, the Holy Ghost perpetuallysupplies life and strength to preserve and increase the Church. "I will askthe Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with youfor ever, the Spirit of Truth" (john xiv., 16, 17).

6. By Him the bishops are constituted, and by their ministry are multiplied not only the children, but also the fathers-that is to say, the priests-to rule and feed the Church by that Blood wherewith Christ has redeemed Her. "The Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God, which He bath purchased with His own Blood" (Acts xx., 28). And both bishops and priests, by the miraculous gift of the Spirit, have the power of absolving sins, according to those words of Christ to the Apostles: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose you shall retain they are retained" (John xx., 22, 23). That the Church is a divine institution is most clearly proved by the splendour and glory of those gifts and graces with which she is adorned, and whose author and giver is the Holy Ghost. Let it suffice to state that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so is the Holy Ghost her soul. "What the soul is in our body, that is the Holy Ghost in Christ's body, the Church" (St. Aug., Serm. 187, de Temp.). This being so, no further and fuller "manifestation and revelation of the Divine Spirit" may be imagined or expected; for that which now takes place in the Church is the most perfect possible, and will last until that day when the Church herself, having passed through her militant career, shall be taken up into the joy of the saints triumphing in heaven.

The Holy Ghost in the Souls of the Just

7. The manner and extent of the action of the Holy Ghost in individual souls is no less wonderful, although somewhat more difficult to understand, inasmuch as it is entirely invisible. This outpouring of the Spirit is so abundant, that Christ Himself, from whose gift it proceeds, compares it to an overflowing river, according to those words of St. John: "He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his midst shall flow rivers of livingwater"; to which testimony the Evangelist adds the explanation: "Nowthis He said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in Him"(John vii., 38, 39). It is indeed true that in those of the just who livedbefore Christ, the Holy Ghost resided by grace, as we read in the Scripturesconcerning the prophets, Zachary, John the Baptist, Simeon, and Anna; so that onPentecost the Holy Ghost did not communicate Himself in such a way "as thenfor the first time to begin to dwell in the saints, but by pouring Himself forthmore abundantly; crowning, not beginning His gifts; not commencing a new work,but giving more abundantly" (St. Leo the Great, Hom. iii., de Pentec.). Butif they also were numbered among the children of God, they were in a state likethat of servants, for "as long as the heir is a child he differeth nothingfrom a servant, but is under tutors and governors" (Gal. iv., I, 2).Moreover, not only was their justice derived from the merits of Christ who wasto come, but the communication of the Holy Ghost after Christ was much moreabundant, just as the price surpasses in value the earnest and the realityexcels the image. Wherefore St. John declares: "As yet the Spirit was notgiven, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John vii., 39). So soon,therefore, as Christ, "ascending on high," entered into possession ofthe glory of His Kingdom which He had won with so much labour, He munificentlyopened out the treasures of the Holy Ghost: "He gave gifts to men"(Eph. iv., 8). For "that giving or sending forth of the Holy Ghost afterChrist's glorification was to be such as had never been before; not that therehad been none before, but it had not been of the same kind" (St. Aug., DeTrin., 1. iv. c. 20).

8. Human nature is by necessity the servant of God: "The creature is a servant; we are the servants of God by nature" (St. Cyr. Alex., Thesaur. I. v., c. 5). On account, however, of original sin, our whole nature had fallen into such guilt and dishonour that we had become enemies to God. "We were by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. ii., 3). There was no power which could raise us and deliver us from this ruin and eternal destruction. But God, the Creator of mankind and infinitely merciful, did this through His only begotten Son, by whose benefit it was brought about that man was restored so that rank and dignity whence he had fallen, and was adornedwith still more abundant graces. No one can express the greatness of this workof divine grace in the souls of men. Wherefore, both in Holy Scripture and inthe writings of the fathers, men are styled regenerated, new creatures,partakers of the Divine Nature, children of God, god-like, and similar epithets.Now these great blessings are justly attributed as especially belonging to theHoly Ghost. He is "the Spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba,Father." He fills our hearts with the sweetness of paternal love: "TheSpirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God"(Rom. viii., 15-16). This truth accords with the similitude observed by theAngelic Doctor between both operations of the Holy Ghost; for through Him"Christ was conceived in holiness to be by nature the Son of God," and"others are sanctified to be the sons of God by adoption" (St. Th. 3a,q. xxxii., a. I). This spiritual generation proceeds from love in a much morenoble manner than the natural: namely, from the untreated Love.

9. The beginnings of this regeneration and renovation of man are by Baptism. In this sacrament, when the unclean spirit has been expelled from the soul, the Holy Ghost enters in and makes it like to Himself. "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit" (John iii., 6). The same Spirit gives Himself more abundantly in Confirmation, strengthening and confirming Christian life; from which proceeded the victory of the martyrs and the triumph of the virgins over temptations and corruptions. We have said that the Holy Ghost gives Himself: "the charity of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us" (Rom. v., 5). For He not only brings to us His divine gifts, but is the Author of them and is Himself the supreme Gift, who, proceeding from the mutual love of the Father and the Son, is justly believed to be and is called "Gift of God most High." To show the nature and efficacy of this gift it is well to recall the explanation given by the doctors of the Church of the words of Holy Scripture. They say that God is present and exists in all things, "by His power, in so far as all things are subject to His power; by His presence, inasmuch as all things are naked and open to His eyes; by His essence, inasmuch as he is present to all as the cause of their being." (St. Th. Ia, q. viii., a. 3). But God is in man, not only as in inanimate things, but because he ismore fully known and loved by him, since even by nature we spontaneously love,desire, and seek after the good. Moreover, God by grace resides in the just soulas in a temple, in a most intimate and peculiar manner. From this proceeds thatunion of affection by which the soul adheres most closely to God, more so thanthe friend is united to his most loving and beloved friend, and enjoys God inall fulness and sweetness. Now this wonderful union, which is properly called"indwelling," differing only in degree or state from that with whichGod beatifies the saints in heaven, although it is most certainly produced bythe presence of the whole Blessed Trinity-"We will come to Him and make ourabode with Him," (John xiv. 23.)-nevertheless is attributed in a peculiarmanner to the Holy Ghost. For, whilst traces of divine power and wisdom appeareven in the wicked man, charity, which, as it were, is the special mark of theHoly Ghost, is shared in only by the just. In harmony with this, the same Spiritis called Holy, for He, the first and supreme Love, moves souls and leads themto sanctity, which ultimately consists in the love of God. Wherefore the apostlewhen calling us to the temple of God, does not expressly mention the Father orthe Son, or the Holy Ghost: "Know ye not that your members are the templeof the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God?" (1 Cor. vi. 19).The fullness of divine gifts is in many ways a consequence of the indwelling ofthe Holy Ghost in the souls of the just. For, as St. Thomas teaches, "whenthe Holy Ghost proceedeth as love, He proceedeth in the character of the firstgift; whence Augustine with that, through the gift which is the Holy Ghost, manyother special gifts are distributed among the members of Christ." (Summ.Th., la. q. xxxviii., a. 2. St. Aug. de Trin., xv., c. 19). Among these giftsare those secret warnings and invitations, which from time to time are excitedin our minds and hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Without thesethere is no beginning of a good life, no progress, no arriving at eternalsalvation. And since these words and admonitions are uttered in the soul in anexceedingly secret manner, they are sometimes aptly compared in Holy Writ to thebreathing of a coming breeze, and the Angelic Doctor likens them to themovements of the heart which are wholly hidden in the living body. "Thy heart has a certain hidden power, and therefore the Holy Ghost, who invisibly vivifies and unites the Church, is compared to the heart." (Summ. Th. 3a, q. vii., a. I, ad 3). More than this, the just man, that is to say he who lives the life of divine grace, and acts by the fitting virtues as by means of faculties, has need of those seven gifts which are properly attributed to the Holy Ghost. By means of them the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to obey more easily and promptly His voice and impulse. Wherefore these gifts are of such efficacy that they lead the just man to the highest degree of sanctity; and of such excellence that they continue to exist even in heaven, though in a more perfect way. By means of these gifts the soul is excited and encouraged to seek after and attain the evangelical beatitudes, which, like the flowers that come forth in the spring time, are the signs and harbingers of eternal beatitude. Lastly there are those blessed fruits, enumerated by the Apostle (Gal. v., 22), which the Spirit, even in this mortal life, produces and shows forth in the just; fruits filled with all sweetness and joy, inasmuch as they proceed from the Spirit, "who is in the Trinity the sweetness of both Father and Son, filling all creatures with infinite fullness and profusion." (St. Aug. de Trin. 1. vi., c. 9). The Divine Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Word in the eternal light of sanctity, Himself both Love and Gift, after having manifested Himself through the veils of figures in the Old Testament, poured forth all his fullness upon Christ and upon His mystic Body, the Church; and called back by his presence and grace men who were going away in wickedness and corruption with such salutary effect that, being no longer of the earth earthy, they relished and desired quite other things, becoming of heaven heavenly.

On Devotion to the Holy Ghost

10. These sublime truths, which so clearly show forth the infinite goodness of the Holy Ghost towards us, certainly demand that we should direct towards Him the highest homage of our love and devotion. Christians may do this most effectually if they will daily strive to know Him, to love Him, and to implore Him more earnestly; for which reason may this Our exhortation, flowing spontaneously from a paternal heart, reach their ears. Perchance there are still to be found among them, even nowadays, some, who if asked, as were those of old bySt. Paul the Apostle, whether they have received the Holy Ghost, might answer inlike manner: "We have not so much as heard whether there be a HolyGhost" (Acts xix., 2). At least there are certainly many who are verydeficient in their religious practices, but their faith is involved in muchdarkness. Wherefore all preachers and those having care of souls should rememberthat it is their duty to instruct their people more diligently and more fullyabout the Holy Ghost-avoiding, however, difficult and subtle controversies, andeschewing the dangerous folly of those who rashly endeavour to pry into divinemysteries. What should be chiefly dwelt upon and clearly explained is themultitude and greatness of the benefits which have been bestowed, and areconstantly bestowed, upon us by this Divine Giver, so that errors and ignoranceconcerning matters of such moment may be entirely dispelled, as unworthy of"the children of light." We urge this, not only because it affects amystery by which we are directly guided to eternal life, and which musttherefore be firmly believed; but also because the more clearly and fully thegood is known the more earnestly it is loved. Now we owe to the Holy Ghost, aswe mentioned in the second place, love, because He is God: "Thou shalt lovethe Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thywhole strength" (Deut. vi., 5). He is also to be loved because He is thesubstantial, eternal, primal Love, and nothing is more lovable than love. Andthis all the more because He has overwhelmed us with the greatest benefits,which both testify to the benevolence of the Giver and claim the gratitude ofthe receiver. This love has a twofold and most conspicuous utility. In the firstplace it will excite us to acquire daily a clearer knowledge about the HolyGhost; for, as the Angelic Doctor says, "the lover is not content with thesuperficial knowledge of the beloved, but striveth to inquire intimately intoall that appertains to the beloved, and thus to penetrate into the interior; asis said of the Holy Ghost, Who is the Love of God, that He searcheth even theprofound things of God" (1 Cor. ii., 10; Summ. Theol., la. 2ae., q. 28, a.2). In the second place it will obtain for us a still more abundant supply ofheavenly gifts; for whilst a narrow heart contracteth the hand of the giver, a grateful and mindful heart causeth it to expand. Yet we must strive that this love should be of such a nature as not to consist merely in dry speculations or external observances, but rather to run forward towards action, and especially to fly from sin, which is in a more special manner offensive to the Holy Spirit. For whatever we are, that we are by the divine goodness; and this goodness is specially attributed to the Holy Ghost. The sinner offends this his Benefactor, abusing His gifts; and taking advantage of His goodness becomes more hardened in sin day by day. Again, since He is the Spirit of Truth, whosoever faileth by weakness or ignorance may perhaps have some excuse before Almighty God; but he who resists the truth through malice and turns away from it, sins most grievously against the Holy Ghost. In our days this sin has become so frequent that those dark times seem to have come which were foretold by St. Paul, in which men, blinded by the just judgment of God, should take falsehood for truth, and should believe in "the prince of this world," who is a liar and the father thereof, as a teacher of truth: "God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying (2 Thess. ii., 10). In the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. iv., 1). But since the Holy Ghost, as We have said, dwells in us as in His temple, We must repeat the warning of the Apostle: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed" (Eph. iv., 30). Nor is it enough to fly from sin; every Christian ought to shine with the splendour of virtue so as to be pleasing to so great and so beneficent a guest; and first of all with chastity and holiness, for chaste and holy things befit the temple. Hence the words of the Apostle: "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are" (1 Cor. iii., 16-17): a terrible, indeed, but a just warning.

11. Lastly, we ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each one of usgreatly needs His protection and His help. The more a man is deficient inwisdom, weak in strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he themore to fly to Him who is the never-ceasing fount of light, strength,consolation, and holiness. And chiefly that first requisite of man, theforgiveness of sins, must be sought for from Him: "It is the special character of the Holy Ghost that He is the Gift of the Father and the Son. Now the remission of all sins is given by the Holy Ghost as by the Gift of God" (Summ. Th. 3a, q. iii., a. 8, ad 3m). Concerning this Spirit the words of the Liturgy are very explicit: "For He is the remission of all sins" (Roman Missal, Tuesday after Pentecost). How He should be invoked is clearly taught by the Church, who addresses Him in humble supplication, calling upon Him by the sweetest of names: "Come, Father of the poor! Come, Giver of gifts! Come, Light of our hearts! O, best of Consolers, sweet Guest of the soul, our refreshment!" (Hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus). She earnestly implores Him to wash, heal, water our minds and hearts, and to give to us who trust in Him "the merit of virtue, the acquirement of salvation, and joy everlasting." Nor can it be in any way doubted that He will listen to such prayer, since we read the words written by His own inspiration: "The Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings" (Rom. viii., 26). Lastly, we ought confidently and continually to beg of Him to illuminate us daily more and more with His light and inflame us with His charity: for, thus inspired with faith and love, we may press onward earnestly towards our eternal reward, since He "is the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. i. 14).

12. Such, Venerable Brethren, are the teachings and exhortations which We haveseen good to utter, in order to stimulate devotion to the Holy Ghost. We have nodoubt that, chiefly by means of your zeal and earnestness, they will bearabundant fruit among Christian peoples. We Ourselves shall never in the futurefail to labour towards so important an end; and it is even Our intention, inwhatever ways may appear suitable, to further cultivate and extend thisadmirable work of piety. Meanwhile, as two years ago, in Our Letter ProvidaMatris, We recommended to Catholics special prayers at the Feast of Pentecost,for the Re-union of Christendom, so now We desire to make certain furtherdecrees on the same subject.

An Annual Novena Decreed

13. Wherefore, We decree and command that throughout the whole Catholic Church,this year and in every subsequent year, a Novena shalltake place before Whit-Sunday, in all parish churches, and also, if the local Ordinaries think fit, in other churches and oratories. To all who take part in this Novena and duly pray for Our intention, We grant for each day an Indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines; moreover, a Plenary Indulgence on any one of the days of the Novena, or on Whit-Sunday itself, or on any day during the Octave; provided they shall have received the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and devoutly prayed for Our intention. We will that those who are legitimately prevented from attending the Novena, or who are in places where the devotions cannot, in the judgment of the Ordinary, be conveniently carried out in church, shall equally enjoy the same benefits, provided they make the Novena privately and observe the other conditions. Moreover We are pleased to grant, in perpetuity, from the Treasury of the Church, that whosoever, daily during the Octave of Pentecost up to Trinity Sunday inclusive, offer again publicly or privately any prayers, according to their devotion, to the Holy Ghost, and satisfy the above conditions, shall a second time gain each of the same Indulgences. All these Indulgences We also permit to be applied to the suffrage of the souls in Purgatory.

14. And now Our mind and heart turn back to those hopes with which We began, andfor the accomplishment of which We earnestly pray, and will continue to pray, tothe Holy Ghost. Unite, then, Venerable Brethren, your prayers with Ours, and atyour exhortation let all Christian peoples add their prayers also, invoking thepowerful and ever-acceptable intercession of the Blessed Virgin. You know wellthe intimate and wonderful relations existing between her and the Holy Ghost, sothat she is justly called His Spouse. The intercession of the Blessed Virgin wasof great avail both in the mystery of the Incarnation and in the coming of theHoly Ghost upon the Apostles. May she continue to strengthen our prayers withher suffrages, that, in the midst of all the stress and trouble of the nations,those divine prodigies may be happily revived by the Holy Ghost, which wereforetold in the words of David: "Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall becreated, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth" (Ps. ciii., 30).

15. As a pledge of Divine favour and a testimony of Our affection, Venerable Brethren, to you, to your Clergy, andpeople, We gladly impart in the Lord the Apostolic Benediction.

Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, on the 9th day of May, 1897, in the 20th year of Our Pontificate.

LEO XIII