{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34855/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34855","id":"gutenberg_34855","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34855","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Holy Spirit","Presence of God"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Michael Gray, Diocese of San Jose\n\n\n\n\n  THE ABIDING PRESENCE\n\n  OF\n\n  THE HOLY GHOST IN THE SOUL\n\n\n\n  BY\n\n  BEDE JARRETT, O.P.\n\n\n\n  THE NEWMAN BOOKSHOP\n  Westminster, Maryland\n\n\n\nNIHIL OBSTAT\n\n  A. R. P. RAPHAEL MOSS, O.P., S.T.L.\n  R. P. AELRED WHITACRE, O.P., S.T.L.\n\nNIHIL OBSTAT\n\n  ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, D.D.\n  _Censor Deputatus_\n\nIMPRIMATUR:\n\n  JOHN CARD. FARLEY\n  Archbishop of New York\n\nMarch 21st, 1918\n\n\n\nPrinted in the United States of America\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nIn English-speaking countries the Church has been at a\ndisadvantage in the way in which she has had to expound her\ndoctrine, for she has been forced for many years to limit her\nattention just to those parts of her teaching wherein the\nProtestant bodies parted company from her. Without any desire to\nstir up barren controversy, she has naturally in self-defence been\nat pains most precisely to define those portions of her gospel\nmost likely to be misunderstood. This has resulted, unfortunately,\nin her leaving in the background the other mysteries of faith,\noften richer in themselves, more helpful to her children. Now,\nhowever, that she is becoming more able to realize herself to the\nmodern world, an opportunity opens for explaining hidden\ndoctrines, of which the value to the Catholic in the development\nof his inner life is considerable.\n\nIt is to further this development that these meditations have been\ndrawn up, since hardly anything can render us more sensible of our\nworth and Christian dignity than does the teaching of Our Lord on\nthe indwelling of the Spirit of God. Cardinal Manning has indeed\nmade this the subject of two volumes, _The Internal Working of the\nHoly Ghost_ and _The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost_, which\nare still obtainable, and there are also such books as _Sermons on\nthe Holy Ghost_ (Cathedral Library Association).\n\nBut as yet in English there is no such direct exposition of\nCatholic teaching as Pere Barthelemy Froget, O. P., has attempted\nin his _De l'Inhabitation du S. Esprit dans les ames justes_\n(Lethielleux, Paris, 1890). Like nearly all the doctrinal works of\nFrench origin, this treatise seems at times to suppose among the\nlaity a deeper knowledge of the rudiments of scholastic philosophy\nthan usually obtains among us, though the author has endeavored to\nhelp this out by occasional notes or explanations. To avoid this\ndifficulty (which a mere translation would not lessen, but\nincrease), the material of the book has been rearranged in a\nseries of meditations which will, it is hoped, bring out in an\neasier form what might otherwise be too abstruse to be of general\ninterest.\n\nThe wonderful beauty of the Church's teaching on this abiding\npresence of the Holy Ghost, while it deepens our acquaintance with\nHis mysterious governance of the universe and discovers to us the\nhidden beauties of our soul's life, should bring also its measure\nof comfort, for whatever makes us conscious of the intimacy of\nGod's dealing with us lessens life's greatest trouble, its\nloneliness.\n\n          BEDE JARRETT, O. P.\n\n  THE RECTORY OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES,\n\n  _New York, February_ 11, 1918\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\n  PREFACE\n  ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF LEO XIII, 9TH MAY, 1897\n  GOD'S PRESENCE\n  DEGREES OF GOD'S PRESENCE\n  GOD'S SPECIAL PRESENCE IN THE JUST\n  NATURE OF THIS PRESENCE\n  MODE OF THIS PRESENCE, KNOWLEDGE\n  MODE OF THIS PRESENCE, LOVE\n  THIS PRESENCE IS OF THE SAME NATURE AS THAT IN HEAVEN\n  THIS PRESENCE COMMON TO THE WHOLE TRINITY\n  THIS PRESENCE HAS CERTAIN EFFECTS\n  FORGIVENESS OF SIN\n  JUSTIFICATION\n  DEIFICATION\n  ADOPTED SONSHIP\n  HEIRS OF GOD\n  GUIDANCE IN SPIRITUAL LIFE\n  GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT\n  BEATITUDES\n  FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT\n  KNOWLEDGE\n  UNDERSTANDING\n  WISDOM\n  COUNSEL\n  FORTITUDE\n  PIETY\n  FEAR OF THE LORD\n  GRACE\n\n\n\n  THE ABIDING PRESENCE\n  OF THE HOLY GHOST\n  IN THE SOUL\n\nENCYCLICAL LETTER FOR PENTECOST, 1897 [1]\n\n  TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN,\n  THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS,\n  BISHOPS, AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES\n  HAVING PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE\n  HOLY SEE\n\nLEO XIII, POPE\n\n\n[1] This translation is the official form that appeared in the\nLondon _Tablet_, June 5, 1897.\n\n\nVENERABLE BRETHREN,\nHEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION\n\nThat divine office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for\nthe welfare of mankind, and most perfectly fulfilled, had for its\nfinal object to put men in possession of the eternal life of\nglory, and proximately during the course of ages to secure to them\nthe life of divine grace, which is destined eventually to blossom\ninto the life of heaven. Wherefore, our Saviour never ceases to\ninvite, with infinite affection, all men, of every race and\ntongue, into the bosom of His Church: \"Come ye all to Me,\" \"I am\nthe Life,\" \"I am the Good Shepherd.\" Nevertheless, according to\nHis inscrutable counsels, He did not will entirely to complete and\nfinish this office Himself on earth, but as He had received it\nfrom the Father, so He transmitted it for its completion to the\nHoly Ghost. It is consoling to recall those assurances which\nChrist gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left\nthe earth: \"It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the\nParaclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to\nyou\" (1 John 16.7). In these words He gave as the chief reason of\nHis departure and His return to the Father, the advantage which\nwould most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of\nthe Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the\nHoly Ghost is equally sent by--and therefore proceeds from--\nHimself and the Father; that He would complete, in His office of\nIntercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself\nhad begun in His mortal life. For, in the redemption of the world,\nthe completion of the work was by Divine Providence reserved to\nthe manifold power of that Spirit who, in the creation, \"adorned\nthe heavens\" (Job 26.13), and \"filled the whole world\" (Wisdom\n1.7).\n\nTHE TWO PRINCIPAL AIMS OF OUR PONTIFICATE\n\nNow We have earnestly striven, by the help of His grace, to follow\nthe example of Christ, Our Saviour, the Prince of Pastors, and the\nBishop of our Souls, by diligently carrying on His office,\nentrusted by Him to the Apostles and chiefly to Peter, \"whose\ndignity faileth not, even in his unworthy successor\" (St. Leo the\nGreat, Sermon 2, On the Anniversary of his Election). In pursuance\nof this object We have endeavored to direct all that We have\nattempted and persistently carried out during a long pontificate\ntowards two chief ends: in the first place, towards the\nrestoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the\nChristian life in civil and domestic society, since there is no\ntrue life for men except from Christ; and, secondly, to promote\nthe reunion of those who have fallen away from the Catholic Church\neither by heresy or by schism, since it is most undoubtedly the\nwill of Christ that all should be united in one flock under one\nShepherd. But now that We are looking forward to the approach of\nthe closing days of Our life, Our soul is deeply moved to dedicate\nto the Holy Ghost, who is the life-giving Love, all the work We\nhave done during Our pontificate, that He may bring it to maturity\nand fruitfulness. In order the better and more fully to carry out\nthis Our intention, We have resolved to address you at the\napproaching sacred season of Pentecost concerning the indwelling\nand miraculous power of the Holy Ghost; and the extent and\nefficiency of His action, both in the whole body of the Church and\nin the individual souls of its members, through the glorious\nabundance of His divine graces. We earnestly desire that, as a\nresult, faith may be aroused in your minds concerning the mystery\nof the adorable Trinity, and especially that piety may increase\nand be inflamed towards the Holy Ghost, to whom especially all of\nus owe the grace of following the paths of truth and virtue; for,\nas St. Basil said, \"Who denieth that the dispensations concerning\nman, which have been made by the great God and our Saviour, Jesus\nChrist, according to the goodness of God, have been fulfilled\nthrough the grace of the Spirit?\" (Of the Holy Ghost, c. 16, v.\n39.)\n\nTHE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE BLESSED TRINITY\n\nBefore we enter upon this subject, it will be both desirable and\nuseful to say a few words about the Mystery of the Blessed\nTrinity. This dogma is called by the doctors of the Church \"the\nsubstance of the New Testament,\" that is to say, the greatest of\nall mysteries, since it is the fountain and origin of them all. In\norder to know and contemplate this mystery, the angels were\ncreated in Heaven and men upon earth. In order to teach more fully\nthis mystery, which was but foreshadowed in the Old Testament, God\nHimself came down from the angels unto men: \"No man hath seen God\nat any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the\nFather, He hath declared Him\" (John 1.18). Whosoever then writes\nor speaks of the Trinity must keep before his eyes the prudent\nwarning of the Angelic Doctor: \"When we speak of the Trinity, we\nmust do so with caution and modesty, for, as St. Augustine saith,\nnowhere else are more dangerous errors made, or is research more\ndifficult, or discovery more fruitful\" (_Summ. Th._ 1a, q. 31. _De\nTrin._ 1. 1, c. 3). The danger that arises is lest the Divine\nPersons be confounded one with the other in faith or worship, or\nlest the one Nature in them be separated: for \"This is the\nCatholic Faith, that we should adore one God in Trinity and\nTrinity in Unity.\" Therefore Our predecessor Innocent XII\nabsolutely refused the petition of those who desired a special\nfestival in honor of God the Father. For, although the separate\nmysteries connected with the Incarnate Word are celebrated on\ncertain fixed days, yet there is no special feast on which the\nWord is honored according to His Divine Nature alone. And even the\nFeast of Pentecost was instituted in the earliest times, not\nsimply to honor the Holy Ghost in Himself, but to commemorate His\ncoming, or His external mission. And all this has been wisely\nordained, lest from distinguishing the Persons men should be led\nto distinguish the Divine Essence. Moreover, the Church, in order\nto preserve in her children the purity of faith, instituted the\nFeast of the Most Holy Trinity, which John XXII afterwards\nextended to the Universal Church. He also permitted altars and\nchurches to be dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, and, with the\ndivine approval, sanctioned the Order for the Ransom of Captives,\nwhich is specially devoted to the Blessed Trinity and bears Its\nname. Many facts confirm this truth. The worship paid to the\nsaints and angels, to the Mother of God, and to Christ Himself,\nfinally redounds to the honor of the Blessed Trinity. In prayers\naddressed to one Person, there is also mention of the others; in\nthe litanies after the individual Persons have been separately\ninvoked, a common invocation of all is added: all psalms and hymns\nconclude with the doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;\nblessings, sacred rites, and sacraments are either accompanied or\nconcluded by the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. This was\nalready foreshadowed by the Apostle in those words: \"For of Him,\nand by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever\"\n(Rom. 11.36), thereby signifying both the Trinity of Persons and\nthe Unity of Nature: for as this is one and the same in each of\nthe Persons, so to each is equally owing supreme glory, as to one\nand the same God. St. Augustine, commenting upon this testimony,\nwrites: \"The words of the Apostle, _of Him, and by Him, and in\nHim_, are not to be taken indiscriminately; _of Him_ refers to the\nFather, _by Him_ to the Son, _in Him_ to the Holy Ghost\" (_De\nTrin_. 1. vi, c. 10; 1. i, c. 6). The Church is accustomed most\nfittingly to attribute to the Father those works of the Divinity\nin which power excels, to the Son those in which wisdom excels,\nand those in which love excels to the Holy Ghost. Not that all\nperfections and external operations are not common to the Divine\nPersons; for \"the operations of the Trinity are indivisible, even\nas the essence of the Trinity is indivisible\" (St. Aug. _De\nTrin_., 1. 1, cc. 4-5); because as the three Divine Persons \"are\ninseparable, so do they act inseparably\" (St. Aug., _ib_). But by\na certain comparison, and a kind of affinity between the\noperations and the properties of the Persons, these operations are\nattributed or, as it is said, \"appropriated\" to One Person rather\nthan to the others. \"Just as we make use of the traces of\nsimilarity or likeness which we find in creatures for the\nmanifestation of the Divine Persons, so do we use Their essential\nattributes; and this manifestation of the Persons by Their\nessential attributes is called _appropriation_\" (St. Th. 1a, q.\n39, xxxix, a. 7). In this manner the Father, who is \"the principle\nof the whole God-head\" (St. Aug., _De Trin_., 1. iv, c. 20), is\nalso the efficient cause of all things, of the Incarnation of the\nWord, and the sanctification of souls; \"of Him are all things\":\n_of Him_, referring to the Father. But the Son, the Word, the\nImage of God, is also the exemplar cause, whence all creatures\nborrow their form and beauty, their order and harmony. He is for\nus the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the Reconciler of man with\nGod. \"By Him are all things\": _by Him_, referring to the Son. The\nHoly Ghost is the ultimate cause of all things, since, as the will\nand all other things finally rest in their end, so He, who is the\nDivine Goodness and the Mutual Love of the Father and Son,\ncompletes and perfects, by His strong yet gentle power, the secret\nwork of man's eternal salvation. \"In Him are all things\": _in\nHim_, referring to the Holy Ghost.\n\nTHE HOLY GHOST AND THE INCARNATION\n\nHaving thus paid due tribute of faith and worship owing to the\nBlessed Trinity, which ought to be more and more inculcated upon\nthe Christian people, we now turn to the exposition of the power\nof the Holy Ghost. And, first of all, we must look to Christ, the\nFounder of the Church and the Redeemer of our race. Among the\nexternal operations of God, the highest of all is the mystery of\nthe Incarnation of the Word, in which the splendor of the divine\nperfections shines forth so brightly that nothing more sublime can\neven be imagined, nothing else could have been more salutary to\nthe human race. Now this work, although belonging to the whole\nTrinity, is still appropriated especially to the Holy Ghost, so\nthat the Gospels thus speak of the Blessed Virgin: \"She was found\nwith child of the Holy Ghost,\" and \"that which is conceived in her\nis of the Holy Ghost\" (Matt. 1.18, 20). And this is rightly\nattributed to Him who is the love of the Father and the Son, since\nthis \"great mystery of piety\" (1 Tim. 3.16) proceeds from the\ninfinite love of God towards man, as St. John tells us: \"God so\nloved the world as to give His only begotten Son\" (John 3.16).\nMoreover, human nature was thereby elevated to a _personal_ union\nwith the Word; and this dignity is given, not on account of any\nmerits, but entirely and absolutely through grace, and therefore,\nas it were, through the special gift of the Holy Ghost. On this\npoint St. Augustine writes: \"This manner in which Christ was born\nof the Holy Ghost, indicates to us the grace of God, by which\nhumanity, with no antecedent merits, at the first moment of its\nexistence, was united with the Word of God, by so intimate a\npersonal union, that He, who was the Son of Man, was also the Son\nof God, and He who was the Son of God was also the Son of Man\"\n(_Enchir_., c. xl; St. Th., 3a, q. xxxii, a. 1). By the operation\nof the Holy Spirit, not only was the conception of Christ\naccomplished, but also the sanctification of His soul, which, in\nHoly Scripture, is called His \"anointing\" (Acts 10.38). Wherefore\nall His actions were \"performed in the Holy Ghost\" (St. Basil _de\nSp. S_., c. xvi), and especially the sacrifice of Himself:\n\"Christ, through the Holy Ghost, offered Himself without spot to\nGod\" (Heb. 9.14). Considering this, no one can be surprised that\nall the gifts of the Holy Ghost inundated the soul of Christ. In\nHim resided the absolute fullness of grace, in the greatest and\nmost efficacious manner possible; in Him were all the treasures of\nwisdom and knowledge, graces _gratis datae_, virtues, and all\nother gifts foretold in the prophecies of Isaias (Is. 4.1, 11.23),\nand also signified in that miraculous dove which appeared at the\nJordan, when Christ, by His baptism, consecrated its waters for a\nnew sacrament. On this the words of St. Augustine may\nappropriately be quoted: \"It would be absurd to say that Christ\nreceived the Holy Ghost when He was already thirty years of age,\nfor He came to His baptism without sin, and therefore not without\nthe Holy Ghost. At this time, then (that is, at His baptism), He\nwas pleased to prefigure His Church, in which those especially who\nare baptized receive the Holy Ghost\" (_De Trin_., 1. xv, c. 26).\nTherefore, by the conspicuous apparition of the Holy Ghost over\nChrist and by His invisible power in His soul, the twofold mission\nof the Spirit is foreshadowed, namely, His outward and visible\nmission in the Church, and His secret indwelling in the souls of\nthe just.\n\nTHE HOLY GHOST AND THE CHURCH\n\nThe Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of\nthe second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed herself\nbefore the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost. On that day\nthe Holy Ghost began to manifest His gifts in the mystic body of\nChrist, by that miraculous outpouring already foreseen by the\nprophet Joel (2.28-29), for the Paraclete \"sat upon the apostles\nas though new spiritual crowns were placed upon their heads in\ntongues of fire\" (S. Cyril Hier. _Catech_. 17). Then the apostles\n\"descended from the mountain,\" as St. John Chrysostom writes, \"not\nbearing in their hands tables of stone like Moses, but carrying\nthe Spirit in their mind, and pouring forth the treasure and the\nfountain of doctrines and graces\" (_In Matt_. Hom. I, 2 Cor. 3.3).\nThus was fully accomplished that last promise of Christ to His\napostles of sending the Holy Ghost, who was to complete and, as it\nwere, to seal the deposit of doctrine committed to them under His\ninspiration. \"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot\nbear them now; but when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He\nwill teach you all truth\" (John 16.12-13). For He who is the\nSpirit of Truth, inasmuch as He proceedeth both from the Father,\nwho is the eternally True, and from the Son, who is the\nsubstantial Truth, receiveth from each both His essence and the\nfullness of all truth. This truth He communicates to His Church,\nguarding her by His all powerful help from ever falling into\nerror, and aiding her to foster daily more and more the germs of\ndivine doctrine and to make them fruitful for the welfare of the\npeoples. And since the welfare of the peoples, for which the\nChurch was established, absolutely requires that this office\nshould be continued for all time, the Holy Ghost perpetually\nsupplies life and strength to preserve and increase the Church. \"I\nwill ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that\nHe may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of Truth\" (John 16. 16,\n17).\n\nBy Him the bishops are constituted, and by their ministry are\nmultiplied not only the children, but also the fathers that is to\nsay, the priests to rule and feed the Church by that Blood\nwherewith Christ has redeemed Her. \"The Holy Ghost hath placed you\nbishops to rule the Church of God, which He hath purchased with\nHis own Blood\" (Acts 20. 28). And both bishops and priests, by the\nmiraculous gift of the Spirit, have the power of absolving sins,\naccording to those words of Christ to the Apostles: \"Receive ye\nthe Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven\nthem, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained\" (John\n20.22, 23). That the Church is a divine institution is most\nclearly proved by the splendor and glory of those gifts with which\nshe is adorned, and whose author and giver is the Holy Ghost. Let\nit suffice to state that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so\nis the Holy Ghost her soul. \"What the soul is in our body, that is\nthe Holy Ghost in Christ's body, the Church\" (St. Aug., _Serm_.\n187, _de Temp_.). This being so, no further and fuller\n\"manifestation and revelation of the Divine Spirit\" may be\nimagined or expected; for that which now takes place in the Church\nis the most perfect possible, and will last until that day when\nthe Church herself, having passed through her militant career,\nshall be taken up into the joy of the saints triumphing in heaven.\n\nTHE HOLY GHOST IN THE SOULS OF THE JUST\n\nThe manner and extent of the action of the Holy Ghost in\nindividual souls is no less wonderful, although somewhat more\ndifficult to understand, inasmuch as it is entirely invisible.\nThis outpouring of the Spirit is so abundant, that Christ Himself,\nfrom whose gift it proceeds, compares it to an overflowing river,\naccording to those words of St. John: \"He that believeth in Me, as\nthe Scripture saith, out of his midst shall flow rivers of living\nwater\"; to which testimony the Evangelist adds the explanation:\n\"Now this He said of the Spirit which they should receive who\nbelieved in Him\" (John 7.38, 39). It is indeed true that in those\nof the just who lived before Christ, the Holy Ghost resided by\ngrace, as we read in the Scriptures concerning the prophets,\nZachary, John the Baptist, Simeon, and Anna; so that on Pentecost\nthe Holy Ghost did not communicate Himself in such a way \"as then\nfor the first time to begin to dwell in the saints, but by pouring\nHimself forth more abundantly; crowning, not beginning His gifts;\nnot commencing a new work, but giving more abundantly\" (St. Leo\nthe Great, Hom. iii, _de Pentec_.). But if they also were numbered\namong the children of God, they were in a state like that of\nservants, for \"as long as the heir is a child he differeth nothing\nfrom a servant, but is under tutors and governors\" (Gal. 4.1, 2).\nMoreover, not only was their justice derived from the merits of\nChrist who was to come, but the communication of the Holy Ghost\nafter Christ was much more abundant, just as the price surpasses\nin value the earnest and the reality excels the image. Wherefore\nSt. John declares: \"As yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus\nwas not yet glorified\" (John 7.39). So soon, therefore, as Christ,\n\"ascending on high,\" entered into possession of the glory of His\nKingdom which He had won with so much labor, He munificently\nopened out the treasures of the Holy Ghost: \"He gave gifts to men\"\n(Eph. 4.8). For \"that giving or sending forth of the Holy Ghost\nafter Christ's glorification was to be such as had never been\nbefore; not that there had been none before, but it had not been\nof the same kind\" (St. Aug., _De Trin_., 1. iv, c. 20).\n\nHuman nature is by necessity the servant of God: \"The creature is\na servant; we are the servants of God by nature\" (St. Cyr. Alex.,\n_Thesaur_., 1. v, c. 5). On account, however, of original sin, our\nwhole nature had fallen into such guilt and dishonor that we had\nbecome enemies of God. \"We were by nature the children of wrath\"\n(Eph. 2.3). There was no power which could raise us and deliver us\nfrom this ruin and eternal destruction. But God, the Creator of\nmankind and infinitely merciful, did this through His only\nbegotten Son, by whose benefit it was brought about that man was\nrestored to that rank and dignity whence he had fallen, and was\nadorned with still more abundant graces. No one can express the\ngreatness of this work of divine grace in the souls of men.\nWherefore, both in Holy Scripture and in the writings of the\nfathers, men are styled regenerated, new creatures, partakers of\nthe Divine Nature, children of God, godlike, and similar epithets.\nNow these great blessings are justly attributed as especially\nbelonging to the Holy Ghost. He is \"the Spirit of adoption of\nsons, whereby we cry: Abba, Father.\" He fills our hearts with the\nsweetness of paternal love: \"The Spirit Himself giveth testimony\nto our spirit that we are the sons of God\" (Rom. 8.15, 16). This\ntruth accords with the similitude observed by the Angelic Doctor\nbetween both operations of the Holy Ghost; for through Him \"Christ\nwas conceived in holiness to be by nature the Son of God,\" and\n\"others are sanctified to be the sons of God by adoption\" (St. Th.\n3a, q. xxxii, a. 1). This spiritual generation proceeds from love\nin a much more noble manner than the natural: namely, from the\nuncreated Love.\n\nThe beginnings of this regeneration and renovation of man are by\nBaptism. In this sacrament, when the unclean spirit has been\nexpelled from the soul, the Holy Ghost enters in and makes it like\nto Himself. \"That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit\" (John\n3.6). The same Spirit gives Himself more abundantly in\nConfirmation, strengthening and confirming Christian life; from\nwhich proceeded the victory of the martyrs and the triumph of the\nvirgins over temptations and corruptions. We have said that the\nHoly Ghost gives Himself: \"the charity of God is poured out into\nour hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us\" (Rom. 5.5). For\nHe not only brings to us His divine gifts, but is the Author of\nthem and is Himself the supreme Gift, who, proceeding from the\nmutual love of the Father and the Son, is justly believed to be\nand is called \"Gift of God most High.\" To show the nature and\nefficacy of this gift it is well to recall the explanation given\nby the doctors of the Church of the words of Holy Scripture. They\nsay that God is present and exists in all things, \"by His power,\nin so far as all things are subject to His power; by His presence,\ninasmuch as all things are naked and open to His eyes; by His\nessence, inasmuch as He is present to all as the cause of their\nbeing\" (St. Th. 1a, q. viii, a. 3). But God is in man, not only as\nin inanimate things, but because He is more fully known and loved\nby him, since even by nature we spontaneously love, desire, and\nseek after the good. Moreover, God by grace resides in the just\nsoul as in a temple, in a most intimate and peculiar manner. From\nthis proceeds that union of affection by which the soul adheres\nmost closely to God, more so than the friend is united to his most\nloving and beloved friend, and enjoys God in all fullness and\nsweetness. Now this wonderful union, which is properly called\n\"indwelling,\" differing only in degree or state from that with\nwhich God beatifies the saints in heaven, although it is most\ncertainly produced by the presence of the whole Blessed Trinity--\n\"We will come to Him and make our abode with Him\" (John 14.23)--\nnevertheless is attributed in a peculiar manner to the Holy Ghost.\nFor, whilst traces of divine power and wisdom appear even in the\nwicked man, charity, which, as it were, is the special mark of the\nHoly Ghost, is shared in only by the just. In harmony with this,\nthe same Spirit is called Holy, for He, the first and supreme\nLove, moves souls and leads them to sanctity, which ultimately\nconsists in the love of God. Wherefore the apostle, when calling\nus the temple of God, does not expressly mention the Father or the\nSon, but the Holy Ghost: \"Know ye not that your members are the\ntemple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God?\"\n(1 Cor. 6.19). The fullness of divine gifts is in many ways a\nconsequence of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of\nthe just. For, as St. Thomas teaches, \"when the Holy Ghost\nproceedeth as love, He proceedeth in the character of the first\ngift; whence St. Augustine saith that, through the gift which is\nthe Holy Ghost, many other special gifts are distributed among the\nmembers of Christ\" (Summ. Th., 1a, q. xxxviii, a. 2. St. Aug., _de\nTrin_., 1. xv, c. 19). Among these gifts are those secret warnings\nand invitations, which from time to time are excited in our minds\nand hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Without these\nthere is no beginning of a good life, no progress, no arriving at\neternal salvation. And since these words and admonitions are\nuttered in the soul in an exceedingly secret manner, they are\nsometimes aptly compared in Holy Writ to the breathing of a coming\nbreeze, and the Angelic Doctor likens them to the movements of the\nheart which are wholly hidden in the living body. \"Thy heart has a\ncertain hidden power, and therefore the Holy Ghost, who invisibly\nvivifies and unites the Church, is compared to the heart\" (_Summ.\nTh_., 3a, q. vii, a. 1, ad 3). More than this, the just man, that\nis to say, he who lives the life of divine grace, and acts by the\nfitting virtues as by means of faculties, has need of those seven\n_gifts_ which are properly attributed to the Holy Ghost. By means\nof them the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to be able to\nobey more easily and promptly His voice and impulse. Wherefore\nthese gifts are of such efficacy that they lead the just man to\nthe highest degree of sanctity; and of such excellence that they\ncontinue to exist even in heaven, though in a more perfect way. By\nmeans of these gifts the soul is excited and encouraged to seek\nafter and attain the evangelical beatitudes, which, like the\nflowers that come forth in the spring time, are the signs and\nharbingers of eternal beatitude. Lastly, there are those blessed\n_fruits_, enumerated by the Apostle (Gal. 5.22), which the Spirit,\neven in this mortal life, produces and shows forth in the just;\nfruits filled with all sweetness and joy, inasmuch as they proceed\nfrom the Spirit, \"who is in the Trinity the sweetness of both\nFather and Son, filling all creatures with infinite fullness and\nprofusion\" (St. Aug. _de Trin_., 1. vi, c. 9). The Divine Spirit,\nproceeding from the Father and the Word in the eternal light of\nsanctity, Himself both Love and Gift, after having manifested\nHimself through the veils of figures in the Old Testament, poured\nforth all His fullness upon Christ and upon His mystic Body, the\nChurch; and called back by His presence and grace men who were\ngoing away in wickedness and corruption with such salutary effect\nthat, being no longer of the earth earthy, they relished and\ndesired quite other things, becoming of heaven heavenly.\n\nON DEVOTION TO THE HOLY GHOST\n\nThese sublime truths, which so clearly show forth the infinite\ngoodness of the Holy Ghost towards us, certainly demand that we\nshould direct towards Him the highest homage of our love and\ndevotion. Christians may do this most effectually if they will\ndaily strive to know Him, to love Him, and to implore Him more\nearnestly; for which reason may this Our exhortation, flowing\nspontaneously from a paternal heart, reach their ears. Perchance\nthere are still to be found among them, even nowadays, some who,\nif asked, as were those of old by St. Paul the Apostle, whether\nthey have received the Holy Ghost, might answer in like manner:\n\"We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost\" (Acts\n19.2). At least there are certainly many who are very deficient in\ntheir knowledge of Him. They frequently use His name in their\nreligious practices, but their faith is involved in much darkness.\nWherefore all preachers and those having care of souls should\nremember that it is their duty to instruct their people more\ndiligently and more fully about the Holy Ghost--avoiding, however,\ndifficult and subtle controversies, and eschewing the dangerous\nfolly of those who rashly endeavor to pry into divine mysteries.\nWhat should be chiefly dwelt upon and clearly explained is the\nmultitude and greatness of the benefits which have been bestowed,\nand are constantly bestowed, upon us by this Divine Giver, so that\nerrors and ignorance concerning matters of such moment may be\nentirely dispelled, as unworthy of \"the children of light.\" We\nurge this, not only because it affects a mystery by which we are\ndirectly guided to eternal life, and which must therefore be\nfirmly believed; but also because the more clearly and fully the\ngood is known the more earnestly it is loved. Now we owe to the\nHoly Ghost, as we mentioned in the second place, love, because He\nis God: \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,\nand with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength\" (Deut. 6.5).\nHe is also to be loved because He is the substantial, eternal,\nprimal Love, and nothing is more lovable than love. And this all\nthe more because He has overwhelmed us with the greatest benefits,\nwhich both testify to the benevolence of the Giver and claim the\ngratitude of the receiver. This love has a twofold and most\nconspicuous utility. In the first place, it will excite us to\nacquire daily a clearer knowledge about the Holy Ghost; for, as\nthe Angelic Doctor says, \"the lover is not content with the\nsuperficial knowledge of the beloved, but striveth to inquire\nintimately into all that appertains to the beloved, and thus to\npenetrate into the interior; as is said of the Holy Ghost, Who is\nthe Love of God, that He searcheth even the profound things of\nGod\" (1 Cor. 2.19; _Summ. Theol_., 1a, 2ae, q. 28, a. 2). In the\nsecond place, it will obtain for us a still more abundant supply\nof heavenly gifts; for whilst a narrow heart contracteth the hand\nof the giver, a grateful and mindful heart causeth it to expand.\nYet we must strive that this love should be of such a nature as\nnot to consist merely in dry speculations or external observances,\nbut rather to run forward towards action, and especially to fly\nfrom sin, which is in a more special manner offensive to the Holy\nSpirit. For whatever we are, that we are by the divine goodness;\nand this goodness is specially attributed to the Holy Ghost. The\nsinner offends this his Benefactor, abusing His gifts; and taking\nadvantage of His goodness becomes more hardened in sin day by day.\nAgain, since He is the Spirit of Truth, whosoever faileth by\nweakness or ignorance may perhaps have some excuse before Almighty\nGod; but he who resists the truth through malice and turns away\nfrom it, sins most grievously against the Holy Ghost. In our days\nthis sin has become so frequent that those dark times seem to have\ncome which were foretold by St. Paul, in which men, blinded by the\njust judgment of God, should take falsehood for truth, and should\nbelieve in \"the prince of this world,\" who is a liar and the\nfather thereof, as a teacher of truth: \"God shall send them the\noperation of error, to believe lying\" (2 Thess. 2.10). \"In the\nlast times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to\nspirits of error and the doctrines of devils\" (1 Tim. 4.1). But\nsince the Holy Ghost, as We have said, dwells in us as in His\ntemple, We must repeat the warning of the Apostle: \"Grieve not the\nHoly Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed\" (Eph. 4.30). Nor is it\nenough to fly from sin; every Christian ought to shine with the\nsplendor of virtue so as to be pleasing to so great and so\nbeneficent a guest; and first of all with chastity and holiness,\nfor chaste and holy things befit the temple. Hence the words of\nthe Apostle: \"Know you not that you are the temple of God, and\nthat the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the\ntemple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is\nholy, which you are\" (1 Cor. 3.16-17): a terrible, indeed, but a\njust warning.\n\nLastly, we ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each\none of us greatly needs His protection and His help. The more a\nman is deficient in wisdom, weak in strength, borne down with\ntrouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to Him who is\nthe never-ceasing fount of light, strength, consolation, and\nholiness. And chiefly that first requisite of man, the forgiveness\nof sins, must be sought for from Him: \"It is the special character\nof the Holy Ghost that He is the Gift of the Father and the Son.\nNow the remission of sins is given by the Holy Ghost as by the\nGift of God\" (_Summ. Th_., 3a, q. iii, a. 8, ad 3m). Concerning\nthis Spirit the words of the Liturgy are very explicit: \"For He is\nthe remission of all sins\" (Roman Missal, Tuesday after\nPentecost). How He should be invoked is clearly taught by the\nChurch, who addresses Him in humble supplication, calling upon Him\nby the sweetest of names: \"Come, Father of the poor! Come, Giver\nof gifts! Come, Light of our hearts! O, best of Consolers, sweet\nGuest of the soul, our refreshment!\" (Hymn, _Veni Sancte\nSpiritus_). She earnestly implores Him to wash, heal, water our\nminds and hearts, and to give to us who trust in Him \"the merit of\nvirtue, the acquirement of salvation, and joy everlasting.\" Nor\ncan it be in any way doubted that He will listen to such prayer,\nsince we read the words written by His own inspiration: \"The\nSpirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings\" (Rom.\n8.26). Lastly, we ought confidently and continually to beg of Him\nto illuminate us daily more and more with His light and inflame us\nwith His charity: for, thus inspired with faith and love, we may\npress onward earnestly towards our eternal reward, since He \"is\nthe pledge of our inheritance\" (Eph. 1.14).\n\nSuch, Venerable Brethren, are the teachings and exhortations which\nWe have seen good to utter, in order to stimulate devotion to the\nHoly Ghost. We have no doubt that, chiefly by means of your zeal\nand earnestness, they will bear abundant fruit among Christian\npeoples. We Ourselves shall never in the future fail to labor\ntowards so important an end; and it is even Our intention, in\nwhatever ways may appear suitable, to further cultivate and extend\nthis admirable work of piety. Meanwhile, as two years ago, in Our\nLetter _Provida Matris_, We recommended to Catholics special\nprayers at the Feast of Pentecost, for the Reunion of Christendom,\nso now We desire to make certain further decrees on the same\nsubject.\n\nAN ANNUAL NOVENA DECEEED\n\nWherefore, We decree and command that throughout the whole\nCatholic Church, this year and in every subsequent year, a Novena\nshall take place before Whit-Sunday, in all parish churches, and\nalso, if the local Ordinaries think fit, in other churches and\noratories. To all who take part in this Novena and duly pray for\nOur intention, We shall grant for each day an Indulgence of seven\nyears and seven quarantines; moreover, a Plenary Indulgence on any\none of the days of the Novena, or on Whit-Sunday itself, or on any\nday during the Octave; provided they shall have received the\nSacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and devoutly prayed\nfor Our intention. We will that those who are legitimately\nprevented from attending the Novena, or who are in places where\nthe devotions cannot, in the judgment of the Ordinary, be\nconveniently carried out in church, shall equally enjoy the same\nbenefits, provided they make the Novena privately and observe the\nother conditions. Moreover, We are pleased to grant, in\nperpetuity, from the Treasury of the Church, that whosoever,\ndaily, during the Octave of Pentecost up to Trinity Sunday\ninclusive, offer again publicly or privately any prayers,\naccording to their devotion, to the Holy Ghost, and satisfy the\nabove conditions, shall a second time gain each of the same\nIndulgences. All these Indulgences We also permit to be applied to\nthe suffrage of the souls in Purgatory.\n\nAnd now Our mind and heart turn back to those hopes with which We\nbegan, and for the accomplishment of which We earnestly pray, and\nwill continue to pray, to the Holy Ghost. Unite, then, Venerable\nBrethren, your prayers with Ours, and at your exhortation let all\nChristian peoples add their prayers also, invoking the powerful\nand ever-acceptable intercession of the Blessed Virgin. You know\nwell the intimate and wonderful relations existing between her and\nthe Holy Ghost, so that she is justly called His Spouse. The\nintercession of the Blessed Virgin was of great avail both in the\nmystery of the Incarnation and in the coming of the Holy Ghost\nupon the Apostles. May she continue to strengthen our prayers with\nher suffrages, that, in the midst of all the stress and trouble of\nthe nations, those divine prodigies may be happily revived by the\nHoly Ghost, which were foretold in the words of David: \"Send forth\nThy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the\nface of the earth\" (Ps. 103.30).\n\nAs a pledge of Divine favor and a testimony of Our affection,\nVenerable Brethren, to you, to your Clergy and people, We gladly\nimpart in the Lord the Apostolic Benediction.\n\nGiven at St. Peter's, in Rome, on the 9th day of May, 1897, in the\n20th year of Our Pontificate.\n\n               LEO XIII, POPE.\n\n\n\nGOD'S PRESENCE\n\n1. Scripture is very full of the idea of the nearness of God to\nHis creation, the Old Testament is alive with that inspiration,\nfor there is hardly a chapter or verse that does not insist upon\nthat truth. Naturally the New Testament, teaching so tenderly the\nFatherhood of God, is even more explicit and more beautiful in its\nreferences to this intimate relationship. To the Athenians, St.\nPaul can develop no other point than this, and he finds in moving\naccents an eloquent appeal voiced by the touching dedication of an\naltar to the _Unknown God_. Now this notion of God's nearness to\nHis world depends for its full appreciation on the central\ndoctrine of creation. He has made the world, in consequence it is\nimpressed with His personality; the more vigorous the artificer--\nthe more vigorous that he is in character, will and personality,\nthe more is his work stamped with his individuality; hence, the\ntremendous personality of God must be everywhere traceable in the\nthings He has made.\n\n2. When we say God is everywhere, we mean that He is in all things\nbecause He made all things. Not only does the whole world lie\noutstretched before His eye and is governed by His power, but He\nHimself lurks at the heart of everything. By Him things have come\ninto existence, and so wholly is that existence of theirs His\ngift, that were He to withdraw His support they would sink back\ninto nothingness. It is a perpetual remark about man's works that\nthey outlast him. Organizations we have toiled to establish\noutgrow our fostering care, perhaps grow tired of our interference\nand long to be free of our regulations. Wordsworth tells how a\nmonk in Spain, pointing to the pictures on the walls of the\nmonastery, which remained while the generations looking at them\npassed away, judged: \"We are the shadows, they the substance.\" But\nthe relationship established by creation is of a far greater\ndependence, so that nothing God has made can exist without His\nsupport. Out of human acts it is only music that bears some\nresemblance to this, for when the voice is silent there is no\nlonger any song.\n\n3. God, then, is within all creation, because He is its cause. He\nis within every stone and leaf and child. Nothing, with life or\nwithout, evil or good, can fail to contain Him as the source of\nits energy, its power, its existence; He is \"the soul's soul.\" Not\nonly, therefore, must I train myself to see with reverence that\neverything contains Him, but I must especially realize His\nintimacy and relationship to myself. Religion, indeed, in practice\nis little else than my personal expression of that relationship. I\nhave in my prayers, in my troubles, in my temptations, to turn to\nGod, not without but within, not to some one above me or beneath\nsupporting me, but right at the core of my being. I can trace up\nto its source every power of my soul, my intelligence, my will, my\nlove, my anger, my fear, and I shall find Him there. Nothing but\nopens its doors to Him as innermost in its shrine. Wholly is God\neverywhere, not as some immense being that with its hugeness fills\nthe world, but as something that is within every creature He has\nmade.\n\n\n\nDEGREES OF GOD'S PRESENCE\n\n1. God is intimate with all creation because He made it, for\ncreation implies that God remains within, supporting, upholding.\nGod is within everything, and therefore He is everywhere. But\nwhile we thus believe that God is wholly everywhere, we also\nbelieve something which seems the exact opposite, for we believe\nthat God is more in some places than in others, more in some\npeople than in others. How is it if God is wholly everywhere that\nHe can be more here than there? To understand this we must also\nunderstand that every created thing shares somehow in God's being.\nHe communicates Himself to it in some fashion, for apart from Him\nit could have no perfections. We have a way of saying that we\nreflect God's greatness and that we are \"broken lights\" of Him.\nBut that is far short of the truth; we do more than reflect, we\nactually have some participation in God, so that St. Thomas boldly\ntakes over a saying of Plato: \"The individual nature of a thing\nconsists in the way it participates in the perfections of God\"\n(_Summa_ 1, 14.6). Not, of course, that there is any community of\nbeing, but a direct participation.\n\n2. Now since everything participates in God and since some things\nare more excellent than others, it stands to reason that some\nthings express God better than others. The eyes of a dog often are\npitiful to see, because we can note its evident desire and yet its\nimpossibility to express its feelings. The whole of nature has to\nseeing minds the same pitifulness. It is always endeavoring to\nexpress God, the inexpressible. Yet the higher a thing is in the\nscale of being the more of God it expresses, for it participates\nmore in God's being. The more life a thing has and the more\nfreedom it acquires, then the nearer does it approach to God and\nthe more divinity it holds. Man, by his intelligence, his deeper\nand richer life, his finer freedom, stands at the head of visible\ncreation, and, in consequence, is more fully a shrine of God than\nlower forms of life. He bears a closer resemblance to the Divine\nintelligence and will and has a greater share in them. It is then\nin that sense that we arrange in ascending order inanimate\ncreation, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and man.\n\n3. Consequently we can now see in what sense God is said to be\nmore in one thing than in another. He is more in it because He\nexercises Himself more in one thing than in another; one thing\nexpresses more than another the perfections of God because it\nshares more deeply than another that inner being of God. The more\nnearly anything or anyone is united to God the more does His power\nexercise itself in them, so that, since God's gifts are variously\ndistributed and are of various degrees, we are justified in saying\nthat though He is wholly everywhere, He may be more fully here\nthan there, just as, though my soul is in every part of my being,\nit is more perfectly in the brain than elsewhere, because there it\nexercises itself more fully and with more evidence of expression.\nThus we say God is more in a man's soul than anywhere else in\ncreation, since in a man's soul God is more perfectly expressed.\nIt is therefore with great reverence that I should regard all\ncreation, but with especial reverence that I should look to the\ndignity of every human soul.\n\n\n\nGOD'S SPECIAL PRESENCE IN THE JUST\n\n1. While God is in everything in creation, He dwells in the just\nby grace. Scripture quite noticeably uses the word _dwelling_ when\nit wishes to express the particular way in which God is present in\nthe souls of the just. He is in all things; in the just He dwells.\nThe same word actually is applied to the presence of God in the\nsouls of those in grace as is used when speaking of God's presence\nin the Temple. But here again it is necessary to say that God's\ndwelling in the Temple never implied He was not elsewhere, but did\nimply that somehow His presence in the Temple was quite different\nfrom the way in which He was present elsewhere. Just then the same\nkind of difference between the presence of God in all created\nnature and His presence in the souls of the just is intended by\nthe careful use in Scripture of the word dwelling, viz., that God\nhas, over and above His ordinary presence in every single created\nthing, a further and especial presence in the hearts of those in\nfriendship with Him by grace, and this new presence is a fuller\nand richer presence whereby God's excellencies and perfections are\nmore openly displayed.\n\n2. Another way in which the same idea is pressed home in the New\nTestament is by the word _sent_ or _given_. Frequently, in the\nlast discourse of Our Lord on the night before He suffered, He\nspoke to the Apostles of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the\nComforter who was to be sent or given. Now, ordinarily, by using\nthe expression, \"sending some one,\" we imply that now the person\nsent is where he was not before, that he has passed from here to\nthere. Obviously Our Lord cannot really mean that only after His\ncrucifixion and ascension would the Holy Ghost be found in the\nhearts of the Apostles, for we have already insisted that in every\ncreature there must be, by virtue of its very creation, the Holy\nSpirit at the heart of it. Hence the only possible meaning is that\nthe Holy Spirit will descend upon the Apostles and become present\nwithin them after some new fashion in which He was not before.\n\"Because you are His children God has sent into your hearts the\nspirit of His Son whereby you cry Abba: Father\" (Gal. 4.6). From\nthe beginning the Holy Ghost had been within them; now His\npresence there is new and productive of new effects.\n\n3. By God's indwelling, then, effected by grace, the Holy Spirit\nnow is present in the soul differently from the way in which He is\npresent by creation. By creation He is wholly everywhere, yet more\nin the higher forms than in the lower, for He is able to express\nmore of Himself in them. Among these highest forms of visible\ncreation, namely, man, there are again degrees of His presence, so\nthat even among men He is more in one than in another. This\ngradation is in proportion to their grace. The more holy and\nsanctified they become, the more does the Holy Spirit dwell in\nthem, the more fully is He sent, the more completely given, while\nthe Book of Wisdom says expressly that God does not dwell in\nsinners. As soon as I am in a state of grace the Holy Ghost dwells\nin me in this new and wonderful way, takes up His presence in me\nin this new fashion. It is precisely, then, by our faith and hope\nand love that this is effected, so that the individual soul under\nGod's own movement does help on this union of God and man. In all\nthe rest of creation God is present by His action; in the souls of\nthe just it is true to say that He is present by theirs.\n\n\n\nNATURE OF THIS PRESENCE\n\n1. We have taken it for granted that God then is present somehow\nin the soul by grace. We have now to consider what sort of a\npresence this really is. Do we mean absolutely that God the Holy\nGhost, is truly in the soul Himself, or do we, by some metaphor or\nvague expression, mean that He is merely exerting Himself there in\nsome new and especial way? Perhaps it is only that by means of the\nsevenfold gifts He has got a tighter hold of us and can bring us\nmore completely under the sweet dominion of His will. All that is\ntrue, but all that is not enough, for we do absolutely mean what\nwe say when we declare that by grace the Holy Spirit of God is\npresent within the soul. Scripture is exceedingly full of the\ntruth of this and is always insisting on this presence of the Holy\nGhost. St. Paul, especially, notes it over and over again, and in\nhis epistle to the Romans repeats it in very forcible language:\n\"But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be that the\nspirit of God dwell in you\" (Romans 8.9), and he goes on in that\nsame chapter to imply that this presence is a part of grace.\n\n2. To some it will seem curious to find that the Fathers of the\nChurch in earliest ages were not only convinced of the fact of\nthis presence, but appealed triumphantly to it as accepted even by\nheretics. When, in the early days, a long controversy raged as to\nwhether the Holy Ghost was really God or not, the Fathers argued\nthat since this indwelling of the Spirit was acknowledged on all\nhands, and since it was proper to God only to dwell in the heart\nof man, the only possible conclusion was that the Holy Ghost was\nDivine. The value of the argument is not here in question, but it\nis interesting to find that this presence was so generally\nbelieved in as part of the Christian Faith. In the acts of the\nmartyrs, too, there are frequent references to this, as when St.\nLucy declared to the judge that the Spirit of God dwelt in her,\nand that her body was in very truth the temple and shrine of God.\nAgain, Eusebius relates in his history that Leonidas, the father\nof Origen, used to kneel by the bedside of the sleeping boy and\ndevoutly and reverently kiss his breast as the tabernacle wherein\nGod dwelt. The child in his innocence and grace is indeed the\nfittest home on earth for God.\n\n3. This presence, then, of God in the soul is a real, true\npresence, as real and as true as the presence of Our Lord Himself\nin the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. We look on all that\nmystery as very wonderful, and indeed it is, that day by day we\ncan be made one with God the Son by receiving His Body and Blood;\nwe know the value to be got out of visits to His hidden presence,\nthe quiet and calm peace such visits produce in our souls; yet so\nlong as we are in a state of grace the same holds true of the Holy\nSpirit within us. We are not indeed made one with the Holy Ghost\nin a substantial union such as united together in the Sacred\nIncarnation God and man; nor is there any overpowering of our\npersonality so that it is swamped by a Divine Person, but we\nretain it absolutely. The simplest comparison is our union with\nOur Lord in the Holy Eucharist, wherein we receive Him really and\ntruly and are made partakers of His divinity. By grace, then, we\nreceive really and truly God the Holy Ghost and are made partakers\nof His divinity. If, then, we genuflect to the tabernacle in which\nthe Blessed Sacrament is reserved and treat our Communions as the\nmost solemn moments of our day, then equally we must hold in\nreverence every simple soul in a state of grace, the souls of\nothers and our own.\n\n\n\nTHE MODE OF THIS PRESENCE: OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE\n\n1. The fact, then, of this presence has been established and its\nnature explained. It is a real presence, a real union between the\nsoul and God the Holy Ghost. We have, however, a further point to\nelucidate, the mode whereby this presence is effected. Now this is\ntwofold in so far as this presence of the Spirit affects the mind\nand heart of man. First, then, we take the knowledge of God that\nby this presence is generated in the soul. By natural knowledge we\ncan argue not only to the existence of God, but in some way also\nto His nature. Not only do we know from the world which He has\nmade that He certainly must Himself have a true existence, but we\ncan even, gradually and carefully, though certainly with some\nvagueness, argue to God's own divine attributes. His intelligence\nis evident, His power, His wisdom, His beauty, His providence, His\ncare for created nature. The pagans merely from the world about\nthem painfully, and after many years and with much admixture of\nerror, could yet in the end have their beautiful thoughts about\nGod, and by some amazing instinct have stumbled upon truths which\nChristianity came fully to establish. The writings of Plato and\nAristotle, of some Eastern teachers, of some of the Kings and\npriests of Egypt, are evidences of the possibility of the natural\nknowledge about God.\n\n2. Faith, then, came as something over and above the possibilities\nof nature, not merely as regards the contents, but also as regards\nthe kind of knowledge. Reason argues to God, and, therefore,\nattains God indirectly. It is like getting an application by\nletter from an unknown person and guessing his character from the\nhandwriting, the paper, the ink, the spelling, the style. Possibly\nby this means a very fair estimate may be formed of his capacities\nand his fitness for the position which we desire him to fill. But\nfaith implies a direct contact with the person who has written the\nletter. Before us is spread what Longfellow has called \"the\nmanuscript of God,\" and from it we argue to God's character. Then\nfaith comes and puts us straight into connection with God Himself.\nTheological virtues are the names given to faith, hope, and\ncharity, because they all have God for their direct and proper\nobject. Faith then attains to the very substance of God. It is\nindeed inadequate in so far as all human forms of thought can only\nfalteringly represent God as compared with the fullness that shall\nbe revealed hereafter, still for all that it gives us, not\nindirect but direct knowledge of Him. I do not argue by faith to\nwhat God is like from seeing His handiwork; but I know what He is\nlike from His descriptions of Himself.\n\n3. Now the indwelling of the Spirit of God gives us a knowledge of\nGod even more wonderful than faith gives, for even faith has to be\ncontent with God's descriptions of Himself. In faith I am indeed\nlistening to a Person Who is telling me all about Himself. He is\nthe very truth and all He says is commended to me by the most\nsolemn and certain of motives; but I am still very far from coming\nabsolutely into direct and absolute experience of God. That,\nindeed, fully and absolutely, can be achieved only in Heaven. It\nis only there in the beatific vision that the veils will be wholly\ntorn aside and there will be a face to face sight of God, no\nlonger by means of created, and therefore limited, ideas, but an\nabsolute possession of God Himself. Yet though absolutely I must\nwait for Heaven before I can achieve this, it is none the less\ntrue that I can begin it on earth by means of this indwelling of\nthe Spirit of God. This real presence of God in my soul can secure\nfor me what is called an experimental knowledge of God, such as\nundoubtedly I do have. It is not only that I believe, but I know.\nNot only have I been told about God, but, at least, in passing\nglimpses, I have seen Him. We may almost say to the Church what\nthe men of Sichar said to the woman of Samaria, \"We now believe,\nnot for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard and know\" (John\n4.42). \"For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit that\nwe are the sons of God\" (Romans 8.16).\n\n\n\nMODE OF THIS PRESENCE: OBJECT OF LOVE\n\n1. There is something that unites us more closely to our friends\nthan knowledge does, and this is love. Knowledge may teach us\nabout them, may unlock for us gradually throughout life ever more\nwonderful secrets of their goodness and strength and loyalty. But\nknowledge of itself pushes us irresistibly on to something more.\nThe more we know of that which is worth knowing, the more we must\nlove it. Now love is greater than knowledge whenever knowledge\nitself does not really unite us to the object of our knowledge, so\nthat St. Paul can deliberately put charity above faith, since\nfaith is the knowledge of God by means of ideas which are\nthemselves created and limited and inadequate, while charity\nsweeps us up and carries us right along to God Himself. Hence it\nwas an axiom among the mediaeval theologians that love is more\nunifying than knowledge, so that in the real indwelling of the\nHoly Spirit in our hearts we must expect to find not only that He\nis the object of our intelligence, but also that He has a place in\nour hearts. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive any experimental\nknowledge which does not also include in it the notion of love.\n\n2. This love or friendship between ourselves and the Holy Spirit,\nif by friendship we mean anything like that of which we have\nexperience in our human relations, implies three things. First of\nall, friendship implies that we do not love people for what we can\nget out of them, for that would be an insult to a friend, for it\nwould mean selfishness or even animal passion. Friendship implies\nthat we come for what we can give far more than that we come for\nwhat we can get. We love because we have helped is more often the\ntrue order of the origins of friendship than we help because we\nhave loved. Secondly, friendship to be complete must be mutual.\nThere may indeed be love when some poor, forlorn soul is here\nnever requited in its affection, but that is not what we mean by a\nfriend or by friendship. Friendship implies action, a fellow\nfeeling, a desire for each other, a sympathy. Thirdly, friendship\nalso implies necessarily a common bond of likeness, or similarity\nof condition or life, some equality. Of course it is evident from\nclassic instances that friendship may exist between a shepherd lad\nand the son of a king (though perhaps Jonathan's princedom was\nvery little removed from shepherd life), yet the very friendship\nitself must produce equality between them. Said the Latin proverb:\n\"Friendship either finds, or makes men equal.\"\n\n3. Now, therefore, to be perfectly literal in our use of the word,\nwe must expect to find these things reproduced in our friendship\nwith the Spirit of God; and, wonderful as it is, these things are\nreproduced. For God certainly loves us for no benefit that He can\nobtain from His love. He certainly had no need of us, nor do we in\nany sense fill up anything that is wanting to His life. Before we\nwere, or the world was created, the Ever Blessed Three in One\nenjoyed to the full the complete peace and joy and energy of\nexistence. We are no late development of His being, but only came\nbecause of His inherent goodness that was always prodigal of\nitself. He is our friend, not for His need, but for ours. He is\nour friend, not for what He could get, but for what He could\ngive--His life. Again, His friendship is certainly mutual, for as\nSt. John tells: \"Let us therefore love God because God first hath\nloved us\" (John 4.19). There is no yearning on our part which is\nnot more than paralleled on His. I can say not only that I love\nGod, but that He is my friend. Thirdly, I may even dare to assert\nthat there is a common bond of likeness and equality between\nmyself and Him. He has stooped to my level only that He may lift\nme to His own. He became Man that He might make man God, and so,\nequally, the Holy Spirit dwells in me that I may dwell in Him.\n\"Friendship either finds, or makes men equal.\" It found us apart,\nit makes us one. He came divine, perfect, to me, human, imperfect.\nBy grace I am raised to a supernatural level. I know Him in some\nsort as He is; I am immediately united to Him by the bond of love.\n\n\n\nTHIS PRESENCE IS OF THE SAME NATURE AS THAT IN HEAVEN\n\n1. This union, then, between God and my soul, effected by grace,\nis real and true. It is something more than faith can secure, a\nnearer relationship, a deeper, more personal knowledge, a more\nardent and personal love. Indeed, so wonderful is the union\neffected that the teaching of the Church has been forcibly\nexpressed in Pope Leo XIII's _Encyclical_, by saying that the only\ndifference between it and the Vision of Heaven is a difference of\ncondition or state, a difference purely accidental, not essential.\nHeaven, with all its meaning, its wonders of which eye and ear and\nheart are ignorant, can be begun here. Moreover, it must be\ninsisted upon, that this is not merely given to chosen souls whose\nsanctity is so heroic as to qualify them for canonization; it is\nthe heritage of every soul in a state of grace. When I step\noutside the confessional box after due repentance and the\nabsolution of the priest, I am in a state of grace. At once, then,\nthis blessed union takes effect. Within me is the Holy Spirit,\ndwelling there, sent, given. As the object of knowledge He can be\nexperienced by me in a personal and familiar way. I can know Him\neven as I am known. As the object of love He becomes my friend,\nstooping to my level, lifting me to His. At once, then, though\nstill in a merely rudimentary way, can dawn upon me the glories of\nmy ultimate reward. Even already, upon earth, I have crossed the\nthreshold of Heaven.\n\n2. In order for me to enjoy that ultimate vision of God, two\nthings will be necessary for me. First, I shall need to be\nstrengthened so as to survive the splendor and joy of it. No man\ncan see God and live, for like St. Paul on the road to Damascus,\nthe splendor of the vision would wholly obscure the sight. Just as\na tremendous noise will strain the hearing of the ear, or an\noverbright light will dazzle the eyes to blindness, or an\noverwhelming joy will break the heart with happiness, so would the\nvision of God strike with annihilation the poor weak soul. Hence\nthe light of glory, as it is called by the theologians, has to be\nbrought into use. By this is meant that strengthening of the human\nfaculties which enables them without harm to confront the Truth,\nGoodness, Power, Beauty of God. Secondly, this vision implies an\nimmediate contact with God. It is no question simply of faith or\nhope, but of sight and possession, so that there should be no more\nveils, no more reproductions or reflections of God, but God\nHimself. Those two things sum up what we mean by the Beatific\nVision. Now, then, if there is a similarity of kind between that\nunion in heaven and the union that can be reflected on earth, then\ngrace in this life must play the part of the light of glory in the\nnext, and I must be able in consequence to enter into personal\nrelations and immediate contact with God.\n\n3. Such, then, is the likeness between the indwelling of the\nSpirit on earth, and the beatific vision. Wherein comes the\ndifference? The difference one may say is largely a difference of\nconsciousness. Here on earth I have so much to distract me that I\ncannot possibly devote myself in the same way as then I shall be\nable to do. There are things here that have got to be done, and\nthere is the body itself which can only stand a certain amount of\nconcentration and intensity. If strained too much it just breaks\ndown and fails. All this complicates and hampers me. But in heaven\nI shall take on something (of course a great deal intensified) of\nthe consciousness and alertness of youth. A child can thoroughly\nenjoy itself, for it has got the happy faculty of forgetting the\nrest of life, all its troubles, anxieties, fears. Heaven, then,\nmeans the lopping off of all those menaces, and the consequent\nfull appreciation of God in knowledge and love. Hence I must not\nbe disturbed if here on earth all these wonderful things which I\nlearn about concerning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit do not\nseem to take place. It is very unfortunate that I do not\nappreciate them, but it is something at least to know that they\nare there. It is a nuisance that I do not see Him, but it is\nsomething at least to be certain He is within me.\n\n\n\nTHIS PRESENCE COMMON TO THE WHOLE TRINITY\n\n1. So far it has been taken for granted that this indwelling is\nproper to the Holy Spirit, but it must now be added that indeed it\nis really an indwelling of the Blessed Trinity. It is true that\nvery seldom does Scripture speak of the Three Persons as dwelling\nin the soul, still less of Their being given or sent. But every\nreason for which we attribute this to the Holy Ghost would hold\nequally well of the other Two Persons. By grace we are made\npartakers of God's Divine nature; He comes to us as the object of\nour knowledge and our love. Why should we suppose that this Divine\nPresence applies directly only to the Spirit of God? The only\nreason, of course, is the impressive wording of the New Testament.\nBut even here there are equally strong indications that more than\nthe Holy Ghost is implied: \"If any man will love Me he will keep\nMy word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and\nwill make Our abode with him. . . . But the Paraclete, the Holy\nGhost, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all\nthings and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have\nsaid to you.\" Here, then, it is clearly stated that after Our Lord\nhas died His teaching will be upheld by the Spirit, but that this\nindwelling will include also the abiding presence of Father and\nSon.\n\n2. Why, then, is it repeated so often that the Holy Ghost is to be\nsent into our hearts, is to be given to us, is to dwell in our\nmidst? It is for the same reason precisely that we allocate or\nattribute certain definite acts to the Blessed Persons of the\nTrinity so as the more easily to discern and appreciate the\ndistinction between Them. In the Creed itself we attribute\ncreation to God, the Father Almighty, though we know that Son and\nSpirit, also with the Father, called the world out of nothingness.\nEternity is often, too, looked upon as peculiarly of the Father,\nthough naturally it is common to the Trinity. Note how frequently\nin the liturgical prayers of the Church comes the expression, \"O,\nEternal Father.\" So again to the Son we attribute Wisdom and\nBeauty, turning in our imagination to Him as the Word of God, the\nFigure of His substance, the brightness of His glory, and to the\nHoly Spirit we more often attribute God's love and God's joy. All\nthese attributions are attempts to make that high mystery and the\nThree Persons of It alive and distinctive to the human spirit. It\nis not indeed wholly fancy, but it is the ever active reason\nendeavoring, for its own better understanding of sacred truths, to\ngive some hint, or find some loophole, whence it shall not be\noverwhelmed with the greatness of its faith.\n\n3. Consequently, it must be noted that this indwelling of the\nSpirit of God is not so absolutely and distinctly proper to God,\nthe Holy Ghost, as the Incarnation is proper to God, the Son.\nThere the Son, and He alone, became man. It was His personality\nalone to which was joined, in a substantial union, human nature.\nBut in this present case there is no such unique connection\nbetween the soul and the Spirit of God, but it is rather the Ever\nBlessed Trinity itself that enters into occupation, and dwells in\nthe heart. Of course that makes the wonder not less, but greater.\nTo think that within the borders of my being is conducted the\nwhole life of the Ever Blessed Three in One; that the Father is\nfor ever knowing Himself in the Son, and that Father and Son are\nforever loving Themselves in the Spirit; that the power and\neternity of the Father, whereby creation was called into being,\nand by whose fiat the visible world will one day break up and fall\nto pieces; that the wisdom and beauty of the Son, which catch the\nsoul of man as in the meshes of a net, and drove generations of\nmen to a wandering pilgrimage, at the peril of life, to rescue an\nempty tomb in the wild fury of a crusade; that the love of the\nHoly Spirit which completes the life of God, and was typified in\nthe tongues of fire and the rush of a great wind at Pentecost;\nthat the power and eternity of the Father, the wisdom and beauty\nof the Son, the love and joy of the Spirit, are for all time in my\nheart. O, what reverence for my human home of God, reverence alike\nfor soul and body!\n\n\n\nTHIS PRESENCE HAS CERTAIN EFFECTS\n\n1. It is very clear that so tremendous a presence as this\nindwelling implies must have tremendous results. If, as I believe,\nFather, and Son, and Spirit, are always within me by grace, the\neffect upon my soul should be considerable. To begin with, the\nvery nearness to God which this indwelling secures must make a\ngreat difference to my outlook on life. To have within me the Ever\nBlessed Trinity is more than an honor, it is a responsibility; it\nis more than responsibility, for it is the greatest grace of all.\nTo my faith, it makes the whole difference in my attitude to the\nMother of God that within her womb for those silent months lay the\nIncarnate Wisdom. If to touch pitch is to ensure defilement, to be\nso close to God is to catch the infection of His Divinity. Or,\nagain, I may have envied, times out of number, the wonderful grace\nwhereby, upon the breast of his Master, St. John, the Beloved\nDisciple, could lovingly lay his head, the joy of so close and so\nfamiliar an intimacy with the most beautiful sons of men; or I may\nhave pictured the charming scene when on His knees He took the\ndear children of His country and spoke to them and fondled them so\nthat in His eyes they could see reflected their own countenances.\nHow life ever after must have been transfigured for them by the\nmemory of that glorious time! Great graces indeed for them all.\nBut what if all life long, by grace, I too can be sure of a union\neven more splendid, an intimacy more lasting, a friendship\nsurpassing the limits of faith and hope?\n\n2. By grace, then, I receive this indwelling of the Spirit of God,\nand thereby come into a new and wonderful union with the Ever\nBlessed Trinity. Now such a union must have its purpose. Our Lord\ntold us that He was going to send to our hearts the Holy Spirit,\nan embassy from Heaven to earth conducted by a Divine ambassador.\nThe news of the Incarnation, the offer of the Motherhood of God,\nwere made by means of an angel. But here, in my case, to no\ncreated official is this wonderful thing confided, only to God\nHimself. That just shows me the importance of the undertaking. In\nthe political world the interests that turn on a diplomatic\nmission may be easily guessed to be very great, when the personnel\nof the staff is found to contain the highest personages in the\ncountry. What deep and abiding interests must then be in question\nwhen to my soul comes God, the Holy Ghost, sent as the messenger\nof the Three! I must consequently expect that the results of this\nindwelling are judged by God to be considerable, and that it is of\nmuch moment to me that, one by one, I should discover them. The\nIncarnation brought its train of attendant effects which I have to\nstudy: the redemption, the sacraments, the sanctifying of all\nimmaterial creation by its union through man with the divinity.\nThis indwelling also must therefore have its effects, the\nknowledge of which must necessarily make a difference to me in\nlife.\n\n3. By Baptism the beginning comes of this great grace. As a child,\nwith my senses hardly at all awake to external life, I had God in\nmy midst. Do I wonder now at the charm of early innocence, when a\nsoul sits silently holding God as its centre? It is not that there\nare dim memories of a preexistence before birth, but there are\nalways haunting dreams of a true friendship on earth. Baptism then\nbegins that early work. At the moment of conversion, when suddenly\nI was drawn into a tender realization of God's demands and my own\nheart's hunger, the indwelling of the Spirit became more\nconsciously operative with its flood of light and love. Since then\nthe sacraments have poured out on me fuller measures of God's\ngrace and that divine Presence therefore should assume larger\nproportions in my life. I am now the dwelling place of God. When,\nthen, my heart is young, eager, enthusiastic, let me make Him\nwelcome; nor wait till the only habitation I can offer is in\nruins, leaking through an ill-patched roof. A dwelling place for\nGod! How reverently, then, shall I treat and treasure my body and\nsoul, for they must be as fit as I can make them for the great\nGuest. By reason we learn of Him, by faith we know Him, but by His\nindwelling we taste the sweetness of His presence.\n\n\n\nFORGIVENESS OF SIN\n\n1. To understand this first and great effect of grace I must know\nwhat sin is, and to grasp sin in its fullness I must comprehend\nGod. To see the heinousness of what is done against Him I must\nfirst realize what He is Himself. I have to go through all my\nideas of God, my ideas of His majesty, His power, His tenderness,\nHis justice, His mercy. I have got to realize all that He has done\nfor man before I can take in the meaning of man's actions against\nGod. I have to be conscious of the Incarnation, of the story of\nthat perfect life, the privations of it, the culminating horror of\nthe Passion and Death, then of the Resurrection, the patient\nteaching of those forty days when He spoke of the Kingdom of God\nwhich He was setting up on earth, the Ascension, which did not\nmean an end, but only the beginning of His work for men on earth.\nAt once there opened the wonderful stream of graces which flow\nthrough the sacraments, and which therefore make continuous upon\nthe world till its consummation, His abiding presence, for the\ntale of the Blessed Sacrament only adds to the wonders of the\ntenderness and mercy of God. In Heaven, by ever trying to make\nintercession for us, on earth, by holding out through the\nsacraments countless ways of grace, It shows to us something at\nleast of the perfect character of God. Now it is against one so\nperfect, so tender, so divine, that sin is committed, a wanton,\nbrutal outrage against an almost overfond love. Ingratitude,\ntreachery, disloyalty, united in the basest form.\n\n2. God is just, as well as merciful, so that there had to be an\nimmediate result of sin. Man might see no difference between\nhimself before and after he had sinned; but for all that a great\ndifference was set up. His soul had been on terms of friendship\nwith God, for it had turned irresistibly to Him, as a flower\ngrowing in a dark place turns irresistibly to where the hardy\ndaylight makes its way into the gloom. That friendship is at once\nbroken, for sin means that the soul has deliberately turned its\nback upon God and is facing the other way, and thus it has been\nable by some fatal power to prevent God's everlasting love having\nany effect upon it. God cannot hate; but we can stop His love from\ntouching us. At once, then, by grievous sin the soul becomes\ndespoiled of its supernatural goods: sanctifying grace, which is\nthe pledge and expression of God's friendship, naturally is\nbanished; charity, which is nothing else than the love of God, the\ninfused virtues, the gifts, are all taken away. Faith only and\nhope survive, but emptied of their richness of life. Externally no\ndifference, but internally friendship with God, the right to the\neternal heritage, the merits heretofore stored up--all lost. Even\nGod Himself goes out from the midst of the soul, as the Romans\nheard the voice crying from the Temple just before its\ndestruction: _Let us go hence. Let us go hence_.\n\n3. Grace, then, operates to restore all these lost wonders. Sin\nitself is forgiven, all the ingratitude and disloyalty put one\nside; not simply in the sense that God forgets them, or chooses\nnot to consider them, but in the sense that they are completely\nwiped away. It is the parable of the Good Shepherd where the sheep\nis brought back again into the fold, and mixes freely with the\nothers who have never left the presence of their Master. It is the\nparable of the prodigal son taken back into his father's embrace.\nThat is what the forgiveness of sin implies. God is once more back\nagain in the soul. He had always been there as the Creator without\nWhose supporting hand the soul would be back in its nothingness;\nbut He is now there again as Father, and Master, and Friend. Not\nthe saints only who have been endowed with a genius for divine\nthings, but every simple soul that has had its sins forgiven,\ncomes at once into that embrace. We are far too apt to look upon\nforgiveness as a merely negative thing, a removal, a cleansing,\nand not enough as a return to something great and good and\nbeautiful, the triumphant entrance into our souls of the Father,\nthe Son, and the Spirit.\n\n\n\nJUSTIFICATION\n\n1. There is something in the forgiveness of sin which implies an\nelement of positive good, and this is called justification. It\nmeans that the attitude of God towards forgiven sin is believed by\nthe Catholic Church to be no mere neglect or forgetfulness of its\nevil, but an actual and complete forgiveness. At the time of the\nProtestant Reformation a long controversy was waged over this very\npoint, in which the Reformers took up the curious position that\nforgiveness implied nothing more than that God did not impute sin.\nHe covered up the iniquities of the soul with the Blood of His\nSon, and no longer peered beneath the depths of that sacred and\nsaving sign. The problem has probably hardly any meaning now,\nsince the original doctrinal principles of Protestantism, the\nostensible reasons for the sixteenth century revolt, have been\nabandoned long since as hopeless of defence. In fact all that was\nreally positive in Protestantism has been ruined by its basic\nnegative principle of private judgment. Against such a battering\nram Christianity itself is powerless. But that long-forgotten\ndiscussion had this much of value, that it brought out in clear\nperspective the fullness of the Catholic teaching on the central\ndoctrine of justification and showed its depth and meaning.\n\n2. Briefly, then, it may be stated that it is not simply that God\ndoes not impute evil, but that He forgives it. It is as though a\nrebellion had taken place and its leader had been captured and\nbrought before his offended sovereign. Now the king might do\neither of two things, if he wished not to punish the culprit. He\nmight simply bid him go off and never appear again, or he might go\neven further by actually forgiving the rebellion and receiving\nback into favor the rebel. It is one thing to say that no\npunishment will be awarded, it is another to say that the crime is\nforgiven, and that everything is to go on as though nothing had\nhappened. In the first case we might say that the king chose not\nto impute the sin, in the other that he forgave and justified the\nsinner. It is just this, then, that the Catholic Church means when\nshe teaches justification as implied in the idea of forgiveness.\nIt is just this, too, that Our Lord meant when He detailed His\nbeautiful parable about the prodigal son. The boy's return home\ndoes not mean merely that the father refrains from punishment, but\nrather that there is a welcome so hearty and so complete that the\nserious-minded elder brother, coming in from his long labor in the\nfields, is rather scandalized by its suddenness and its intensity.\nSuch is indeed God's treatment of the soul. He is so generous, so\ndetermined not to be outdone by any sorrow on the part of the\nsinner, that He overwhelms with the most splendid favors the\nrecently converted soul.\n\n3. But in this connection we must see in justification a process\nby which the Presence of God is again achieved by man. By sin\ngrace was lost, and with grace went out the Divine Three in One,\nthe temple was desecrated, the veil of the Holy of Holies was\nutterly rent. Then sin is forgiven and, once more, the Sacred home\nis occupied by God. Moreover, when God comes to the soul He comes\nwith His full strength of love, and thereby gives a new energy and\nlife to man. We love because of some beauty, goodness, excellence,\nthat we see in others. We love, then, because of what is in them.\nIt is their gifts that cause or ignite our love. But God, Who is\nthe only cause Himself, creates excellences by love. We are not\nloved because we are good; we are good because we are loved, so\nthat this indwelling itself fashions us after God's own heart. \"It\nis the love of God,\" says St. Thomas (_Summa theologica_, i,\n20.2), \"that produces and creates goodness in things.\" The divine\npresence, then, of God in the soul, effected by sanctifying grace,\nmakes the soul more worthy a temple, more fit a home. God does not\ncome to us because we are fit, but we are fit because God comes to\nus.\n\n\n\nDEIFICATION\n\n1. This very strong expression is used by St. Augustine and many\nof the Fathers to describe one of the effects of grace. By grace\nwe are deified, i. e., made into gods. Right at the beginning of\nall the woes of humanity when, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve\nfirst were tempted, the lying spirit promised that the reward of\ndisobedience would be that they should become \"as gods.\" The\nresult of sin could hardly be that, so man, made only a little\nlower than the angels, can at times find himself rebuked by the\nvery beasts. Yet the promise became in the end fulfilled, since\nthe Incarnation really affected that transformation, and God, by\nbecoming human, made man himself divine. St. Peter, in his second\nepistle (4.1), insinuates the same truth when he describes the\ngreat promises of Christ making us \"partakers of the Divine\nNature.\" The work, then, of grace is something superhuman and\ndivine. Creation pours into us the divine gift of existence and\ntherefore makes us partakers in the divine being, for existence\nimplies a participation in the being of God. The indwelling of the\nBlessed Trinity, then, does even more, for by it we participate\nnot only in the divine being, but in the divine nature, and\nfulfill the prophecy of Our Lord: \"Ye are gods.\" Justification,\ntherefore, is a higher gift than creation, since it does more for\nus.\n\n2. This divine participation is what is implied in many texts\nwhich allude to the sacrament of Baptism, for the purpose of\nBaptism is just that, to make us children of God. The phrases\nconcerning \"new birth\" and \"being born again\" all are intended to\nconvey the same idea, that the soul by means of this sacrament is\nlifted above its normal existence and lives a new life. This life\nis lived \"with Christ in God,\" i. e., it is a sort of entrance\nwithin the charmed circle of the Trinity, or, more accurately, it\nis that the Blessed Trinity inhabits our soul and enters into our\nown small life, which at once therefore takes on a new and higher\nimportance. In it henceforth there can be nothing small or mean.\nFor the same reason Our Lord speaks of it to the Samaritan woman\nas \"_the_ gift of God,\" beside which all His other benefactions\nfade into nothingness. Again, it is a \"fountain of living water,\"\nit is a \"refreshment,\" it is \"life\" itself. Not the stagnant water\nthat remains in a pool in some dark wood, but a stream gushing out\nfrom its source, fertilizing the ground on every side, soaking\nthrough to all the thirsting roots about it, giving freshness and\nvitality to the whole district through which it wanders. Life\nindeed it bears as its great gift; and so does sanctifying grace\ncarry within it the fertilizing power needed by the soul.\n\n3. The participation in the Divine Nature is therefore no mere\nmetaphor, but is a real fact. The indwelling of God makes the soul\nlike to God. I find myself influenced by the people with whom I\nlive, picking up their expressions, copying their tricks and\nhabits, following out their thoughts, absorbing their principles,\ngrowing daily like them. With God at the centre of my life the\nsame effect is produced, and slowly, patiently, almost\nunconsciously, I find myself infected by His spirit. What He loves\nbecomes my ideal; what He hates, my detestation. But it is even\ncloser than this, no mere concord of wills nor harmony of ideas, a\nreal and true elevation to the life of God. Grace is formally in\nGod, at the back, so to say, of His divine nature, the inner\nessence of Himself. By receiving it, therefore, I receive\nsomething of God, and begin to be able to perform divine actions.\nI can begin to know God even as I am known, to taste His\nsweetness, and by His favor to have personal, experimental\nknowledge of Himself. To act divinely is only possible to those\nwho are made divine. This, then, becomes the formal union with\nGod, its terms, its end, its purpose. Deified, therefore, we\nbecome in our essence by grace, in our intelligence by its light,\nin our will by charity.\n\n\n\nADOPTED SONSHIP\n\n1. Here again we have to realize that the sonship of God is no\nmere metaphor, no mere name, but a deep and true fact of huge\nsignificance: \"Behold what manner of charity the Father hath\nbestowed upon us that we should be called and should be the sons\nof God!\" (1 John 3). We become the sons of God. St. Paul very\ngladly quotes the saying of a Greek poet that men are the\noffspring of God, making use of a particular word which\nnecessarily implies that both the begetter and the begotten are of\nthe same nature. A sonship indeed is what Our Lord is Himself\nincessantly teaching the Apostles to regard as their high\nprivilege, for God is not only His Father, but theirs: \"Thus shalt\nthou pray, Our Father.\" With the Gospels it is in constant use as\nthe view of God that Christianity came especially to teach. The\nEpistles are equally insistent on the same view, for St. Paul is\nperpetually calling to mind the wonderful prerogatives whereby we\ncry, \"Abba: Father.\" We are spoken of as co-heirs of Christ, as\nchildren of God. St. John, St. Peter, and St. James repeat the\nsame message as the evident result of the Incarnation, for by it\nwe learn that God became the Son of Man, and man the son of God.\n\n2. Yet it must also be admitted that this sonship of God, which is\nthe common property of all just souls, and is the result of the\nindwelling of God in the soul, does not mean that we are so by\nnature, but only by adoption. Now adoption, as it is practiced by\nlaw, implies that the child to be adopted is not already the son,\nthat the new relationship is entered upon entirely at the free\nchoice of the person adopting, that the child becomes the legal\nheir to the inheritance of the adopting father. It is perfectly\nevident that all these conditions are fulfilled in the case of\nGod's adoption, for we were certainly no children of His before\nHis adoption of us as sons; strangers we were, estranged indeed\nby the absence of grace and the high gifts of God. Naturally we\nwere made by Him, but had put ourselves far from Him: \"You were as\nsheep going astray.\" Then this adoption of us by God was indeed\nand could only have been at His free choice, through no merits of\nours, but solely according to the deliberate action of His own\nwill, for \"you have not chosen Me but I have chosen you.\" \"So that\nit is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God\nthat showeth mercy.\" Finally, the inheritance is indeed ours by\nright and title of legal inheritance. We are co-heirs with Christ,\nand our human nature is lifted up to the level of God; not, of\ncourse, that we supplant Him who is by nature the true Son of God,\nbut that we are taken into partnership with Him, and share in Him\nthe wonderful riches of God.\n\n3. Here, then, I may learn the worth and dignity of the Christian\nname. I am a true son of God, and what else matters upon earth? I\nhave indeed to go about my life with its vocation and all that is\nentailed in it. I have to work for my living, it may be, or take\nmy place in the family, or lead my own solitary existence. I have\nto strive to be efficient and effective in the material things of\nlife that fall to my share to be done. But it is this sonship of\nGod that alone makes any matter in the world. In our own time we\nhave heard a very great deal about culture and the ultimate value\nof the world; but we have seen also to what evil ends so fine a\ntruth may lead men. True culture is not a question of scientific\nattainments, or mechanical progress, or the discovery of new\ninventions of destruction, or even of medical and useful sciences;\nbut it is the perfect and complete development of the latent\npowers of the soul. True culture may indeed make use of sciences\nand art; perhaps in its most complete sense science and art are\nneeded for the most finished culture of which man is capable; but\nit is in its very essence the deepening of his truest desire, the\nfull stretch of his widest flights of fancy, the achievement of\nhis noblest ideals. What nobler ideal, or fancy, or desire, can a\nman have than to be called and to be the son of God; to know that\nhe has been drawn into the close union of God; to feel within his\nvery essence the presence of God; to have personal experience as\nthe objects of his knowledge and love of the Father, Son, and\nSpirit?\n\n\n\nHEIRS OF GOD\n\n1. One of the conditions of adoption is that the newly chosen son\nshould become the legal heir of the new father. Without this legal\nresult or consequence adoption has no meaning. Merely to get a boy\nto enter a family circle does not imply adoption, for this last\nhas a distinct meaning with a distinct purpose. If, then, we are\nthe heirs of God we are really possessed of a right to His Divine\nInheritance. Heaven has been made indeed our home. We speak of it\nin our hymns as _patria_, which we can translate as the \"land of\nour fathers.\" We claim it thereby in virtue of our parentage, and\nour parentage is of God. If, then, He is our Father, not by\nnature, but by adoption, i. e., by grace, we are none the less His\nheirs and have some sort of right over His possessions and riches.\nA father cannot without leave of his adopted son alienate any of\nthe family heirlooms; the adopted son now, by the father's own\nfree act acquires, not indeed dominion over the riches of the\nhome, but, at any rate, an embargo on the father's free exercise\nof those riches. He could even demand, as against his father, a\nlegal investigation into the due use and investment of them. His\nsignature is required for every document that relates to them. He\nhas become almost a part-owner of his father's possessions, since\nhe is their legal heir. All this is implied by adoption in its\ntrue sense, and therefore it must be intended to apply to us when\nwe are spoken of as God's adopted sons.\n\n2. I can, therefore, truthfully speak of myself as an heir of God.\nOf course I cannot mean that there is any possible question of\n\"the death of the testator,\" i. e., of God. That is quite clearly\nof no significance here. But adoption does give me some sort of\nclaim to the heritage of God. Now the law defines a heritage as\nthat by which a man is made rich. It includes not the riches only,\nbut the source of the riches, so that if I have a claim to God's\nriches, I have a claim also upon the source of those riches. For\nthe heir is entitled not merely to a legacy, but to the whole of\nthe fortune. I have a right to the whole fortune of God, to the\nwhole universe. At once, as soon as I realize it, the whole of the\nworld is mine. It is the doctrine of the mystics that,\nmisunderstood, led astray the communists of the Middle Ages. These\nclaimed a common ownership of the wealth of all the world, whereas\nwhat was intended was that we should look upon the whole world as\nours. To me, then, in life, nothing can be strange or distant or\napart. No places can there be where my mind cannot enter and roam\nat will and feel itself at home; no things can be profane, no\npeople who are not tabernacles of God, no part of life that is not\nsteeped in that living presence. The only possible boundary is the\nlove and the grace of God. There will indeed come evil frontiers\nbeyond which my soul could never dwell. But all else is of God and\nis therefore my right. All creation is mine; the wonder and beauty\nof it, life and death, pleasure alike and pain, yield up to me\ntheir secrets and disclose the hidden name of God.\n\n3. Here, then, I can find that divine wealth, to inherit which has\nbeen the purpose of the adoption by God. Wherever I turn I shall\nfind Him. Whether life has smooth ways or rough, whether she hangs\nmy path with lights or hides me in gloom, I am the heir to all\nthat earth or sea or sky can boast of as their possession. Indeed,\nthese are only the rich things of God, whereas I have a claim upon\neven more. I have a claim upon the very source of this wealth,\nthat is, upon God Himself, for He is the sole source of all His\ngreatness. I have a right to God Himself. He is mine. He Who holds\nin the hollow of His hands the fabric of the world, Who with His\ndivine power supports, and with His providence directs, the\nintricate pattern of the world, has Himself by creation entered\ndeeply into the world; at the heart of everything He lies hid. But\neven more by grace He comes in a fuller, richer way into the\ndepths of the soul. Here in me are Father, and Son, and Spirit.\nDear God, teach me to understand the wonder of this indwelling, to\nappreciate its worth, to be thankful for its condescension, to\nreverence its place of choice, to be conscious of its perpetual\nupholding. By it I am an heir to the fullness of the divine\nriches. By it I, a creature, possess in His fullness my Creator,\nRedeemer, Lord.\n\n\n\nGUIDANCE IN SPIRITUAL LIFE\n\n1. I have God the Holy Spirit with me. He comes to me in order\nthat I may surrender myself to Him. Of course I cannot merge my\npersonality in His to the extent of having no power of my own, but\nGod has such infinite dominion over the heart of man that He is\nable to move the will, without in any sense whatever violating its\nfreedom. In the liturgy of the Church there are two or three\nprayers which speak about God \"compelling our rebellious wills.\"\nNow for anyone else to \"compel my will\" would be to destroy it as\na will, since, as even Cromwell freely confessed, \"the will\nsuffereth no compulsion\"; I cannot be made to will against my\nwill. That would be a contradiction, though I can be made to act\nagainst my will, for my actions do not necessarily imply that my\nwill is in them. Whereas, then, no one else can move my will\nwithout utterly destroying my moral freedom, God can, for He is\nintimate to the will and moves it, not really as an external but\nas an internal power. St. Thomas Aquinas repeatedly refers to this\nand says over and over again the same thing, namely, that God is\nso intimately united to man, and so powerful, that not only can He\nmove man to will, but move him to will freely by affecting, not\nonly the action of man, but the very mode of the action.\n\n2. Such is man, whether in a state of grace or not, that his will\nis in the hands of God, to be moved by man freely, but not so as\nto exclude God's movement. Naturally enough it is far easier to\nsay this than to explain it. Indeed the mere statement is all that\nis actually binding upon faith, and the particular explanation\nfavored by St. Thomas in his general acceptance of St. Augustine's\nteaching, comes to us largely as of deep and abiding moment on\naccount of the very clear reasons given and the great authority of\nhis name; but in any case there is something far more special in\nthe guidance of the Holy Spirit sought for by the soul in its\nendeavor to \"live godly in Christ Jesus.\" It has to yield itself\nto the promptings of God, be eager to catch His every whisper, and\nquick in its obedience to His every call. For this to be achieved,\nthe first work is an emptying out of the soul. Every obstacle has\nto be got rid of; any attachment to creatures that obscures God's\nlight has to be broken through (though not every attachment to\ncreatures, since unless I love man whom I see, I cannot possibly\nknow what love means when applied to God, nor can I suppose myself\nto be able to understand or love God, whom I do not see). First,\nthen, to cleanse my soul by leveling and smoothing and clearing\nits surface and depths.\n\n3. Then I must yield myself into His arms. I shall not know very\noften the way He wishes me to go. It may be only one step at a\ntime, and then darkness again; or I may be taken swiftly and\nsurely and openly along a clear road. That is His business, not\nmine, only I must be prepared not to be able to follow always the\nmeaning of what He wants of me. It is not necessary at all that I\nshould know. If I am faithful and loyal and full of trust, things\nwill gradually settle themselves, and I shall at least be able to\nlook back and understand the significance and purpose of many\nthings that at first appeared accidental, and even in opposition\nto the end I considered God had in view for me. Thus by looking\nback I can sometimes get a shrewd idea of what is to follow; but\noften it is only a guess, nothing more than that. Still,\ngenerally, it would seem that people who surrender themselves to\nGod do get a sense or a feeling which leads them right and makes\nthem sure. It is the divine tenderness stooping to poor muddled\nhumanity and making it transfigured with God's own glory. The\nadvance, then, whether consciously grasped or not, is in due\nproportion to the purity and fidelity of the soul, purity in its\nact of cleansing, fidelity in its subjection to the promptings of\nthe Holy Spirit.\n\n\n\nGIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT\n\n1. To live the spiritual life to its fullness we need the\ninstinctive governances of the Holy Ghost. All day long, and even\nall through the hours when consciousness is asleep, the Holy\nSpirit is speaking to us in many ways. He is offering us His\nheavenly counsel, enlightening our minds to an ever more complete\nunderstanding of the deep truths of faith, and generally imparting\nto us that deep knowledge without which we cannot make advance.\nReason and common sense have their own contribution to make in\nopening our minds and hearts to a proper interpretation of all\nthat is about us and within us; but reason and common sense have\nthemselves also to be supernaturalized, to be illumined by the\nlight of a far higher plane of truth. Hence the need of this\ndivine instinct is patent to anyone who considers the purpose and\ndestiny of the soul. But it is difficult at times to understand\nand to grasp surely the words of divine wisdom, since by sin's\ncoarseness the refinement of the soul is dulled and rendered but\nlittle responsive; or, rather, it is not so much a matter of being\nresponsive to a message as primarily of hearing and understanding\nit. It seems to be very obvious that God must be speaking to me\nalmost without ceasing; it is equally obvious that very little of\nthis is noticed.\n\n2. Here, then, am I in the world and needing the governance of\nGod's instinct. Here, too, is this whispered counsel and\nenlightenment of God, perpetually being made to me. Yet, though\nmade by God, and needed by me, this counsel and enlightenment, I\ncan be certain, must frequently be entirely lost to me. It is as\nthough I lived in a perfectly beautiful country, with stretching\nlandscape about, and beautiful glimpses of hills and woodland, and\nyet never saw or appreciated the view; as though heavenly music\nwere about me, to which I never paid the slightest attention; as\nthough my best loved friend stood by me and I never lifted my\neyes, and so did not know of his presence. Of course it is really\na great deal worse than that, for I do not need with an absolute\nnecessity the view, or the music, or the friend; whereas I do most\ncertainly need this divinely offered help, guidance,\nenlightenment. Hence it is clear that neither my need nor God's\ninstinct suffice. Something else is required by means of which I\nam able to make use of that instinct, to hear its message, to\ndiscover its meaning, to apply its advice to myself; else am I no\nbetter than a general who possesses the full plan of his allies,\nin all its details, but written in a cypher that he cannot read.\n\n3. To produce this reaction or perception is the work of the\nsevenfold gifts. They are habits infused into the soul, which\nstrengthen its natural powers, and make them responsive to every\nbreath of God and capable of heroic acts of virtue. By the gifts\nmy eyes are made able to see what had else been hidden, my ears\nquick to catch what had else not been heard; the gifts do not, so\nto say, supply eye or ear, but make more delicate, refined,\nsensitive, the eye and ear already there. Their business is to\nintensify rather than to create powers established in me by grace.\nLess excellent necessarily than the theological virtues which\nunite me to God, they are yet more excellent than the other\nvirtues, though, being rooted in charity and thereby linked up\namong themselves, they are also part of the dowry that charity\nbrings in her train. On this account it is clear that from the\nmoment of Baptism the sevenfold gifts are the possession of the\nsoul, and whosoever holds one holds all; yet by the sacrament of\nConfirmation it would appear certain that something further is\nadded, some more delicate perception, some livelier sensitiveness;\nor it may be, as other theologians point out, that by Confirmation\nthey are more steadily fixed in the soul, more fully established,\nmore firmly held. But in any case it is clear what they are to me,\nhabits whereby I am perfected to obey the Holy Spirit of God.\n\n\n\nBEATITUDES\n\n1. The possession of the sevenfold gifts results in the\nperformance of certain virtuous acts, for it is perfectly obvious\nthat if I am so blest by the gifts that I find my reason, will,\nemotions, made increasedly perceptive of divine currents\npreviously lost to me, I can hardly help acting in a new way. I\nnow discover the view about me, and the music, and, consequently,\nmy manner of life must in some ways be different from before. The\nVision has come; it cannot simply open my eyes to new things in\nlife without thereby altering that very life itself. Not only\nshall I find that what seemed to me before to be evil now appears\nto me to be a blessing; but on that very account what before I\ntried to avoid, or, having got, tried to be rid of, I shall now\naccept, perhaps even seek. Similarly, whereas then I was weak, now\nI am strong; and increase of strength means new activities, new\nenergy put into the old work and finding its way out into works\naltogether new. My emotions, finally, which perilled and dominated\nmy life, slip now into a subordinate position, and while thereby\nas actively employed as before, are held under discipline. It is\nclear, therefore, that the gifts will not leave me where I was\nbefore, but will influence my actions as well as alter my vision.\n\n2. I find, then, that these new habits will develop into new\nactivities. But this means also that I have a new idea as to the\nmeans of achieving the full happiness of life. Once upon a time I\nthought happiness meant comfort, now I see that it means something\nquite different. My view of happiness has changed. I am therefore\nobliged to change also my idea as to the means and conditions\nwhereby, and in which, happiness can be found. I had attempted to\nclimb out of my valley over the hills in the west; I now attempt\nto climb out over the hills to the east. The steps by which once I\nclambered are useless to me. I must try new ones in the opposite\nhills. Just that is what Our Lord meant by promulgating His eight\nBeatitudes. These are just the new blessedness, so to say, which\nresults from finding that happiness now means the knowledge and\nlove of God. Things that previously I fled from, I now seek;\nthings once my bugbear, are now the objects of my delight.\nPoverty, meekness, mourning, the hunger and thirst after justice,\ncleanness of heart, the making of peace, mercy, the suffering of\npersecution for justice's sake, are now found to be the steps to\nbe passed over, the conditions to be secured before happiness can\nbe finally secured.\n\n3. These things, then, are beatitudes to me. They are acts which I\nfinally achieve by means of the new enlightenment gained through\nthe gifts of God. Actively I am merciful and meek and clean of\nheart. I perform these actions, and they are the result of visions\nseen, and counsels heard, through the new sensitiveness to the\ndivine instinctive guidance that of old passed me by without\nfinding in my heart any response. To be forever pursuing now peace\nand sorrow, and, at whatever cost, justice, is an energizing state\nof life which is due entirely to the new perception of the value\nof these things, so that we are right in asserting that the\nbeatitudes are nothing else than certain actions, praised by Our\nLord and practiced by us as a result of the establishment in our\nsouls of seven definite habits. But not only are they actions,\nthey produce as an effect joy in the heart; for which reason it is\nthat we call them beatitudes. They show me what is truly blessed\nand thereby give me, even here on earth, a foretaste of the bliss\nof final happiness.\n\n\n\nTHE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT\n\n1. Besides the beatitudes there are other acts that follow from\nthe gifts when properly used by the soul. The beatitudes are means\nwhich, under the light infused by God, are valued at their true\nworth as leading finally to happiness in its more complete sense.\nBut when these are thus put into practice, for the soul\nunderstands the new meaning life gathers, they do not end the\nwonders of the action of grace. As a boy I met life and found it\nfull of interest and dawning with the glories of success. The\nworld in its aspect of nature had such manifest beauties that\nthese quickly entranced and thrilled the soul. The sun and grass\nand flowers and woods and waters, make no secret of their kinship\nwith their creator; Francis Thompson found them \"garrulous of\nGod,\" so garrulous in our youth that we see that life is full of\nvery good things. Then comes the reaction (to many even before\nfull manhood), when life is found to be full of illusion. Life is\nnow judged a melancholy business, apt to fail you just when the\nneed of it is most discovered, hard to be certain of; it is the\nage of romantic melancholy when most people put into verse their\nsorrow at the disappointment to be found in all things of beauty.\nEvery tree and flower and \"dear gazelle\" is no sooner loved than\nit is lost through death or misunderstanding.\n\n2. Then, finally, the balance is set right. The two phases pass.\nThey are both true only as half truths. There is no denying that\nlife is good and beautiful and thrilling. The boy's vision is\ncorrect. Yet it is equally true to say that there is sorrow and\nsuffering and death and disappointment in all human things. But a\nnew phase, blessedly a last phase, dawns upon the soul. Sorrow and\npain are real, but the old happiness of boyhood is made to fit in\nand triumph over them by the sudden realization that strength is\nthe lesson to be learned. Sorrow comes that discipline may be born\nin the soul, self-restraint, humility. Life is hard, but its very\nhardness is no evil, but our means of achieving good. That is the\nvery atmosphere of the beatitudes, the message they bring, the\nteaching they imparted from the Sermon on the Mount. Poverty,\ncleanness of heart, mercy, meekness, are all things difficult to\nacquire; but they give a real, true blessedness to the soul that\nwill see their value. Life is no longer a disappointment, but the\ntraining ground of all good.\n\n3. Finally, there follow other acts, too many to number, though\nthere are twelve usually given, which result from gifts and\nbeatitudes. These are called the fruits of the Holy Ghost, for\nthey represent in that metaphorical sense the ultimate result of\nthe gifts. They are the last and sweetest consequences of the\nsevenfold habits infused by the Spirit. Indeed, just as trees are\ngrown in an orchard because of their fruits, and, therefore, just\nas it can be said that the fruit is, from the gardener's point of\nview, the purpose for which the tree is cultivated (for of the\nfruitless fig Our Lord asked why it cumbered the ground), so these\nfruits of the Holy Ghost (charity, joy, peace, patience,\nbenignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty,\ncontinency, chastity--Gal. 5.22) can be looked upon as the very\npurpose for which the gifts were given, that I might, by seeing a\nnew blessedness in life's very troubles, begin to find joy and\npeace and patience and faith, where else I had found only sorrow.\nEndlessly could the list of these be extended, for St. Paul has\nchosen only a very few; but these that he names are what a man\ndelights in when he has received the gifts, and has understood and\nvalued the beatitudes. Sweetness is what they add to virtue, ease,\ncomfort. I not only hunger and thirst after justice, but enjoy the\nvery pain of the pursuit.\n\n\n\nKNOWLEDGE\n\n1. This gift of God illumines and perfects the intelligence. The\npurpose of the gifts, it has been already explained, is to make\nthe soul more alive to, and more appreciative of, the whispered\ninstinct of God; not to create new faculties, but to increase the\npower of those already existing. My mind, then, has to be\nsupernaturalized and refined to that pitch of perception which\nwill enable it to grasp and to understand God's message. Now the\nmind itself works upon a great variety of subjects. It has whole\nworlds to conquer, planes of thought which are very clearly\ndistinguishable; yet in its every activity it needs this divine\nrefinement, so that in all four gifts are allotted to perform this\ncomplete enlightenment of the mind. Knowledge overcomes ignorance\nand is concerned with the facts, visible and sense-perceived, in\ncreation; for by the council of the Vatican it is laid down as\npart of the deposit of faith that human reason can prove the\nexistence of God altogether apart from the supernatural motives\nwhich grace supplies. The visible world is held to contain ample\nproofs which in themselves are adequate logically to convince\nhuman understanding of the existence of God. Individual reason may\nfail to satisfy itself. People may declare truthfully that they\nare not convinced; the Church insists only that it can be done.\n\n2. Knowledge, however, in this sense is a gift of God whereby we\ndiscover Him in His own creation and in the works of man. It is\nhere no mere task set to reason for detecting the Creator in His\nhandiwork, but an actual vision by which the soul is\nsupernaturalized and sees Him patently everywhere. The beauteous\nface of nature is merely seen as a veil, hiding a beauty more\nsublime. Things of dread as well as things of loveliness come into\nthe scheme, things trivial and things tremendous, things majestic\nand things homely, all that God has made. Even man's work, who is\nhimself only one of the greater masterpieces of the Great\nArtificer, is affected by this new light with which the world is\nflooded. The delicate pieces of machinery constructed by human\ningenuity, that gain in wonder and in power, are themselves still\nGod's work at one remove; they are the fruits of a mind that He\nhas constructed, and they do not exhaust the capacity of that\nmind. They reveal hidden potentialities as well as express actual\nachievements. Weapons of destruction, with all the horror they\nrightly inspire, are yet witnesses again to that\nparent-intelligence whence was begotten man himself. All this, of\ncourse, as soon as considered, is admitted by every believer in\nGod, but the gift of knowledge makes it realized and seen\nsteadfastly.\n\n3. Life, then, of itself is full of illusion. That is the cry,\ndesolating and pitiful, which arises from the higher followers of\nevery religious faith. Man is bound to the wheel, his mind is\ncompassed with infirmity, he is born into ignorance. Desire\ntumultuously hustles all his days. He needs, therefore, some light\nwhereby he may find the true inner meaning of all with which he\ncomes in contact. Here, then, in the gift of Knowledge is such a\ntrue vision, understanding, vouchsafed him of the visible things\nof creation. He will realize as much, perhaps, even more than\nbefore the attraction of beauty, only it will be no snare, but a\nbeckoning light. He will find in it now no illusion, but the\nperfect image of a greater beauty. The charm of the world about\nhim will become greater, the wonders of nature, the intricate\npattern of mechanical appliances, the fury of storms, the tumult\nof the wind, the terrific force of pestilence, the psychological\nfacts of man's mind, the construction of his frame, the grouping\nof his social instincts, all now will be alive with God, shot\nthrough with the divine splendor, elevated to His order of life,\neloquent of His name--a deepening knowledge of God achieved through\na knowledge of His creatures.\n\n\n\nUNDERSTANDING\n\n1. There is another gift required to perfect the intelligence when\nit is engaged upon the principles of truth. The mind was created\nby God to exercise itself upon truth, primarily, the Supreme\nTruth; secondarily, all truths which by their essence must\nthemselves be radiations from the Supreme Truth. These truths are\nof endless variety, both in their relationship to each other and\nin the particular line in which they operate. They are the truths\nof arts and science, the intricate yet unchanging laws that govern\nthe growth and development of matter, the complicated processes\nwhereby organic beings build up their tissues and multiply\nthemselves by means of the cell principle. There are again the\ncurious laws, as they are called, that effect gravitation, that\nhave to be counted upon in the science of architecture, and in all\nthe various kindred crafts of man. There are principles, too, that\nunderlie the whole series of the arts, principles of truth and\nlife and beauty. Upon these the mind must feed, and in them all\nthe mind must be able to trace the character and being of God. But\nthere are also far higher truths which are taught only by\nrevelation, safeguarded by authority, grouped under the title of\nfaith. These truths are higher than the others, since they\ndirectly concern a higher being, i. e., God. All truths are truths\nabout God, but the truths of faith concern themselves immediately\nwith the being, life, and actions of God. Understanding,\ntherefore, is the gift perfecting the mind for these.\n\n2. It might seem, perhaps, that the light of faith is itself\nsufficient, and that no further gift were needed, since it is the\nvery purpose of faith to make us accept this revelation of God,\nenlightening and strengthening the intelligence till under the\ndominion of the will it says: I believe. It is true that faith\nsuffices for this, but we require something more than faith, or at\nleast if we do not absolutely require more, we shall progress more\nrapidly and further when we are not only able to believe but to\nunderstand. In every article of faith there is always something\nwhich is mysterious or hidden, some obscurity due not to the\nentanglement of facts, but to the weakness of the human mind. Of\ncourse this must to some extent always exist, for man can never\nhope to comprehend God till by the beatific vision he sees Him\nface to face; but a good deal of the obscurity can be lifted by\nthe mere operation of the mind under the light of God, not arising\npurely from study, but from the depth of love enkindled by God. It\nis a commonplace in the lives of the saints that without\ninstruction they do yet manage to learn the deep mysteries of God;\nthe same is true of many simple souls whom we meet from time to\ntime in the world. They not only believe, but penetrate the truths\nof faith.\n\n3. Here, then, I have ready to hand a most useful gift of God. I\ndesire not only to believe, but to absorb and to penetrate the\nmysteries of God. I want to taste to the full the meaning of life\nas a whole, to develop every power that lies in me, to make the\ntruths of revelation blossom out ever more fully, till their\nhidden and mystical significance becomes gradually more clear. The\npages of Holy Scripture are full of instruction, but they will not\nyield up their secrets save to a soul attuned by God. That can be\neffected by the gift of understanding. I shall find by its means\nthat these treasures are inexhaustible, that from mere abstract\nteaching the sayings of the Master and His Apostles become full of\npractical meaning, that all life about me takes on a new and\nricher significance. History and social life open their doors to\nwhoever has this blessed gift, and it becomes clearly seen that\ntheir maker and builder is God. The dullness of souls who will not\nbelieve, or only believe and then stop short, becomes painful to\nnote and bothersome to put up with, but this is the price one has\nto pay for so fine a vision. By this, then, we peer into the\ndepths of faith, and find them gradually and steadily growing more\nand more clear and penetrable.\n\n\n\nWISDOM\n\n1. All writers on the gifts of the Holy Ghost place wisdom as the\nhighest gift of all. It takes this high position partly because\nits work is done in the intelligence, which is man's highest\npower, and partly because it is that highest power occupied to its\nhighest capacity. Like knowledge and understanding, its business\nis to make us see God everywhere, in the material and spiritual\ncreation of God, in the concrete facts of existence, and in the\nrevealed truths of faith. It produces in a soul a sense of\ncomplete certainty and hope. Hence it is sometimes described as\nneighbor to hope; indeed, its finest side is often just that\ndetermined and resolute conviction with which the soul rises\nsuperior to every possible disaster, and is prepared to brave\nevery contingency in its sureness of God's final power and the\nefficacy of His will. It comes closer, therefore, to God Himself\nthan do either understanding or knowledge. These do, indeed,\nenable the soul to be continuously conscious of the divine\npresence, of God immanent as well as transcendent, God in the\nheart of the world as well as wholly above the world, and they\naffect this consciousness by enabling the soul to see Him\neverywhere. They lift the veil. They show His footprints. They\ntrace everywhere the marks of His power, wisdom, love. But it is\nnoticeable that they lead to God from the world. I see a flower,\nand by the gift of knowledge I am immediately aware of the author\nof its loveliness; by understanding I perceive with clearness the\nwonder of God's working in the world. By them I lift my eyes from\nearth to Heaven, by wisdom I look from Heaven to see the earth.\n\n2. Wisdom, therefore, implies an understanding of the world\nthrough God, whereas knowledge and understanding suppose a\nperception of God through the world. Wisdom takes its stand upon\ncauses, the other two on effects. They work from creatures to\nCreator; wisdom looks upon all the world through the eyes of God.\nConsequently the effect of wisdom is that the soul sees life as a\nwhole. Matter and truth are to it no longer separate planes of\nthought, but one. There is at once no distinction between them in\nthe eyes of God, for both are manifestations of Himself and\ncreatures of His making. Hence the soul that is dowered with\nwisdom climbs up to God's own height, and looking down upon the\nworld sees it \"very good,\" noticing how part fits in with part,\nand how truths of faith, and truths of science and sunset, and\nflower and Hell, are linked one with another to form the pattern\nof God's design. Each has its place in the divine economy of God's\nplan, each is equally of God, equally sharing in His purposes,\nthough some more than others able to express God better. The\neffect, then, is largely that the whole of life is co-ordinated,\nand equality, fraternity, liberty, become not the motto of a\nrevolution, but of the ordered government of God.\n\n3. The opposite to this gift is folly, for a man who fails in\nwisdom loses all true judgment of the values of human life. He is\nperpetually exchanging the more for the less valuable, bestowing\nhuge gifts in just barter, as he imagines, for what is merely\nshowy and trivial. Not by causes, but by effect does he consider\nlife and its activities. The wise man, then, estimates everything\nby its highest cause. He compares and discovers, gleans the reason\nof God's providence, its purpose, its fitness. First principles\nare his guide, not the ready and practical proverbs that display\nthe wit and worldly wisdom of the lesser man. Eternity becomes of\nlarger moment than time, since time is merely for eternity. God's\nlaw is more convincing than man's, for man's enactments are not\nlaws at all when they come in conflict with divine commands. Faith\nis so deeply in him that he judges between propositions, and\ndiscovers truth against heresy. He has climbed to the heights of\nGod and sees all the world at his feet, and knows it as God knows\nit, the world and its Lord and the glory of it.\n\n\n\nCOUNSEL\n\n1. The fourth gift that perfects the intelligence acts rather as a\nmoderating than as a stimulating influence. The soul is often\nimpetuous in its decisions, moved by human feelings and passions,\nurged by desire, love, hatred, prejudice. Quickly stirred to\naction, it dashes into its course without any real attention to,\nor understanding of, its better wisdom. Frequently in life my\nlament has to be that I acted on the impulse of the moment. There\nis so much that I am sorry for, not merely because now I see what\nhas actually resulted, but because even then I had quite\nsufficient reason to let me be certain what would result. I was\nblind, not because my eyes could not have seen, but because I gave\nthem no leave to see. I would not carefully gaze at the\ndifficulties, not puzzle out in patience what would most likely be\nthe result. Even my highest powers are often my most perilous\nguides, since, moved by generosity, I engaged myself to do what I\nhave no right to perform, and find that I have in the end been\ngenerous not only of what is my own, but sometimes of what belongs\nto another, not as though I deliberately gave away what belonged\nto another, but just because I had no deliberation at all. I need,\nthen, the Holy Spirit of God to endow me with the gift of counsel\nwhich corresponds to prudence.\n\n2. Now prudence, which counsel helps and protects, is eminently a\npractical gift of God, not so high as wisdom, not so wonderful in\nthe beauty of its vision as knowledge or understanding, yet for\nall a most important and homely need. The other intellectual gifts\nof the Spirit are more abstract. They give us just the whisper of\nGod that enables us to see the large ways of God in the world.\nThey give, in consequence, the great principles that are to govern\nus in life. Hence their importance is very great. We do so\nseriously need to know by what principles we are to measure life's\nactivities, on what basis to build up the fabric of our souls, to\nbe sure that God's laws are very clearly and definitely made\nmanifest to us. But, after all, that is only one-half of the\ndifficulty, for even after I know the principles of action, I have\nstill the trouble, in some ways more full of possibilities of\nmistake, of applying them to concrete experience. I know that\nsacrifice is the law of life, I know that meekness overindulged\nmay be cowardice, I know that I may sin by not having anger; that\nis all evident, a series of platitudes. But here, and now, have I\ncome to the limit of meekness? Must I manifest my angry protests?\nAm I obliged to attend to my own needs and renounce the idea of\nsacrifice? There daily are questions that puzzle, torture, bruise\nme with scruples.\n\n3. Just here, then, I have intense need for this practical gift of\nGod in order with nicety and precision to apply principles to\nconcrete cases; often I am precipitate or perhaps dilatory. I am\nin a hurry or cannot make up my mind--shall I answer those who\nattack me, or shall I be silent? Our Lord was silent and made\nanswer by turns. Counsel, then, is my need from God, the instinct\nwhereby a practical judgment is quickly and safely made. All the\nmore have I a tremendous need for this if my life is full of\nactivity, if pressure of work, or social life, or the demands of\ngood and useful projects, or the general tendency of my family\nsurroundings, make my day crowded and absorbed, for the very\ncombined and concentrated essence of life will need some\nexceedingly moderate influence to produce any sense of balance or\nproportion in my judgment. The people about me I notice to become\nmore and more irritable, mere creatures of impulse. I feel some\nsuch malign influence invading the peaceful sanctuary of my soul,\ndisturbing its even outlook on things, driving out my serene calm.\nI must anchor on to this gift of God, become prudent, detached,\nfilling the mind with the counsel of the Holy Spirit.\n\n\n\nFORTITUDE\n\n1. After the intelligence comes the will which also, because of\nthe very large part it plays in all human action, needs to be\nperfected by a gift of the Spirit. It is necessary to repeat that\nthe Holy Spirit does not by His gifts bestow on the soul new\npowers and new faculties, but develops, refines, perfects\nfaculties already there. It is not the creation of new eyes to see\nnew visions, but the strengthening of the eyes of the soul so as\nto see more clearly and with a longer sight. The will, then, has\nalso to be strengthened, for it is the will that lies at the very\nheart of all heroism. Merely to have a glimpse of greatness is but\npart of a hero's need. No doubt it is a larger part, for very many\nof us never by instinct at all touch on the borders of greatness,\nwe do not see or understand how in our little lives we can be\ngreat, we have not the imagination lit up by God, no vision; yet\n\"when the vision fails, the people shall perish.\" But even when\nthat sudden showing does by God's mercy come to us, we still fall\nfar short of it. It is too high, too ideal, too far removed from\nweak human nature to seem possible to us. That is to say, our will\nhas failed us. We are faced by some huge obstacle, or even by a\npersistent refusal to budge on behalf of some one (ourselves or\nanother) to go forward and to do; we struggle, fail, lose heart,\nsurrender, cease our efforts. What do we want? Fortitude, that\n\"persistive constancy\" that to Shakespeare was the greatest\nquality of human wills.\n\n2. How is this achieved? By appreciating the nearness of God to\nus. The gifts make us responsive to God with an ease and\ninstantaneousness that operates smoothly and without friction.\nThat is God's doing, not ours. He gives us this wonderful power of\nbeing able to register at once every passing inspiration. The\ngifts that refine the intelligence allow it to perceive sights\nwhich else were hidden. The gift that refines the will must do\nthis by some kindred action. Now the difficulties that beset the\nwill must necessarily be difficulties for whose overcoming\nstrength is needed. Therefore the will must be refined by being\nmade strong. How can it be made strong by the Holy Spirit? What\nexactly happens to its mechanism to secure for it the power of\nendurance? The easiest way of understanding how this effect is\nbrought about is to suppose that the soul by its refinement, by\nthat delicacy whereby it responds instantly to a divine\nimpression, is quickly aware of God's nearness to it. It perceives\nhow close it is to the Spirit of God, and the sense of this\nnearness makes it better able to hold on to its duty. In the old\nstyle of warfare we often read of wives and mothers coming to the\nfield of battle that their presence might awake their men to the\ntopmost pitch of courage. Even in the modern methods of fighting,\nthe moral effect of the presence of the emperor or king is\nconsidered to have an effect upon the troops. Of course here it is\nmore homely, since the familiar presence of the Holy Spirit\nstrengthens and inspires by love, trust, sympathy.\n\n3. For this reason the name Comforter was given to the Holy\nSpirit, in its original sense of strengthening, becoming the fort\nof the soul; and the result is that the recipient is able to hold\non or, in our modern slang, to \"carry on.\" By nature so many of us\nare prone to seek our own comforts at the expense of what we know\nto be the higher side of us. Human respect makes us again\ncowardly, or the sheer monotony of perseverance dulls and wearies\nthe soul. We get so depressed with the strain of making efforts\nthat we are very much inclined to let the spiritual side of life\ngo under, or at least be rendered as little heroic as possible,\nfor it is real heroism even just to \"go on.\" The \"silent pressure\"\nof temptations, when their passion and fury have died down, is a\nconstant worry, an unconscious weight on the mind, like the\nthought of war that lies heavily at the back of the consciousness\nof those whose external lives seem empty of war-reminders. We want\nto be courageous and fearless, to _undergo_. Then we must hold\nfast to God's nearness to us, and feel the virtue going out from\nHim to us, though He does but touch the hem of our garments by His\nindwelling.\n\n\n\nPIETY\n\n1. Besides our intelligence and will we have other faculties that\ngo by a diversity of names; sometimes they are called the\nemotions, sometimes the passions, sometimes they are alluded to as\nthe sentimental side of our nature; but by whatever name we may\nhappen to call them, it is clear that they represent just those\nmovements of our being which are not really rational in\nthemselves, though they can be controlled by the reason. It is\nsimplest to divide them into two classes and to realize that they\nlie just on the borderline between spirit and matter, partly of\nsoul, partly of body. These two classes are arranged according as\nthe emotion attracts or repels man. The repelled emotions are\nfear, anger, hatred, etc.; the attracted are love, desire, joy,\netc. This gift of piety enables even the emotions to be made\nresponsive to God. It is always the notion of some perfect\ninstrument to be made harmonious that perhaps most clearly shows\nus the work of the Holy Spirit in the gifts of God, some perfect\ninstrument, which needs to be so nicely at tuned that its every\nstring shall give out a distinct note, and shall require the least\nmovement from the fingers of God's right hand to make its\nimmediate response. Here, then, we have first to record the fact\nthat the purpose of this gift is to make the emotions or passions\nso refined, so perfectly strung, that at once the slightest\npressure of the Divine instinct moves them to turn their love,\ndesire, joy, towards God, finding in Him the satisfaction of their\ninmost heart.\n\n2. Piety, in its Latin significance (and here in theology, of\ncourse, we get almost all our terms through the Latin tongue),\nmeans the filial spirit of reverence towards parents. Virgil gives\nto the hero of his Roman epic the repeated title of _pius_,\nbecause he wishes always to emphasize AEneas' devotion to his aged\nfather. Hence it is clear that what is primarily intended here is\nthat we should be quickly conscious of the Fatherhood of God. The\nmediaeval mystics, especially our homely English ones like Richard\nRolle of Hampole, and Mother Julianna of Norwich, curiously enough\nwere fond of talking about the Motherhood of God in order to bring\nout the protective and devoted side of God's care for us; of\ncourse God surpasses both a mother's and father's love in His\nineffable love for us. But then it is just that sweetness of soul\nin its attitude towards God, that this gift produces in me a\nreadiness to perceive His love in every turn of fortune, and to\ndiscover His gracious pity in His treatment of my life. It\nrequires a divine indwelling of the Spirit of God to effect this\nin my soul, for though I may be by nature easily moved to\naffection, prompt to see and profit by every opening for\nfriendship, yet I must, no less, have a difficulty in turning this\ninto my religious life without God's movement in my soul.\n\n3. Perhaps the most unmistakable result of this is in the general\ndifference between Catholic and non-Catholic nations, in their\nideas of religion. Even if one takes a non-Catholic nation at its\nbest and a Catholic nation at its worst, the gulf between them is\nenormous, for at its lowest the religion of the Catholic nation\nwill be attractive at least with its joy, and the non-Catholic\nrepellent with its gloom. There is a certain hardness about all\nother denominations of Christianity, a certain restrained attitude\nof awe towards God, which though admirable in itself, is perfectly\nhateful when it is made the dominant note in religion. Better\njoyous superstition than gloomy correctness of worship; better,\nfar better, to find happy children who have little respect, and\nmuch comradeship, towards their parents, than neat and quiet\nchildren who are in silent awe of their parents. It is, then, to\ndevelop this side of religion that the gift of piety is given. The\nresult then is a sweetness, a gracefulness, a natural lovingness\ntowards God and all holy persons and things, as opposed to a\ngloomy, respectable, awkward, self-conscious hardness towards our\nFather in Heaven. Clever, trained people have most to be on their\nguard, for the intellectual activities of the soul are apt to\ncrowd out the gentler, simpler side of character.\n\n\n\nFEAR\n\n1. Catholics as a whole, then, we claim to be not in awe of God,\nbut holding themselves to Him rather by love than fear; yet for\nall that there must come into our religion a notion also of fear,\nelse God will be made of little account, dwarfed by His\nhero-followers, the saints. It is possible that familiarity with God\nmay breed something which seems very like contempt. The majesty of\nGod has got to be considered just as much as His love, for either\nwithout the other would really give a false idea of Him. Just as\nthere are people who would give up all belief in Hell, because\nthey prefer to concentrate upon His mercy, and, as a result, have\nno real love of God as He is in Himself, so there are people also\nwho do not sufficiently remember the respect due to His awfulness,\npeople who think of Him as a Redeemer, which indeed He is, but not\nas a Judge, which is equally His prerogative. Hence this side of\nour character is also to be made perfect by the indwelling of the\nSpirit of God, our fear, anger, hate, have got to be sanctified by\nfinding a true object for their due exercise. No single talent\nmust be wrapped away in uselessness; I must fear God, be angry\nwith, and hate sin. Fear, then, as well as piety is a gift of the\nSpirit.\n\n2. The chief way in which the absence of this gift of fear\nmanifests itself is in the careless and slipshod way we perform\nour duties. We are sure to believe in God's justice and majesty;\nbut we are not so sure to act up to our belief. Accuracy in\ndevotion, in prayer, in life, is the result of a filial fear of\nGod, and if I have to confess a very chaotic and uncertain\nprocedure in my spiritual duties, then I can tell quite easily\nwhich gift I most need to make use of. What are my times for\nprayer like? Are they as regularly kept to as my circumstances\npermit? How about my subject for meditation, how about my\nfollowing of the Mass, my watchfulness in prayer, my days for\nconfession and communion? Again, my duties at home, in my\nprofession, in the work I have undertaken? Are they on the whole\npunctually performed, accurately, with regard to details? That is\nwhere my fear for God should come in, for fear here is part of\nlove and love is enormously devoted to little things, indeed finds\nthat where it is concerned there are no little things, but time\nand place and manner and thoroughness have all got faithfully to\nbe noted and carried out. Here, then, is where I shall find I need\na reverential fear of God.\n\n3. Yes, of course, pride and laziness will protest all the while,\nby urging that all this is a great deal of fuss about nothing,\nthat God is our Father, that He perfectly understands, that we\nshould not worry ourselves too much over trifles. Now pride and\nlaziness often speak true things, or rather half-truths. It is\ntrue that God is my Father and understands; but it is equally true\nthat I am His child and that love demands my thoroughness. Horror\nof sin, devotion to the sacrament of confession, the Scripture\nsaying about a severe judgment for every idle word, all these\nthings have got to be taken into account as well as the first set\nof principles. Piety needs fear for its perfect performance. The\nboy at first may have to be scolded into obedience to his mother.\nHe does not at first realize, and is punished; but watch him when\nhe is a grown man, no longer in subjection or under obedience; see\nhow charmingly he cares for her by anticipating her wishes, how\nmuch he is at her beck and call, proudly foreseeing for her,\nprotecting, caring. That is love, no doubt, but a love of\nreverence. They are comrades in a sense, but she is always his\nmother to him, some one to be idolized, reverenced, yes, and,\nreally, feared, in the fullest sense of love.\n\n\nGRACE\n\n1. The indwelling, then, of the Holy Spirit is a true and\nmagnificent phrase. It means that we become living Temples of God.\nElsewhere indeed He is in tree, flower, sky, earth, water; up in\nthe Heavens, down to the depths of the lower places, in the cleft\nwood and lifted stone, in the heart of all creation by the very\nfact of its creation. Yet the higher a thing is in the scale of\nbeing the more nearly is it after God's image and likeness, so\nthat man by his sheer intelligence is more representative of God,\nas the highest masterpiece is more representative of the author of\nit. Yet over and above this intelligent life of man is another\nlife in him, which secures God's presence within him in some\nnobler fashion, for it is noticeable that Scripture repeatedly\nspeaks of God's dwelling in His saints, and not dwelling in\nsinners. Now He is even in sinners by the title of their Creator,\nso that _dwelling_ must be a deliberate phrase chosen by the\nInspired author of Scripture to represent some presence above the\nmere general presence of God everywhere. Consequently we are\ndriven to the conclusion that the saints, in virtue of their\nsainthood, become dwelling places of God, temples, special places\nset apart, where in a more perfect way, with richer expression and\nmore true representation, God is. Sanctity, therefore, constitutes\nsomething wholly supernatural, attracting God's indwelling, or\nrather resulting from this indwelling of God.\n\n2. Now sanctity itself cannot mean that one man is able to make\nhimself so alluring to God that he draws God to himself, for in\nthat case God's action of indwelling would be motived by a\ncreature, and God would have found some finite reason for His act.\nThis cannot be, since the only sufficient motive for God can be\nGod Himself. \"He hath done all things on account of Himself,\" say\nthe Scriptures. We can be sure, therefore, that the indwelling of\nthe spirit is the cause and not the effect of the goodness that is\nin man, for the Saints are not born, but made by God. Hence we\nunderstand what is meant by saying that the justice of the Saints,\ntheir justification, is effected by grace, i. e., by God's free\ngift. It is not from them, but from Him: \"Not to us, O Lord, not\nto us, but to Thy name give Glory.\" Grace, therefore, is the name\ngiven to that divine habit whereby the soul is made one with Him.\nIt is clear, then, also, why in the catechism grace is called the\nsupernatural life of the soul, and why mortal sin is called the\ndeath of the soul, since it kills the soul by depriving it of\nsanctifying grace.\n\n3. This leads us to the last notion of grace, that it is in the\nsupernatural order what the soul is in the natural order. My soul\nis everywhere in my body and gives evidence of its presence by the\nlife there manifest; cut off a portion of the body, amputate a\nlimb. It dies. The soul is no longer in it. So does grace work. It\nis right in the very essence of the soul, at the heart of it, and\nworks through into all the faculties and powers by means of the\nvirtues. It is the life of the whole assemblage of these habits of\ngoodness. As soon as it is withdrawn, then at once charity goes,\nfor we are out of friendship with God, and charity is nothing\nother than the love of God. Hope still and faith in some form\nremain, but without any inner life or energy to quicken them. All\nelse is a crumbled ruin, without shape or life, a sight to fill\nthose that can see it with horror and disgust. With grace the soul\nis once more thronged with vital activities, for grace is life.\nGrace it is that gives the same charm to the soul as life gives to\nthe body; it imparts a freshness, an alertness, an elasticity, a\nspontaneous movement, a fragrance, a youth. By grace we are\nchildren in God's eyes, with the delicate coloring and sweetness\nof a child; without it we are old, worn, dead, not only useless to\nourselves, but a pollution to others. Need one wonder if all life\nis different to the soul in sin? Religion, God, Heaven, Mass,\nprayers, have lost all attraction and are full of drudgery.\nOutwardly we feel the same; but our attraction to these higher\ngifts has gone, a prodigal as yet content with the husks of life's\nfruitage, relishing only the food of swine, without grace,\nspiritually dead.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"The Abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost in the Soul","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":26071}