Thursday Before Pentecost

Dispositions For Pentecost

Preparation. - The feast of Pentecost being of great importance for our soul, we should be urged to celebrate it with fervor by considering, first, the graces the Holy Ghost wishes to grant us, and secondly, the means we should use to obtain them, and then we shall resolve often to address the divine Paraclete in the words of the Chruch: "Come, thou Father of the poor; come, Thou giver of gifts; come, Thou Light of hearts."

I. The Graces The Holy Ghost Will Bring To Us.

"When the Paraclete cometh," said our Saviour to His apostles, "whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me" (John 15. 26). Thus did Jesus promise them the Holy Ghost to induce them to prepare for His coming. He calls Him the Spirit of truth proceeding from the Father, who will, consequently, make Him known, and will give testimony of the Son , that is, He will enable us to understand His grandeur and the excellence of His teaching. In this knowledge, says our Lord, eternal life consists: "This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17. 3).

Not content in teaching in general what is necessary for salvation, the Spirit of truth will suggest to each one of us what specially concerns him. Hence He will enlighten us as to our nothingness, point out to us our evil inclination, and all that needs to be corrected and reformed in us. He will enlarge the horizon of our soul, and enable us to see more clearly the infinite malice, so to speak, of sin, and the boundless perfections of Him whom we ought to love with our whole heart. He will help us to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of the Crib, the Cross and the Tabernacle, to appreciate better the benefits of faith, grace and the sacraments, and to testify our gratitude to the Saviour for them.  He will strengthen our hope in the divine promises made to prayer, to our good will, to our repentance and to our good works to secure our salvation.

In fine, He will disclose to us new ways to be explored, fresh progress to be made in the difficult practice of humility, self-denial and sacrifice; of recollection, watchfulness, and mental prayer; in the perfection of meekness, devotedness, zeal, and of all that charity inspires to souls eager for their sanctification. To facilitate our fidelity to His guidance, the Holy Ghost will impart to us His sweet unction, which is calculated to render our will more tractable and docile, and also the victorious fortitude shown by the apostles and the early Christians in defying not only human respect, but even torments and death for the glory of Jesus!

O my God, Spirit of holiness, show me my deep misery and enable me to desire Thy presence within me with the same ardor as the disciples assembled in the Supper-room. And thou, O Mary , beseech the divine Paraclete to perfect my understanding and my will; my understanding with the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel, and my will with the gifts of piety, fortitude and fear of God.

II. Means Of Preparing Ourselves For The Coming Of The Holy Ghost.

"It is expedient for you that I go," said our Lord to His disciples, "for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you" (John 16. 7). "By these words," says St. Bernard, "Jesus teaches us not to mingle vanity with truth, fleeting goods with those that are eternal, the material with the spiritual; the mean with the sublime, so as to wish to enjoy both the earthly and the heavenly." In other words, our Saviour recommends to us detachment as a necessary disposition to the reception of the Holy Ghost. What, in fact, did He ask of His disciples, unless that they should not love Him with a natural love? Thus He taught us to disengage ourselves from everything, even from the sensible relish of piety, so that we may possess the Holy Ghost Himself, His gifts, His graces and His love in preference to His consolations.

Moreover, let us, like the apostles, enter into a deep solitude and a serious recollection. "Stay you in the city," said Jesus to them, "till you be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24.49). "Then they returned to Jerusalem, ... went up into the upper room, ... persevering with one mind in prayer, ... with Mary, the Mother of Jesus" (Acts 1. 12-14). Let us follow their example by employing the days preceding Pentecost in the practice of watchfulness and the interior life. Let us often repeat with the Church:

Come, Holy Ghost, Father of the poor, come, Giver of gifts and light of hearts. O best of consolers, sweet Guest of the soul, sweet refreshment against the heat of our passions. Be our rest in labor, our peace in agitation, our consolation in tears, Most Blessed Light, fill the inmost hearts of Thy faithful servants, for without Thee, without Thy grace man is nought and wickedness.

Wash what is defiled in us, irrigate what is parched, heal what is wounded. Bend what is stiff and haughty , warm up what is frigid, and straighten what is crooked. Impart to all the faithful trusting in Thee, the sacred sevenfold gift, the merit of virtue, the outcome of salvation and endless bliss. O Mary, Spouse of the God of love, help me to prepare well for the great feast of Pentecost.