Pentecost Monday

Sanctuaries Of The Holy Ghost

Preparation. - "Know you not," says St. Paul, "that you are temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3. 16). We shall consider tomorrow, first, our great happiness in being the abode of the Holy Ghost, and secondly, the duties this privilege entails. The fruit of our meditation will be often to recall the presence of Him who finds in us His favorite dwelling, solely in order to benefit us and hear our prayers.

I. We Are The Temples Of The Holy Ghost.

What feeling of joy should fill our hearts when we reflect that within us lives and dwells the Spirit of sanctification, who renewed the face of the earth! That exalted privilege so frequently mentioned by Christ to His disciples as if it were the object of His coming upon earth, the complement of His preaching, the fruit of His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.

"I will ask the Father," He says, "and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth ... will bring all things to your minds, whatsoever I shall have said to you" (John 14. 16, 17, 26). "If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you" (John 16. 7). The ancient prophets foretold the coming of Christ; and here Christ becomes the prophet of the Holy Ghost, foretelling His dwelling in our souls.

With what gratitude and love should we not receive Him as our adorable Guest and pay Him our homages. He comes personally to build for Himself a mysterious sanctuary within us by means of the theological and moral virtues, which form, as it were, the shell of the edifice, and His seven gifts, which are its columns, adornments and completion. The acts of virtue the divine Paraclete enables us to perform, embellish our interior temple more and more, rendering it pleasing to the three divine Persons abiding together therein: "We will make our abode with him (John 14. 23). What is sweeter to think and more enrapturing to believe and meditate than the truth of one God in three Persons abiding in hearts possessed of such sanctifying grace? What is better calculated to induce us to flee sin and sanctify ourselves?

O my God, I will say to Thee with David: "Holiness becometh Thy house" (Ps. 92. 5). It is befitting that my soul, in which Thou abidest, should be free from every fault, from every human attachment, from every imperfection. Deign to adorn it with humility, meekness and resignation to Thy will. Scent it with chastity, innocence and docility, and close its entrance to every creature by means of recollection and mortification of the senses. But that Thou mayst forever secure the possession of this dwelling, support it with the columns of Thy seven gifts, which render immovable in me the theological and cardinal virtues, that is, faith, hope and charity, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. "Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created."

II. The Duties Flowing From The Dwelling Of The Holy Ghost In Us.

First, a profound respect for and a continual confidence in the Spirit of sanctification, who not only comes Himself to dwell in us, but also brings along with Him the Father and the Son, from whom He is inseparable. Should we not then be constantly overwhelmed with the conviction of our baseness and nothingness, and with the thought of being under the eyes of the Blessed Trinity, which sees all our thoughts, intentions and desires, and before which the powers of heaven tremble, as the Church expresses it? But, at the same time, what should not our confidence be? the Holy Ghost abides in us to enlighten, strengthen and console us, and to hear our prayers. We would greatly displease Him, if we did not hope everything from His mercy, just as a child has every confidence in his most loving father.

Secondly, as the Lord's temple is principally destined for prayer and sacrifice, we should also in our interior sanctuary make acts of gratitude, love and submission to the Father and the Son, and especially to the Holy Ghost, to whom belongs the work of our sanctification. Let us, then, say to Him with David: "I will sing praise to Thee in the sight of the angels; I will worship, ... and will give glory to Thy holy name" (Ps. 137. 1, 2); "Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight" (Ps. 140. 2).

To prayer let us add self-denial, or the sacrifice, first, of every feeling of pride, vanity, self-love, by means of humility; secondly, of every motion of anger, bitterness, impatience, resentment, by means of self-denial; and thirdly, of all sensuality, effeminacy, of all attachment to creatures and self-satisfaction, by the practice of mortification, and an entire fidelity to grace. These acts frequently repeated will be as the sweet-scented perpetual sacrifice, which should honor in us the Deity, like the perpetual sacrifice in the temple of Jerusalem.

O my God, fill me with the spirit of prayer, which will obtain for me a profound respect for Thy infinite Majesty ever present in my soul. Grant me a childlike fear of displeasing Thee and an unwavering confidence in Thy divine mercy. I am resolved to conquer myself, to overcome human respect and to profit by the occasions of suffering, in order to make progress in Thy love. Through the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercession, enable me to live closely united to Thee in my inmost being, wherein Thou hast established Thy abode. "And we will abide with him."