Pentecost Tuesday

Petitions To The Holy Ghost

Preparation. - "How much more will your Father from heaven," says our Saviour, "give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 11. 13). this good spirit consists, first in being humble and dependent on the Holy Ghost, and secondly, in living pure and detached. Let us with earnestness and perseverance ask for this good spirit, with the conviction that it will be given to us, according to our divine Master's promise.

I. The Humble Man Possesses A Good Spirit.

Left to himself, man remains in the state of a corrupt nature into which he fell through original sin, and is powerless to extricate himself therefrom. As much as it is impossible to rise bodily to heaven without outward help, so also our soul cannot of herself perform a supernatural act or rise above her nature without the assistance of divine grace. It behooves us, then , to acknowledge that, of ourselves, we can do nothing for our salvation, and cannot even have a good thought or a good desire (2 Cor. 3. 5). He who is intimately convinced of this and acts accordingly, possesses a good spirit, a spirit of humility prompting us to abase ourselves profoundly before the divine Majesty, esteeming ourselves as the very last in virtue and merit.

The first and principal effect of this humility is a total dependence on God. Faith teaches that I can do nothing in the supernatural order; and that I must rise to this order, that I may be saved; it behooves men then to have recourse to God, the sole author of grace; to make progress on the road to heaven I must depend on His light and His concurrence. As a tender infant cannot take a step without holding its mother's hand, hence we can do nothing without our heavenly Father ; we cannot even reach the road of virtue, "for," says St. Paul, "it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish" (Phil. 2. 13).

To act according to this truth, or to pray without ceasing for the divine assistance, is the good spirit, the spirit of Him who said: "Unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom o heaven" (Mat. 18. 3). To be like little children, is to feel our helplessness to do good, to rely wholly on God, to implore Him constantly to enlighten, direct and support us, to accomplish Christ's precept: "It behooveth always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18. 1).

O my god, would that I had hitherto had these dispositions, instead of that fatal presumption which induced me to face danger relying on my own strength only. How could I so often venture to neglect prayer, spiritual reading, holy Communion and other pious exercises, as if they were unnecessary for my spiritual life? Enable me, O Lord, to understand that pride is the beginning of all evil, as humility is the origin of all good. Help me to acquire humility, so that it may inspire me with self-watchfulness, salutary fear, diffidence in my weakness and continual prayer; and may it teach me always to submit to the guidance of the Holy Ghost in all things and at all times.

II. Detachment Proceeds From A Good Spirit.

The souls that strive to purify and detach themselves also possess a good spirit. The spiritual defilements are much deeper than the material, which are easily removed with water, whilst a deluge of human blood could not obliterate the stain of sin, which can be effaced only by the blood of a God applied to our soul by the Spirit of sanctification. And even after we have been washed in the sacrament of penance, how much does there not remain to be expiated either in this life or in the next! And then how much darkness, weakness and inclination to evil do not our sins leave in us even after our forgiveness! Hence David ceased not praying: "Lord, cleanse me more and more from my sin."

The external world itself, according to St. Leo, causes us to contract many stains by debasing our affections down to earthly and transitory vanities. May we not also be likened to sinks of corruption? Whence are our passions always on the alert, our pride, our sensuality, self-love, which swarm with ever restless perverse inclinations? And that concupiscence incessantly cropping out and tending to infect our whole being? How can we, without divine grace, remain pure and detached amid so many vices and fatal inclinations? Let us often say with the Church: "Holy Spirit, wash what is unclean," and with the psalmist, "O God, create a clean heart in me," a heart disengaged not only from every fault, but also from every attachment foreign to the supreme and eternal Good; "and renew a right spirit within my bowels" (Ps. 50. 12), the spirit Thou gavest me at baptism, and which I lost through malice; the spirit which seeks holiness in all things, and has no other ambition than to love and possess Thee, my last End and my eternal Bliss!

O Jesus, who searches all the recesses of the heart, make known to me which fault, which defect, which attachment or inclination is the most hurtful to my spiritual progress, and give me the strength to correct it. Through the prayers of the Immaculate Virgin, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, grant that I may often this day repeat to Thee: "Lord, create a pure heart in me; and renew in my interior the spirit of innocence and uprightness."