«The were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak of the mighty acts of God» (Acts 2,4.11)
Today we celebrate the marvelous feast on which the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples and all who were with them, to bring back the priceless treasure which had been lost in Paradise through the cunning of the fiend and human weakness.
This was a wonderful event , even outwardly, but the spiritual reality hidden and contained in it surpasses everything that could ever be known or conceived by reason or feeling or any creature. It is past all telling. The Holy Spirit is so inconceivably great and immense that any created greatness and immensity, which our reason cannot even conceive pictorially, is as nothing in comparison. Besides it, heaven and earth and all those things one can grasp in them are as nothing... So it is that where the Holy Spirit is to be received, he himself must prepare the place; he himself must create man's capacity to receive him... There is no place for God save the ineffable abyss in which he dwells... where he fills the whole capacity, flooding every nook and cranny of the soul.
“And it filled the whole house” (Acts 2,2)... In one sense, the house signifies Holy Church, for she is God's dwelling place. In another sense, it means each person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Thus, just as there are many apartments and rooms in a house, so there are many faculties and senses and activities in us. Into all of these the Holy Spirit comes in different ways. When he comes, he persuades, inspires, and impels us, working upon us and bringing us light. However, we are not all equally aware this presence and activity in our souls. The Holy Spirit is in all people, but if we would experience his action and be capable or desirous of feeling and tasting his presence, we must gather our faculties within... in silence and in peace... As we give ourselves up more and more to recollection, we become increasingly aware of the Holy Spirit and he makes himself known to us more clearly, although he has been there all the time, given to us from the first.
| Sunday, May 19, 2013 Pentecost Sunday (Solemnity) |
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