May 30 Fri
Should I be docile to the Holy Spirit?
Today, we begin the Ten Days devotion to the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father in the Holy Spirit; and through grace we are enabled to share in God's intimate love and life. Union with God through love transforms the soul until it reaches holiness. And this work is attributed in a special way to the Holy Spirit.
So that our trust in the Holy Spirit may grow, and that we may be ever more conscious of the fact that interior progress is neither solely nor principally the result of our efforts, let us go to the Consoler, who comes to help us in our weakness ... and intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Let's put St. Josemaría's advice into practice: “Get to know the Holy Spirit, the Great Unknown, the one who has to sanctify you."
The Holy Spirit's action embraces our whole life. As St Cyril of Jerusalem teaches, the Holy Spirit is one, but at a mere sign from God the Father, and in the name of Christ, He produces a variety of virtues. He uses the tongue of one person to communicate wisdom, He enlightens the mind of another with the gift of prophecy; on this one, He confers the power of casting out demons, and on that one, the ability to interpret Sacred Scripture. In one, He strengthens temperance; another, He teaches all that refers to the works of charity; someone else, He instructs in fasting and the ascetical life. He moves this person to scorn material possessions while he prepares that person for martyrdom.
With the passing of the years, the spiritual development that takes place in our thinking, desiring, and working is also the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can never lose hope of becoming holy, of accepting the invitations of God, of persevering until the very end. God, who has begun in us the work of our sanctification, will bring it to completion. Because if the Lord is with us, who can be against us? After having not spared his very own Son, but rather turned him over to death for us, after having thus given us his Son, can he fail to give us every good thing?
Realizing that all our sanctification depends on God, we pray: Come, Father of the poor; come, giver of gifts, since we are truly poor and needy in every way. But we ask for even more than this: Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour your dew; wash the stains of guilt away. Bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray. For it will also have to be the grace of the Holy Spirit that removes every obstacle to his sanctifying action in us, so that our life may bear fruit in virtue and the exercise of his gifts.
We must be docile to the Paraclete, “because it is the Holy Spirit who, with his inspirations, gives a supernatural tone to our thoughts, desires, and actions. It is he who leads us to receive Christ's teaching and to assimilate it profoundly. He gives us the light by which we perceive our personal calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and we will be brought closer every day to God the Father. For whoever is led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God."