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The Easter Cycle
touch of the Holy Ghost. Even though we are endowed with all the supernatural virtues, we
still remain mere apprentices in the spiritual life. We know what we must do; and yet lack the
virtue and the faculty to perform these things with ease. The Holy Ghost must guide us. He
must seize our intellect and our wills and guide us in prayer, in work, in the decisions we have
to make, and in the difficulties we encounter every day. He must share with us His manner of
seeing, of loving, of thinking, and of working.
Our works and our conduct will be perfect only when the Holy Ghost has taken complete
possession of us. Therefore, in addition to the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, charity, justice,
fortitude, temperance and wisdom, He gives us also His seven gifts. Thus He equips the tiny
boat of our soul with sails upon which He Himself, the Spirit of God, blows. Our progress
across the sea of life is then no longer slow and painful. We are propelled and guided by the
Spirit. If the Spirit of God breathes upon the sails of our boat, then our journey will be a happy
one. Then through the work and the help of the Holy Ghost, who lives in our soul, we shall
come to the Father. But woe to us if we prefer to work alone, if we withdraw from the help and
guidance of the Holy Ghost, and place our trust in our own efforts and abilities. We shall then
certainly fall behind and be lost.
We pay too little heed to the approach and the knocking of the Holy Ghost. We do not live in the
spirit, and therefore the Holy Ghost cannot operate perfectly within us. If we only had eyes to see!
If the Holy Ghost is to work successfully in us, He must find in us a great purity of heart, a
simplicity and humility of soul, an active love of recollection and prayer, and finally, a burning
love of God and of one’s neighbor. But actually He finds us careless about venial sin, about
certain infidelities and imperfections. We neglect inward and outward mortification, and refuse
to be completely detached from our worldly works and actions. Our heads are filled with
curiosity and are occupied with other people. We are too solicitous about our honor, our temporal
progress, our relatives, our health, our spiritual progress, our former life. We are not yet
completely detached from ourselves. How, then, can the Holy Ghost work unhampered in our
soul and draw us to the Father? “Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle
in them the fire of Thy love.”
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty and merciful God, that the Holy Ghost may come to us and
make us the temple of His glory. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
Philip the Deacon (Epistle) and the apostles (Gospel) wrought great signs and wonders by the
power of the Holy Ghost, whom they had received. We also have received the Holy Ghost, and
we still receive Him daily. We must therefore be spiritual men, men who work, not in their own
way, but in the spirit of Christ and the Holy Ghost.
The spirit of independence, the human spirit, judges all things and thinks in a purely natural and
earthly way. It considers those blessed who possess and enjoy great riches. It calls those great
who possess worldly wisdom and enjoy the respect and esteem of their fellow men, who occupy
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