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The Time After Pentecost
Communion to us that we may be able to thrust ourselves blindly into the arms of our Father,
seeking the kingdom of God without solicitude. “Come, let us praise the Lord,” the Church
sings every day at Matins.
Prayer
Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of
man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us
to all things profitable to our salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal 5:25). Through the Holy Ghost and
His operation within us we received the life of the children of God; let us therefore “walk in the
Spirit,” whom we have received in baptism and confirmation.
“If we live in the Spirit.” At the moment of our baptism the Father and the Son infused the Holy
Spirit into our souls. He is the great gift of God to us, the gift of our espousal to the Son of God,
a gift that enriches our soul, making it beautiful and lovable in the sight of God. When the Holy
Ghost descends into our unworthy soul, He enriches it with divine beauty, decorating it with His
gifts, and making it resplendent with delightful purity in the eyes of God. It is He who now lives
and works within our soul: He, the Paraclete, the Consoler, the love of God, who proceeds from
the Father and the Son as the substantial expression of that perfect love that unites Father and
Son; and we also are drawn into this mystical life of love within the deity. As the consequence
of our being partakers of this mystical life, we are permeated by the divine life and are bearers
of the fire of divine love. Thus fortified we go to the Father with warm and childlike affection,
yearning with unspeakable longing to meet our heavenly bridegroom.
The Holy Ghost urges us to think, talk, act, and suffer in a way that is pleasing to God.
He prepares our body and soul for the blessed embrace of Jesus which we experience in Holy
Communion; He engenders the life of sanctifying grace within our soul, thereby laying the
foundation for our eventual perfection and eternal happiness in heaven. While enriching us
with the precious gift of sanctifying grace, He also pours into our soul supernatural powers
and gifts, the virtues of faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance. Together
with these virtues He enriches us with His special gifts; the fear of the Lord, piety, wisdom,
fortitude, counsel, knowledge, and understanding. The entire natural life within us is the result
of His work. He also guides and forms our interior and religious life.
“Let us also walk in the Spirit.” We walk in the Spirit as long as we live in the state of
sanctifying grace. If we commit a mortal sin, the Holy Ghost is forced to leave us; for then we
render our soul unfit as a further dwelling place for Him. In addition to driving Him out of
our soul, we deprive ourselves of the source and principle of our interior life as well as the life
of grace itself. We walk in the Spirit, on the other hand, if we follow faithfully and humbly the
illuminations and inspirations and admonitions of the Holy Spirit living and working within
us. It is absolutely necessary that we generously deny ourselves, renouncing our human way of
thinking and judging, that we continuously and willingly listen to the inspirations of the Holy
Ghost working within our soul, and especially that we try to preserve a great purity of heart;
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