Holy Spirit – Page 3

Pope prays that the Holy Spirit heal hearts warped by selfishness & help the human family rediscover its fundamental unity

On this Pentecost Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI placed the cause of world peace in the hands of those who gave their lives for Christ in concentration camps during the praying of the Regina Caeli. His weekly Sunday address and prayer to the Mother of God for assistance called for world peace and unity among Christians. The intercession of the martyrs before the Throne of Grace is a powerful witness and desire on the part of the faithful who have confidence that God hears the cry of the poor and those who through a total gift of self shed their blood for Christ. This appeal to the martyrs is appropriate that on June 13, the Catholics in Dresden will be a part of history when Father Alois Andritzki, a martyr, was killed in 1943 at 28 years old, by the Socialists.

The prayer of the Pope goes like this:

“May the Holy Spirit inspire courageous resolutions for peace and support the work to continue, so that dialogue may prevail over arms and respect for human dignity over partisan interests. [That the] Holy Spirit may, “heal hearts warped by selfishness and help the human family to rediscover its fundamental unity. On this Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. Let us pray that we may be confirmed in the grace of our Baptism and share ever more actively in the Church’s mission of proclaiming the Good News of our salvation in Jesus Christ. The Church is one, Catholic and Apostolic. This is its true nature and must be recognized as such. [The Church] is holy not because of the capabilities of [the Church’s] members, but because God Himself, with His Spirit, creates and sanctifies always. [The] Spirit that created all things and the Holy Spirit Christ brought from the Father to the community of disciples, are one and the same. Creation and redemption go together and they constitute, deep down, a single mystery of love and salvation.”

Praying with the Pentecost sequence

In the days that lead up to the great solemnity of Pentecost meditating on the sequence for Pentecost, “Veni Sancte Spiritus” (Come Holy Spirit), is appropriate. Take the text of the “Veni Sancte Spiritus” use it for your Lectio Divina up to Pentecost, and perhaps in days following.

For many people in the pew, the Church’s use of the sequence 4 times a year jumps out of no where and it sinks into oblivion because it is infrequently spoken of in bulletins or in homilies. With rare exception priests sadly ignore the sequences. Today, the priest actually made the suggestion to pray with the Pentecost sequence, “Veni Sancte Spirtus”.

The sequence, as you know, is a poem of the Middle Ages that was composed for specific feasts of the Paschal Mystery, holy days and feasts of saints to draw our attention to the truth of the faith. It is the lex orandi tradition at its best. While not taken from the Bible, the sequence relates to us the major themes of sacred Scripture to which we need to give some attention. The sequence is sung after the second reading and right before the Alleluia verse (Gospel acclamation).

Here are but a few lines from “Veni Sancte Spiritus” to bring to prayer:

O most blessed Light fill the inmost heart of thy faithful.

Without your spirit, nothing is in man, nothing that is harmless.

Wash that which is sordid water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded.

Make flexible that which is rigid, warm that which is cold, rule that which is deviant.

The full text of the Pentecost sequence is noted here.

The Holy Spirit brings us into communion: beg to be touched by the Holy Spirit

Pope Benedict’s homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost is quite insightful and spiritually challenging. Would that we all could be open to the call of the Spirit in truth and in action. Come Holy Spirit, come through Mary!

In the solemn celebration of Pentecost we are invited to profess our faith in the presence and in the action of the Holy Spirit and to invoke his outpouring upon us, upon the Church and upon the whole world. Let us make our own, and with special intensity, the Church’s invocation: “Veni, Sancte Spiritus!”

It is such a simple and immediate invocation, but also extraordinarily profound, which came first of all from the heart of Christ. The Spirit, in fact, is the gift that Jesus asked and continually asks of his Father for his friends; the first and principal gift that he obtained for us through his Resurrection and Ascension in to heaven.

Today’s Gospel passage, which has the Last Supper as its context, speaks to us of this prayer of Christ. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, follow my commandments; and I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Paraclete who will remain with you forever” (John 14:15-16).

Here the praying heart of Jesus is revealed to us, his filial and fraternal heart. This prayer reaches its apex and its fulfillment on the cross, where Christ’s invocation is one with the total gift that he makes of himself, and thus his prayer becomes, so to speak, the very seal of his self-giving for love of the Father and humanity: Invocation and donation of the Spirit meet, they interpenetrate, they become one reality. “And I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Paraclete who will remain with you forever.” In reality, Jesus’ prayer — that of the Last Supper and the prayer on the cross — is a single prayer that continues even in heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. Jesus, in fact, always lives his priesthood of intercession on behalf of the people of God and humanity and so prays for all of us, asking the Father for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles — we listened to it in the first reading (Acts 2:1-11) — presents the “new course” of the work that God began with Christ’s resurrection, a work that involves man, history and the cosmos. The Son of God, dead and risen and returned to the Father, now breathes with untold energy the divine breath upon humanity, the Holy Spirit. And what does this new and powerful self-communication of God produce? Where there are divisions and estrangement he creates unity and understanding. The Spirit triggers a process of reunification of the divided and dispersed parts of the human family; persons, often reduced to individuals in competition or in conflict with each other, reached by the Spirit of Christ, open themselves to the experience of communion, can involve them to such an extent as to make of them a new organism, a new subject: the Church. This is the effect of God’s work: unity; thus unity is the sign of recognition, the “business card” of the Church in the course of her universal history. From the very beginning, from the day of Pentecost, she speaks all languages. The universal Church precedes the particular Churches, and the latter must always conform to the former according to a criterion of unity and universality. The Church never remains a prisoner within political, racial and cultural confines; she cannot be confused with states not with federations of states, because her unity is of a different type and aspires to transcend every human frontier.

From this, dear brothers, there derives a practical criterion of discernment for Christian life: When a person or a community, limits itself to its own way of thinking and acting, it is a sign that it has distanced itself from the Holy Spirit. The path of Christians and of the particular Churches must always confront itself with the path of the one and catholic Church, and harmonize with it. This does not mean that the unity created by the Holy Spirit is a kind of homogenization. On the contrary, that is rather the model of Babel, that is, the imposition of a culture of unity that we could call “technological.” The Bible, in fact, tells us (cf. Genesis 11:1-9) that in Babel everyone spoke the same language. At Pentecost, however, the Apostles speak different languages in such a way that everyone understands the message in his own tongue. The unity of the Spirit is manifested in the plurality of understanding. The Church is one and multiple by her nature, destined as she is to live among all nations, all peoples, and in the most diverse social contexts. She responds to her vocation to be a sign and instrument of unity of the human race (cf. Lumen Gentium, 1) only if she remains free from every state and every particular culture. Always and in every place the Church must truly be catholic and universal, the house of all in which each one can find a place.

The account of the Acts of the Apostles offers us another very concrete indication. The universality of the Church is expressed by the list of peoples according to the ancient tradition: “We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites …,” etc. One may note that St. Luke goes beyond the number 12, which always expresses a universality. He looks beyond the horizons of Asia and northwest Africa, and adds three other elements: the “Romans,” that is, the western world; the “Jews and proselytes,” encompass in a new way the unity between Israel and the world; and finally “Cretans and Arabs,” who represent the West and the East, islands and land. This opening of horizons subsequently confirms the newness of Christ in the human space, in the history of the nations: The Holy Spirit involves men and peoples and, through them, it overcomes walls and barriers.

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit manifests himself as fire. His flame descended upon the assembled disciples, it was enkindled in them and gave them the new ardor of God. In this way what Jesus had previously said was realized: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I long that it already be burning!” (Luke 12:49). The Apostles, together with the faithful of different communities, carried this divine flame to the far corners of the earth; in this way they opened a path for humanity, a luminous path, and they worked with God, who wants to renew the face of the earth with his fire. How different this fire is from that of wars and bombs! How different is the fire of Christ, spread by the Church, compared with those lit by the dictators of every epoch, of last century too, who leave a scorched earth behind them. The fire of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit, is that of the bush that burned without being consumed (cf. Exodus 3:2). It is a flame that burns but does not destroy, that, in burning, brings forth the better and truer part of man, as in a fusion it makes his interior form emerge, his vocation to truth and to love.

A Father of the Church, Origen, in one of his homilies on Jeremiah, reports a saying attributed to Jesus, not contained in the sacred Scriptures but perhaps authentic, which he puts thus: “Whoever is near me, is near the fire” (Homilies on Jeremiah, L. I [III]). In Christ, in fact, there is the fullness of God, who in the Bible is compared to fire. We just observed that the flame of the Holy Spirit burns but does not destroy. And nevertheless it causes a transformation, and it must for this reason consume something in man, the waste that corrupts him and hinders his relations with God and neighbor.

This effect of the divine fire, however, frightens us, we are afraid of being “burned,” we prefer to stay just as we are. This is because our life is often formed according to the logic of having, of possessing and not the logic of self-giving. Many people believe in God and admire the person of Jesus Christ, but when they are asked to lose something of themselves, then they retreat, they are afraid of the demands of faith. There is the fear of giving up something nice to which we are attached; the fear that following Christ deprives us of freedom, of certain experiences, of a part of ourselves. On one hand, we want to be with Jesus, follow him closely, and, on the other hand, we are afraid of the consequences that this brings with it.

Dear brothers and sisters, we always need to hear the Lord Jesus tell us what he often repeated to his friends: “Be not afraid.” Like Simon Peter and the others we must allow his presence and his grace to transform our heart, which is always subject to human weakness. We must know how to recognize that losing something, indeed, losing ourselves for the true God, the God of love and of life, is in reality gaining ourselves, finding ourselves more fully. Whoever entrusts himself to Jesus already experiences in this life peace and joy of heart, which the world cannot give, and it cannot even take it away once God has given it to us.

So it is worthwhile to let ourselves be touched by the fire of the Holy Spirit! The suffering that it causes us is necessary for our transformation. It is the reality of the cross: It is not for nothing that in the language of Jesus “fire” is above all a representation of the cross, without which Christianity does not exist.

Thus enlightened and comforted by these words of life, let us lift up our invocation: Come, Holy Spirit! Enkindle in us the fire of your love! We know that this is a bold prayer, with which we ask to be touched by the flame of God; but we know above all that this flame — and only it — has the power to save us. We do not want, in defending our life, to lose the eternal life that God wants to give us. We need the fire of the Holy Spirit, because only Love redeems. Amen.

Happy Pentecost

On May 9, 1897, Pope Leo XIII issued the first Encyclical Letter on the Holy Spirit. Of course from the days of the Acts of the Apostles the role of the Holy Spirit has been clearly taught.

Pope Leo XIII actually reminded the modern world of the question Saint Paul brought up in Acts 19:2 when he asked some disciples at Ephesus, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Pope Leo XIII went on to remind pastors and those with care of souls that they “should remember that it is their duty to instruct their people more diligently and more fully about the Holy Spirit.”

Saint Benedict also clearly saw the importance of the Holy Spirit in his Rule for Monasteries. At the end of Chapter 7 on Humility, Saint Benedict wrote:

Having, therefore, ascended all these degrees of humility, the monk will presently arrive at that love of God, which being perfect, casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18). In virtue of this love all things which at first he observed not without fear, he will now begin to keep without any effort, and as it were, naturally by force of habit, no longer from the fear of hell, but from the love of Christ, from the very habit of good and the pleasure in virtue. May the Lord be pleased to manifest all this by His Holy Spirit in His laborer now cleansed from vice and sin.

In his Chapter 49 on Lent, Saint Benedict bids us: “During these days, therefore, let us add something to the usual amount of our service, special prayers, abstinence from food and drink, that each one offer to God “with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes 1:6).

In his Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II referred to Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica when he said:

Man’s intimate relationship with God in the Holy Spirit also enables him to understand himself, his own humanity, in a new way. Thus that image and likeness of God which man is from his very beginning is fully realized.

Living in the Spirit with the Blessed Virgin Mary

Have you thought much about the terrific connection between the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit? There is an ever stronger interest in my heart that is building in me to experience more fully this intimacy, this desire of the Lord that is known in the heart of Mary. I mentioned it the other day by suggesting using some of the mysteries of the rosary to allow us to consider that intimacy between the Divine and the human. The Pope gave the follow meditation yesterday evening, the Vigil of Pentecost:

I greet all of you with affection at the end of the
traditional Marian vigil that concludes the month of May in the Vatican. This
year it has acquired a very special value since it falls on the eve of
Pentecost. Gathering together, spiritually recollected before the Virgin Mary,
contemplating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, you have relived the experience
of the first disciples, gathered together in the room of the Last Supper with
“the Mother of Jesus,” “persevering and united in prayer”
awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). We too, in this
penultimate evening of May, from the Vatican hill, ask for the pouring out of
the Spirit Paraclete upon us, upon the Church that is in Rome and upon the
whole Christian people.

The great Feast of Pentecost invites us to meditate upon the
relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary, a very close, privileged,
indissoluble relationship. The Virgin of Nazareth was chosen beforehand to
become the Mother of the Redeemer by the working of the Holy Spirit: in her
humility, she found grace in God’s eyes (cf. Luke 1:30). In effect, in the New
Testament we see that Mary’s faith “draws,” so to speak, the Holy
Spirit. First of all in the conception of the Son of God, which the archangel
Gabriel explains in this way: “The Holy Spirit will descend upon you and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). Immediately
afterward Mary went to help Elizabeth, and when her greeting reached
Elizabeth’s ears, the Holy Spirit made the child jump in the womb of her
elderly cousin (cf. Luke 1:44); and the whole dialogue between the two mothers
is inspired by the Spirit of God, above all the “Magnificat,” the
canticle of praise with which Mary expresses her sentiments. The whole event of
Jesus’ birth and his early childhood is guided in an almost palpable manner by
the Holy Spirit, even if he is not always mentioned. Mary’s heart, in perfect
consonance with the divine Son, is the temple of the Spirit of truth, where
every word and every event are kept in faith, hope and charity (cf. Luke 2:19,
51).

We can thus be certain that the most Sacred Heart of Jesus,
in his whole hidden life in Nazareth, always found a “hearth” that
was always burning with prayer and constant attention to the Holy Spirit in
Mary’s Immaculate Heart. The wedding feast at Cana is a witness to this
singular harmony between Mother and Son in seeking God’s will. In a situation
like the wedding feast, charged with symbols of the covenant, the Virgin Mary
intercedes and, in a certain sense, provokes, a sign of superabundant divine
grace: the “good wine” that points to mystery of the Blood of Christ.
This leads us directly to Calvary, where Mary stands under the cross with the
other women and the Apostle John. Together the Mother and the disciple
spiritually taken in Jesus’ testament: his last words and his last breath, in
which he begins to send out the Spirit; and they take in the silent crying out
of his Blood, poured out completely for us (cf. John 19:25-34). Mary knew where
the blood came from: it was formed in her by the work of the Holy Spirit, and
she knew that this same creative “power” would raise Jesus up, as he
promised.

In this way Mary’s faith sustains the faith of the disciples
until the meeting with the risen Lord, and will continue to accompany them even
after his ascension into heaven, as they await the “baptism of the Holy
Spirit” (cf. Acts 1:5). At Pentecost, the Virgin Mary appears again as
Bride of the Spirit, having a universal maternity with respect to those who are
born from God through faith in Christ. This is why Mary is for all generations
the image and model of the Church, who together with the Holy Spirit journeys
through time invoking Christ’s glorious return: “Come, Lord Jesus”
(cf. Revelation 22:17, 20).

Dear friends, in Mary’s school we too learn to recognize the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life, to listen to his inspirations and to follow them with docility. He makes us grown in the fullness of Christ, in those good fruits that the apostle Paul lists in the Letter to the Galatians: “Love, joy, peace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control (5:22). I hope that you will be filled with these gifts and will always walk with Mary according to the Spirit and, as I express my praise for your participation in this evening celebration, I impart my Apostolic Benediction to all of you from my heart.

Praying with the Mysteries of the Holy Spirit

That we are in the days prior to the great feast of Pentecost our prayer ought to be more intensely centered on the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. My friend Dom Mark calls to mind the seven mysteries of the Holy Spirit found in the Rosary dealing with the action of the Holy Spirit in salvation history, especially attentive to the fact that these mysteries personally, deeply touch our own lives. His blog entry is helpful —read for yourself.

What gifts ought we to pray for? What about a fuller appreciation of and living out of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage (fortitude), Knowledge, Piety (reverence), and Fear of the Lord (Awe of God).

Veni Sanctae Spiritus. Veni per Mariam.

Novena to the Holy Spirit

We are firmly living the days of the Paschal Mystery. What God has given us and what the Church faithfully teaches is that nothing is done without the action of the Holy Spirit. Our encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, our prayer to the Blessed Trinity, is firmly rooted in the Pauline belief that it is the Holy Spirit who first places within our hearts the desire for communion with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit breathes within us the grace of eternal life and places on our lips the words we pray. Thinking about this dogma of our Catholic faith, I found an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII which guides our spiritual life to depend more deeply on the Holy Spirit today.

That divine
office which Jesus Christ received from His Father for the welfare of mankind,
and most perfectly fulfilled, had for its final object to put men in possession
of the eternal life of glory, and proximately during the course of ages to
secure to them the life of divine grace, which is destined eventually to
blossom into the life of heaven. Wherefore, our Savior never ceases to invite,
with infinite affection, all men, of every race and tongue, into the bosom of
His Church: “Come ye all to Me,” “I am the Life,” “I
am the Good Shepherd.” Nevertheless, according to His inscrutable
counsels, He did not will to entirely complete and finish this office Himself
on earth, but as He had received it from the Father, so He transmitted it for its
completion to the Holy Ghost. It is consoling to recall those assurances which
Christ gave to the body of His disciples a little before He left the earth:
“It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not
come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you” (1 John xvi., 7). In
these words He gave as the chief reason of His departure and His return to the
Father, the advantage which would most certainly accrue to His followers from
the coming of the Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the
Holy Ghost is equally sent by-and therefore proceeds from – Himself and the
Father; that He would complete, in His office of Intercessor, Consoler, and
Teacher, the work which Christ Himself had begun in His mortal life. For, in
the redemption of the world, the completion of the work was by Divine
Providence reserved to the manifold power of that Spirit, who, in the creation,
“adorned the heavens” (Job xxvi., 13), and “filled the whole
world” (Wisdom i., 7).

… we ought to
pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each one of us greatly needs His
protection and His help. The more a man is deficient in wisdom, weak in
strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to
Him who is the never-ceasing fount of light, strength, consolation, and
holiness. And chiefly that first requisite of man, the forgiveness of sins,
must be sought for from Him: “It is the special character of the Holy
Ghost that He is the Gift of the Father and the Son. Now the remission of all
sins is given by the Holy Ghost as by the Gift of God” (Summa Theologica 3a, q. iii., a. 8, ad 3m).

Concerning this
Spirit the words of the Liturgy are very explicit: “For He is the
remission of all sins” (Roman Missal, Tuesday after Pentecost). How He
should be invoked is clearly taught by the Church, who addresses Him in humble
supplication, calling upon Him by the sweetest of names: “Come, Father of
the poor! Come, Giver of gifts! Come, Light of our hearts! O best of Consolers,
sweet Guest of the soul, our refreshment!” (Hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus).
She earnestly implores Him to wash, heal, water our minds and hearts, and to
give to us who trust in Him “the merit of virtue, the acquirement of
salvation, and joy everlasting.” Nor can it be in any way doubted that He
will listen to such prayer, since we read the words written by His own
inspiration: “The Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable
groanings” (Romans viii., 26). Lastly, we ought confidently and continually
to beg of Him to illuminate us daily more and more with His light and inflame
us with His charity: for, thus inspired with faith and love, we may press
onward earnestly towards our eternal reward, since He “is the pledge of
our inheritance” (Ephesians i. 14).

Wherefore, We
decree and command that throughout the whole Catholic Church, this year and in
every subsequent year, a Novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday, in all
parish churches, and also, if the local Ordinaries think fit, in other churches
and oratories. To all who take part in this Novena and duly pray for Our
intention, We grant for each day an Indulgence of seven years and seven
quarantines; moreover, a Plenary Indulgence on any one of the days of the
Novena, or on Whit-Sunday itself, or on any day during the Octave; provided
they shall have received the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and
devoutly prayed for Our intention. We will that those who are legitimately
prevented from attending the Novena, or who are in places where the devotions
cannot, in the judgment of the Ordinary, be conveniently carried out in church,
shall equally enjoy the same benefits, provided they make the Novena privately
and observe the other conditions. Moreover We are pleased to grant, in
perpetuity, from the Treasury of the Church, that whosoever, daily during the
Octave of Pentecost up to Trinity Sunday inclusive, offer again publicly or
privately any prayers, according to their devotion, to the Holy Ghost, and
satisfy the above conditions, shall a second time gain each of the same
Indulgences. All these Indulgences We also permit to be applied to the suffrage
of the souls in Purgatory.

(Divinum
Illud Munus, 1, 11, 13)

Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical on
the Holy Spirit May 9, 1897

Following the pastoral leadership of Pope Leo XIII, I recommend that we pray the Novena
to the Holy Spirit

Veni, Creator Spiritus

At the beginning of the new calendar year we pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us. You will recognize the text if you’ve attended an Ordination and Confirmation Masses or if you recall the Liturgy from Pentecost. Veni, Creator Spiritus is frequently used at the annual Red Mass which marks the beginning of the academic year or the opening of the judicial year. This hymn to the Paraclete is attributed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856). A plenary indulgence is granted if it is recited on January 1^st.

Creator Spirit all Divine,
come visit every soul of Thine.
And fill with Thy Celestial Flame
the hearts which Thou Thyself did frame.

O Gift of God, Thine is the Sweet
consoling name of Paraclete.
And spring of life and fire of love,
and unction flowing from above.

The mystic seven-fold gifts are Thine,
finger of God’s Right Hand Divine.
The Father’s Promise sent to teach,
the tongue a rich and heavenly speech.

Kindle with fire brought from above
each sense, and fill our hearts with love,
And grant our flesh so weak and frail,
the strength of Thine which cannot fail.

Drive far away our deadly foe,
and grant us Thy true peace to know,
So we, led by Thy Guidance still,
may safely pass through every ill.

To us, through Thee, the grace be shown,
To know the Father and the Son,
And Spirit of Them Both, may we
forever rest our Faith in Thee.

To Father and Son be praises meet,
and to the Holy Paraclete.
And may Christ send us from above,
that Holy Spirit’s gift of love. Amen.

Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam

One of the things that distinguishes my day is an attempt to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Of course, my day is punctuated with praying the Divine Office and the Mass but there are times where I find myself praying the Angelus and the ejaculatory prayer–one liners given by the Church to focus my attention, for example Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam or Saint Joseph, pray for us. The acknowledgement of the Spirit in my life is known pivotally in the fact of the Incarnation: the point in history that that God’s love can’t be kept to Himself that He sends the eternal Word to become man, Jesus born of the virgin Mary.

This very brief prayer is well used by the members of the ecclesial movement Communion & Liberation. We maintain a tradition of concluding our prayer with this keen reminder and request that the Holy Spirit, Who is already present, to allow us to grasp the meaning of God becoming man.

Here are the notes from Father Luigi Giussani’s remarks at the Spiritual Retreat of the Memores Domini, La Thuile, Italy, 2 August 2001

Forgive me if I too come explicitly into your meeting. Because, if the sacrifice of not coming to be with you is united with the joy of being Christ’s, of being His, with a little of this confidence, of this hope-which was born in the heart and which fidelity to the life of the Church has magnified enormously and caused to become adult, mature-then it is not inconceivable that I might talk with you for a few minutes.

I wanted all the Memores Domini [the group of consecrated lay men & women] to know that there is a formula, an ejaculatory prayer-as all the Church’s tradition calls it-a formula that sums up everything we have tried to believe, express, and communicate, because it is the formula that summarizes all of Christian dogma as the Church has always lived it: Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam (Come Holy Spirit, come through Mary).

You will have been struck by lots of things; but guilt is never uprooted from our conscience, the affirmation of the truth is never renewed, if the whole soul does not try to make happen what the cry of the Christian tradition has us say over and over. Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam is the synthesis of everything the liturgical year tells us, it is the synthesis of everything the memory of Christian life tells us.

Because everything, everything comes from the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God who gives the possibility of being struck positively, and even fervidly, by vocation, by the grace of God in life-because vocation is the grace of God in life. It is through the Spirit that every man, like every being, enters into a vast design, as vast as the Father conceived it.

Who knows if the Spirit will grant me still to have a living relationship with you, or better, that the living relationship with you-which will not cease for all of eternity-may still have some direct operative implications in the life of this world.

Veni per Mariam indicates, synthesizes, the finger pointing to everything, everything that our human eye can let us see and that the consciousness can readily understand. Because Our Lady is the synthesis of all humanity… not only of humanity but also of everything that creation brings with it from all eternity, for all eternity. From all eternity everything is the Father’s; in the Mystery every thing was born, every speck of dust, even the grain of sand on the earth, every thought and every feeling man has. Mary synthetically expresses this link between the Mystery and the things the Mystery Himself created (this is why the Holy Spirit is called Redeemer and Savior), because Our Lady is the only possibility of synthesis, in man’s heart, of everything that happens, has happened and will happen, which is faith, which unfolds a hope, and hope makes us live the aurora of the eternal. It makes us live the aurora of the eternal!

Who knows, who knows if the Lord and Our Lady will give me more health and will renew again the energy to communicate things to you, according to an experience that, with time, grows greater and greater, ever greater and greater!

May Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni per Mariam be a connection that may arouse more quickly in your heart adherence, a certitude of hope, and a beginning of a vision of what the Lord will do for us as the final reward of our life.

Ciao! Until we meet again!