What to Expect from the Holy Ghost

Peeking Poppy Petal by Ann L. Krumrein
...how very lovely it would be if souls would open up like flowers and yield themselves to the Divine Sun; if they would exercise all the gifts they have received, exultantly and royally; if they would open up, expanding into a final burst of praise before the Lord. Those poor [flowers], they gave all their petals, gave them in splendid profusion -- but now, it's all over. What if we were to transform everything into praise, giving all our days without counting, without wondering about what is going to happen and what we will do in every set of unreal circumstance? If only we had that sense of the gift which makes it possible to live without all the endless computations motivated by vanity (which don't prevent anything anyway)! Don't you think that it is better to die because there is no longer anything in us which can be utilized for the Lord than to die like a dried bud that didn't want to open up?

This is what we should expect from the Holy Ghost: that He should breathe into us an ardor of generosity without the possibility of stopping, and that we should finally be rid of this spirit of our own which is petty, rapacious, and case-hardened. Let us consent to be like a bundle of grain which is placed under the altar and which will remain there as a witness to the magnificence of the Lord until nothing is left of it. Obviously these flowers would have lasted a little longer if they had been placed in water, but let's not feel sorry for them; let us, too, be able to give to the Lord without holding back a little of our gift, without asking that the flowers destined for the altar be disposed of in this or that manner.

Thus we will know joy, the ravishing fragrance with which the Holy Ghost perfumes those who let themselves be drawn by Him into truly living as "offerings to the Lord."

~Mother Marie des Douleurs in Joy Out of Sorrow

Come, Spirit of Jesus, come! Break open the bud of my heart and transform me into a living sacrifice of praise. Amen! Alleluia!

Praying in the Cenacle

O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church... You who were gathered in prayer with the Apostles in the Cenacle, awaiting the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, implore his renewed outpouring on all the faithful...so that they might more fully respond to their vocation and mission, as branches engrafted to the true vine, called to bear much fruit for the life of the world. O Virgin Mother, guide and sustain us so that we might always live as true sons and daughters of the Church of your Son. Enable us to do our part in helping to establish on earth the civilization of truth and love, as God wills it, for his glory. Amen. ~Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici

Dear Mary, glory of the Holy Spirit, today I wait in joyful with you and the Apostles for the outpouring of the Spirit within our hearts. Amen.

The Little Pentecost of the Visitation

The Visitation, Joseph Matar

Yesterday's Solemnity of Pentecost took precedence over the Feast of the Visitation, which the church customarily celebrates on May 31st. Pope Benedict XVI mentioned this blessed meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and the unborn children in their wombs twice yesterday, both in his homily at the Mass of Pentecost and in his Regina Caeli address. This event of the Visitation, the Holy Father said, "was also a little 'Pentecost,' bringing forth joy and praise from the hearts of Elizabeth and Mary – the one barren and the other a virgin – who both became mothers by an extraordinary divine intervention (cf. Luke 1:41-45).

It was by the intervention of the Holy Spirit that Virgin Mother became pregnant with the Divine Child, whom she bore in her womb "with love beyond all telling." The Spirit of Jesus so filled Mary's entire being that, having consented to give birth to the Son of God, she then immediately went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Upon Mary's arrival, Elizabeth also was filled with the Holy Spirit, as was the unborn child who leapt for joy within her womb, and thus she proclaimed with exaltation those glorious words that have been continuously repeated throughout the ages by those who love Our Lady: "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!"

The intervention of the Holy Spirit is always a cause for rejoicing! The Lord and Giver of Life, as we name the third Person of the Holy Trinity in the Nicene Creed, is also the source of charity. As the Holy Father pointed out yesterday, "The young Mary, who carried Jesus in her womb and, forgetting herself, goes to help her neighbor, is a stupendous icon of the Church in the perennial youth of the Spirit, of the missionary Church of the Incarnate Word, called to bring [this Word] to the world and to testify to him especially in the service of charity." For many of us, our greatest means of evangelizing the world is through the service of charity. May we accept the Holy Father's invitation " to let ourselves be inspired and taught by the Virgin Mary." May we learn from her, Mother of the Incarnate Word, how to surrender totally to the Holy Spirit so that we, too, can give birth to Jesus and bring Him to the world.

The Holy Father also gave an address Saturday evening, the vigil of Pentecost, in the Vatican Gardens at a traditional Marian celebration to conclude the month of May. In his talk, he reflected upon the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary, "a very close, privileged, indissoluble relationship." Pope Benedict XVI said that "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)." In closing, he expressed his hope that we "will always walk with Mary," in whose school we "learn to recognize the Holy Spirit's presence in our life, to listen to his inspirations and to follow them with docility."

Vigil of the Solemnity of Pentecost

Salvador Dali, The Descent of the Spirit

Spirit of Jesus,

Pentecost Flame!

Come!

Ignite,

delight,

incite,

and

excite

us

with the fire

of your love!

Alice Claire Mansfield

Today's Saint: St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Yesterday, May 25, was the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi. The Liturgy of the Hours provides us with this brief description of her life: "Born in Florence in 1566, she had a religious upbringing and entered the monastery of the Carmelite nuns there. She led a hidden life of prayer and self-denial, praying particularly for the renewal of the Church and encouraging the sisters in holiness. Her life was marked by many extraordinary graces. She died in 1607."

My own introduction to St. Mary Magdalene came through the Liturgy of the Hours many years ago. The second reading in the Office of Readings for her memorial is from her writings "On Revelation and On Trials." This reading provides us with a profound reflection upon the Holy Spirit, whom she calls "dispenser of the treasures which lay in the lap of the Father, and guardian of the deliberations which pass between the Father and the Son," and ends with this lovely prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit. Let the precious pearl of the Father and the Word's delight come. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforters of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, you are the one in whom all treasurers are contained. Come! As you descended upon Mary, that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as you worked in her through nature and grace. Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in you.

It's that last line that always cuts through my heart and soul and makes me ask myself: how much do I honestly want to be consumed in and by the Spirit of Jesus, Pentecost Flame?!

There are many articles on the Web about this Carmelite saint. One article at Catholic Online states that St. Mary Magdalene "saw her ecstasies as evidence of a great fault in her, not a reward for holiness." Another article at American Catholic ends with her dying words to her fellow sisters: ""The last thing I ask of you—and I ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—is that you love him alone, that you trust implicitly in him and that you encourage one another continually to suffer for the love of him." Both articles contain excellent information on the nature of true ecstasy.

Two quotes of St. Mary Magdalene that I found out there in cyberspace tell us much about her and her relationship with our Lord Jesus. In one quote, she says that "Our prayer must be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and deeply reverent, for we must reflect that we are in the presence of a God and speaking with a Lord before Whom the Angels tremble out of respect and fear." In spite of her familiarity with her Beloved Spouse and her long periods of dryness and desolation, she knew her place before God and rejoiced to be His creature and bride.

In the other quote, St. Mary Magdalene states that "A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation." Such obedience is the height of true mystical experience and explains why this wise and holy woman was canonized. Her greatest ecstasy was to do God's will.