Monday before Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

In order that we may be inspired to prepare ourselves rightly for Pentecost, we will meditate during the following days on the seven gifts which the Holy Spirit brings with Him to the soul, as so many inestimable treasures wherewith to ornament and enrich it. We will therefore meditate to-morrow: 1st, on the gift of understanding, which makes us know God and all the titles which He possesses to our love; 2d, the gift of knowledge, which makes us comprehend the nothingness of all created things and the use we ought to make of them to raise ourselves to God. We will then make the resolution: 1st, often to call down upon us, by means of ejaculatory prayers, the gifts of understanding and knowledge; 2d, to cultivate recollection as a means of attracting the Holy Spirit towards us, and vigilance to avoid the numerous sins which might make Him depart from us. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Gospel: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. v. 8).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore the Holy Spirit as the eternal and personal love of God. Let us offer Him our homage of love, begging of Him to enable us to understand the excellence of His gifts, and to prepare us for the great feast which is drawing nigh.

FIRST POINT

Of the Gift of Understanding

The gift of understanding is a supernatural light which the Holy Spirit diffuses in the soul in order to enable it the better to know God: 1st, in His ineffable perfections; 2d, in the riches of love enclosed in the mysteries; 3d, in His word contained in the Holy Scriptures; 4th, in the religion so marvellous in its wisdom, which He has revealed to us; and, 5th, in the Providence which presides over all the events of our lives. Oh, how desirable this gift is, and with what fervor ought we not to ask for it! The ideas of reason on these lofty truths are so confined, even the ideas engendered by faith are so dark! As yet it is only twilight; but the gift of understanding is the broad daylight, by the aid of which we see so clearly into the depths of all things, that the intelligere is really the intus legere, and that the soul is thrown into a state of real astonishment at there being men who take offence at all these holy truths, or who hesitate to believe them. Devoid of this gift, God, His perfections, His mysteries, His religion, His providence, say nothing to the mind or to the heart. Possessed of this gift, the ravished soul discovers in God beauty which transports it, in the mysteries inexpressible charms, in religion so magnificent a whole that the heart is filled with love for it, and in Providence designs so worthy of God that it cannot contain its admiration and praise. Without this gift, the Holy Scriptures are as a dead letter for us; we read them, we recite the psalms, we utter Paters and sacred canticles with a want of understanding which does not arouse even our attention. But with this gift, the Holy Scriptures ravish us; each time we read them we discover in them new meanings; piety finds therein delicious nourishment, and its happiness consists in reading or reciting them. It was this gift which David celebrated when he exclaimed: “The uncertain and hidden things of Thy wisdom Thou hast made manifest to me” (Ps. l. 8). It was this gift which St. Augustine received when he penetrated so deeply into the counsels and the guidance of God in relation to the whole universe and to himself, that he never wearied of contemplating them. It was through this gift that St. Antony felt to be all too short whole nights added to days for the contemplation of the divine marvels, and that St. Bernard complained of not being able to suffice for the abundance of thoughts and of illuminations which inundated his soul every time that he meditated on the life or death of Jesus Christ! Let us ask God for this gift with all the fervor of our desires, and let us recall to ourselves that it is promised solely to perfect purity of heart. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. v. 8).

SECOND POINT

Of the Gift of Knowledge

If the gift of understanding enables us to know God, as we have just seen in our meditation, the gift of knowledge teaches us to know creatures; and this knowledge is not less necessary to our salvation than is even the knowledge of God. By this gift the Holy Spirit renders three great services to the soul: 1st. He shows it all created things in their true light; He divests riches, honors, pleasures, all earthly goods, of the seductive charm which surrounds them, and points out how fragile they are, how vain, of how short duration, how incapable of making us happy, how hurtful and dangerous they are to our salvation. The soul, surprised at the light appearing to it, feels nothing now but horror for them, as being despicable things supremely unworthy of it; and this it is which peoples cloisters, and which gives to the world so many generous, charitable, and devoted Christians. 2d. The Holy Spirit, by the gift of knowledge, teaches us to use all visible beings as so many steps to raise us up to God, who has created them for us; to make of the whole of nature, as it were, a great book full of the divinity, in which everything speaks of God, everything preaches love; lastly, to see in all that exists a mirror in which are reflected from all sides the goodness, the wisdom, the power, the providence of God, or a harmonious concert calling upon all hearts to love the Supreme Good. Therein consists the knowledge of the saints. 3d. By the gift of knowledge the Holy Spirit teaches preachers the great art of worthily announcing the word of God, and directors of consciences the art of directing souls, of strengthening them in their weaknesses, of consoling them in their sorrows, of making them walk in the way where God wills them to be, of correcting their defects, and raising them to the practice of virtues. Oh, how precious this gift is! How we ought to desire it and to prepare ourselves to receive it! Have we ever known up to the present moment what it really is? We have misconceived it, we have been ignorant of it, we have neither desired nor asked it of God. Let us remedy this forgetfulness.

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.