2. Magnificent Works of the Holy Spirit

THE wonderful sway of the Holy Spirit, both in the visible and in the invisible world, has ever filled the children of God with profoundest devotion and tenderest love toward the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. The magnificent works of the Holy Spirit in the kingdom of nature and of grace are so sublime and marvelous that the devout heart is penetrated with love and gratitude in contemplating them, and the understanding, illuminated by heavenly light, praises and adores God in His great works.
The principal of these magnificent works are six, as explained in the following paragraphs.

1. The Beauty, Order and Harmony of Nature

In the history of creation, we are told that the Spirit of God hovered above the waters and that God looked with pleasure upon His work of creation. This work was good because it was accomplished in the love and in the power of the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit poured Himself forth upon the whole creation. There is nothing which more eloquently proclaims the existence of an all-wise and all-powerful Creator than the marvelous beauty and harmony which is shown forth in the whole realm of nature, from the tiniest insect to the gigantic system of stars and planets which form the universe. And all this marvelous beauty and order is the work of the Triune God, through the special operation of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Holy Spirit prepared and adorned Mary as the temple of the Deity, the Immaculate Mother of the Eternal Word, the most beautiful miracle of grace and sanctity, His own elect Spouse and the Queen of Heaven. In the beatitude of eternal life the Holy Spirit reposes with unspeakable rapture in Mary, His spotless Bride.

3. The Incarnation

When the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity descended to earth and assumed flesh in the bosom of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was the Holy Spirit Who accomplished this wondrous miracle. In this mystery the Holy Spirit, as Creator and Divine Artist, surpassed Himself, so to say, by fashioning the most beautiful masterpiece in the whole creation in order to render possible our Redemption and to bring about its realization.

The Mother of our Redeemer was prepared by the Holy Spirit to be the worthy Mother of God. The immensity of His power overshadowed her, and the vehemence of His love wrought in her the Mystery of the Incarnation. Upon the Sacred Humanity of our Saviour were poured all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that the Son of God was ever guided by the Holy Spirit in all His activities.

4. The Church of Jesus Christ

The Holy Spirit formed and modeled the Church of Christ with Divine power and heavenly fire, hovering over the Blood and Water which welled up and flowed from the opened Heart of Jesus on the Cross, and He continues to safeguard and dispense through the Church the infinite merits of our Saviour till the End of Time. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches, governs and sanctifies the Church, and it is in virtue of this same Holy Spirit that the Church teaches, guides and rules the faithful. In an invisible manner, the Holy Spirit directs the "Teaching Church" and preserves her doctrine in its primitive purity by zealously guarding the infallibility of her Supreme Pontiff, as Christ promised His Apostles: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." (John 14:26).

5. The Salvation and Sanctification of Souls

Jesus Christ is the Author of our sanctification, in so far as He has merited and prepared this grace for us. It is the Holy Spirit, however, Who, in virtue of the merits of our Saviour, truly sanctifies us, makes us pure and holy, and pleasing in the sight of God. "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor: 6:11).

The Holy Spirit cleanses and enriches souls through the Precious Blood and the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, makes them Children of God and co-heirs with Christ, and transforms them into temples for His own habitation. By means of Sanctifying Grace, the Holy Spirit takes possession of the soul and fills it with His love and grace, so that the soul, created according to the image of God, may be adorned with all virtue and sanctity and thus become a worthy dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Holy Spirit gives us supernatural life in Baptism; He strengthens us and increases His Seven Gifts in Confirmation; He operates in our souls through Holy Communion and imparts strength and comfort in the other Sacraments. To the Holy Spirit we owe all comfort, all light, all strength, all graces that we receive.

6. The Glorification of the Elect in Heaven

The sixth and most compassionate of the magnificent works of the Holy Spirit is the admission of all the children of God into the Kingdom of Heaven, where the Father and the Son love Each Other in the infinite beatitude of the Holy Spirit and where all the elect of God love each other in this sacred, burning, infinitely blissful love of the Holy Spirit. How inconceivable is the rapture of those who dwell in the kingdom of the Holy Spirit. They will enjoy His bliss throughout eternity!




E-MAIL

HOME----------------TRADITION-------------------VENI CREATOR

www.catholictradition.org/Tradition/holy-ghost2.htm