Credo in Spiritum Sanctum

I believe in the Holy Ghost – He is the uncreated, perfect, animating, vivifying, enlivening Lord, Who moved upon the waters at Creation, Who is sent forth and makes and creates, Who is the spirit and ‘soul’ of the Holy Catholic Church; He is the Communion between the Father and the Son, proceeding from Them Both as from a single principle, worshipped and glorified together with Them in the Unity of the Trinity; He Who is true God with Them, equal in glory and majesty, eternal, infinite, almighty; He spoke in many and divers ways of old through the prophets, in the Law, in the Gospels and through the preaching and teaching of the Apostles and their rightful successors in the Church; He is the communion, the true bond of fellowship, between all the Saints, those elected and made holy by His divine indwelling grace, first imparted at Holy Baptism (the water thereof made holy by the secret admixture of His grace, as once He sanctified Jordan); He is invoked to illapse upon Holy Church's offerings, sanctifying and blessing them, transsubstantiating the elements into the Holy Gifts (for what is wonderfully accomplished by the words of the Second Person is at one and the same time accomplished by the blessing of the First and the epicletic overshadowing of the Third, since all works external to the Trinity are the common work of all Three), just as He by His overshadowing joined once for all Body and Blood to the Eternal Word, the very sacramental Gifts that are now in this time of grace given to make holy those who receive them, that they may become what they are (the second marvellous conversion, the sacred commerce of the sacrament), imparting the Fire of the Spirit to those christified by the Body and the Blood; He is Himself the Forgiveness of Sins (as one of the Whitsuntide Collects prays); He guarantees (as was shewn to the prophet Ezechiel) the resurrection of the flesh, and thus He imparts to this mortal flesh immortal vigour, that it may endure unto life eternal, world without end. Amen.

(From a synthesis of the Apostles’, Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, with respect also to the Armenian version of the Nicene: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints.”)

Pentecost Sunday is the anniversary of my baptism, confirmation and first Communion, now just over a quarter century ago – how strange that sounds... I suppose that Sunday Mass in my parish was at nine o'clock in the morning, the same time as it still is (though this year I have instead been to the vigil Mass at six in the evening, where I assisted with the singing of the Ordinary, appropriate hymns and the Latin Sequence): how appropriate, just as on that Whitsun morn 1,980 years ago St Peter's preaching drew the first harvest of souls to the waters of rebirth.

God the Holy Ghost, save and sanctify me a most unworthy sinner.

Ipse harmonia est

Yester-day, while addressing the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis spoke thus of the Holy Spirit and His gifts of grace to all the different members of the Body of Christ:

He, the Paraclete, is the supreme protagonist of every initiative and manifestation of faith. It’s interesting and it makes me think. The Paraclete creates all the differences in the Church and seems like an apostle of Babel. On the other hand, the Paraclete unifies all these differences – not making them equal – but in harmony with one another. I remember a Church Father who described it like this: “Ipse harmonia est.” [He Himself is Harmony.] The Paraclete gives each one of us a different charism, and unites us in this community of the Church that adores the Father, the Son, and Him – the Holy Spirit.”

Now, I have been trying to find who exactly it was who spoke and wrote of the Holy Spirit in those words “Ipse harmonia est” – that is, He Himself is harmony or concord, He the Holy Spirit is harmony itself. There are so many repetitions of these words of the Holy Father themselves online that so far I have not had a chance to locate the original reference, but I do see in these words the idea that the different graces given by the Spirit result in a wonderful symphony.

In any case, these words are beautiful and worth much prayerful consideration; the last line refers I think to a phrase of St Cyprian, as repeated in the Catechism (n. 810), itself repeating Lumen Gentium: "Hence the universal Church is seen to be 'a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit'" (LG 4 citing St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat 23: PL 4, 553).

The New Law is the Grace of the Holy Ghost

The key to Christian life and living, and therefore to all moral theology, is put so well by Aquinas: the New Law is the grace of the Holy Ghost, written on our hearts.  By His power we are enabled to live as we should, thus fulfilling all that Christ taught us.  To quote from the Common Doctor's Summa Theologiæ (I-II, 106, 1, sed contra & resp.):

The New Law is the law of the New Testament. But the law of the New Testament is instilled in our hearts. For the Apostle, quoting the authority of Jeremiah 31:31-33: "Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord; and I will perfect unto the house of Israel, and unto the house of Judah, a new testament," says, explaining what this statement is (Hebrews 8:8-10): "For this is the testament which I will make to the house of Israel... by giving My laws into their mind, and in their heart will I write them." Therefore the New Law is instilled in our hearts.

I answer that, "Each thing appears to be that which preponderates in it," as the Philosopher states (Ethic. ix, 8). Now that which is preponderant in the law of the New Testament, and whereon all its efficacy is based, is the grace of the Holy Ghost, which is given through faith in Christ. Consequently the New Law is chiefly the grace itself of the Holy Ghost, which is given to those who believe in Christ. This is manifestly stated by the Apostle who says (Romans 3:27): "Where is... thy boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith": for he calls the grace itself of faith "a law." And still more clearly it is written (Romans 8:2): "The law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death." Hence Augustine says (De Spir. et Lit. xxiv) that "as the law of deeds was written on tables of stone, so is the law of faith inscribed on the hearts of the faithful": and elsewhere, in the same book (xxi): "What else are the Divine laws written by God Himself on our hearts, but the very presence of His Holy Spirit?"

Nevertheless the New Law contains certain things that dispose us to receive the grace of the Holy Ghost, and pertaining to the use of that grace: such things are of secondary importance, so to speak, in the New Law; and the faithful need to be instructed concerning them, both by word and writing, both as to what they should believe and as to what they should do. Consequently we must say that the New Law is in the first place a law that is inscribed on our hearts, but that secondarily it is a written law.

Three Byzantine Prayers to the Holy Ghost

These three prayers to the Holy Ghost, originally special to the feast of Pentecost, are treasures of the Byzantine Rite.  The first troparion is sung as part of the customary devotions at the start of any liturgical act or prayer; the second troparion is sung at Communion at almost every Divine Liturgy (its reference to Trinitarian worship reflects the Eastern emphasis on Pentecost as the complete revelation of the Trinity with the coming of the promised Paraclete); the third is the special refrain for the second antiphon at the Liturgy on the feast itself.

Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere, filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life; come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and, O Good One, save our souls.

We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, as we worship the undivided Trinity, for the same has saved us.

Good Paraclete, save us who sing to you: Alleluia.

Overshadowed by the Spirit, Mary is Mediatrix

I quoted from Bulgakov some posts ago; I now continue with a fitting extract for the day of Pentecost, a rich panoply of intense theological contemplation concerning Holy Mary, Mother of God, Vessel of the Holy Ghost, as image of the Church, as Mediatrix, Advocate and associate with Christ's Sacrifice:

Mary as the personal habitation of the Holy Spirit is in truth the true personal expression of the Church, the heart of the Church of which Christ is the Head.  Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she becomes the Mother of God, brings forth the Logos, and in and through her this divine motherhood belongs to the whole Church: the Logos born of the Virgin is also born in the souls of the faithful, for every Christian soul has a part in the divine motherhood of the Mother-Church, Theotokos (cf. St Augustine).  The Church and Mary each bear the same relation alike to Christ and Christians.  It would be impossible to say in so many words that Mary is the Church, and yet it may be said that the Church is represented by Mary, in so far as in her person all the attributes of the Church find their personal, final, and most perfect embodiment.

The Mother of God has no need of prayer for herself, for as deified she is in possession of all things.  As the glory of God and the glory of the world, as the manifested love of God for the world and the manifested love of the world for God, in her prayer she glorifies God [cf. her Magnificat].  Her own prayer is glorification, eternally realized love, flaming and triumphant in its perfect joy—God's own love for himself in his creation.  But as the foremost representative of the world and of all creation, the Mother of God offers also a prayer which is not her own, and yet is hers as the prayer of all creation.  She gives wings to its prayer; raising it to the throne of God, she gives it power; she is the intercessor raising her hands to God as a high-priestess (orante [a pray-er]) and overshadowing the world with her veil.  The Mother of God is the praying Church itself in its personal embodiment, and in this sense she is the universal Mother, defender and guardian.  She is personal, incarnate mercy and pity for the world in its creaturely shortcomings and sinful distortion.  Being now absolutely free from these shortcomings and from the power of sin, she is the sunlit summit of the world, for she still belongs to it.  The saints and the prayers of the saints surround this summit like a bright cloud and draw near to it.  But even the angelic world and the greatest saints are separated from the Mother of God both by her perfect holiness and by her deification, that is, by the fact that in her creaturely shortcomings are completely overcome [though the angels and saints are likewise hallowed and deified, "star differeth from star in glory" - her holiness is greater by far than that of all others]: her own gracious life is the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling in her, and her vicarious life is the life of the whole created world to which she belongs.  It is in this that her mediatory significance lies: she brings to her Son, the world's Saviour, the world which he has saved; its salvation is realized in and through her, and nothing in the world takes place apart from her.  She has given flesh to her Son and she is herself the God-bearing flesh through which the flesh of the world is brought to him for salvation.  In her submission to God's will she has spiritually sacrificed her Son's life to God, and as she stood by the cross she was silently continuing to say that which she had said once and forever: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord.'

We must take the last step in following this line of thought and admit that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh takes place with the participation of the Mother of God, who for that reason was present at Pentecost.  The central place she occupies in the Church precludes the possibility of anything in the life of the Church happening apart from her and not through her.  Owing to her significance as the havitation of the Holy Spirit, the action of the Holy Spirit in the creature involves her co-operation.

— from S.N. Bulgakov, The Burning Bush (Kupina Nepolimaya) (1927), quoted, translated from the end of pp. 183-8 and from pp. 203-6 in the original Russian, in A Bulgakov Anthology, J. Pain & N. Zernov, edd. (London: SPCK, 1976), 95-6.  [The notes in square brackets are my own.]

Ken on the Holy Ghost

I must admit to a soft spot for many Anglican divines, such as the pious Thomas Ken (1637-1711), sometime Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Church of England, which see he gave up rather than forswear his rightful allegiance to King James II.  He was author of many spiritual tracts; just this morning I bought a pocket edition (cost in 1876 when new: 1 shilling; cost in 2010 when old: $25) of his Manual of Prayers, bound up with his Exposition of the Church Catechism and Directions for Prayer.  All contain valuable passages breathing a warm love of God; I quote now from the middle work, from the devout and loving paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed that it contains, which he wrote for the benefit of souls, "that your faith might work through love" (cf. Galatians v, 6):

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."

The Third Person in the Trinity.

I believe in Thee, O Thou Spirit of God, the third Person in the most adorable Trinity; I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art the Lord, (2 Cor. iii. 17. 18.) that Thou art God, (John iv. 24; Acts v. 3.) Eternal, (Heb. ix. 14.) and Omniscient, (1 Cor. ii. 10.) a Person distinct from both the Father and the Son, eternally proceeding from both, (Matt. x. 20; Rom. viii. 9.) and equally sent by both, (John xiv. 26; xvi. 7.) and joint Author with both of our salvation; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art holy, essentially holy, (1 Pet. i. 15.) in respect of Thy divine Nature; and being essentially holy, art infinitely amiable; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art personally holy, that Thou art the Author of all internal holiness, and of all internal and sanctifying grace; (Gal. v. 22.) that Thou art the principle of all spiritual life in us; (John iii. 5.) and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Love Incarnate, for sending the Spirit in Thy stead, and for promising it to our prayers: (Luke xi. 13.) all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Spirit of Love, for "shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts," (Rom. v. 5.) for filling all that love Thee with exuberance of joy and consolation: all love, all glory be to Thee.

O Thou blessed Spirit the Comforter, purify my soul, and infuse Thy love into it, and consecrate it to be Thy temple, (1 Cor. vi. 19.) and fix Thy throne immoveably there, and set all my affections on fire, that my heart may be a continual sacrifice of love offered up to Thee and the flame may be ever aspiring towards Thee.

See what devotion is!  No wonder his Exposition of the Church Catechism was subtitled The Practice of Divine Love.  "All love, all glory, be to Thee."

Kolbe and Bulgakov

Further to what I noted below about daring ideas in Mariology, it is instructive to compare the similar Marian insights of the martyr St Maximilian Mary Kolbe, O.F.M. (1894-1941) and Archpriest Sergei Nicolayevich Bulgakov (1871-1944), a not uncontroversial Russian Orthodox theologian.

Now Kolbe, with holy daring, wrote that Our Lady is almost the incarnation of the Holy Ghost.  He framed most arrestingly the thought that she was so guided and governed by God's Spirit as to be in moral union with Him, though she and the Paraclete remained two separate persons: which is more or less what Nestorius asserted of Jesus Christ as being a very holy man in moral union with the Person of the Eternal Word.

(Indeed, living a life suffused by the Holy Spirit is what the saints are called to, as St Philip Neri rather alarmingly demonstrated...)

Rather than quote Kolbe at length (his opinions about the Immaculata can easily be googled), I pass on to quote a representative passage from the less-easily-accessible writings of Bulgakov, which he introduces by saying "We must... be perfectly clear about the theological implications and the dogmatic meaning of venerating her who is called 'more honourable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim'" (quoting the famous Megalynarion sung in the Divine Liturgy):

There is no personal, human incarnation of the third Person of the Trinity. But although the third Person is not personally incarnated as a human being in the same sense as the Son of God was, there is that one human, created personality which is the vessel filled by the Holy Spirit. She so completely surrendered her human, personal life as to make it transparent to the Holy Spirit, testifying about herself, 'Behold he handmaid of the Lord.' This being — the Blessed Virgin — is not the personal incarnation of the Holy Spirit but becomes his personal, living receptacle, an absolutely Spirit-bearing creature [Pneumatophoros?], a Spirit-bearing human being. For although there is no personal incarnation of the Spirit, there may be such a thing as personal Spirit-bearing, in which a created personality is completely surrendered in its createdness and is, as it were, dissolved in the Holy Spirit. This interpretation [sic; lege 'interpenetration'?] by the Spirit amounts to a change of kind. The Virgin is wholly deified, full of grace, 'a living temple of God'. Such a Spirit-bearing personality radically differs from the God-man, for she is a creature, but she differs as radically from the creation in its createdness, for she is raised and united to the divine life. And through this spiritualization is realized the image of God in man. It must therefore be admitted that in heaven the human figure of the Mother of God, together with that of the God-man Jesus, jointly manifest the integral pattern of man. The ikon of our Lady and her Child, the Logos and the creature receiving him and filled with the Holy Spirit, in indivisible unity forms the pattern of man in his integrity. The God-man and the Spirit-bearer, the Son and the Mother, manifesting the revelation of the Father through the Word and the Spirit, manifest the fullness of God's copy in man, or, the other way round, of the pattern of man in God.

— from S.N. Bulgakov, The Burning Bush (Kupina Nepolimaya) (1927), quoted, translated from the end of pp. 137-142 in the original Russian, in A Bulgakov Anthology, J. Pain & N. Zernov, edd. (London: SPCK, 1976), 92.  [The notes in square brackets are my own.]

Bulgakov's doctrine was roundly criticized by the Orthodox in the 1930's as most problematic; he was charged with making Our Lady into a goddess, a Fourth Hypostasis, and so forth; notoriously, in one passage in The Burning Bush, he called her "a creature, but also no longer a creature".  Given the three-way split of the Russian Orthodox jurisdictions in the diaspora then, there is some suspicion of politicking and intrigue in the accusations of heresy directed against him.

I also find it ridiculous that the Orthodox, of all Christians, would condemn a man for taking deification (theosis) so seriously, indeed, finding it in its logical apex in the Mother of God.  He clearly says that the Holy Ghost does not have a personal incarnation; he "rightly divides the word of truth"; he exalts Holy Mary as the Pneumatophoros in truth – to quote a Catholic source in entire agreement with this, one of the official catechetical texts prepared by the Theological-Historical Commission for the Great Jubilee, entitled The Holy Spirit: Lord and Giver of Life, "Mary is the pneumatophoros (bearer of the Spirit) to the highest degree".

The same source approvingly quotes from two Byzantine writers who seem to anticipate Bulgakov: "Mary from the beginning was united with the Spirit... her participation in the Spirit became a participation in being", wrote Theophanes of Nicæa; and the great Nicolas Cabasilas wrote that Mary had a "spiritualized body, that is, one transformed by the Spirit".

As once with the mystical paradoxes of Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) in his Cherubimic Wanderer, Bulgakov's holy effusions I think are unfairly dealt with when read suspiciously: I believe him orthodox insofar as these passages go.  Then again, I am not conversant with the depths of his "sophiology", his doctrinal focus on Sophia, the Wisdom of God...  (Not that he referred to Sophia in the New Age feminist manner of course!)

The Holy Ghost in the Little Office

Of course, as in the Great Office, in every doxology for all psalms, canticles and hymns, in the internal doxology of the Te Deum, as well as in the conclusion of every collect, the Holy Ghost is worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son; but strangely He, the Third Person of the Trinity, is otherwise hardly mentioned in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, despite the obvious fact that she conceived "by the Holy Ghost" (traditionally, the Apostles' Creed, which states this, is said after Compline) - to which the Matins hymn and the collect of the Salve Regina make allusion: Fœcunda Sancto Spiritu; Spiritu Sancto coöperante. (The Benedictus antiphon names Our Lady also as sacrarium Spiritus Sancti.)

Isn't it strange that in none of the collects of the Hours is the Holy Ghost directly mentioned in the body of the prayer?

There are a few extra mentions of Him in Advent (in the second Responsory and third Lesson of Matins - Spiritus Sanctus superveniet in te; in the capitulum used at Lauds, Terce and Vespers - et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini; in the Gospel canticle antiphon at Lauds, Vespers and Compline - Spiritus Sanctus in te descendet; in the versicle at None - Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto), but by no means many.

To remedy this state of affairs, I add pro pia devotione some extras before and after: as once was the first stanza of the hymn at all the Little Hours, I preface Prime through to None, and Compline, with the first stanza of the Veni Creator Spiritus; and just recently I have begun to add, before the Commemoration of the Saints at the end of Lauds and Vespers (which I append to these, despite its removal in about 1960), a Commemoration of the Holy Ghost, with the usual Veni Sancte Spiritus, Emitte Spiritum tuum, and Collect Deus cui omne cor patet (so dear to St Philip, himself a notable vessel of the Holy Ghost, and a prayer he recommended to his Oratorians to read at Mass).

Mentibus nostris

I was greatly consoled at Confession this morning with the Collect of to-day, Whit Saturday, and the words of Matins and Lauds (which I read before and after): the Sacramental grace, of rededication to the Holy Ghost and to His light and guidance, to His indwelling, is so well expressed in these phrases:

Mentibus nostris, quæsumus, Domine, Spiritum Sanctum benignus infunde: cujus et sapientia conditi sumus, et providentia gubernamur.  Per... in unitate ejusdem...

(Into our minds, we beseech, Lord, benignly pour forth the Holy Ghost: of Whose wisdom we were created, and by Whose providence we are governed.  Through... in the unity of the same...)

I often recall the Thomistic axiom named the principle of predilection (beloved of Garrigou-Lagrange): that one thing would not be greater than another or graced more than another did not God love it more (S.T., I, xx, 3); in humble truth I do feel very graced and gifted and therefore beloved of God, since He has always cared for me and guided me through thick and thin, and so I bow to His Holy Spirit in Whose wisdom I was created and by Whose providence I am governed.  Glory be to God!

F.Ss.R in Christchurch

Wasting time over breakfast &c. nearly led me to be late for Mass, but in the event my map-reading bore fruit, and I arrived right on the stroke of 10 am at the Oratory of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Rutland Street, St Albans. (I later learnt the amusing coincidence from the celebrant that he had been a member of the Plymouth Brethren prior to his conversion, and that the present chapel used to belong to the same sect.) The congregation of about 25 were singing "O purest of creatures" as an entrance hymn; Low Mass with two servers followed.

Fr Clement Mary, F.Ss.R., is a Scotsman, and read Mass with excellent diction and pronunciation, since his accent better fits the continental vowels - I hope one day to hear Mark, the Scots blogger now soon to join the F.S.S.P., likewise praying at God's altar. It was not a dialogue Mass (the servers alone responded); before preaching, Fr read the Epistle and Gospel in English (for the Epistle and Sermon, he wore a biretta, having laid aside the maniple as usual, and read the Gospel bareheaded; before the sermon, we all said a Hail Mary); there was a Third Confiteor; and the Leonine Prayers were read kneeling after Mass. The final hymn was the Redemptorist favourite, "Mary from thy sacred image" - a fine old Dutch copy of the Icon of Perpetual Succour hung as an altarpiece.

Mass, as I had surmised, was of the Sunday after Ascension; it was noteworthy how to-day's Epistle is full of the best advice on the moral life (Luther rudely noted that "whoever arranged the readings from the Epistles was 'a friend of works'"), and very neatly divides up into the Little Chapters to be read at Terce, Sext and None this day.

The sermon itself reminded me in the best way of Fr Rowe's clear doctrinal preaching, adducing many useful examples from the saints: as the Dove of the Holy Ghost visibly appearing at the ear of Popes St Gregory the Great and Gregory VII, indicating their gracing with the Gift of Wisdom; and the illapse of the Spirit's ball of fire into the heart of St Philip Neri, permanently expanding his heart, fulfilling beyond measure his fervent prayers to be made a fit instrument of the Holy Ghost, to the extent that he trembled with joy and Divine love, needing to beg God to abate His consolations, lest he die. We ought have the greatest of devotion to the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, Equal to the Father and the Son: if we be in the state of grace, Love dwells in our souls, is the Soul of our soul, and thus (as St Teresa of Avila avers) we have no reason to seek after transient things and vain, seeing as nothing outside can compare with our heart's Treasure: we each of us are, like St Ignatius of Antioch, to be surnamed Theophorus, "God-bearer" - hence, grieve not the Spirit! He it is Who perfects our knowledge and love of Christ, and is the Sanctifier and Lifegiver. Thus the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles prayed, and only when He came was the work of saving souls made active and fruitful: all had been prepared by Our Lord, but it was expedient that He return to heaven, that the Holy Ghost come and fulfil all things.

Fr Clement was very pleasant to speak with at the parish cup of tea afterward, and explained that, several of their singers being away, it would be appreciated if I bolstered the choir for their sung Mass for Pentecost! (The Propers will be recto tono, it seems; but he wants me to sing the Sequence; the Ordinary will be good ol' de Angelis and I expect Credo III.) Veni, Sancte Spiritus! As Pentecost is very dear to me, this is a wonderful thing to be asked to assist in.

Love of the Father, Love of God the Son

For a recessional after Mass at Carmel we sang "Love of the Father, Love of God the Son" - a beautiful, poetic hymn (to whose words close attention must be paid, an attention they will repay), with a pleasant if somewhat tricky tune by Orlando Gibbons.  

As Eastertide draws on, we approach with love and dread the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, addressing Him in prayer: "thou dost the mind from earthly dreams recall, / and bring, through Christ, to him for whom are all." For He is "the angels' armor and the saints' reward"; to Him as God, with the Father and the Son from Whom (as One Principle) He proceeds, we sing:

Eternal Glory, all men thee adore,

who art and shalt be worshipped evermore:

us whom thou madest, comfort with thy might,

and lead us to enjoy thy heavenly light.

Ure igne Sancti Spiritus

As I was received into the Church on Pentecost Sunday – was baptized, confirmed, and given first Holy Communion – I have since tried to cultivate a particular devotion to the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, that "eternal mysterious secret Being to Whom, as God, the priests offered up Mass once a year, robed in the scarlet of the tongues of fire" (Joyce).

Significant things have happened to me at Pentecost in the years since: return to practice of the Faith; deliverance unscathed from a bad car accident.

Some years back, to help in meditation (which I find very difficult), I collected together all the orations in honour of the Holy Ghost from the Missale Romanum: they are very beautiful, roll off the tongue, and are packed with theology.  St Alphonsus once said that any one of the occasional collects in the Missal was worth fifty Rosaries, and he for one certainly didn't devalue that most excellent of prayers.

One of these collects, given in the Preparation for Mass at the end of the Breviary and beginning of the Missal, and also included in the Litanies of the Saints, is also found in these occasional prayers, or votive prayers, as the collect for continence; which while listed as such, is also a more general prayer to be made pleasing to God in heart and body, to serve Him well, to have a pure and undivided heart, unstained by impurities:

Ure igne Sancti Spiritus renes nostros et cor nostrum, Domine: ut tibi casto corpore serviamus, et mundo corde placeamus.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(Burn our reins and our heart, O Lord, with the fire of the Holy Ghost, that we may serve thee with a chaste body and please thee with a clean heart.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  Amen.)

St Philip Neri, that third Apostle of Rome, and possessed by the Holy Ghost, to Whom he had a great devotion and from the coming of Whom as a globe of fire had received a miraculous enlargement of his heart, and better still a heart afire with love of God and neighbour, lived a holy and pure life, and was able to inspire in so many a love of God and of purity, restraining and delivering his disciples from the opposite vice.  For this reason, Newman in his litany names him Flos puritatis, Flower of purity.  In this dark age, it is a virtue to especially struggle for, as Philip did, and to pray for: "Who didst observe chastity in thy youth, pray for us".  For no human effort is of avail without the coming of the Holy Ghost in his purifying fire, to bestow grace and ignite true love.

One great benefit of taking the plunge and opting to change from the modern Divine Office to the 1962 Breviary has been the joy of praying the Psalter each week, and in Jerome's beautiful text, where so many phrases have acquired a wealth of allusion in their history of Christian use and interpretation: so on Wednesdays at Prime, when Psalm 25(26) crops up, I recognize as an old friend the verse underlying this collect: Proba me, Domine, et tenta me: ure renes meos et cor meum (v. 2) - "Prove me, O Lord, and try me: burn my reins and my heart".  One can also see the relevance of Ps 50:12 – Cor mundum crea in me, Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis ("Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within...").

It is God who judges justly, scrutinizes and probes the loins and heart, to give each man what his conduct and actions deserve (cf. Apoc. ii, 23; Jer. xi, 20; xvii, 10; xx, 12; Ps vii, 10). So then, heed Heb. xii, 28 – ...habemus gratiam: per quamserviamus placentes Deo, cum metu et reverentia ("...we have grace; whereby let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence").

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium: et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful: and enkindle in them the fire of thy love.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus – Come, Holy Spirit.

St Philip Neri, Patron of the Fratres Oratorii

Goethe informs us (if we can read German; I have the English, but not at hand nor on the Net) that it is good that there are many saints, so that every man may find one appropriate to his humour – and then goes on to explain why he, Enlightenment Lutheran that he was, likes St Philip Neri (though he rather spoils his account by explaining away miracles and making one or two crudely anti-Catholic comments).

Guided, I trust, by the Holy Ghost, to Whom I hope to offer a pleasing devotion for all His undeserved blessings toward such a backslider as I am, for many years I too have greatly esteemed good St Philip, himself the peculiar instrument of the Spirit (given his holy but often extraordinary behaviour).

For any liking to read of his life (always a good idea, to read about saints – for their example may be catching), here is Dom Alban Butler's beautifully eighteenth century take on it.  Snippets from the late great Louis Bouyer's The Roman Socrates are also on the Web. (The whole of Bacci's two volumes are available online here).

Many fine devotions concerning St Philip Neri are online, including sterling efforts by Newman – above all, the Litany to St Philip – and Faber (tho' the latter's hymns are frankly too treacly for my taste).  Here I simply give the traditional collect for his feast, to indicate what qualities of his have been highlighted since his raising to the honours of the altars, alongside SS Teresa of Avila, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier and Isidore the Farmer, in 1622:

Deus, qui beatum Philippum, Confessorem tuum, sanctorum tuorum gloria sublimasti: concede propitius; ut cujus solemnitate [on other days: commemoratione] lætamur, ejus virtutum proficiamus exemplo.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

Thus, as the Church seeks to inculcate in us, her children, by the collect she has composed for Philip's feastday, we ought "profit by the example of his virtues" if we are truly to "rejoice in his commemoration": for as God has been pleased to exalt him to the glory of holiness, so it is his will for all of us ("this is the will of God: your sanctification" – I Thess. iv, 3a).  

For this reason, to make some very little movement toward heaven by seeking to pray and so be strengthened for life's combat, some other men and myself at our usual place of worship have just started to come together each month or so as Fratres Oratorii (Brothers of the Oratory), after the example of St Philip and his sons the Oratorians, who gather for mental prayer and vocal prayer in common in the evenings.

God willing, the Fratres will pray together next on Monday the 10th of December at 6.30pm, at St John's Pro-Cathedral, Perth, Western Australia.  Our chaplain and confessarius, Fr Michael Rowe, will lead the Litanies of the Saints to begin (for we ought accustom ourselves to hold converse with saints and angels, with the Holy Mother of God, and above all, with God Three-in-One), and conclude the half-hour of mental prayer (during the which he will be available to hear confessions) with simple Benediction (with the ciborium).  Next year we hope to meet more regularly.  (Of course, any men interested would be most welcome.)