Thursday, July 25, 2013

SHORT OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Come Creative Spirit, visit the hearts of your followers, fill them with the Grace from Above: these hearts which you have created. You are called the Consoling Spirit, the gift of God Almighty, the source of Living Water, the Divine Fire, the Charity, the invisible Unction of Souls. Come then, with your Seven Precious Gifts, You who are the finger of God, You who are the Supreme Subject of the Father’s Promise, You who place His Word on our lips. Light up our Spirits with your Light, embrace our hearts with Your Love and, sanctify at all times our frail flesh. Banish from us the Spirit of Temptation, fill us with unfailing peace, be Yourself our guide so that we may avoid that which would be prejudicial to our salvation. Teach us to understand the Father, teach us to understand the Son and Yourself, Spirit of the Father and of the Son, ever be the object of our Faith. That is why Glory in all cycles be to God the Father, to the Son, resurrected from among the Dead, and to the Holy Spirit. So be it. Lord, please send your Spirit and all will be created, and You will renew the face of the Earth. Oh God, who reads all hearts and who knows all troubles, Spirit of Light and of Love, pour down upon me, I beseech You, the fullness of Your gifts, for all are necessary to me and I cannot choose. Give me the Spirit of Wisdom, which makes me view things according to their true value and not according to the judgment of the world but according to Yours, Lord. May I repeat with Solomon: Since my early years I have loved Wisdom and I have chosen it to be my companion in my life. I have preferred it above all that is most splendid in this world, and I thought that riches were nothing to the price of such a jewel. All good things have come with It, and in my pains and my sorrows, it has always been lily consolation and my joy. (Proverbs VIII) Give me also the Spirit of Intelligence which enlightens me in the knowledge of the Scriptures and of the great eternal truths. And that which attracts the Spirit of Intelligence into the Soul is faith and modesty. Faith which submits in order to understand better, and humility which readily recognizes its ignorance. Give me the Spirit of Counsel which lights up the way to Heaven and prevents me from getting lost like the foolish traveller taking an unknown road without a guide. Give me the Spirit of Knowledge which teaches me that the knowledge of salvation is the only necessary one, the only one that no human science can do without. Give me the Spirit of Strength which does not leave me so weak after the slightest effort, so feeble when I have to obey rather than do as I will, to work when I have not the slightest desire to do so, and to conquer myself when the Holy Rule of God orders me to. Give me the Spirit of Piety which gives my heart a filial attraction towards God, and which makes serving Him pleasant and easy. Give me the Spirit of Fear, filial fear which, mingled with respect and love, makes me carefully avoid everything which could displease God, our Father. Oh, precious Gifts, whose excellence I have learned to know, see how my soul calls You with confidence and opens itself to You with love. Holy Apostles who, on the day of Pentecost did receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, grant us, with some of the same graces, a fidelity similar to that which was yours so that, believing all that you have received and passed on, practicing the works which were yours, living and dying within this Church which you have founded, we may share with you, O Holy Apostles, the blissful reward of Heaven. So be it.