Sunday after the Ascension: The Holy Spirit
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
The Ascension - James Tissot
" When the Paraclete cometh the Spirit of Truth." JOHN XV. 2, 6.
1. Our Lord's promise to send the Holy Spirit was not for the Apostles only.
2. But for all His disciples until the end of time.
3. How we need the Holy Spirit.
4. His work within our souls-faith, holy fear, piety, and peace.
OUR Blessed Lord, before He departed and left His disciples, consoled them by telling them of the Paraclete, Whom He would send them. He knew how they would grieve at His departure; how they would miss Him, Who had been to them strength and solace and inspiration. So He tells them that He would send another Paraclete-Comforter. It would be for Him -the Holy Spirit of God, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity-to teach them, to warn them, to defend them from evil. Recall His words: "I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever" (John xiv. 16). "When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will teach you all truth" (John xvi. 13). "The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you" (John xiv. 26).
We see that our Lord's promise was not only meant for the disciples there present, but for all His disciples until the end of time-" that He may abide with you for ever." Yes, for each soul of man has need of the Spirit of Truth, that we may keep His commandments and abide in His love. We need the Holy Spirit because of our own nature we are weak and ignorant and sinful. Self, self-seeking would soon become our guide, our master, and ultimately our ruin, if not checked and made subservient to the Holy Spirit. We need likewise the Holy Spirit to counteract the false standards, the allurements, the seductions of the world. We have to live in the world, yet we have to endeavour to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We need the Spirit of Truth finally and most emphatically, "that we may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is. . . against the spirits of wickedness. Therefore, take unto you the armour of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect . . . with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi. 11-17). We are often warned in the Scripture about the evil one," lest we fall into the snares of the devil," as St. Paul says (1 Tim. iii. 7).
From the dangers from ourselves, the world, the spirit of evil, we see most plainly the absolute necessity of receiving, obeying, and being guided by the Spirit of Truth. With the help of God, let us try to realize what the presence of the Holy Ghost is to our soulsHis power, His holy gifts, and the effects of His presence. Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you,” says St. Paul (1 Cor. iii. 16).
The Spirit of God, that other Paraclete, as our Blessed Lord called Him, is given to us in order to inspire our souls with noble aspirations and courage to endeavour to fulfil them. "To us God hath revealed them by His Holy Spirit . . that we may know the things that are given to us by God” (1 Cor. ii. 10, 12). It is He Who teaches us to believe, to pray, to endure. The Spirit not only teaches us, but with His divine power enables us to fulfil our duties. "The Spirit also helps our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself asketh for us" (Rom. viii. 26).
Thus the Spirit works within our soul, and the first effect is the holy fear of God. That holy fear is “the beginning of the fulness of wisdom." It is not a servile fear, but a fear that makes us feel and appreciate the presence of God, that we are partakers of the Spirit of God" (Heb. vi. 4). A fear it is that makes us anxious about God, to remember that His all-seeing eye is upon us, to long and try to please Him in all we do.
And the second effect speedily develops from this reverential fear into the love of God, which is called piety. Piety is that disposition of heart that turns to God as our Father; and makes us look upon the Son of God, our blessed Redeemer, as our Friend! our Brother! "Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (Gal. iv. 6). This piety is the power that makes us adhere to God, and strive to give our whole heart to Him.
Peace is the third effect; that peace which the world cannot give. A peace in spite of our life being a warfare! A warfare against self, the world, and the evil one. This is the blessed peace of a soul that believes and trusts that it is cared for and loved and protected by its God, and is striving to be faithful to Him.
But we must not be content that the Holy Spirit has taught all this, and that we know it and believe it To know the Truth is not all. To know the blessed effects that the indwelling of the Spirit would work in our hearts is not sufficient. Besides knowing, we must be led by the Spirit, we must walk by the Spirit; and to do this we must day after day most carefully, patiently, lovingly, cherish the Spirit of God within us." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Francis Paulinus Hickey
Month of June: Sacred Heart
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Tradition
May: Month of the Sacred Heart
Virtue: Obedience
Sacred Heart, Brittany
Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Most Sweet Jesus, whose overflowing
charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and
contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special
act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving
Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great
indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we
humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary
expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins
of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their
obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or,
renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke
of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage
committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the
manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and
behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the
innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy days, and the
shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also
to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy
priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or
terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very crimes of nations who resist the
rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood.
We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor,
the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the cross and
which Thou continuest to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union
with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and
of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make
recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect
of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the
past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of
conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and
especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to
prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to
follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother,
our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make
of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep
us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee,
so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the
Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and
ever. Amen.
From the Raccolta, #256 (S. P. Ap., June 1, 1928 and March 18, 1932); Enchridion of Indulgences #26. This prayer was prescribed to be recited on this feast by Pope Pius XI
St. Pamphilus, MARTYR, A.D. 309.
by VP
Posted on Sunday June 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"A PRIEST of great learning and sanctity, and particularly honoured by the historian Eusebius. He led a most austere life, retired from the world and its company. He was apprehended by order of Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, and most inhumanly tortured with iron hooks. When the governor could no longer bear the horror of his own cruelty, he ordered the martyr to be cast into prison, to wait the coming of a new governor. Urbanus was succeeded by Firmilian, who passed sentence of death upon St. Pamphilus. He was beheaded on the 16th of February, in the year 309.
When you consider the torments of the martyrs, and then reflect how every peevish word, uneasy humour, and trifling contradiction, is too much now for your patience; have you not reason to blush and be confounded at your weakness, and think that on these days of martyrs you ought to ask for a better spirit, that you may approach something nearer to what you honour in them. O God, help this sinful, and yet proud impatient clay. Give us strength from heaven, for of ourselves we have none.
If you are united with the martyrs in faith, show your faith to be like theirs; that is, let it be accompanied with constancy and courage. You have frequent opportunities of trying it in public, when the irreligious, profane, and sinful discourses of others oblige you to espouse the cause of virtue and truth, for preventing ill impressions upon the hearers. You have as many trials of it when the difficulties of life, the obstinancy of temptations, and your own weakness overwhelm you. It is here that your faith must come to your assistance. What is your faith, if it be only vigorous in time of peace, and sinks in time of difficulties? This is not the faith of the martyrs.
Begin the month by a hearty oblation of yourself, and all under your care to Almighty God. Beg His blessing and protection; ask grace for the amendment of past failings, and let these put you upon resolutions of being more watchful, and avoiding all occasions of sin." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
