29 May 2010: The Holy Spirit and human society

What was the state of society before the coming of the Holy Spirit? Idolatry and superstition, tyranny and oppression reigned everywhere. The most revolting vices were even worshipped! The breath of the Holy Spirit swept these away, and substituted the reign of truth, justice, and virtue.

The poor and the unfortunate were treated with neglect and contempt. Even the most civilized pagans did not attempt at providing any refuge for the desititute and suffering. They lacked the spirit of charity: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.” (Rom 5:5-6)

This divine charity immediately began to ‘renew the face of the earth’, covering it with hospitals and charitable institutions of all kinds for the sick and destitute, for old age, for children. Benevolent societies and religious communities of men and women devoted their services even at sacrifice of their lives.

How blessed are those who, following the lead of the Apostles and for love of God, served the poor and ignorant. They are almost canonized already by the sentence of Jesus Christ: “Come, ye blessed by my Father; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat ... Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:34-5, 40)

Before the coming of the Holy Spirit and preaching of the Gospel, more than half the human race was under the yoke of the most cruel slavery. In pagan Rome, center of civilization, an individual often possessed many thousands of slaves.

Their masters looked upon them as mere beasts of burden. They were put to death for whim or caprice, compelled to kill each other in the amphitheatres for people’s amusement, sacrificed on the altars of their false gods, or rather, of devils. Philosophers by their reason had in vain protested against these horrors.

It was reserved for the Holy Spirit to abolish them through the Apostles who proclaimed: 'With God, there is neither slave nor freeman; but Christ is all and in all.' These intrinsic precepts, always reiterated by the holy Pontiffs, successors of the Apostles, prevailed and succeeded in civilizing the world.

How great is the blindness and ignorance of whoever attribute the blessings of civilization to merely natural causes! They refuse to see that this progress of the mere human spirit, has not produced such results in lands where the Gospel is still unknown.

Let us pray to the Divine Author of all good for those who remain in the darkness and misery of error, and oppressed by cruel tyranny. Let us break off from ourselves the yoke of human respect and unruly passions.

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp306-8

` ` ` MAY DEVOTIONS ` ` `

Mary is the Queen of Heaven

“She lives now and is protecting us. She is there, body and soul, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. She is the same person who was born in Palestine, who gave herself to God while still a child, who received the message from St Gabriel the Archangel, who gave birth to our Saviour, and who stood beside him at the foot of the cross. In her, all ideals become a reality; but this should not make us think that her sublime greatness makes her inaccessible to us. She is the one who is full of grace and the sum of all perfections; and she is also our Mother.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, "Friends of God", 292

Let us offer our Mother: “The ‘Hail, Holy Queen’ at each hour.”

Ref: Fr Charles Belmonte and Fr James Socias (Eds), “Handbook of Prayers”, 1988, p31

Hail, Holy Queen

Hail, Holy Queen, mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us; and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus! O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! (Fr Charles Belmonte and Fr James Socias, op cit, p300)

The Rosary and the Popes

Pope Leo XIII who wrote more than any other Pope on the Rosary, declared to the Cardinal Vicar of Rome: We believe “... We never have done enough to promote this pious practice among the faithful. We wish to see it ever more widely diffused so that it may become the truly popular devotion in all places at all times ...”

Clearly, this form of prayer is particularly pleasing to the Blessed Virgin, and that it is especially suitable as a means of defense for the Church and all Christians. Thus, Urban VI testified that ‘every day the Rosary obtained fresh blessings for Christianity’.

Sixtus V decreed: this method of prayer ‘redounded to the honor of God and the Blessed Virgin, and was well suited to ward off impending danger’. Leo X stated: ‘It was instituted to oppose pernicious heresiarchs and heresies’; while Julius called it ‘the glory of the Church’.

St Pius V said that ‘with the spread of this devotion the meditations of the faithful have become more ardent and their prayers more fervent, and they have quickly become different people; the darkness of heresy has been dissipated, and the light of Catholic faith has broken forth in renewed glory’.

Gregory XIII declared: ‘the Rosary has been instituted by St Dominic to appease the anger of God and to implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary’.

The Rosary and all that it implies in love of Christ and His Mother, becomes an intimate part of life.

Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p51

Feast of Our Lady ‘des Ardents’, at Arras; a wax candle is kept in the cathedral of Arras, which is held to have been brought there by Our Lady in the year 1095. — Jacobus Meyer in Annals of Flanders, ann. 1095. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)

Our Lady of Ardents / ‘Notre-Dame d'Ardents’ (Arras, France). 1095. (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm; http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html; MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); [(www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)

Queen of the Apostles. (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html; MaryLinks Calendar.htm)

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (Moveable feast: Last Saturday of May [29, 2010]) -- (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)