COME, HOLY SPIRIT
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created;
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. LET US PRAY.
O God, who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort.
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen
O Holy Spirit, sweet Guest of my soul, abide in me and grant that I may ever abide in Thee.
Day 28
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
One of the great dangers for a soul is that it begins to think it is in control. The soul looks to the future and falsely thinks that it has the ability to ensure stability. When one is healthy, it is hard to imagine functioning in life with a damaged knee or lungs that hurt as one breathes. There is a chance surely that something in your body might begin to fail, but who spends time considering such things? Yet once a person loses the ability to use his lungs normally or walk properly, the reality of such a loss becomes plain. If one’s knee improves, one experiences a new gratitude for the use of this part of the body. One begins to treasure those long walks with the use of both legs. With each step the soul might offer a prayer to God in thanksgiving for such a gift. Without the suffering and experience of loss, there would not be this renewed spirit of gratitude when one is granted the grace to regain use of some portion of his body. The soul begins to understand a greater simplicity of life through suffering. No longer does the soul take for granted the lovely summer walks. Instead, it treasures each day for the experiences that are granted. In this way the soul has received a twofold gift: a grateful heart and a greater simplicity of spirit.
Goal: Suffering creates a grateful heart and a greater simplicity of spirit.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Day 29
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
Suffering allows the soul to become docile to the Will of God. It also allows a soul to receive help from Our Heavenly Father. A simple example illustrates the point. On Gabriel’s walk to church, it happened that for some days there was a preponderance of worms on the sidewalk. It was odd, for one expects to see many worms after a heavy rain, but on these days it had not rained. Coming across the first one, Gabriel noticed a particular worm that was set on making the long and dangerous journey across the sidewalk to the grass on the other side. This journey was rarely, if ever, successful, and without help the worm would surely die in the heat of the sun. The worm could not exist on cement but rather needed to return to the safety of the grass and soil that was its natural home. An effort to relocate the worm was fruitless as it flipped about not allowing anyone to pick it up. The result was that more harsh efforts were made to help the worm by batting at it with hopes it would flop to safety, but even those failed. Thus, the worm was left to remain in the heat of the sun on the cement. Its future was uncertain at best.
Coming across another worm on the sidewalk, the outcome was vastly different. It was clear that this worm had been suffering in the sun for some time. It was weak and had not the strength to resist the help, and it lay docile in one’s hand until it was gently placed on the soft grass some distance from the cement. In this new place it would be quite safe.
One could imagine a soul that has suffered a great deal and through that suffering has become docile so that Our Lord can easily scoop it up and bring the soul to safety. Although it seems natural that a soul would allow such help, often it is rejected, and the soul persists in a direction that leads only to destruction.
Goal: Suffering allows us to become docile to the Will of God.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Day 30
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
Suffering is a gift given to us with great purpose and care. God told us that He has known us before we ever took a breath: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). In the same way, He also has chosen a perfect cross to aid us in our sanctification and journey toward holiness.
St. Francis de Sales describes this well: “The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that he now presents to you as a gift of his inmost heart.” Francis goes on to describe this perfectly fitted cross: “This cross [God] now sends you he has considered with his all-knowing eyes, understood with his divine mind, tested with his wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with his own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.”
As many Church Fathers have observed, good times empty churches, and bad times fill them. Suffering can serve to increase the fervor of souls. It is said that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” People find faith through suffering, and for those that have faith, it is strengthened. So often we are told to pray with the heart. This can be a difficult directive. But if one is suffering, it is difficult to not pray with the heart. Suffering has this wonderful ability to draw out prayers said from the depths of our souls. In this we see suffering is a tremendous gift in our relationship with God as prayer is the way we communicate with Him. Suffering can do in a soul that which few other things can. It can strengthen faith and deepen prayer faster than almost anything else.
Goal: Suffering is a special gift from God chosen for each of us with love.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Resources
The retreat can be done using a physical book, watching one our videos each day or with our online Consecration journey. Both the videos and online readings are free to use so there is no obstacle to starting! We have a whole website designed just to support the Consecration journey.