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 24
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
Suffering may bring to light how fleeting the things of this world are. Imagine a soul that day after day puts away funds to buy a special pair of pants. For weeks the soul believes that obtaining this pair of pants may bring great happiness and possibly positive attention from one’s peers. The day has arrived, and the pants are purchased. But what a disappointment when the soul discovers some months later that those special pants are covered with mildew. Moisture in the house had brought with it a horrible deterioration of the fabric. The vibrant color was replaced with muted green speckles.
Likewise, Our Lord taught us in the parable of the Rich Fool:
There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, “What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?” And he said, “This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, ‘Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!’” But God said to him, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God. (Lk 12:16-21)
Our Lord reiterates this in the Gospel of Matthew when He states, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:21). Suffering and loss help a soul to see how fleeting the things of this world are and to see what has true value.
Goal: Suffering allows one to see how material things pass away quickly and that they have no eternal value.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Day 25
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
When Providence prefers to work by means of suffering I think we should not complain too much, for we can then be sure that the work will be well done and not mixed up with all the misery of egotism and pride that sometimes spoils so much of our out- ward activity.
— Elisabeth Leseur
Suffering helps us take our focus off of ourselves. In our suffering we find our weaknesses, and we realize that our strength comes from Our Lord. As St. Paul says in Scripture, “Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Goal: Suffering helps us to not spoil our good efforts with pride.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Day 26
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
Suffering is often a hidden activity of the soul. To outward eyes it appears little is happening, but, indeed, it can be viewed through a different lens—one that measures heavenly value. In many ways suffering can be viewed as the higher form of action. Pope St. John Paul II experienced great sufferings in his life and especially during his pontificate. He acknowledged that his office brought with it “thorns and crosses that often remain hidden in the secrecy of the heart. But . . . these sufferings are the guarantee of fruitfulness of an apostolate that, with God’s help, will produce abundant results.” Close to the end of his life, he reflected, “I have written many encyclicals and many apostolic letters, but I realize that it is only with my suffering that I can best help mankind. Think of the value of pain, suffered and offered with love.”
As the body fails, the spirit becomes stronger. The soul sees that its strength never really came from the flesh; it was always through the grace of God. In effect, so much of the work of evangelization has little to do with outward activity. Think of St. John Vianney who was able to evangelize a great many souls without leaving his tiny parish of Ars, France. Souls were drawn to him, or rather Christ present within him. From a tender age St. John Vianney’s life was imbued with suffering. It began through his struggles in learning his school lessons and Latin, which caused him to suffer humiliation. Given his struggles with learning, he was further handicapped through delay in adequate schooling until he was older.
Vianney’s father needed his help on the farm, which prevented Vianney in his younger years from having more time for education. He later met with many roadblocks in his pursuit of becoming a priest due to his weak academic knowledge. Once he did become a priest, he always felt drawn to a contemplative life and twice tried to run away from his assigned role as a parish priest. Yet when he understood that Our Lord’s Will for him was to remain in the parish at Ars, he sacrificed his own will and returned. He served at that parish until his death. The devil once revealed to Vianney through the mouth of a possessed woman, “How thou makest me suffer! If there were three men on earth like thyself, my kingdom would be destroyed.”
Goal: Suffering is often a hidden activity that is the higher form of action.
Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.
Day 27
COME, HOLY SPIRIT. . .
The boy who was tending the fire looked to his father and showed his hands. They were dry, cracked, and in some places bleeding. For years, as soon as the weather turned cold, his skin started to appear as though he were an old man. The boy had suffered many nights in pain. Sometimes he wet the skin to allow for a few moments of relief; however, the water caused his skin to become increasingly chapped, cracked, and tight.
For so long this pain was just part of his life. He saw no purpose for it. Yet in these spiritual talks with Father, he began to see this suffering in a different light. The suffering flowed as water through a swift moving brook. But if one sought to dip a cup into the water, it was not lost but could serve to quench the thirst of his own soul or that of another. No longer could Gabriel let his suffering pass without taking it and uniting it to the suffering of Christ. Gabriel understood Christ chose our suffering as a gift out of love for us.
Goal: Suffering united to the suffering of Christ has infinite value and is precious.
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.