“Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine”.
The term “poor” includes all of us, especially those who are aware of their own poverty.
In our spiritual life we learn that we are always in need. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us how great God’s love is and how far we are from it.
However, this knowledge does not become a reason for us to sink into sadness or even despair. On the contrary, it is a reason to lean even more on God’s love, trusting that He will have mercy on our poverty. Then it will be God who will make us rich, for He Himself is our wealth.
Therefore, we invoke the Holy Spirit on all people and on our own poverty, so that He may make us rich, rich in all that comes from Him. In this way our poverty becomes wealth.
We cannot attain holiness without the help of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism every soul receives sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The infused virtues are the supernatural habits that make us capable of doing meritorious deeds and acting virtuously from a supernatural point of view. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, enable us to perceive and accept the motions of the Spirit, so that we can always follow His promptings.
The encyclical ‘Divinum Illud Munus’ teaches us that :
“The just man, that is to say he who lives the life of divine grace, and acts by the fitting virtues as by means of faculties, has need of those seven gifts which are properly attributed to the Holy Ghost. By means of them the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to obey more easily and promptly His voice and impulse”.
These divine inspirations are the movements and impulses of the Holy Spirit. His gifts, which unfold in us throughout our lives, help us to hear and follow these promptings.
If we want the gifts of the Holy Spirit to grow in us, we must practice love, and with each step forward in love for God, the gifts will increase.
To better understand how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work in our soul, we can use the example of the sails of a ship. Love opens the sails for the gentle breath of the Holy Spirit. The bigger and wider the sails, the more easily we can be carried by the breath of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is love poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5); He is also the light and joy of the heart. He pours into it His clarity and purifies our heart from all disordered attachment to ourselves and to the things of this world.
The Holy Spirit warms our hearts and, as the Paraclete, brings us consolation.
Just as a father delights in entertaining His children, God makes us feel His closeness through the kiss of love. This warmth draws us to God and fills us with gratitude for all the good gifts He gives us. Every heart can be enlightened by Him, as long as it is not closed, and in His light we can see the light (Ps 36:9).
