I adore Thee, my Lord and God, the Eternal Paraclete, co-equal with the Father and Son. I adore Thee as the
Life of all that live. Through Thee the whole material Universe hangs together and consists, remains in its place, and moves internally
in the Order and Reciprocity of its several parts. Through Thee the Earth was brought into its present state, and was matured through
its Six Days to be a habitation for man. Through Thee, all Trees, Herbs, Fruits, thrive and are perfected. Through Thee, Spring comes
after Winter and renews all things. That wonderful and beautiful, that irresistible burst into life again, in spite of all obstacles,
that awful Triumph of Nature, is but Thy Glorious Presence. Through Thee the many tribes of brute animals live day by day, drawing in
their breath from Thee. Thou art the Life of the Whole Creation, O Eternal Paraclete—and if of this animal and material framework,
how much more of the World of Spirits! Through Thee, Almighty Lord, the Angels and Saints sing Thee praises in Heaven. Through Thee
our own dead Souls are quickened to serve Thee. From Thee is every good thought and desire, every good purpose, every good effort,
every good success. It is by Thee that sinners are turned into Saints. It is by Thee the Church is refreshed and strengthened, and
Champions start forth, and Martyrs are carried on to their Crown. Through Thee new Religious Orders, new Devotions in the Church come
into being; new Countries are added to the Faith, new Manifestations and Illustrations are given of the ancient Apostolic Creed. I
praise and adore Thee, my Sovereign Lord God, the Holy Ghost.
I adore Thee, O dread Lord, for what Thou hast done for my Soul. I acknowledge and feel, not only as a matter
of Faith but of experience, that I cannot have one Good Thought or do one Good Act without Thee. I know, that if I attempt anything
good in my own strength, I shall to a certainty Fail. I have bitter experience of this. My God, I am only Safe when Thou dost Breathe
upon me. If Thou withdraw Thy Breath, forthwith my Three Mortal Enemies rush on me and overcome me. I am as weak as water, I am
utterly Impotent without Thee. The minute Thou dost cease to act in me, I begin to Languish, to Gasp, and to Faint Away. Of my Good
Desires, whatever they may be, of my Good Aims, Aspirations, Attempts, Successes, Habits, Practices, Thou art the sole cause and
present continual source. I have nothing but what I have received, and I protest now in Thy Presence, O Sovereign Paraclete, that I
have nothing to glory in, and everything to be humbled at.
O my dear Lord, how merciful Thou hast been to me. When I was young, Thou didst put into my Heart a special
Devotion to Thee. Thou hast taken me in my youth, and in my age Thou wilt not forsake me. Not for my merit, but from Thy free and
bountiful Love Thou didst put Good Resolutions into me when I was young, and didst turn me to Thee. Thou wilt never forsake me. I do
earnestly trust so—never certainly without fearful provocation on my part. Yet I Trust and Pray, that Thou wilt keep me from that
provocation. O keep me from the provocation of Lukewarmness and Sloth. O my dear Lord, lead me forward from strength to strength,
gently, sweetly, tenderly, lovingly, powerfully, effectually, remembering my fretfulness and feebleness, till Thou bringest me into
Thy Heaven.
The Paraclete, The Life of the Church
I adore Thee, O my Lord, the Third Person of the All-Blessed Trinity, that Thou hast set up in this World of
Sin, a Great Light upon a hill. Thou hast founded the Church, Thou hast established and maintained it. Thou fillest it continually with
Thy Gifts, that men may see, and Draw Near, and Take, and Live. Thou hast in this way brought down Heaven upon Earth. For Thou hast
set up a great company which Angels visit by that ladder which the Patriarch saw in vision. Thou hast by Thy Presence restored the
Communion between God above and man below. Thou hast given him that Light of Grace which is one with and the commencement of the Light
of Glory. I adore and praise Thee for Thy Infinite Mercy towards us, O my Lord and God.
I adore Thee, O Almighty Lord, the Paraclete, because Thou in Thy Infinite Compassion hast brought me into
this Church, the work of Thy Supernatural Power. I had no claim on Thee for so wonderful a favor over any one else in the whole world.
There were many men far better than I by nature, gifted with more pleasing natural gifts, and less stained with sin. Yet Thou, in Thy
Inscrutable Love for me, hast chosen me and brought me into Thy Fold. Thou hast a reason for everything Thou dost. I know there must
have been an all-wise reason, as we speak in human language, for Thy choosing me and not another — but I know that that reason
was something external to myself. I did nothing towards it — I did everything against it. I did everything to thwart Thy Purpose.
And thus I owe all to Thy Grace. I should have lived and died in Darkness and Sin; I should have become worse and worse the longer I
lived; I should have got more to hate and abjure Thee, O Source of my Bliss; I should have got yearly more fit for Hell, and at length
I should have gone there, but for Thy Incomprehensible Love to me. O my God, that Overpowering Love took me captive. Was any boyhood
so impious as some years of mine! Did I not in fact dare Thee to do Thy worst? Ah, how I struggled to get free from Thee; but Thou art
stronger than I and hast prevailed. I have not a word to say, but to bow down in awe before the depths of Thy Love.
And then, in course of time, slowly but infallibly did Thy Grace bring me on into Thy Church. Now then give
me this further Grace, Lord, to use all this Grace well, and to turn it to my Salvation. Teach me, make me to come to the Fountains of
Mercy continually with an Awakened, Eager Mind, and with Lively Devotion. Give me a love of Thy Sacraments and Ordinances. Teach me to
value as I ought, to prize as the Inestimable Pearl, that Pardon which again and again Thou givest me, and the Great and Heavenly Gift
of the Presence of Him Whose Spirit Thou art, upon the Altar. Without Thee I can do nothing, and Thou art there where Thy Church is
and Thy Sacraments. Give me Grace to rest in them for ever, till they are lost in the Glory of Thy Manifestation in the world to come.
The Paraclete, The Life of My Soul
My God, I adore Thee for taking on Thee the charge of sinners; of those, who not only cannot profit Thee, but
who continually Grieve and Profane Thee. Thou hast taken on Thyself the Office of a Minister, and that for those who did not ask for it.
I adore Thee for Thy Incomprehensible Condescension in ministering to me. I know and feel, O my God, that Thou mightest have left me,
as I wished to be left, to go my own way, to go straight forward in my willfulness and self-trust to Hell. Thou mightest have left me
in that enmity to Thee which is in itself Death. I should at length have died the second death, and should have had no one to blame
for it but myself. But Thou, O Eternal Father, hast been kinder to me than I am to myself. Thou hast given me, Thou hast poured out
upon me Thy Grace, and thus I live.
My God, I adore Thee, O Eternal Paraclete, the Light and the Life of my Soul. Thou mightest have been content
with merely giving me Good Suggestions, Inspiring Grace and helping from without. Thou mightest thus have led me on, cleansing me with
Thy Inward Virtue, when I changed my state from this world to the next. But in Thine Infinite Compassion Thou hast from the first
entered into my Soul, and taken possession of it. Thou hast made it Thy Temple. Thou dwellest in me by Thy Grace in an Ineffable Way,
uniting me to Thyself and the whole company of Angels and Saints. Nay, as some have held, Thou art present in me, not only by Thy Grace,
but by Thy Eternal Substance, as if, though I did not lose my own individuality, yet in some sense I was even here absorbed in God.
Nay — as though Thou hadst taken possession of my very body, this earthly, fleshly, wretched tabernacle — even my body is
Thy Temple. O astonishing, awful truth! I believe it, I know it, O my God!
O my God, can I sin when Thou art so intimately with me? Can I forget Who is with me, Who is in me? Can I
expel a Divine Inhabitant by that which He abhors more than anything else, which is the one thing in the world which is offensive to
Him, the only thing which is not His? Would not this be a kind of sin against the Holy Ghost? My God, I have a double security against
sinning; first the dread of such a profanation of all Thou art to me in Thy very Presence; and next because I do trust that that
Presence will preserve me from sin. My God, Thou wilt go from me, if I sin; and I shall be left to my own miserable self. God forbid!
I will use what Thou hast given me; I will call on Thee when tried and tempted. I will guard against the sloth and carelessness into
which I am continually falling. Through Thee I will never forsake Thee.
The Paraclete, The Fount of Love
My God, I adore Thee, as the Third Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity, under the Name and Designation of Love.
Thou art that Living Love, wherewith the Father and the Son love each other. And Thou art the Author of Supernatural Love in our Hearts
— “Fans vivus, ignis, charitas”. As a fire Thou didst come down from Heaven on the Day of Pentecost; and as a Fire Thou
burnest away the dross of sin and vanity in the Heart and dost Light Up the Pure Flame of Devotion and Affection. It is Thou Who
unitest Heaven and Earth by showing to us the Glory and Beauty of the Divine Nature, and making us love what is in Itself so winning
and transporting. I adore Thee, O Consuming and Everlasting Fire, by which our Souls Live, by which alone they are made fit for Heaven.
My God, the Paraclete, I acknowledge Thee as the Giver of that Great Gift, by which alone we are Saved,
Supernatural Love. Man is by nature blind and hardhearted in all spiritual matters; how is he to reach Heaven? It is by the flame of
Thy Grace, which consumes him in order to new-make him, and so to fit him to enjoy what without Thee he would have no taste for. It is
Thou, O Almighty Paraclete, Who hast been and art the Strength, the Vigor and Endurance, of the Martyr in the midst of his Torments.
Thou art the stay of the Confessor in his long, tedious, and humiliating toils. Thou art the fire, by which the Preacher wins Souls,
without thought of himself, in his Missionary Labors. By Thee we wake up from the death of sin, to exchange the idolatry of the
creature for the Pure Love of the Creator. By Thee we make Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition. By Thee we live in the
atmosphere of Earth, Proof against its infection. By Thee we are able to Consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Ministry, and fulfill our
awful engagements to it. By the Fire which Thou didst kindle within us, we Pray, and Meditate, and do Penance. As well could our bodies
live, if the sun were extinguished, as our Souls, if Thou art away.
My most Holy Lord and Sanctifier, whatever there is of Good in me is Thine. Without Thee, I should but get
worse and worse as years went on, and should tend to be a Devil. If I differ at all from the
World, it is because Thou hast chosen me
out of the World, and hast Lit Up the Love of God in my Heart. If I differ from Thy Saints, it is because I do not ask earnestly
enough for Thy Grace, and for enough of it, and because I do not diligently improve what Thou hast given me. Increase in me this Grace
of Love, in spite of all my unworthiness. It is more precious than anything else in the world. I accept it in place of all the World
can give me. O give it to me! It is my Life.
Amen
the Holy Ghost dwells in us.
The Supernatural Order is the Ensemble of Effects exceeding the
Powers of the Created Universe, and Gratuitously produced directly by God for the
purpose of Raising the Rational Creature above its Natural Sphere to a God-like
Life and Destiny.
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit received in Confirmation, Perfect the 7 Supernatural Virtues received
in Baptism, by enabling us to practice them with greater Docility to Divine Inspiration. As we grow in the Knowledge and Love of God
under the direction of the Holy Ghost, our service becomes more Sincere and Generous, the Practice of Virtue more Perfect. Such Acts of
Virtue leave the Heart filled with Joy and Consolation and are known as Fruits of the Holy Spirit. These Fruits in turn render the
Practice of Virtue more Attractive and become a Powerful Incentive for still greater efforts in the Service of God. The End Result is a
Well-Armored member of the Church Militant, a Soldier of Christ . . . . . .
