First Prelude: Represent to yourself the hearts of the just as temples of the Holy Ghost.
Second Prelude: O Holy Ghost, teach me to recognize in Thy divine light the nothingness of all things earthly and help me to conquer courageously whatever is opposed to my salvation.
First Point
The Gift of Knowledge
Through this gift the Holy Ghost imparts to us a supernatural light in which we recognize clearly the absolute nothingness and the pernicious effects of all that the world so much loves and admires. We realize through this gift that neither riches nor sensible pleasures, nor honors can satisfy our hearts, which are created for heaven;—that, on the contrary, all these are rather obstacles in the attaining of our lofty ideal and deter us from loving intercourse with God. In this divine light we recognize clearly the marvelous beauty, the sublimity and the utility of things that the earthly minded despise and flee. Sufferings, miseries and hardships, temptations, humiliations, contempt and persecutions appear to us to be the most effective means to perfection, secure pledges of the future glory, the most beautiful portion of the disciples of Christ. Our sentiments are those of the Apostle of the Gentiles, when he says: “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world, and I count all things as naught that I may gain Christ” (Gal. 6, 14; Phil. 3, 8). The gift of knowledge is the source of that magnanimous desire that we so much admire in the saints, when they ardently longed for the cross, this precious heritage of Jesus Christ. “My Lord and my God,” St. John of the Cross made answer to our Divine Saviour when asked what reward he desired, “I desire nothing but for love of Thee to suffer and to be despised.”
Let us strive zealously to excel in this science of the saints. Let us entreat the Holy Ghost to let His light illumine our hearts that we may recognize the vanity of all earthly things and make the maxims of the gospel our rule of action. Do I regard as a cross what the world esteems, and do I love what it despises?
Second Point
The Gift of Fortitude
This gift of the Holy Ghost manifests itself pre-eminently in the heroism of the martyrs, the fortitude of the confessors, in the penitential rigor and perseverance of the saints. Souls to whom the Holy Ghost imparts the gift of fortitude are not insensible to pain and other reverses, but their ardent desire to please God, their intense eagerness to suffer for Jesus and the flame of love which the Holy Ghost enkindles in their hearts are for them a source of heavenly peace in the midst of tribulations. The Spirit of Fortitude strengthened weak women and children to such an extent that they courageously suffered the greatest torments to be united with Christ, that with St. Paul they overcame all for the sake of Him Who hath loved us, and that neither misfortune nor anxiety, neither hunger nor destitution, neither danger nor persecution, could separate them from the love of Christ.
Let us not shrink from any sacrifice nor grow despondent if the bitter chalice of sufferings should be our portion. Confirmed and strengthened by the powerful and living God, we shall labor with courage and holy determination at our sanctification in the protracted, though seemingly insignificant, martyrdom of interior struggle. If we would draw down upon ourselves the Spirit of Fortitude then let us be humble, for He loves to impart Himself to souls deeply penetrated with a feeling of their nothingness. In this sense St. Paul says: “When I am weak then I am powerful. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful” (Cor. 12, 10).
With great devotion and love we will receive the Bread of the Strong, mindful that the martyrs derived from Holy Communion the strength that made them invincible.
Affections: O Holy Spirit, Divine Teacher, Who in a moment dispels the darkness of souls and reveals clearly to the mind the entire nothingness of earthly things, Who liberates the heart from all inordinate desires and infuses pure and holy sentiments, come and send forth a ray of Thy heavenly light, a flame of Thy holy love upon me. Thou art the Spirit of peace and repose, the Spirit of consolation and joy, the Spirit of strength and magnanimity. Come and strengthen my weak will, that henceforth I may love and desire crosses and sufferings as much as I have dreaded and avoided them in the past. Thou alone, O Spirit of holy Love, canst effect this happy transformation in me. Come and accomplish it by Thy all-powerful grace.
Resolution: To quicken my courage, I will frequently call to mind the glorious fruits concealed in the cross.
Spiritual Bouquet: “I will love Thee, Lord, with all my strength and serve Thee all my days.”
Prayer: Our Father . . .
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