The Divine Persons As Given To Us.

19.―The Divine Persons As Given To Us.

"If any one love Me he will keep My word; and My father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with Him" (John xiv. 23). In so many ways you are dependent on God; in so many ways He is useful to you, necessary to you. Without Him you can do nothing. Be careful never to love that divine presence.

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The Mission of The Divine Persons

18.―The Mission of The Divine Persons.

You need always to watch with anxiety lest the human spirit, or the spirit of the world, or even the spirit of Satan, should intrude itself into your mind and become the motive power of your actions. Humility, obedience, and the love of God will be your preservatives.

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The Mutual Indwelling of the Divine Persons

17.―The Mutual Indwelling of The Divine Persons.

As between God and man, God bears us always and most completely in His mind; but our feeble, wandering, frivolous, sensual minds can only with great difficulty fix themselves for a short time on God.

Let nothing separate you from the love of God. This completes your union with Him in this life and in the next.  

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The Equality of the Divine Persons

16.―The Equality of The Divine Persons.

A ray of bright sunlight was long supposed to be a unity only: now it is proved to be a trinity of three rays, each having a different color and a different effect on on vegetation. These act as one principle. They occur in a certain order, but one does not exist before the other nor apart from another. Each is equally sunlight, and is equally necessary to constitute the glowing unity of the sunbeam and to maintain life on earth.  

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Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost

15.―Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost.

Be careful not to commit the dangerous sin of resisting the Holy Ghost, and His inspirations to action or suggestions of truth. Beware of self-will and obstinacy in sin, lest they lead you to final impenitence.  

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Three Specialities of The Holy Ghost

14.―Three Specialities of The Holy Ghost.

Endeavor to cultivate a vivid and intense love for God, for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Without this you cannot have constancy to keep those commandments of God which lead to life. Without this you cannot cast out the engrossing love of self and of creatures, or submit yourself to constant self-restraint, or find pleasure in spiritual things. Give your whole undivided love to God, and He will pour forth the abundance of sanctity and joy into your heart.

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The Procession of the Holy Ghost

13.―The Procession of The Holy Ghost.

You should love the Holy Ghost as the source of all the good gifts of God in the work of creation. He is the fount of graces of all kinds as described in the Veni Sancte Spiritus. He communicates to us charity, joy, peace, patience, faith, modesty, etc. He is indeed our Paraclete and Comforter. Too late have you known Him; too late have you loved Him!

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The Third Person

12.―The Third Person.

The Son of God was born on earth and became the Son of the Holy Virgin; and He communicated the Holy ghost by breathing on the Apostles, and sent Him on the day of Pentecost in the form of a mighty wind as well as of fiery tongues. The Apostle assures you that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. How great are the privileges and honors heaped upon those who have submitted to the obedience of faith, who strive to live the life of God, and make use of the Holy Sacraments!

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Qualities of The Divine Sonship

11.―Qualities of The Divine Sonship.

Adore Our Lord Jesus Christ when you contemplate Him in the arms of His Blessed Mother or dying on the cross. He existed in time, yet "His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity" (Mich. v. 2).

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The Second Person as Son

10.―The Second Person, as Son.

You must make your sonship perfect by cultivating the likeness to God. You will learn this in Jesus Christ. Reproduce in yourself His sentiments, His actions, His endurance of suffering; so that He may not be ashamed to acknowledge you as His second self.  

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The Second Person as The Word

9.―The Second Person, as The Word.

How mysterious are the wonders of infinite Being! They are utterly beyond our powers of discovery. Thank God for having granted you a glimpse of them as in a glass and in a dark manner, while waiting for the revelation of the perfect day.

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Jesus Christ and The Father

8.―Jesus Christ and The Father.

Let the love of God predominate in your heart, animate all you life, and drive out all that is opposed to it. This secures the fulfillment of all the law and the pardon of all sins; it is the sum of all religion.

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42. God The Father

The chief characteristic peculiarity of the First Person is Innascribility; i.e. He is unbegotten, unborn, and does not in any way proceed from any other. This belongs to the Father alone; for God the Son proceeds from God the Father, and God the Holy Ghost from the Father and Son jointly.

Adore profoundly the singular and supreme quality in God the Father. No other being has even a resemblance to it.

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41. The Attributes of the Divine Persons

When we feel conscious of our weakness and misery, we may ask the Father to strengthen us; when we are oppressed by the sense of ignorance and blindness and folly, we may ask the Eternal Wisdom to enlighten us; when we tremble for our malice and perversity, we may ask the Spirit of Sweetness and Holiness to enkindle in us His heavenly flame.

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Visit us at the Top of the Rim

40. The Relations of The Divine Persons

The distinction of the personalities in the Trinity is constituted by the relations resulting from the intrinsic activity of the One God.

Adore this incomprehensible mystery and thank God for granting you some indication however obscure, of the grandeurs of His Divine Nature.

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Visit the Cabin's Backyard

39. The Procession of The Divine Persons

There is a most perfect Unity, and not a mere union of three infinities. The Persons exist together, and in one another, in the indivisible infinite Godhead. How marvelous is this revelation of the secret of the existence of the Divinity! All the wisdom of the world cannot arrive at the discovery of it; but it is the heritage and firm possession of those little ones who possess the divine gift of faith. As to those from whom it is hidden, how inadequate and worthless must be their merely human notions of the divine nature!

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Visit the Cabin's Backyard

38. Means of Honoring the Trinity

Regret that you are able to do so little for the glory of the three Divine Persons in return for all that they have been to you and have done for you. Regret your past negligence and forgetfulness. Praise each Person separately for His special benefits to you. 

Above all assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which you can unite with the Adorable Victim in rendering to God an adequate adoration, and gratitude, and reparation for your sins.

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Our Paraclete Our Comforter

37. The Knowledge and Love of The Trinity

Man's knowledge of the Trinity at present is obscure, it rests upon faith, and not upon sight or complete evidence; but in the next world it will rest on direct vision and perception.

This knowledge, scanty as it now is, is of far higher import to you than all the science of mundane things. Let it be always the light and consolation of your life. 

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36. The Excellencies of The Trinity

The Trinity constitutes the beatitude of God and the final end and beatitude of all creatures, angels and men. It is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. So it is with you personally. You are on earth for a very brief interval to work out your return to God whence you proceeded. never deviate from this, your one and sole object.

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I Shall Pass Through This World But Once

In reading my morning devotions for Mary's Month of May I ran across a couple of lines well worth repeating. 

"If you do the will of God, Christ will come to you; He will visit you, for then you are His brother, His sister. 

"Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven," says Christ, "he is your brother, and sister, and mother." (Matth. 12. 50) Together with faith, therefore, good works are demanded.- the performance of the Divine will.  

Learn, therefore to Believe, to do God's will and to perform good works, and God's blessing will always rest upon you.

     I shall Pass thro' this world but once.

     Any good thing that I can do,

     Or any kindness that I can show,

     To any human being whatsoever,

     Let me do it now, and not defer it.

     For I shall not pass this way again.

Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam

"All to the greater glory of God."  "All our thoughts, words, actions, and desires for God; all for the glory of God, whensoever, wheresoever, and howsoever He wills.

   

35. The Beatitude of God

The miseries of this life, surpassing its good and happiness often, are a trial to us. It is a satisfaction to know that they are transient, and that the one thing which will survive all others and be predominant for ever is infinite happiness. Many indeed will never enjoy it; but it is there for all who care for it, and who will but stretch forth their hands to grasp it. This is the solution of all the mysteries of this life; this is the remedy for all its evils.

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34. The Power of God

How well it is for you to be in the hands of God! How terrible will be the lot of those who have placed themselves under the power of the evil one! Pray to be preserved from this. 

"They that fear Thee shall be great with Thee in all things" (Judith xvi, 19)

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33. The Discrimination of The Good and The Bad

There are certain signs which afford us a reasonable presumption that we are in the grace of God and predestinate, subject, however to our persevering until death. 

1. If we have a tender devotion and love towards the Blessed Virgin, we know that in one important respect the same mind is in us that was also in Christ Jesus.  

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Hymn to the Sacred Heart

To Christ, the Prince of Peace,

And Son of God, Most high,

The Father of the world to come,

Sing we with holy joy.

Deep in his Heart, for us

The wound of love He bore,

The love that still inflames

The hearts that Him adore.

O Jesus! Victim blest!

What else, but love divine,

Could Thee constrain to open

That Sacred Heart of thine?

O Fount of endless life!

O Spring of waters clear!

O Fire of heaven, cleansing

All who to Thee draw near!

Hide me in thy dear Heart.

For thither do I fly,

To find, through death, a way

To immortality.

Praise to the Father be,

And sole-begotten Son;

Praise, Holy Paraclete, to Thee 

While endless ages run.   Amen.

Irish Catholic Prayer Book

Cameron, Ferguson & Co. 

Dublin, 1905

32. The Books of Life and Death

"There shall not enter into it anything defiled . . . but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb' (Apocalypse. xxi. 27). 

Certain states used to keep a "Golden Book," in which were written the names, the pedigree, the titles, the services of their distinguished citizens . God has such a book; it is the book of life; and one day it will be opened before all the world. At present no one knows all the names that are written in it. This book is God's consciousness, it is His knowledge of those who are His and will be His for all eternity.

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31. Reprobation

Reprobation is this, that God, who foresees all things, foresees also from eternity the willful self-destruction of some of His creatures. He sees you at this moment as you will be a hundred years hence. Pray that it be a prevision of eternal life and not of death. "My lots are in Thy hands" (Ps. xx. 16).

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30. Predestination

God has done so much for you; so little remains for you to do; and you can do all things in Him that strengtheneth you.

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29.The Permission of Evil

It is not for Providence to do violence to the natural order, to put a free man in moral chains, to exact from him the service of a slave in order to give him a reward that he does not wish for. Man knows the law, he knows the consequences of its violation, he has power to observe it if he will, he has power to revolt agains it and accept the results.

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Meditations on Christian Dogma, Volume 1 

The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, 1961

 

28. The Providence of God

All things cannot be accommodated to your fancies, but you must accommodate yourself sweetly to all things, bearing the defects of others, and accepting humbly the fact that you have still worse defects.  

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