The Numbers and Orders of The Angels

The exploration and investigation of this mere corner of the world in which we live is more than enough to furnish occupation for millions of men during thousands of years. What will it be when we are admitted to the full knowledge of the whole abundance of the future world! Prepare for it now. Let the science of nature lead you to the science of God; and do not dwell so exclusively on the lowest of God's wonders as to forget the existence of the higher ones.

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The Spirituality of The Angels

Above all there is in mankind an ineradicable tendency towards the supernatural, towards God and religion; and this is for ever asserting itself in various forms as one of the most energetic forces in human nature. All this is an indication of an actual higher state; for no impulsion exists in the universe without its corresponding object or cause. It is further an indication of a higher class of beings, endowed with more perfect spirituality, less encumbered by matter, more free in the exercise of mind and will, standing nearer to the throne of the Almighty Ruler. 

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The Existence of Angels

The extraordinary abundance of life around us argues at least as great a variety and wealth of life in the boundless realm beyond our senses where the Almighty dwells. Comparing small with great, we feel that there must be courtiers and guards innumerable in the halls of the Eternal, and that they must be high beyond conception, in rank, in energies, in duties, in splendour of endowments. There are ministries for such beings as well as for us. God's works are not limited to the range of our experience or even of our imagination. His attributes require a much greater space for their manifestation than is afforded by the whole of the visible universe. God has therefore, as the Scripture tells us, made a whole universe of noble spirits to stand before Him, and minister to Him in duties far superior to ours. Great as you are in the material creation, you are weak and miserable compared with the higher world. Strive to raise yourself to it; above all do not fall lower than your already lowly position. 

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Creation in General

God was under no obligation to create anything. It is only His intrinsic activity in producing the Persons of the Trinity that is necessary; all other action might or might not be, according to His will. God did not require the world or any creatures. He was rich in all good, perfectly happy, powerful, enjoying immovable repose and perfect activity in His own being. That which was, before creation, was not a dead solitude; but the three Divine Persons formed a kind of society in Their unity. 

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The Glory of The Blessed Trinity

"There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost" (1 John v. 7). The Divine Persons give testimony to one another eternally. It is Their essential glory that each is thoroughly comprehended in all His infinite perfections by the other two Divine Persons, and is appreciated and valued accordingly, and is praised and glorified, therefore, to an adequate and infinite extent. Compared with this, all the appreciation and praise of creatures and glory from them is but as a grain in the balance.

Rejoice and praise God for the fact that He receives the full glory which is His due, that He does not depend upon man for it, and that our offenses and blasphemies do not impair that infinite glory which is of His essence.

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The Divine Persons as Given to Us

The greatest wonder in the Divine temporal missions is that, not merely the grace and aid of God, but the Blessed Persons Themselves are given to us for our elevation and our comfort. Thus, in the Incarnation, the actual Person of God the Son, the Word of God, was bestowed on humanity, and became man and the Son of the Blessed Virgin. Further, our individual souls receive not only light in the intellect and ardour of love in the heart, but the Holy Spirit Himself personally. "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us" (Rom. v. 5). "He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him" (1 John iv. 16). The supernatural likeness of God in us and our aspirations of love towards Him exercise such an attraction on the Divine Persons, that They become united with our souls, and cannot be separated from them except by mortal sin. They are present with souls that are in the state of grace, not simply by the immensity or ubiquity which causes Them to be in every place, but by a special personal indwelling, so that the human body becomes really the temple of the Holy Ghost, and of Christ and the Father too. Thus there dwell in you the Eternal Word produced by the infinite thought of God, and the Spirit produced by infinite love. How this surpasses all the gifts of the natural order, all bodily delights, all pleasures, dignities, sciences!

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The Mission of the Divine Persons

You Our Lord several times spoke of His being sent by the Father, and of His sending the Holy Ghost into the world. This is called the external mission of the Divine Persons. It corresponds externally to the internal production of the Persons within the Godhead. It is the divine processions of the Trinity continued on the lower plane of the world of human souls, making the Divine Persons present in a new way with us, and producing in us an infusion of divine charity and various operations of grace. 

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The Mutual Indwelling of the Divine Persons

You are also substantially in God and God is substantially in you when you are in the state of grace ; and the three Divine Persons are with you, as Our Lord promised: "If any one love Me . . . My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him" (John xiv. 23). 

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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 colour and a different effect 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. Attach great importance to right thinking about doctrines. But this requires right living and right worship. Each of this trinity is essential to make up the unity of full religiousness.

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Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost

Of old the Holy Spirit had inspired the prophets who foretold Our Lord s coming: He effected the mystery of the Incarnation in His chaste Spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary; He guided the Sacred Humanity, as when He led Our Lord into the desert and descended on Him in the form of a dove. Jesus Christ declares part of the function of the Holy Ghost where He says, "He shall glorify Me" (John xvi. 14). And this the Holy Spirit does, demonstrating by miracles that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and moving men by inspirations of grace to believe in Him.

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Three Specialities of The Holy Ghost

Therefore Our Lord said concerning St. Mary Magdalene, "Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much" (Luke vii. 14). How intense then must be the infinite sanctity resulting from the love of the three Divine Persons in the most Holy Trinity. This is the secret of holiness for you. Endeavour 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

God not only loves all men and all things, but He loves them, therefore, in 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

There is an analogy between the eternal and temporal processions of the Divine Persons. The Son of God was born on earth and became the Son of the Holy Virgin; and He communicated the Holy Ghost by spiration or breathing on the Apostles, and sent Him on the day of Pentecost in the form of a mighty wind (spiritus) 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 honours 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

"The Father did not exist before the Son; He did not generate the Son at a definite epoch which is now past. The generation of the Son is outside the limits of time: it has no past, present, future; it is the actual activity of God. So the Father can always say: "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee".

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The Second Person, as Son

"What is His name and what is the name of His Son, if thou knowest?" (Prov. xxx. 4). The Second Person is presented to us not only as the Word of God and the Image of God, but also as the Son of God. This last is the expression most frequently used in Holy Scripture, and it opens to us a new vista of mystery. The production of the Word is the supreme intellectual operation in God; and it is also a generation or begetting, according to the passage: "Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee" (Ps. ii. 7). The relation, then, of the First Person to the Second is that of Father to Son. All that exists in creation is in God supereminently. He is the model of all being and all action. So the internal productive action of God by which the Word proceeds is the first example and the most perfect of all subsequent external production both by God and by creatures. From this "all paternity in heaven and earth is named" (Eph. iii. 15). That transcendent generation, and paternity, and sonship are represented in only an imperfect degree in creation. In imitation of it men are made sons of God, and He is our Father; and this not figuratively, but really, by the transmission of His likeness and supernatural life. So says St. John; we are "born of Him;" we are named and we are the "sons of God" (1 John ii. 29; iii. 1). And St. Paul adopts the expression of the Greek poet; we are the "offspring of God" (Acts xvii. 29). On a lower level still, there is a more imperfect and material representation of the divine fecundity in human generation and offspring. Remember that our sonship is not figurative for being spiritual, but is the more real inasmuch as it approaches nearer to the likeness of the divine generation. God is most really your Father, and has the sentiments of a father most perfectly. The Church too is in a very real sense your mother. Act worthily of this.

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The Second Person, as The Word

"Who shall declare His generation?"(Isa. liii. 8). The procession of the Persons in the Trinity is an ineffable mystery, deep in the secret recesses of the Godhead, never to be thoroughly comprehended. Scripture, however, conveys sufficient indications of it to guide our faith. The Second Person is called the Word by St. John. He is a Word that is in God, an internal word spoken to Himself; otherwise, a thought. St. Paul speaks of the Son of God as being "the brightness of His glory, the figure of His substance, the word (or expression) of His power" (Heb. i. 3), and also as the "image of God" (Col. i. 15). The Old Testament speaks of God the Son in a veiled manner as the Wisdom of God. "It is a vapour of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the glory of Almighty God. It is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God s majesty, and the image of His goodness. And being one it can do all things; and remaining in itself the same it reneweth all things" (Wisd. vii. 25-27). These passages convey to us some notion of the nature and of the proceeding of the Second Person from the First in the Trinity. This divine Word first proceeds internally in the spiritual being of God; secondly it proceeds externally in a visible form to convey to created intelligences the thought of God, and this is Jesus Christ the Word of God made flesh. You must produce the Word of God, the image of God, Jesus Christ, in your soul and actions by supernatural virtue and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament.

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Jesus Christ and The Father

Always remember the omnipotence, the love, the promises of your heavenly Father. Ground your confidence on vivid faith and holy life, and it will never be disappointed. Few have real confidence; fewer still can maintain it under necessary trial and delay; and because they waver they do not merit to receive anything from the Lord (James i. 6, 7).

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God the Father

St. Dionysius calls the Father the principle of the Divinity; not that He produces the Divinity, but because He communicates it to the Son and Holy Ghost. For these reasons we speak of the Father as if He were more especially the final end of all being, although the Son and Holy Ghost are equally our end and beatitude. All things must rise to the height of their source; so all being cries aloud with St. Philip, "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us" (John xiv. 8). God is really your Father, by creation, by His love, and by communicating to you His own supernatural life by grace. Live as His son, and love Him as a son.

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The Attributes of the Divine Persons

The three supreme perfections of the Divinity are Power, Wisdom and Goodness. To these three may be reduced all the other attributes of God. For instance, under the head of Power may be classed strength, immortality, immutability, universal dominion; to Wisdom belong omniscience, knowledge, the sight of all things, providence or the guiding of all things; and Goodness comprises mercy, love, patience, clemency. These perfections are qualities of the Divine Essence, and with it they are equally present in each of the three Persons. Father, Son and Holy Ghost possess in all respects the same power, wisdom, and goodness; and they operate equally in all external action in the world and in the souls of men. These same perfections are communicated to men in the finite form of qualities or virtues. But no one of us possesses them perfectly, or even simultaneously. One is distinguished by power, but he may be wanting in wisdom: another one may be wise but deficient in goodness. How miserable you are as compared with these infinite perfections in God! Glorify Him on account of them. Ask Him for some participation in each of them, and the grace to use it well.

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The Relations of the Divine Persons

A body has three dimensions, length, breadth, thickness. These are distinct from one another; they are not, however, separate beings combined into one; they are relations existing in the one substance. The plurality of relations requires the unity of the one solid body. So in the Divinity, a supreme unity is necessary in order that there be an intrinsic activity producing relationships within it. 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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The Procession of the Divine Persons

God is not solitary, wrapped in a sterile contemplation and love of the Divine Essence. There is plurality in Him, as to the Persons; yet there is no division, no substantial separation of the 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 marvellous is this revelation of the secret of existence of the Divinity! All the wisdom of the world cannot arrive at the discovery of it; but it is the inheritance 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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