The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 3

Source of heavenly water, have mercy on us.

“If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Jesus spoke these words to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10. He was talking about the Holy Spirit, the living water, the heavenly water that flows into our souls at Baptism and remains in us. When Jesus gives us this “water” to drink, it becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 1:14).

In John 7, Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the priests carried water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out on the altar in the Temple. This water recalled God’s provision of water from the rock for His people during the exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ years in the desert. But Jesus provided a new meaning when He said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John adds the comment that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, Whose shower of grace pours down upon us at Baptism and throughout our lives as long as we remain in God and He remains in us.

Consuming fire, have mercy on us.

At Pentecost, tongues as of fire appeared over the heads of those gathered in the upper room. The Holy Spirit descended upon them, filling them with His fire. The tongues were merely a visible sign of something going on deep within, and the Spirit’s fire purified and strengthened, burned away the bad and made the good warm and supple. 

The Spirit’s fire set the apostles on fire, and these men, who just before had kept the doors locked out of fear, ran out to preach the Gospel to everyone gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. Some of their hearers thought they were drunk, and perhaps in a sense they were, “drunk” with the new “wine” of the Gospel. But mostly, they were on fire with love and with a longing to carry out their mission to spread the Gospel to the whole world.

Ardent Charity, have mercy on us.

The definition of “charity” has narrowed these days. We mostly think of it in terms of giving money or material items to the poor. But “charity” is actually a much broader term that, in older editions of the Bible, was often used to translate the Greek word agape. Agape is divine love, the kind of love that gives completely. It is a love that pours out everything for the good of another. It is the love of the Blessed Trinity in which we are called to share and which is so vibrant, so dynamic, so ardent as to be another Person, the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual unction, have mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit is our unction, our medicine, our salve. He heals our hearts of sin and comforts us in our trials. He calms our fears, soothes our worries, and quiets our cares. He gives us the strength we need to overcome temptation and to repent and rise when we fall.