The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 8

Gift of God, the Most High, have mercy on us.

God sends the Holy Spirit into our souls as His great gift of love. Since the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Father and the Son, so strong and vibrant that He is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of divine love. 

We should pay special attention to the idea of gift. God does not have to give us anything. He does so freely and out of His great love. We do not earn His gifts. There is no way we can. Yet God gives us the greatest gift of all: Himself. 

Spirit Who fillest the universe, have mercy on us.

At the beginning of Genesis, we read, “the Spirit of God moved over the waters” (1:2). He moved, and the world was created. Light and dark, the sun and moon and stars, day and night, waters and dry land, plants and animals and birds all came to be. Then God breathed His Spirit into the first human being, created in His image and likeness. 

But God does not just create everything and let it run on its own. Rather, He sustains all life with the life-giving love of the Holy Spirit. God moves in the world and in our lives. He is always present. He fills the universe with His Love, and that Love is the Holy Spirit.

Spirit of the adoption of the children of God, have mercy on us.

Through a series of covenants, God has expanded His family bit by bit over the centuries of salvation history. In these last days, Jesus made that family the world-wide Church when He inaugurated the New Covenant, which gives us an even deeper relationship with God the Father. When we are baptized, when the Holy Spirit enters into us, filling us with sanctifying grace and divine life, we become children of God, sons and daughters in the Son. 

St. John writes in his first letter, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (3:2). We are God’s covenant family. We are His beloved children. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir” (Galatians 4:6-7). We are heirs to God’s kingdom, already in the Church and forever in Heaven.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 7

Holy Ghost, the Comforter, have mercy on us.

In John 14:26, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, from the Greek word paraklētos, which can be translated Helper, Counselor, Intercessor, Advocate, or even Comforter. The Holy Spirit, as we have seen, prays within us. He helps us recall and understand what Jesus has taught. He advocates for us with His great love (for He is Love). And all of this should bring us great comfort. God loves us so much as to dwell within us, guiding us closer and closer to Him and filling us with His great gifts.

Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, have mercy on us.

Only God can make us holy. We must cooperate, of course. We must turn our minds and hearts and souls and bodies over to Him so that He can sanctify them. We are temples of the Holy Spirit, consecrated, set aside, for Him and for His purposes. 

Holy Ghost, Who governest the Church, have mercy on us.

Many saints and scholars have said that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, the Body of Christ. On the first Pentecost, which is often called the birthday of the Church, the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of Jesus gathered in the upper room. With a noise like a great driving wind and tongues as of fire, the Spirit entered into those frightened, timid people and changed them from the inside out.

The apostles, led by Peter, left that upper room, now on fire to preach the Gospel. Peter delivered his first sermon right then and there, speaking to the thousands of Jews who had gathered for the festival. He was not longer afraid, no longer timid. He spoke with great force and conviction, and over three thousand people received Baptism that day.  

Jesus tells us not to be anxious when we are questioned about our faith, even by “the rulers and the authorities,” for “the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12). We must get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us personally and to govern the Church. That’s His job.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 6

Spirit of grace and prayer, have mercy on us.

Grace and prayer. Both of these are gifts from God that the Holy Spirit pours into us. Grace, as defined in the Catechism, is the “free and undeserved gift God gives us to respond to our vocation to become His adopted children.” When we are baptized, God fills us with sanctifying grace and comes to dwell within us. We become temples of the Holy Spirit. 

But God’s grace does not end there. God provides actual graces, sacramental graces, and special graces every day of our lives. These graces strengthen us in love, draw us to God, nudge us toward repentance, and give us all we need to devote our entire existence to God. Our job is to open ourselves to receive these graces and to respond to them, embracing them and living them with gratitude. 

Prayer, too, is a grace. We might think that we initiate prayer, but God gives us the desire to pray to Him in the first place. We respond by pouring our hearts out to God. As St. Therese of Lisieux so beautifully explains, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” 

In Romans 8:26, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit actually prays in us. He “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” Notice how the Spirit surrounds us in prayer. He prays within us as He spurs on our own prayers. Our intimacy with God deepens more and more as we allow the Spirit to work within us, reaching up to the Father and the Son in love.

Spirit of peace and meekness, have mercy on us.

In Scripture, peace is more than just a lack of conflict. Rather, it is a state of wholeness with everything in proper order. When we are at peace, we are right with God, with others, and with ourselves, according to God’s plan for our lives.  

Meekness is yet another one of those concepts that gets a bad rap in the modern world. People often equate “meek” with “wimpy” or “cowardly.” But this isn’t the Christian sense of the word. Meekness isn’t weakness; it’s strength under control. People who are truly meek are humble, self-controlled, and gentle, but they are also strong. They know how to respond to all situations correctly and how to allow God to guide them in their dealings with others. In this, they imitate Jesus, Who is both meek and powerful, gentle and forceful.

Spirit of modesty and innocence, have mercy on us.

Modesty is another form of self-control. The Catechism explains that “Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden.” Modesty refers to our outward appearance but also to our behaviors, words, and attitudes. When we are modest, we recognize and preserve the human dignity that God has given us, and we treat ourselves and others with respect, for we have all been made in the image of God.

The word “innocence” may call to mind the image of a small child, one who has not yet learned how to be anything other than what he or she is. Indeed, Jesus tells us, “I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3). We might think it is impossible to recapture the innocence of our childhood. We have seen too much of the world. We have done too many things wrong. Yet God offers us the way of repentance and forgiveness. He cleanses us of our sins and purifies our hearts so that we can rediscover the innocence we have lost.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 5

Spirit of knowledge and piety, have mercy on us.

Knowledge and piety are two more of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. With knowledge, we come to know the truths of our faith. It is the foundation, in a sense, for understanding, counsel, and wisdom. Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Spirit tells us what we need to know and then leads us into a deeper interaction with that knowledge. He is truly the very best teacher.

Piety is a word often misunderstood by modern culture. We might associate piety with images of solemn, dull, overly religious people who never have any fun. But this isn’t piety at all. Piety means loving devotion towards God. It recognizes that God is worthy of all our love and all our worship, and when we are truly pious, we want to give God the love and worship He deserves. Of course, since God is infinite and we’re merely tiny, finite creatures, we’ll never be fully successful. But our sincere striving in itself is pleasing to God.

Spirit of fear of the Lord, have mercy on us.

Fear of the Lord is the final gift of the Holy Spirit and another greatly misunderstood concept. We often associate fear with something negative, something horrible, something we do not want to feel. Yet Proverbs 14:27 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” Proverbs 9:10 adds, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 19:9 even calls the fear of the Lord holy and enduring. 

So this fear is not negative, nor is it simply a gut reaction or instinct. Rather it is something we learn, which makes it a deliberate choice. What is this fear of the Lord, then? First, it is a deep reverence for God. It is a recognition that God is God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.  We stand in awe before the God that our human minds cannot grasp. 

Fear of the Lord also includes a strong disinclination to offend God. We love Him, so we don’t want to sin against him. This may be because of the punishments He justly applies when we sin. If so, we have servile fear, which is not perfect but does give us a start to overcome temptations. Or we may simply fear to offend God because we recognize His goodness and beauty and holiness, and we want to please Him out of love. This is filial fear, and it should be our goal.  

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 4

Spirit of love and truth, having mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit infuses us with divine love. Since He is the very love between the Father and the Son, He is Love in person. Therefore, He can love in and through us, boosting and purifying our love so that it reaches out in true self-giving to others, imitating the pure self-giving love between the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is also truth. Jesus promised in John 14:26 that He would send the Holy Spirit upon His disciples and that the Holy Spirit would “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit teaches us the truth. If we let Him, He provides us with insights about God and about ourselves and about God’s will for our lives. He helps us go deeper into our faith and to better understand and appreciate, even rejoice in, the truth.

Spirit of wisdom and understanding, have mercy on us.

Wisdom and understanding are two of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts are infused into us at our baptism, but they grow throughout our lives as we open ourselves to them and cultivate them. We must cooperate with the Spirit and use the gifts He so generously provides if we are to bring them to fruition.

The Catechism defines wisdom as “a spiritual gift which enables one to know the purpose and plan of God.” That should amaze us if we think about it. With the gift of wisdom, we get something of a God’s -eye view of life. Not completely, of course. It’s more like a glimpse here and there, but it can certainly help us discern and follow God’s will.

Understanding helps us come to terms with the truths of our faith. We certainly hold fast to those truths with faith, but when we apply our understanding, we go deeper. We dive into truth to get to the meaning of it. We see more clearly. We appreciate the great gifts we have. We make them our own as we take them into our minds and apply our reason to them with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Spirit of counsel and fortitude, have mercy on us.

Counsel and fortitude are two more of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Counsel is the ability to make good judgments. When we know the truth, we must act on it. But to act properly, we must first decide what is best to do (and when and how, etc.). The Spirit helps us do that with the gift of counsel.

Many people use the words “fortitude” and “courage” interchangeably, and that can work if we define them properly. The gift of fortitude is a sort of courage that helps us face the difficult struggles and trials of our lives and keep on going. We endure what we must, relying on God’s help and loving support. But fortitude also spurs us to action. It gives us the boost we need to speak the truth, to stand up for the moral law, and to act against the crowd, doing what is right even when we are the only ones. 

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.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Ghost, Part 2

Holy Ghost, Who proceedest from the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.

Theologians tell us that the Holy Spirit is the very love between the Father and the Son, a love so strong and so vibrant that He is actually the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. We say that He proceeds from both the Father and the Son because both of these two Persons are constantly pouring out Their love for each other. This is the love, the Holy Spirit, that we are asking to enter our hearts so that we may be filled with divine love.

Holy Ghost, Who are equal to the Father and the Son, enter our hearts.

As the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit is fully divine and equal to the Father and the Son. This is, of course, a mystery. We cannot wrap our human minds around the Blessed Trinity, and we are not supposed to. Yet we have faith, for God has revealed this truth about Himself, this amazing Three-in-One and One-in-Three that is the Trinity.

Promise of God the Father, have mercy on us.

At the end of Luke’s Gospel, the risen Jesus assures the apostles that they will be witnesses of His life, death, and resurrection. They will carry this Gospel to all nations, starting in Jerusalem and working their way out. They will tell the whole world about Jesus, and they will bring His salvation to all people willing to accept it. But first, Jesus says, “And behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). This promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus has already said that the Holy Spirit would come upon His disciples. He goes so that the Holy Spirit may come to them (John 16:7). And this Holy Spirit is the promise, the comforter, and the advocate Who will fill Jesus’ followers with His power and with His tremendous gifts that will give them what they need to fearlessly take the Gospel into the whole world.

Ray of heavenly light, have mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and hearts. He infuses us with knowledge and understanding, good judgment and wisdom, if we are open to receiving this light. It can, however, be difficult to allow the light to enter into us, for the light shows how dark we actually are. It illuminates our nooks and crannies, which can have all sorts of unpleasant things lurking within them. Yet only when we see ourselves clearly can we fully repent of our sins and allow God’s mercy to cleanse us and His light to fill us with divine radiance.

Author of all good, have mercy on us.

We might be more inclined to think of God the Father as the Author or Creator, and indeed He is. But creation is the work of the entire Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:2, we read that the Spirit of God “was moving over the face of the waters.” These “waters” refer to the chaos, the disorder, the darkness, even the nothingness that the world was before God created everything from nothing. The Spirit of God moved in an act of love that brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and beauty out of the void.