What can one quote from the extraordinary chapter on the
Holy Spirit in Manning? Every other sentence seems like a surprise, or a gift
to be unwrapped slowly.
Samples: “The Holy
Ghost dwells in the mystical Body, and in every member of the same who is united
to the Incarnate Son. We are related to Him, and He dwells in us, and it is
through Him that we have union both with the Son and with the Father.”
“ …every time we make
the sign of the Cross we make an act of faith and, at least, an implicit act of
adoration to the Holy Ghost. All the works of God in creation, though they are
the works of the Holy Trinity, are in a special sense the works of the Holy
Ghost, because it is the Third Person of the ever-blessed Trinity Who is in
immediate union with all creatures….He is the Term, or the Compliment, of the
Holy Trinity, because the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father and the Son; but there the Holy Trinity rests
complete. No divine person proceeds from the Holy Ghost.”
“God the Father is
uncreated being, God the Son is uncreated intelligence, and God the Holy
Ghost is uncreated love; and the
uncreated being, intelligence, and love of God are God.”
“All creatures of God
are…from the Holy Ghost; they are His works; He is therefore the Creator
Spiritus, the Spirit Who made all things, the Spirit Who impresses law, and
order, and perfection upon all the works of God. And as He has created all
things, so He is Himself the Giver of all things. He is the Dator munerum, as we
say in the sequence of the Holy Mass at Pentecost—‘the Giver of all gifts.”
Manning quotes the titles of the Holy Ghost from the litany
of Pentecost—the hymn Veni Creator
Spiritus.
Creator
Gift of God Most High
Living Fountain
Fire
Paraclete
Sevenfold Gift
Spiritual Unction
Manning reminds us that the Holy Spirit also is responsible
for the New Creation, the Church, but more than that, the renewal of creation,
beginning with the Immaculate Conception, the New Eve, the New Woman, the
“firstfruits of the full and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost.”
The Cardinal writes, “She was the first and the last in the
natural lineage of the children of Adam in whom sin had no place. The Mother of
the Incarnate Son was sheltered and preserved from the inheritance of original
sin, so that never for a moment was so much as a shadow cast by sin upon her
spotless soul. In her was no privation of grace. From the first moment of her
existence she was full of the Holy Ghost. The most perfect work of
sanctification that the world has ever seen, purchased by the Precious Blood of
the Son of God Himself, and given out of free and sovereign grace, is the
Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God. Such was the aurora before the sun.
Next came the day, the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. The efficient author of
the Incarnation was the Holy Ghost: ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore, the Holy that
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God; and therefore we say in
our baptismal Creed, Conceptus est de
Spiritu Sancto-‘He was conceived of the Holy Ghost.’”
One must stop as this paragraph takes one’s breath away with
the beauty and economy of God’s plan for our salvation.
Glory be to God…
To be continued…
