Pentecost and St Francis de Sales
The Holy Spirit is always ready to give us spiritual gifts, and especially on this day.
St. Francis de Sales assists us in asking for these gifts:
“May it please the Divine Majesty to grant us the gift of fear that we may serve Him filially; the gift of piety to revere Him as our most loving Father, the gift of knowledge to know the good we ought to do and the evil we ought to avoid, the gift of fortitude to overcome courageously all difficulties in the practice of virtue, the gift of counsel to discern and to choose the true way of perfection, the gift of understanding to realize the beauty and benefit of the mysteries of faith and of the truths of the Gospel; finally the gift of wisdom to taste how good God is, to savor and experience the sweetnesses of His incomprehensible benignity.
Oh! How happy shall we be, if we receive these priceless gifts, for doubtless, they will lead us to the summit of this mystical ladder where we shall be received by our Divine Savior who awaits us there with open arms, to make us participants of His glory and felicity.” (Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost)
Read the entire sermon here:
http://web1.desales.edu/…/sal…/PDF/Sermons-Pentecost.pdf
“Receive the Holy Spirit”
John 20,19-23
Sermon of St. Francis de Sales, June 1620
(Works IX 315, 317, 322)
Today we celebrate the feast of the gift of gifts, which is the Holy Spirit; he was sent from the Father and the Son upon the Apostles, in the form of tongues of fire.
Certainly, it was a very great gift that God made to the world when he gave him his own Son, as he himself said, and after him the Apostle St. Paul: “If the Father, who so loved the world, gave him his own Son, why should he not give him every other gift?”
… The greatness of gifts is estimated according to the love with which they are made; but it is not only made with great love, but it is love itself that is given, for everyone must know that the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and of the Son.
But when we say that the Holy Spirit is given to us by the Father and by the Son, we must not understand that he is separated from either of them; he is one true and indivisible God.
Certainly, we cannot thank God enough for this singular present to his Church, because of the goods that result from it. The Holy Spirit was sent in the form of tongues of fire because it is with tongue that the Church has all her strength. Preaching is done through language. In baptism, the tongue also intervenes to give the water the strength to wash away our sins. In the same way, the Eucharist can only be celebrated through the word of the priest.
Let us consider, I pray you, this precious gift which is also made to each of us in particular. He understands within Him seven gifts: fear, science, godliness, strength, counsel, understanding, and wisdom.
… Thus all those who were in the upper room received the Holy Spirit and all spoke according to the words which the Holy Spirit gave them; but not all in the same way, not having all been destined to preach the Gospel like St. Peter and the other Apostles, for we cannot deny that there were women among the hundred and twenty gathered, as St. Luke tells us (Acts 1:14). Those who did not preach encouraged one another to praise God.
But you have to know that there is a way of speaking without saying a word; That is a good example.