Blessed Sister Elena Aiello 7
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Summer 2018 THE HOLY SPIRIT GIFT OF JOY The pleasure, satisfaction, contentment, rest and happiness experienced as a result of the possession of basic human good. Christ is seen as the cause of all authentic Christian joy. Holy Spirit preserve in us this joy even in difficulties and temptations by letting your divine joy pour into our sacrifices. 2 HOLY SPIRIT GRANT US YOUR GIFT OF JOY JOY Plentitude of Joy The pleasure, satisfaction, contentment, rest and happiness Lord, you underwent your sacred Passion in order to bring experienced as a result of the possession of basic human us happiness that our joy may be full. Your heart spent itself good. Christ is seen as the cause of all authentic Christian entirely for our eternal happiness. joy because He fulfills the Old Testament promises, brings Let us see the immense value of this gift of joy and let us forgiveness, grace, truth and divine love. Joy for the embrace it wholeheartedly since you purchased it with Christian is result of charitable actions, forgiveness for sin your life. and life under the promise of redemption and salvation. Help us to be filled with interior joy and let us always find Essentially, Christian joy is sharing in the joy of Christ at it in your heart. the accomplishment of the works of divine salvation. Joy is the completion of happiness, the aim of human life and the Keep us ever mindful of your love and the gift of joy, and completion of human action and existence. increase them more and more through your goodness. The Augustinian tradition asserted that only God could Preserve in us this joy even in difficulties and temptations provide the fullness of human joy as only He could meet all by letting your divine joy pour into our sacrifices. of our human needs and fulfill all of our human longings. Let us not succumb to sadness, as if your love did not The Christian conception of joy is significantly different vanquish our enemies, as if your heart were not capable to from that of the Marxist, materialist or agnostic concepts console us. In your loving presence let us find the source of because it affirms that God provides it perfectly. Agnostics our joy overcoming all fatigue and distress. or materialists would be skeptical of this, for they would Let your all-conquering love inundate us and shine upon contend that joy is ultimately materialist in its nature and our neighbor. content. Christian Faith affirms that the spiritual joy of union with discipleship of Christ made possible by faith and grace is of a different order from that which others can imagine or ask. THE BEATITUDE God put us in this world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us “partakers of the divine nature” and of eternal life. With “Come Holy beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ & into the joy Spirit, fill the of the Trinitarian life. hearts of your Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers faithful and of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enkindle in enter into the divine joy. them the fire of “Blessed are the pure in heart, your love”. for they shall see God.” LET ALL THE EARTH CRY OUT TO GOD WITH JOY 3 THE GIFT OF JOY WILL BE HOLY SPIRIT GRANT US FOUND IN MANY FORMS YOUR GIFT OF JOY For example, when a family says the Rosary together, they 736 By this power of the Spirit, God’s children can bear are also united with Christ and Mary in the mysteries. “So much fruit. He who has grafted us onto the true vine will joy in the Holy Spirit is not just ‘knowing,’ but ‘union with,’” make us bear “The fruit of the Spirit: ...love, joy, peace, “The Holy Spirit not only gives knowledge, but unites by.” patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” “We live by the Spirit”; the more we renounce JUST BEING TOGETHER ourselves, the more we “walk by the spirit.” Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led BRINGS JOY, TOO. back to the Kingdom of Heaven, and adopted as children, “the children loathe doing dishes, but there’s joy in given confidence to call God “Father” and to share in the family when they’re working in a group effort and it Christ’s grace, called children of light and given a share in benefits the family,” they find “Even though they don’t eternal glory. get ‘happiness” doing dishes, they get such a true joy and satisfaction when working together.” HOLY SPIRIT BLESS ME WITH JOYS OF THE BLESSED YOUR HOLY GIFT OF JOY VIRGIN MARY. On Joy Pious devotion to commemorate particular joys in the life Joy is prayer- joy is strength - joy is love - joy is a net of of Blessed Mary. The numbers given are five or seven, and love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful sometimes twelve, but most common in today’s practice are giver. She gives most who gives with joy. The best way the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity of Jesus, Epiphany, to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept Finding Jesus in the Temple, Resurrection, and Assumption. everything with joy. A joyful heart is the normal result of a Franciscans celebrate the joys of the Blessed Virgin with a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with special feast and also propagate the devotion of the Rosary sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ Risen. We all of Mary’s Seven Joys. This devotion was very popular in long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to old Catholic England, and today another feast on the be in heaven with Him right now- to be happy with Him at Monday after Low Sunday celebrates the same joys in this moment. But being happy with Him now means: Portugal and Brazil. loving as He loves, helping as He helps, JOY IN THE giving as He gives, serving as He serves SPIRITUAL READING rescuing as He rescues, In spiritual literature, the feeling aroused by the being with Him twenty-four hours, expectation or possession of some good. One of the fruits of touching Him in His distressing disguise. the Holy Spirit. Joyful emotions affect the body, but they are Saint Mother Teresa essentially in the higher faculties of the soul. Differs from pleasure, which may affect the human spirit but originates in ONE CANDLE some bodily sensation. Thus joy is possessed by angels and MAY LIGHT A THOUSAND human beings, and its source is the rational will. When you are finished with your Bulletin pass it on. 4 RENEWAL OF PRAYER IS A SIGN OF HOPE Our Joy Is God Great art Thou, 0 Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Prayers for Family Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no number. And man desires to praise Thee. He is but a tiny part of all that Thou hast created. He bears about him his morality, the evidence LET US ALWAYS START ALL OUR of his sinfulness, and the evidence that Thou dost resist the PRAYER WITH A SIMPLE proud: yet this tiny part of all that Thou hast created desires “COME, HOLY SPIRIT” to praise Thee. Thou dost so excite him that to praise Thee is his joy. For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee. “Holy Spirit, open my eyes to For there is a joy which is not given to the ungodly but only to those who love Thee for Thy own sake, whose joy see you, and my ears to hear you. is Thyself. And this is happiness, to be joyful in Thee and I want to know and love my God for Thee and because of Thee, this and no other. Those who think happiness is any other, pursue a joy that is apart from - Father, Son, and Spirit- More Thee and is no true joy. intimately than I do now.” St. Augustine An Act of Consecration “Holy Spirit, come and renew To The Holy Spirit 0 Holy Spirit, divine Spirit of light and love, I consecrate my way of thinking. I want to to You my understanding, my heart and my will, my whole become a vessel of your grace being from time and for eternity. and power, and I know I cannot May my understanding be always submissive to your do this on my own. Spirit, make heavenly inspirations and to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church, of which You are the infallible Guide. your thoughts my thoughts and May my heart be ever inflamed with love of God and of your desires my desires!” my neighbor; may my will be ever conformed to the divine Will, and may my whole life be a faithful imitation of the life and virtues of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and You, Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever, Amen. “Holy Spirit, I don’t want to St Pius X, June 5, 1908 miss a word you have to say to Ask for the Holy Spirit and His Gifts with me. You are my strength, my faith. Receive them with praise and thanksgiving hope, and my love. I want to tell Share them with your brothers and sisters in a everyone about the treasure I spirit of joy.