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Show REVIVING THE DEVOTION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. Amone the many great things done by this present Pope is the restoration of the Devotion to the Holy Ghost to its rightful place in the devotional life of Catholics. Three years ago he sent out one of hi3 greatest encyclicals on the Holy Spirit, and at that time prescribed pre-scribed a yearly novena for the season of Pentecost, and admonished all who were entrusted with the direction of souls that "it was their duty to impart im-part to the people with more zeal and fulness the teachings relative to the Holy Ghcst, for," said the Holy Father, "perhaps even today there are Christians Chris-tians who would answer as of old the Ephesians answered the Apostle Paul: 'We have not even heard if there be a Holy Spirit.' " j Cardinal Manning once wrote: "I have long thought that the secret, but j real cause of the so-called Reforma- I tion was that the office of the Holy Ghost had been so much obscured in popular belief." A daily recognition of and devotion to the Holy Spirit cultivates culti-vates a spirit of self-reliance as well as an individual initiative to do and dare for the best inteiests of the church. The Catholic World Magazine for June prints a luminous article by Rey. Joseph McSorley, a Paulist Father, which deserves a most careful reading. The Paulists are missionaries of the Holy Spirit. The most essential point to be emphasized em-phasized in this study is that, while the devotion to the Holy Spirit provides the motive Dower, the external standard stand-ard of doctrinal life now so clearly-marked clearly-marked out by the infallible teaching authority provide the rails on which one may go and which clearly define point: "But does not this render the individual individ-ual lawless and his conduct arbitrary? In the spiritual life, thus conceived, there must be danger of pride, fanaticism, fanati-cism, vagrant fancies, illusions, and the worst possible self-deception. That is true: and ruin would be imminent were there no balance, no corrective, no external standard of guidance. Here, as always, the beautiful symmetry of Catholic doctrine ia manifested, and its unity made evident. The: inner promptings of the voice of God are to be tested by their harmony with the external direction of authority. God wm not contradict himself; the less obvious ob-vious and certain direction is to be corrected by the clearer. Hence, in case of conflict, the suoposed inspiration inspira-tion must always- give way to ths explicit ex-plicit direction of lawfully constituted authority. This rule has been well il-: il-: lustrated in the lives of Saints like Teresa, Te-resa, who professed that they would j obey the command of a lawful superior j more readily than they 'would follow ; any interior suggestion, though it I seemed clearly to proceed from the j Holy Spirit. Thus it is that fidelity to j the integral Catholic ideal has ever I enabled men to steer safely between the fatal alternatives of fanaticism and in- ; dolent passivity. The plumb-line of the i mason, the rudder of a ship, the beacon on a lee-shore, external authority constantly con-stantly guides and directs the human activity initiated perhaps by an internal inter-nal prompting, but liable to end in disaster dis-aster if it neglects the corrective of direction di-rection from without. For the demon : may whisper within us in the guise of ; an angel of light. Obeying legitimate superiors, however, we cannot go astray. The wall will be true to "a hair's breadth, the ship will safely weather the foam-bathed rocks; and it is the certainty of being thus guarded guard-ed against danger which enables the loyal Catholic to work out God's plan with untroubled serenity." |