The Church warns us, "Just as we honor Thee, so dost Thou visit us." How can those who pay no attention to the Holy Ghost expect Him to pay attention to them? Does not this sort of retaliation disturb them?
The first duty of a member of Jesus Christ to the Spirit of Jesus Christ is that of an attentive respect for Him Who desires to be in us not only the Great Gift, but the Ever-Present One, enabling us to live "a life hid with Christ" "a life in Heaven," if we wish.
How often have we seen the plants in a garden waving in the breeze? If it agitates them lightly they bend at once; when it ceases they return to their former position. So does the Holy Spirit act with the faithful soul. He breathes upon it but with such gentleness that the faithful soul follows His impulses. So also does the Holy Spirit give a sudden inspiration, brief in duration; the soul obeys it, and then returns to what she had been doing. And it is this docility which the Holy Spirit finds in a soul that draws Him to perform within it His work of Love. In the sanctification of the soul, He does ninety-nine and three-fourths of the work, but the fourth that is wanting, the soul must do for herself.
Represent to yourself the Holy Spirit as a person who about to construct a mosaic and has the pieces already prepared. Nearby is the design right under his eyes; he calls upon his assistant for the pieces that suit his purpose; at one time he will call for two pieces of the same colour, another time not; but he who is to hand him the pieces ought to give them according to his request.
So a soul is the masterpiece of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit labours over it but He calls to the soul now for an act of Obedience, now for an act of Charity, now for two of Humility in succession; and the soul gives at once without keeping Him waiting; but if the soul does not co-operate she binds, as it were, the Hands of the Holy Spirit.
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