Rev. Fr. Paul OSullivan - The Holy Ghost, Our Greatest Friend: He Who Loves Us Best

The Holy Ghost
Our Greatest
Friend

He Who Loves Us Best

Father Paul
OSullivan, O.P.

Copyright 1991, Father Paul OSullivan, O.P.

APOSTOLIC NUNCIATURE
LISBON, PORTUGAL

25 April 1952

Dear Father Paul OSullivan,

With great pleasure I have received your beautiful book on the Holy Ghost.

Really it is a new opportunity of congratulating you.

It explains in a clear and lucid way the sublime and consoling doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our souls, that we are, as St. Paul tells us: Living Tabernacles of the Holy Ghost.

What joy and consolation it is for us to know that the Holy Ghost loves us so much that He dwells in our souls, not only during our lives on Earth but for all Eternity.

Your explanation of the grandeur of our souls, which God has prepared with the richest graces to be the worthy dwelling of the Third Divine Person, is most interesting and enlightening. Your appeal to Christians to love and pray to the Holy Ghost is irresistible, for you show what helps, joys and consolations those receive who honor the Holy Spirit and what those lose who so ungratefully forget and neglect their Divine Guest.

The pages of your book are full of interesting and useful information, which will be a surprise to many who know so little about the Gifts, the Beatitudes and the Fruits of the Holy Ghost. It will be an incentive to priests and teachers to make the Holy Ghost better known to the faithful.

I recommend this little but important book most heartily, feeling sure that it will cause a great increase of devotion to the Holy Spirit.

Cordially blessing you, I am

Yours sincerely,

P. CIRIACI, Papal Nuncio

Contents

Foreword

Our Greatest Friend! Never has a title been better deserved.

This little book makes known to its readers their greatest, truest, best Friend, a Friend who can and will give them what all so earnestly desirepeace, happiness and joy.

Can this be possible? Read, Dear Friend, and judge for yourself. No wonder that you are incredulous. You have never known this Friend.

Who is He? He is the Holy Ghost, the Third Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity, who is in your soul personally, really and truly as He is in Heaven. He is your dearest, most intimate, most loving Friend. He is in your soul, but before coming into it He has made it worthy of His Divine Presence. He has lavished on it His choicest gifts and graces and made it so beautiful that, were you to see it, you would die of love.

Dear Friend, all this seems incredible to you. Have you never heard about it before? Pope St. Leo tells you: Christian, recognize your divine rank, your dignity.

It is incredible that all this is true and yet you never knew it!

Read carefully these pages once and many times. They will tell you how to honor and love your Divine Guest, who in return will bestow on you His seven Gifts, His Beatitudes and His Fruits.

Henceforth your life will be holy, full of the peace, the joys and consolations which the Holy Spirit gives to all who love Him.

Chapter 1

The Importance of Devotion To the Holy Ghost

The following pages will, we hope, dear Reader, prove to be the most interesting and useful you have ever read. They will tell you all about the Holy Ghost, about whom you possibly know very little.

The doctrine of the Holy Ghost is without doubt the most important of all the Churchs teachings because, if we do not know and love the Holy Ghost, we cannot possibly understand the other great truths of our Holy Religion.

Without the Holy Ghost we are blind.

Not only is this doctrine the most important, it is the most wonderful, the most consoling, the most sublime of all doctrines, for with the Holy Ghost we can do all things easily and well. He is the Spirit of Love, of Peace, of Joy, the Spirit of Divine Consolation. He is the Light of Our Souls and the Strength of Our Wills.

Yet, strange to say, this doctrine is little understood by great numbers of Christians. Some have a vague knowledge of the Holy Ghost, but very few indeed have a real grasp of all the Holy Ghost has done for them and is most ready to do if only they allow Him.

We love and honor the Eternal Father whenever we say the Our Father, and this not once, but many times a day. Whenever, too, we speak of the Great Creator of Heaven and Earth, the God of the Universe, we think of the Eternal Father.

We pray to the Son, not only when invoking the Blessed Trinity, but when praying to Our Lord Jesus Christ. We honor His Incarnation, His life, His Passion and death. We honor His Sacred Heart, His Holy Name, and above all we honor Him in the Holy Eucharist.

But many rarely or ever think of the Holy Ghost! They know very little about all the wonderful things He is ready to give themthe peace, the immense joy, the consolations, the love He is offering them.

How extraordinary, Cardinal Manning exclaims, it is that Christians know so little about the Holy Ghost though He is the Author of our Sanctification, the Giver of all Joys and Consolations!

His Eminence was in his youth a sincere Protestant. He became, with the help of the Holy Ghost, a fervent Catholic.

Under the same divine guidance, he became a priest, a bishop and finally a cardinal.

He ever cherished a great devotion to the Holy Ghost and solved all his doubts and difficulties by praying to this Holy Spirit.

When called on to make any important decision, he first of all bent his head in silent prayer. If the problem were graver, he devoted more time and fervor in asking for guidance. Thanks to the graces he thus received, he was able not only to attain high personal sanctity but to render great services to the Catholic Church in England. He wrote two beautiful books on the Holy Ghost.

Cardinal Newman gives us a touching example of love for the Holy Ghost.

He, too, was brought up by his parents in the Protestant religion. Unfortunately, he had the strongest prejudices against the Catholic Church.

At an early age he began to see that his own religion could not be the true one, so full was it of contradictions and errors.

He spent years trying to find the Church of Christ. He read history, he argued with eminent divines and consulted many learned friends, but all in vain. He failed to recognize in the midst of so many claims the religion given us by Jesus Christ.

Finally, one day he received from God, who was pleased with his good intentions, an inspiration.

What have I been doing! he exclaimed. I have labored much, I have studied, I have read many books, I have consulted good friends, but I have not prayed enough, I have not sufficiently asked Gods light and guidance.

Then falling on his knees he prayed fervently. The clouds of doubt began to disappear, and he at last saw the truth of the Catholic Church.

He describes his conversion in the following beautiful hymn, written not long before his conversion.

Lead Kindly Light

Lead Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant sceneone step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayd that Thou
Shouldst lead me on,
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will:
remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
Oer moor and fen, oer crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile