Archbishop Luis M. Martinez - True Devotion to the Holy Spirit

True Devotion to the Holy Spirit

Luis M. Martinez

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS
Manchester, New Hampshire

True Devotion to the Holy Spirit is an abridged edition of The Sanctifier (New Jersey: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1957), which was an English translation by Sr. M. Aquinas, O.S.U., of El Espiritu Santo. This 2000 edition by Sophia Institute Press omits chapter 19 and part 4 of the original edition and contains editorial revisions to the original text.

Copyright 2000 Sophia Institute Press

With a few exceptions, noted in the footnotes, the biblical quotations in the following pages are based on the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine translations, as follows: the New Testament (copyright 1941); the book of Genesis (copyright 1952); and the books of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Wisdom, and Sirach (copyright 1955). Where applicable, quotations have been cross-referenced with the differing names and numeration in the Revised Standard Version, using the following symbol: (RSV =).

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Jacket photograph, Lone White Dove Flying into Shaft of Golden Light, Copyright 2000 Olney Vasan / Stone.

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Imprimatur:
James A. McNulty,
Bishop of Paterson, New Jersey
April 24, 1957

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Martnez, Luis M. (Luis Maria), 1881-1956.
True devotion to the holy spirit / Luis M. Martnez.
p. cm.Abridged ed. of: The Sanctifier. Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-928832-05-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Holy Spirit. I. Martnez, Luis M. (Luis Maria), 1881-1956. Sanctifier. II. Title.BT121.2.M3152 2000
231.3 dc2199-088253

Translators preface

Always revered by Mexicans and all those whose privilege it was to know him, the late Archbishop of Mexico Luis M. Martinez will remain an inspiration to all who will yet come under his influence through the writings that he has left us.

A close and lifelong friend of the archbishop refers to his personality as a diamond of multiple facets. He is seen as a philosopher, a theologian, a teacher, an educator, a superior, a sociologist, a sacred orator, a writer, a poet, a director of souls, and a humorist. But, continues his friend, there is perhaps one aspect that has remained in shadow until now, in spite of the fact that it is the most important: it is the interior man, his spiritual life, his intimate relationship with God; in a word, it is the mystic... the experimental mystic, who speaks and writes about what has happened to him personally, in the style of St. Teresa or better, of St. John of the Cross. May the passing of time and the gradual clarification of knowledge regarding this saintly man give us this true picture.

We can understand a little the archbishops intense dedication to his people, his devotion to their needs, and his longing for sacrifice from these words summing up the sermon he gave in the Cathedral of Mexico on the occasion of assuming his position as head of the Archdiocese of Mexico City: I come to promise you but one thing: I come to give you my life. Those who read his work on the Holy Spirit will surely learn where he acquired the love and the knowledge that made him the tremendous force he was in a wide circle of souls.

The help of many kind friends was necessary in order to bring this translation of a sublime and masterful work to completion. I wish to express my sincere thanks to them for enabling me to share its spiritual treasures with others.

Because the termination of the translation nearly coincides with the Ursuline celebration of one hundred years in Kentucky, this work is offered in thanksgiving to God for the blessings we have received.

Sister M. Aquinas, O.S.U.
May 1957

Part One

True Devotion to the Holy Spirit

Chapter One

The heart of true devotion

One fortunate tendency of our times has been that which seeks to establish the supernatural life on the solid basis of dogma. Nothing is more right and necessary than this. Life ought to be based on truth; or rather, it is truth itself that descends, so to speak, from the heights of the understanding to pour itself out over the affections, the works, and all the activity of man.

The truths that we beg God to reveal to us are not only light, but spirit and life. the exceedingly fruitful seeds that transform souls when the intelligence and the heart are opened to them as to the very substance of life.

Love is the essence of the Christian life. It is the charity poured by the Holy Spirit into souls, the charity that embodies the perfection of all the virtues. But it is a very ordered love, because virtue is order in love,

The influence of dogma in the Christian life puts each thing in its place and thus avoids those pietistic deviations caused by mere personal inclination or lack of instruction. Such deviations, although devout and well-intentioned, hinder the prompt and rich flowering of Christian perfection in souls. It is more important than we sometimes realize to put things in their proper place in the spiritual life.

St. Grignion de Montfort, in his excellent little treatises True Devotion to Mary and The Secret of Mary has done no more than establish the most holy Virgin in her place in Christian piety. The merit of these works is that they show an understanding of the universal and indispensable function of Mary Immaculate in the sanctification of souls a traditional doctrine of the Church that obtained the magnificent confirmation of the Holy Apostolic See in modern times when the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, was introduced into the Liturgy.

St. Grignion de Montfort understood so clearly the place that belongs to Mary in the work of sanctification that he made devotion to this sweet Mother, not something superficial or intermittent, consisting of isolated practices with a special place and hour in our day, but constant and essential, reaching to the very depths of our heart and filling our whole being and all our life like a heavenly perfume.

The method of Grignion de Montfort is not artificial. It does not impose on Christian life the particular note of filial tenderness that the saint himself professed for the Blessed Virgin. It simply shows how to bring to Christian life the traditional Catholic teaching about Mary. That is, it gives her her proper place as universal Mediatrix of the graces of God.

With even greater reason, then because He is more forgotten the Holy Spirit must be given His proper place, the place that rightfully belongs to Him in Christian life and Christian perfection. Devotion to the Holy Spirit must become what St. Grignion de Montfort made of devotion to Mary: something not superficial and intermittent, but constant and profound, filling the depths of souls and impregnating lives with the sweet unction of infinite love.

Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls; and perfection, the most faithful and perfect reproduction, consists in the transformation of souls into Jesus. This is the doctrine of St. Paul, set forth time and again in his letters: Do you not know... that Christ Jesus is in you?; These are some of the apostles many expressions relative to Christian life.

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