Whitsunday GOSPEL St. John 14:23-31 The Monday Meditation: A Plaine Path-Way To Heaven By Fr.Thomas Hill 1634

MINIATURIST, French Breviary 
c. 1490
John 14:23-31 
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me, does not keep My words. And the word that you have heard is not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, or be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I go away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would indeed rejoice that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it has come to pass you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the prince of the world is coming an in Me he has nothing. But he comes that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded Me.
Monday Meditation

The manner of the coming of the holy Ghost,was this. Upon the day of Pentecost, at nine a clock in the morning, according to our account, the disciples being all together in a room, & as some think and is most probable, in that great chamber where Christ had instituted and given them for their comfort, his body in the Blessed Sacrament, the holy Ghost descended upon every one of them in particular under the visible sign of tongues of fire, and the tongues were bipartite, or cloven asunder, all, but at the one end;& it was done with a vehement wind, filling all the room with the din or noise thereof.

Whereupon the Disciples were endued with those gifts, which those visible signs signify, to wit, with the knowledge, of speaking, and understanding all tongues and languages of the world, & that very excellent welcome, being otherwise of themselves simple illiterate & unlearned men.

Which skill in all tongues and languages was signified by the tongues were fiery, was signified by the tongues that descended upon them. In that the tongues were fiery, was signified their fiery love pf God, wherewith their hearts were inflamed. In that the tongues were cloven, was signified their love not only to God,but also to their neighbor, for the love of God.

In that these tongues came with a wind or breath, was signified that the holy Ghost inspired or breathed into their hearts the knowledge of all truth, which Christ promised he should suggest unto them, whom he therefore called the spirit of verity, or truth; in so much that Christ bid them not to be studious,or solicitous what to say, when they were questioned, concerning their doctrine, for it should be given them in that very hour, to wit by the inspiration & breathing of the holy Ghost.

In that the wind was vehement and admirable zeal and courage, wherewith they preached the Gospel with what danger and opposition soever, torments were joys to them, and death a banquet: with these gifts of the holy Ghost the Apostles, being armed and furnished, they went forth into all the world, and planted the Gospel of Christ; they laid the first foundation of Catholic Religion, they are the Fathers of our Faith, without whom we had remained ignorant and out of the state of salvation, as Infidels, and Pagans are.

This benefit of the coming of the holy Ghost upon the disciples, though it be past many hundred years in time,yet is it present to us in effect. Thankfulness for a benefit past, often times deserveth another at the hands of our bountiful God.

Let us therefore yield God most humble and harty thanks for so great a benefit, and graces of the holy Ghost, that the disciples had given unto them, to wit, knowledge of tongues, not to speak and understand all tongues and languages, as they did, for that is not now necessary, but to order our tongues to speak aright, to, and of all other persons; also a firey and ardent love of God, and of neighbor, for, and in God; also a vehement zeal, and yet with discretion (for that is also a gift of the holy Ghost) to the honor of God, and the Saints in heaven, especially the Blessed and glorious Virgin Mary; also the knowledge of truth in matters of religion, and service of God, not so as to expect to have it revealed or suggested unto us in particular, nor to believe or presume any such matter of our selves, for that is the ready way of error, but to be obedient unto the doctrine of the Catholic Church, united to her head, unto whom Christ promised the holy Ghost to direct her into all truth; also all other gifts, and graces of the holy Ghost, that are necessary for our salvation; of which gifts & graces there are many divisions as St. Paul sayth, yea almost as many as there are men, one having them in one manner or and in one degree, and another in another, and all from one spirit, the holy Ghost, dividing to every one as he will.

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