Sweet Guest of our Soul

[Music] st. Bernard of Clairvaux an abbot and doctor of the church was one of the most influential Catholic saints in the medieval times and probably one of the greatest reformers of our church he not only founded a hundred and sixty-three monasteries throughout Europe which later led to 343 but he also counseled popes helped heal schisms within the church he helped establish what we call the code of canon law today he was also one of the greatest Marion Saints along with st. Louie de Montfort and st. Maximilian Kolbe he also was the first Cistercian monk to be placed on our calendar of saints he was so holy he was so convicted about our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church he convinced his whole family to join a monastery so he had five brothers they all joined the Cistercian order he even had a sister who got married who didn't seem called to the religious life she got married she had a child and later st. Bernard convinced her to join the monastery by a mutual agreement with her husband actually they both joined the monastery not only that their daughter joined the monastery and last but not least even st. Bernhard's dad joined the monastery and it's good to enter religious life but the fact of the matter is all of them are beatified even his niece and his brother-in-law besides their father whose venerable they're all on their way to canonization to become Saints there is a book written about the family of Saint Bernard it's entitled the family that overtook Christ I recommend that as a good read Saint Bernard also had special gifts he would go around France and Europe and preach and he actually helped convert a night a night Kay and IG HT nights were very common back then a night converted and he later became st. Bernhard's interpreter he knew French and German but unfortunately this night that was converted his squire who was very close to him hated the fact that he started to practice religion started to practice virtue and not only that spend a lot of time with Saint Bernard so this squire was so angry toward his knight that he would follow him and st. Bernard and whenever they would go out preaching or doing apostolic works that Squire would ridicule them he would curse them and call them many horrible things he actually damned them to hell you are instruments of the devil the squire said so one day as he continued to do this a st. Bernard and this night went around a crippled woman was put at the feet of Saint Bernard and they asked him to help heal her so when eventually st. Bernard healed this crippled woman and the squire was looking at it he got livid he was horribly mad at just the fact of someone getting healed through the intercession of st. Bernhard so what happened was all of a sudden this Squire gets socked or punched by an invisible person and he got punched so hard he went down to the ground and died and the night the interpreter saw this and he said a st. Bernard it's really because he was blaspheming you you're the holy person God did not tolerate the fact that someone was mocking you so much and st. Bernard felt bad st. Bernard actually said god forbid that anyone should die on my account so he asked the people who probably held the crippled woman to bring her to him to be healed he probably asked them to hold the boy up the squire up he said in our Father he got spittle and He healed him one way or another eventually the squire went right back up and he came back alive and Saint Bernard had two questions for him now what are your dispositions what are you about to do and his response My Father I will do all you command and he later became a crusader he actually continued to share the story about how he was about to go to hell after he died but it was through the intercession of st. Bernard that he came back alive that interpreter the knight later joined the monastery a common theme for st. Bernard in anyone it seems like he talks to also just to pretty much top it all off on st. Bernards 800 year anniversary of his death the Pope at that time Pope Pius the 12th wrote a whole encyclical on saint bernhard and being sick with that is the highest teaching of the Pope individually speaking the title of that encyclical was dr. mellifluous it's a hard word to pronounce mellifluous and what mellifluous means is sweet honey the st. Bernard was categorized not only as a doctor of the church not only as a last feather of the church but someone who is sweet that's probably the most unique title that a saint can receive from the church through the Pope a sweet honey doctor you know usually when I think in modern times at least for younger people like my generation we use the word sweet to describe something that we like like that sweet you know you have this inflection to use this word based on what we like but yet it was a title given to st. Bernard why was he the sweet honey doctor well obviously because of his eloquence because of his spiritual insights because of his preaching of beauty and truth and of course his love for the Blessed Virgin Mary so through the intercession of st. Bernard one of again the greatest reformers of the Catholic Church may we be sweet may we be eloquent may we help reform the church now why do I bring up st. Bernard and his title as being the sweet honey doctor of the church there is only one time out of the whole liturgical year that the word sweet is present in the liturgy and that is during Pentecost Sunday during the sequence we either sing or recite in Latin it states dual cheese hospice on emai that is the holy spirit is the sweet guest of our soul now the gospel is about the Holy Spirit just in case you didn't read it just in case you didn't do your Lexi Oh about the gospel today Jesus promises a consoler and we have to take this in its proper context obviously the disciples have been with Jesus for a while he died he rose from the dead and now he's back on earth was his with his glorified body he's getting ready to ascend to heaven so the disciples there's obviously a sadness the fact that the Son of God the God man will be leaving them so Jesus says don't worry in other words don't worry I will send you the consoler I will send you the Advocate and it states if you read the gospel he will not only remain with you he will be in you it's very specific and basically what Jesus is telling us in the gospel today is that we will be temples of the Holy Spirit that's what st. Paul says that we are temples of the Holy Spirit not only that to go a step further the Holy Trinity will dwell within our souls we have divine life especially through sanctifying Grace in our souls now Jesus says this with a warning you have to read the gospel again in its entirety and his warning is this the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot accept he's very clear the world will not accept the Holy Spirit and he gives the reason because it neither sees nor knows him so the Holy Spirit Jesus is trying to give really the whole trend to us but some people won't accept him in other words he is this sweet guest of our soul but for some there is no room in the inn he is the gifts of all gifts but some people take Christ out of their lives like they take Christ out of Christmas and yet after that no gift of God Most High he is the spirit of truth that God wants to give to us in his fullness but at times people live in the dictatorship of relativism so there's a warning again Jesus is ascending to heaven he's sending the holy spirits but some people won't accept the third person of the Holy Trinity you know just on a practical level as a priest especially who travels and preaches it's usually during confirmation it's yours usually during the preparation to get confirmed that the Holy Spirit is emphasized most the time the conformed on D candidates they have to memorize usually the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit it's like if you don't memorize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit you're not ready to be confirmed yet after they eventually get confirmed what generally speaking happens most of them leave most of them stopped going to church if they went to church to begin with and then they consider themselves graduated from any Christian formation it's a big problem that I know we at least have here in the United States but I would guess probably within the whole Catholic Church so why is it that with confirmation being the the sacrament of Christian maturity it basically completes all of our baptismal graces why is it when people get confirmed that's when the mass exodus happens oh of course priests can have their own interpretation their own opinions of why so many people leave the church my first inclination is bad family life but we also have bad catechesis do we even know that we cannot say Jesus is Lord without the power of the Holy Spirit do we know if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit we would not have the consecration of bread and wine into the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus Christ without the Holy Spirit our sins will not be forgiven in the sacrament of reconciliation so there's a want hopefully that people have interiorly speaking that we may not necessarily be supplying them as a church and this is again the whole point of the gospel today that the Holy Spirit will not only be with us but in us to help sanctify our daily lives so that we may become Saints you know I looked at the poll in terms of mass attendance here in the United States about 39% Catholics go to weekly mass that might be a little bit above what I'm used to seeing but if you look at the ages of 21 29 only 25% in that age range actually goes to weekly or Sunday Mass so what can we learn from the readings well obviously if you don't pray to the Holy Spirit throughout the day I highly recommend that you start and you can just do small aspirations one aspiration that I love all Holy Spirit sweet guest of my soul abide in me and grant that I may ever abide in you so even when you're working at school or probably not now but eventually hopefully when you go back to school you'll say small aspirations come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of thy faithful for those who pray the Liturgy of the hours mid morning prayer especially if you look at the hymns they're dedicated to the Holy Spirit since Pentecost happen within nine to twelve O'Clock something that you might want to keep in mind maybe as a devotional everyday to invoke the Holy Spirit during that time or just throughout the whole day and I must say especially during this pandemic you know this upcoming week will start opening churches or chapels like ours here in Kentucky we're going to need to ask the Holy Spirit to activate his seven gifts a gift such as fortitude many people especially the elderly will be scared they will be scared to even go to church and receive Jesus in Holy Communion that's understandable but you don't want fear to rule your life you want to ask the Holy Spirit especially to activate the gift of fortitude so you can say yes to the will of God whatever the will of God is for you in this situation and you won't be scared knowing that God knows best now along with fortitude we should especially be praying for counsel counsel perfects prudence prudence is good decision-making basically doing the will of God so we want to be brave but we also need to be prudent so this is especially a good time for us for the Holy Spirit to ask ask the Holy Spirit to activate the gifts within us also understanding knowledge wisdom were constantly watching the news to get updated about the virus but at times we can't trust certain sources someone's saying this chyna saying that this person is saying this from the CDC we don't even know who to trust but we can trust the holy spirit we could certainly ask him to activate these gifts so we know what the truth really is and with all this being said I must say this myself I know this is my opinion but I'm sure some of the priests agree with me here that this time of pandemic it's not necessarily said in the news but this is a time for purification this is a time for us of renewal of reform we have to take this at its face value knowing that God has permitted this for a greater good that hopefully we can do more penance especially for the people of this country but beyond that as well we can do more mortification acts of mortification and that we can see what is truly essential in our lives yes bodily health is good but what is most important is the health of our souls and that's what in my opinion God has permitted in this pandemic so we could become closer to him so as a resolution for all of you watching maybe from the internet if you could if you don't have this yet get one of our examination of conscience brochures you can download it directly from our website one of the best things you can do to not fall in lukewarmness and deny the Holy Spirit that Jesus sends to us one of the best things you can do is frequent confession maybe even just once a month to take our exam and go to confession I have not yet personally met a lukewarm Catholic that frequents confession along with that if you don't do this already you might want to make a resolution to have an examination of conscience every day probably the best time to have an examination of conscience is in the evening time to see where you have failed and so you can make a resolution to practice the virtue that will root out that sin or vice so let us persevere in the grace of the Holy Spirit ask st. Bernard that sweet doctor to help with reform but first to reform our own lives because we can't change others if we don't first change ourselves there is one thing I ask of the Lord for this I long to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to savor the sweetness of the Lord and behold his temple [Music] you

Channel: Fathers of Mercy

Views: 3,821

Keywords: Fathers of Mercy, Joseph Aytona, Holy Spirit, Easter, easter homily, easter sermon, pentecost, St. Bernard

Id: KXOMqwo4P3k

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020