On
Pentecost morning the Blessed Virgin Mary exhorted the Apostles, the disciples
and the pious women, numbering about one hundred and twenty, to pray more
fervently and renew their hopes, since the hour was at hand in which they were
to be visited by the divine Spirit from on high. At the third hour (nine
o’clock), when all of them were gathered around their heavenly Mistress and
engaged in fervent prayer, the air resounded with a tremendous thunder and the
blowing of a violent wind mixed with the brightness of fire or lightning, all
centering upon the house of the Cenacle (upper room).
The house was enveloped
in light and the divine fire was poured out over all of that holy gathering
(Acts 2, 2). Over the
head of each of the hundred and twenty persons appeared a tongue of that same fire, in which the Holy Ghost had come, filling each one with divine influences and heavenly gifts and causing at one and the same time the most diverse and contrary effects in the upper room and in the whole of Jerusalem, according to the diversity of the persons affected.
head of each of the hundred and twenty persons appeared a tongue of that same fire, in which the Holy Ghost had come, filling each one with divine influences and heavenly gifts and causing at one and the same time the most diverse and contrary effects in the upper room and in the whole of Jerusalem, according to the diversity of the persons affected.
In
the most holy Mary these effects were altogether divine, and most wonderful in
the sight of all the heavenly courtiers;
 |
| The wonder effect of the Holy Ghost in Her |
for as regard us men, we are incapable
of understanding and explaining them. The purest Lady was transformed and
exalted in God; for She saw intuitively and clearly the Holy Ghost, and for a
short time enjoyed the beatific vision of the Divinity. Of his gifts and divine
influences She by Herself received more than all the rest of the saints. Her
glory for that space of time, exceeded that of the angels and of the blessed.
She alone gave to the Lord more glory, praise and thanksgiving than all the
universe for the benefit of the descent of his Holy Spirit upon his Church and
for his having pledged Himself so many times to send Him and through Him to
govern it to the end of the world. The blessed Trinity was so pleased with the
conduct of Mary on this occasion, that It considered Itself fully repaid and
compensated for having created the world; and not only compensated, but God
acted as if He were under a certain obligation for possessing such a peerless
Creature, whom the Father could look upon as his Daughter, the Son as his
Mother, and the Holy Ghost as his Spouse; and whom (according to our way of
thinking) He was now obliged to visit and enrich after having conferred upon
Her such high dignity. In this exalted and blessed Spouse were renewed all the
gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, creating new effects and operations
altogether beyond our capacity to understand.
