From The Works of the Rt. Rev. Charles C. Grafton
(Volume 8),
edited by B. Talbot Rogers, New York: Longmans, Green, 1914, pp. 449-453
ANALYSIS OF MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY GHOST
ANALYSIS OF MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY GHOST
Come, Lord
Jesus, dwell in Thy servants, in the fulness of Thy strength, in the perfection
of Thy ways, in the holiness of Thy Spirit, and rule over every hostile power
in the might of Thy Spirit and the glory of Thy Father.
INTRODUCTION
The Holy Ghost lost by the First
Adam, Restored in the Second
I. THE LIFE OF
MAN IN THE FIRST PARADISE, THE SHRINE OF HOLINESS.
1. The body radiant with light.
2. The soul
indwelt by the Holy Ghost.
3. The access to God in love.
II. THE EXPULSION OF MAN FROM PARADISE,
WHEN BEREFT OF THE HOLY GHOST THROUGH SIN.
1. The sacrilege of the primal disobedience.
2. The
merciful withholding from the "Tree of Life.
3. The Cherubim barring the way.
4.
Death the only escape from the dominion of Satan.
5. It must be death to sin, not death in sin; the death
of a being who, by perfect obedience and love, makes death a victory.
III. THE RESTORATION OF MAN TO PARADISE
AND THE RETURN OF THE HOLY GHOST TO FIND HIS HOME IN MAN.
1. The tradition of man's home, lost, but not
forever.
2. The veil before the Holy of Holies.
3. The blood dashed
against the Cherub-wings in vain.
4. The rending of the veil when "on the Cross
death died." The living Blood.
5. As souls of believers under the Old Covenant or
the New pass on through the death of Christ, the Holy Ghost returns to dwell in
them in mighty power.
6. We have "right to the Tree of Life"; the
Angels are round about us, as we ascend, with Jesus, the Eternal Throne.
The Holy Ghost
coming to us from our Lord at the Right Hand of the Father
I. OUR LORD WENT TO THE FATHER, FOR THAT IS WHERE HE BELONGS.
1. In our ascended Lord we behold the true
"dignity of human nature."
2. All the purposes of God are to be
accomplished through the Sacred Manhood of our Blessed Lord.
3. Our Lord gives Himself to us that we may rise and
ascend with Him to the Father.
II. OUR ESCAPE FROM THIS WORLD IS BY DEATH.
I. Our Baptism "of water and of the
Spirit" was "a death unto sin and a new birth unto
righteousness."
2. Our Absolution is a setting of the Cross between
us and our sin.
3. Our Communions are a sharing in the Life victorious
over death.
III. WE BELONG TO A KINGDOM THAT IS NOT OF THIS
WORLD OR FOR THIS WORLD.
1. If we are on our way to the Father the world will
be against us.
2. The Church on her course showers blessings even on her
enemies, but she is not a great therapeutical institution or a socialistic
reform.
The Holy Ghost Convincing Us of the Sin which is Within Us
I. THE LOVE OF
THE SPIRIT AWAKING US TO OUR OWN PERSONAL SINS.
1. The moral law a fact of immediate consciousness.
To break it brings uneasiness, not penitence.
2. Positive laws a fact of
experience; but laws deal with sinful acts, not with sinfulness.
3. When God reveals Himself to the soul a new relation
emerges. Then sin involves treachery and unbelief.
II. THE HOLY GHOST PIERCING US WITH FEAR AND SHAME.
1. Our Lord's Ideal for each of us.
2. What it
is to disappoint our Lord.
3. Penitence the foundation of all holiness
within us. No true penitence without joy.
III. THE HOLY GHOST NEVER CONVINCES US OF SIN
WITHOUT POINTING US TO A SAVIOUR FROM ITS GUILT AND POWER.
1. The worst consequence of sin is sinfulness.
2. Our Lord has felt the horror of sin that we may learn to hate it.
3.
True penitence, leading to pardon through the Precious Blood, opens the way for
the Holy Ghost to accomplish in us the full purpose of His Love.
The Holy Ghost
Carrying us forward from the Life of Earth into the Life in Heaven
I.
LOVE OF SELF FOR SELF.
1. Not a matter of commandment but of instinct, the
instinct of self preservation.
2. Natural love of kindred and neighbors is
the extension of love for self into a wider sphere.
II. LOVE OF GOD FOR SELF.
1. We rise from stage to stage by pain, the pain of
unsatisfied desire, love takes the way of the Cross.
2. As we ask for
higher things we gain them.
III. LOVE OF GOD FOR GOD.
1. "We give thanks to Thee for Thy great
glory." We love God because we find Him so worthy to be loved. We love Him
for His own sake.
2. This life but the prologue to the next.
3. The
joys of Heaven the result of the sufferings of earth.
IV. LOVE OF SELF FOR GOD.
1. Self-love emerges, but transfigured and fit for
Heaven.
2. God's delight in His redeemed.
3. The Misereres of earth
pass into the endless Alleluia in Heaven.
The Holy Ghost
Witnessing to the Final Victory of the Church
I. EVERY EUCHARIST A PROPHECY OF THE TRIUMPH OF THE SAINTS.
1. The tragedy of Mt.
Calvary becomes the marriage feast
of joy.
2. Our Lord's Actus Caritatis for
(a) The repairing of the wounded majesty of His
Father.
(b) The salvation of sinners.
(c) The sanctification of the
faithful.
II. EVERY GOOD COMMUNION A SHARING IN THE GLORY OF
THE RESURRECTION.
1. Our lives to be a continuation of the Easter
festival.
2. Our Lord unites us with Himself to present us to
the Father, and work through us for the souls that He loves.
3. Making our communions with a definite expectation
of conquest over sin.
III. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.
1. The value of a "special devotion" to
develop piety.
2. The ritual of faith and the ritual of love.
3. The
Eucharist a social act, an anticipation of the mutual love of the redeemed in
Heaven.