Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/440



434 THE HOLY SPIRIT.

the gift which is the Holy Ghost, many other special gifts are distributed among the members of Christ." * Among these gifts are those secret warnings and invita- tions which from time to time are excited in our minds and hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Without these there is no beginning of a good life, no progress, no arriving at eternal salvation. And since these words and admonitions are uttered in the soul in an exceedingly secret manner, they are sometimes aptly compared in holy writ to the breathing of a coming breeze, and the Angelic Doctor likens them to the movements of the heart which are wholly hidden in the living body. "Thy heart has a certain hidden power, and therefore the Holy Ghost, who invisibly vivifies and unites the Church, is compared to the heart." ^ More than this, the just man, that is to say he who lives the life of divine grace, and acts by the fitting virtues as by means of faculties, has need of those seven gifts which are properly attributed to the Holy Ghost. By means of them the soul is furnished and strengthened so as to be able to obey more easily and promptly His voice and impulse. Wherefore these gifts are of such efficacy that they lead the just man to the highest degree of sanctity; and of such excellence that they continue to exist even in heaven, though in a more perfect way. By means of these gifts the soul is excited and encouraged to seek after and attain the evangelical beati- tudes which, like the flowers that come forth in the spring-time, are the signs and harbingers of eternal beati- tude. Lastly there are those blessed fruits, enumerated by the Apostle,^ which the Spirit, even in this mortal life, produces and shows forth in the just; fruits filled with all sweetness and joy, inasmuch as they proceed from the Spirit, "who is in the Trinity the sweetness of both Father and Son, filling all creatures with infinite

1 Summ. Th., la, q. xxxviii., a. 2. St. Aug. de Trin., 1. xv., c. 19.

2 Summ. Th., 3a, q. vii., a. 1, ad 3. Â»Gal. V. 22.