De missione Spiritus sancti
The Promise of the Spirit
Jesus reminds the Father of His promise to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit descends in tongues of fire upon the disciples, and they are filled with joy and sent out to convert the world.
Then, once these things had been accomplished, the Lord Jesus said to the Father: My Father, remember the promise I made about the Holy Spirit to my brothers.✦ To whom the Father replied: The sending. O river of abundant grace, I have what was promised concerning the Spirit: the time has come for your promise to be fulfilled. Speak, then, to the Holy Spirit: We ask you to descend upon our disciples, fill them, comfort them, strengthen them, instruct them, and pour out upon them the fullness of virtues and joys.✦✦ And immediately he came and descended in tongues of fire upon the hundred and twenty disciples gathered together, and he filled them with every joy. Strengthened and taught by his power, the disciples—enkindled and illuminated—ran throughout the whole world and brought the greater part of it under their sway.✦
The Joy of Heaven and the Pilgrimage of the Body
The blessed in heaven praise God without ceasing, and the reader is urged to hasten toward that eternal rest while detaching from the body's cravings that keep the soul in exile.
Nevertheless, the citizens of heaven also praised the Lord afterward, and they always praise him. They have days of gladness, and among them there is never lacking solemnity, the giving of thanks, and the voice of praise. For Scripture says: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, Lord; they will praise you forever and ever.✦ Let us hasten, then, to enter into that rest where such joy overflows without end, and let us sigh toward our homeland with all our strength.✦ Let us hate the wretched and decaying frame of our body, and let us not indulge its cravings, because it keeps us here imprisoned and exiled from so great a good.✦
Longing to Be with Christ
Echoing the Apostle, the soul groans under the weight of the body, confesses its pilgrimage away from the Lord, and desires dissolution to be with Christ, resolving to die to the world and ascend in mind to heaven.
So then, like the Apostle, I say: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body of death?✦ And again: As long as we are in this body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord.✦ And again: I want to be dissolved and to be with Christ.✦ Let us desire his dissolution, and let us ask for it continually from the Lord, because through ourselves we are not able to obtain it by any care or salvation. And again: At least let us die to the world, to its pomp and to its desires. Let us withdraw with a strong and persevering heart from these fleeting things, and from the wretched and brief comforts of these visible things, which infect and wound our souls. But let us ascend in mind with the Lord, or rather to the Lord, and let our conversation be with him in the heavens.✦
Pilgrims Awaiting Christ's Coming
After a textual disruption, the chapter concludes by urging complete pilgrimage and estrangement from the world in imitation of Christ, closing with a doxological praise to Christ and a final Amen.
And doing thus — not from •6. [Text corrupt or illegible in source.] [Text corrupt or illegible in source.] [Text corrupt or illegible in source.] In the life of Christ, let us be pilgrims in every way and strangers to this world, so that at the time of his coming he may deign to take us to himself — he of whom we speak.✦✦ Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God blessed above all, and worthy of praise forever and ever.✦ Amen.
Read the original Latin
Tunc his corapletis, dixit Dominus Jesus Patri: Pater mi, recordare promissi mei, quod feci de Spiritu sancto fratribus meis. Cui Pater: Missio. FiUmi, multura gratura hibeo quod promi- spiritus sish: tempus est, ut impleatur proraissum tuura, dic ergo ad Spiritum sanctura: Rogamus te, ut descendas ad discipulos nostros, et eosrepleas, consoleris, robores, instruas, et cumulum virtutum et gaudiorura conferas eis. Et statim venit, et descendit in linguis igneis, super centum et viginti discipulos simul congregatos, et eos replevit omni gaudio; cujus virtute discipuli vigorati, docti, et accensi, ac illuminati, totum mundura circumcurrerunt, et pro magna parte sibi subjecerunt. Nihilominus tamen superni cives etiam postea laudaverunt, et semper laudant Dominum, et habent dies Isetitiae, et nunquam deest ibi solemnitas, et gratiarura actio, et vox laudis. Scriptura est enim ': Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine, in scecula sceculorum laudabunt te. Festinemus itaque et nos ingredi in illara requiera, ubi tanta superabundat indefectibiliter laetitia, et ad patriam nostram totis conatibus suspiremus. Odiamus hujus miseri et putridi corporis nostri compagem, et ejus curara non faciamus in desideriis, quod nos hic detinet carceratos, et peregrinos a tanto bono.
Dicaraus ergo cum Apostolo ^: Infelix homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? Et iterura *: Quamdiu in hoc corpore sumus, peregrinamur a Domino. Et iterum ^": Cupio dissolvi, et esse cum Christo. Desideremus ejus dissolutionem, et eam continue postulemus a Domino: quia per nos eam cura salute consequi non valemus. Et iterum: Saltem moriamur mundo, pompis et concupiscentiis ejus. Abstrahamus nos corde forti et perseveranti, ab his rebus caducis, et a miseris et brevibus consolatiunculis harum visibilium rerum, quae inficiunt et vulnerant animas nostras. Ascendaraus autem mente cum Domino, vel potius ad Dominum, et cum ipso in ccelis sit conversatio nostra. Et sic facientes, -non ex •6.
'<> P/iiliiJ. , i, 23. conciso. Vita Christi fundamae toto simus peregrini, et advense, ut in terapore visitationis nos ad se dignetur assumere, ipse de quo loquimur. Dominus noster Jesus Christus, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus, et laudabilis in saecula saeculorum. Amen
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.14.16 — And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
- ↩John.7.38-John.7.39 — The one who believes in me, just as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within him. John.7.39 — Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
- ↩Acts.1.4-Acts.1.5 — And while he was meeting with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me." Acts.1.5 — For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
- ↩Acts.2.1-Acts.2.4 — And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place. Acts.2.2 — And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Acts.2.3 — And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed, and it sat upon each one of them. Acts.2.4 — And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
- ↩Ps.83.5;Ps.85.4 — They said, 'Come, let us wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will be remembered no more.' Ps.85.4 — Turn away all your wrath; turn back from the fury of your anger.
- ↩Heb.4.1-Heb.4.11 — Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have fallen short of it. Heb.4.2 — For we also have had good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not joined with faith in those who heard. Heb.4.3 — For we who have believed enter that rest, just as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest," even though the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Heb.4.4 — For he has spoken somewhere concerning the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.' Heb.4.5 — And in this place again, 'If they shall enter into my rest,' Heb.4.6 — Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, Heb.4.7 — He again appoints a certain day—"Today"—saying through David after so much time has passed, just as it has been said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." Heb.4.8 — For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not afterward have spoken of another day. Heb.4.9 — So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Heb.4.10 — For whoever has entered into that rest has himself also rested from his works, just as God rested from his own. Heb.4.11 — Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
- ↩Rom.7.24 — Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
- ↩Rom.7.24 — Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
- ↩2Cor.5.6 — So we are always confident, and we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
- ↩Phil.1.23 — But I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better;
- ↩Phil.3.20 — For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- ↩1Pet.2.11 — Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the fleshly desires that wage war against the soul.
- ↩Heb.11.13 — By faith these all died, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar and having greeted them, and having confessed that they are strangers and exiles on the earth.
- ↩Rom.9.5 — whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Meditationes Vitae Christi (Pseudo-Bonaventure), Castilian court context companion
A scene a day, for life
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