October 22

Fourteenth Tuesday after Trinity

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Galatians 5:18.

If ye are following His Divine guidance, so as to obtain this mastery over the natural mind, ye have no more need of the law. "For," says S. Chrysostom, "he that hath the Spirit as he ought, quenches thereby every evil desire, and when released from such he is above the law. For he who is never angry is no more subject to that command of the law, Thou shalt not kill; and he who never harbours an unchaste thought has no need of the law, Thou shalt not commit adultery. The grace which is now given has no need of the law, inasmuch as it mortifies all those evil desires in the heart, and leads to a higher rule of life." Thanks be to Jesus, there is nothing on earth more worthy of veneration, more mysteriously holy than the Christian, yet men often fail to perceive the dignity committed to them as temples of the Holy Ghost. In our churches the Holy Sacrifice is not indiscriminately offered, but only on the altar, and the altar is the centre point which sanctifies the whole building. Even so God vouchsafes to dwell in our hearts, and thence to issue forth the sanctifying grace which purifies our will and controls our whole outward bearing.

The clear soul, by virtue purified, Collecting her own strength, from the foul stream Of earthly life, is often dignified With that pure pleasure that from God doth stream; Often enlightened by the radiant beam That issues forth from His Divinity; Then feelingly immortal she doth deem Herself conjoined by so near unity With God, and nothing doubts of her eternity.