Divine love causes God to dwell in our souls

“Dulcis Hospes Animae.”

The Holy Ghost is called Sweet Guest of the Soul. This was the great promise made by Jesus Christ to those who love Him: If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever -(John xiv. 15, 16).

I. The Holy Ghost is called Sweet Guest of the Soul. The great promise made by Jesus Christ to those who should love Him was this: If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever-(John xiv. 15, 16). Hence the Holy Ghost will never abandon the soul, if the soul does not drive Him away: He does not forsake, unless he be forsaken.

God, then, dwells in our souls when we love Him, but He declares that He is not satisfied with us unless We love Him with our whole hearts. St. Augustine writes, that the Roman Senate would not admit Jesus into the number of their gods, because said they, He is a proud God, Who will have no other adored but Himself. And so it is; He will not admit a companion in the heart that loves Him; He must dwell there alone, and be the only object loved. And when He sees that He is not the only object loved He is jealous, as it were, as St. John Chrysostom writes, of those creatures which divide with Him a heart which He desires to have entirely to Himself. _Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain? To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you-(_James iv. 5).

O my God, I see that Thou desirest that I should be all Thine. I have many times expelled Thee from my soul, and yet Thou disdainest not to return to me, and to unite Thyself to me. Oh, do Thou now take possession of my whole self. I give myself this day entirely to Thee.

II. In a word, as St. Jerome says, Jesus is jealous. Hence the heavenly Spouse praises the soul which, as the turtle dove, lives alone and hidden from the world: Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle dove’s-(Cant. i. 9), because He desires that the world should not take any part of that love which He desires to have entirely Himself. Again, tlte spouse is praised because she is a garden enclosed-(Cant. iv. 12). A garden closed up against all worldly love. Can it be that Jesus does not deserve all our love? “He gave His whole self to Thee,” says St. John Chrysostom, “leaving nothing for Himself” He has given Thee His Blood and His life; nothing more remains for Him to give thee.

Do Thou accept of me, 0 Jesus, and grant that, for the future, I may never live one moment deprived of Thy love. Thou seekest me, and I seek no other but Thee. Thou desirest my soul, and my soul desires no other but Thee. Thou lovest me, and I love Thee; and because Thou lovest me, bind me in such a manner to Thee, that I may never more be separated from Thee. O Queen of Heaven, pray for me.