Writer's Wednesday -- St Maximilian Kolbe
The Father begets the Son; the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son. These few words sum up the mystery of the life of the Most Blessed Trinity and of all the perfection in creatiure which are nothing else but echoes, a hymn of praise, a many-hued tableau, of this primary and most wondrous of all mysteries.
We must perforce use our customary vocabulary, since it is all we have; but we must never forget that our vocabulary is very inadequate.
Who is the Father? What is his personal life like? It consists in begetting, eternally; because he begets his Son from the beginning, and forever.
Who is the Son? He is the Begotten-One, because from the beginning and for all eternity he is begotten by the Father.
And who is the Holy Spirit? The flowering of love of the Father and Son. If the fruit of created love is a created conception, then the fruit of divine love, the prototype of all created love, is necessarily a divine "conception." The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the "uncreated, eternal conception," the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe.
The Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit is the "conception" that springs from their love; there we have the intimate life of the three Persons by which they can be distinguished from one another. But they are united in the oneness of their Nature, of their divine existance.
The Spirit is, then, this thrice holy "conception," this infinitely holy, Immaculate Conception.
...
The creature most completely filled with this love, filled with God himself, was the Immaculata, who never contracted the slightest stain of sin, who never departed in the least from God's will. United to the Holy Spirit as his spouse, she is one with God in an incomparably more perfect way than can be predicated of any other creature.
What sort of union is this? It is above all an interior union, a union of her essence with the "essence" of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her. This was true from the first instance of her existance. It was always true; it will always be true.
In what does this life of the Spirit in Mary exist? He himself is uncreated Love in her; the Love of the Father and of the Son, the Love by which God loves himself, the very love of the Most Holy Trinity. He is a fruitful Love, a "Conception." Among creatures made in God's image the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all (cf Mt. 19:6). In a much more precise, more interior, more essential manner, the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata, in the depths of her very being. He makes her fruitful, from the very instant of her existence, all during her life, and for all eternity.
The eternal "Immaculate Conception" (which is the Holy Spirit) produces in an immaculate manner diving life itself in the womb (or depths) of Mary's soul, making her the Immaculate Conception, the human Immaculate Conception. And the virginal womb of Mary's body is kept sacred for him; he conceives in time--because everything that is material occurs in time--the human life of the Man-God.
...
At Lourdes, the Immaculata did not say of herself that she had been conceived immaculately, but, as St. Bernadette repeated it: "I am the Immaculate Conception."
If among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him, is one with him, becomes equal to him and is, with him, the source of new life, how much great reason should the name of the Holy Spirit, who is the divine Immaculate Conception, be used in the name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace?
-----Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, the Marian Teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, by Fr. H.M. Manteau-Bonamy, op
We must perforce use our customary vocabulary, since it is all we have; but we must never forget that our vocabulary is very inadequate.
Who is the Father? What is his personal life like? It consists in begetting, eternally; because he begets his Son from the beginning, and forever.
Who is the Son? He is the Begotten-One, because from the beginning and for all eternity he is begotten by the Father.
And who is the Holy Spirit? The flowering of love of the Father and Son. If the fruit of created love is a created conception, then the fruit of divine love, the prototype of all created love, is necessarily a divine "conception." The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the "uncreated, eternal conception," the prototype of all the conceptions that multiply life throughout the whole universe.
The Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit is the "conception" that springs from their love; there we have the intimate life of the three Persons by which they can be distinguished from one another. But they are united in the oneness of their Nature, of their divine existance.
The Spirit is, then, this thrice holy "conception," this infinitely holy, Immaculate Conception.
...
The creature most completely filled with this love, filled with God himself, was the Immaculata, who never contracted the slightest stain of sin, who never departed in the least from God's will. United to the Holy Spirit as his spouse, she is one with God in an incomparably more perfect way than can be predicated of any other creature.
What sort of union is this? It is above all an interior union, a union of her essence with the "essence" of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her. This was true from the first instance of her existance. It was always true; it will always be true.
In what does this life of the Spirit in Mary exist? He himself is uncreated Love in her; the Love of the Father and of the Son, the Love by which God loves himself, the very love of the Most Holy Trinity. He is a fruitful Love, a "Conception." Among creatures made in God's image the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all (cf Mt. 19:6). In a much more precise, more interior, more essential manner, the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata, in the depths of her very being. He makes her fruitful, from the very instant of her existence, all during her life, and for all eternity.
The eternal "Immaculate Conception" (which is the Holy Spirit) produces in an immaculate manner diving life itself in the womb (or depths) of Mary's soul, making her the Immaculate Conception, the human Immaculate Conception. And the virginal womb of Mary's body is kept sacred for him; he conceives in time--because everything that is material occurs in time--the human life of the Man-God.
...
At Lourdes, the Immaculata did not say of herself that she had been conceived immaculately, but, as St. Bernadette repeated it: "I am the Immaculate Conception."
If among human beings the wife takes the name of her husband because she belongs to him, is one with him, becomes equal to him and is, with him, the source of new life, how much great reason should the name of the Holy Spirit, who is the divine Immaculate Conception, be used in the name of her in whom he lives as uncreated Love, the principle of life in the whole supernatural order of grace?
-----Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, the Marian Teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, by Fr. H.M. Manteau-Bonamy, op
posted by Pat Gohn at
9/19/2007
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