“Your name is oil poured out.”[1] Of what truth of our interior life does the Holy Spirit wish to assure us by means of this text? He refers to the experience of a twofold operation, one by which he inwardly strengthens the virtues that lead to salvation, the other by which he outwardly endows us with serviceable gifts. The former benefit is of to ourselves, the latter to our neighbors.
…. And these operations of the Holy Spirit … are named from
their method of functioning: we call them infusion and effusion. To which of
them may we suitably apply the words: ”Your name is oil poured out”? Is it not to
effusion?[2]
See how precious the graces that must be infused, so that
when we venture to pour them out we may dispense them from a spirit that is
filled rather than impoverished. We need first of all compunction of
heart, then fervor of spirit; thirdly, the labor of penance; fourthly, works of
charity; fifthly, zeal for prayer; sixthly leisure for contemplation; seventhly
love in all its fullness. [6] All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,[3]
accomplished by the process called infusion; and in so far as it has taken
place those services called effusion can be truly and hence safely performed to
the praise and the glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ,[4]
who with the Father and the same Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, for ever
and ever. Amen.[5]
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