Sunday, May 11, 2008

Hecker and the Holy Spirit

On this Feast of Pentecost I thought it would be appropriate to share some excerpts from Servant of God Father Isaac Hecker's many writings on the Holy Spirit. Fr. Hecker believed that, in a sense, a new age was dawning where even more so than before, the Holy Spirit would be poured out anew on the Church, a new Pentecost if you will, and directly guide the hearts of all believers. The soul directly guided by the Holy Spirit, following its promptings, and docile to the teaching of the Church, was at the heart of Hecker's vision of a renewed Christianity.

The Soul directed by the spirit of Truth accepts with alacrity and unreserve the definitions and teachings of the Divine External Authority of the Holy Church because true obedience springs from an interior, based upon faith, hope & love. It is the Holy Ghost that guides the Church and the same spirit of the Truth is the guide of the Soul ...

These are the marks of the Holy Ghost directing the Soul that it cheerfully embraces and thirsts after the truth taught by the Holy Church, and obeys readily and with joy her legitimate authority.

The Holy Ghost dwelling in & directing the Church, and the Holy Ghost dwelling in and directing the Soul, is the same Divine Spirit, and recognize each other instinctively and are one and the same ...

...

All schism and heresy comes from not recognizing this primary truth. To know it gives peace and joy, for there is no fear that there will error concealed or found in any of these channels of truth. This unity is that of authority. To separate from the Church under the pretext of greater liberty, is as absurd as if a planet should force itself from its course around the sun, to follow its own movement.

...

The primary attention of the should should be directed, not to the Divine external authority of the Church, as that is not the immediate means of its sanctification, but to the primary act of its Sanctifier, the operation of the Holy Spirit. In that simple statement is contained a principle of action that will change the whole front of the Church and renew the pentecostal days. It is from the Holy Spirit we are to look for the renewal of the life and strenght and glory of the Church. He is the Life -- Light -- Strength giver. "Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit and Thou shalt renew the earth."

So it is with the Soul. The guide, the authority of the Church, is not the life of the Christian soul or its force. The Holy Ghost is the life giver, the sanctifier, the strength & support of the Soul.

They there have entirely mistaken notions of the authority of the Church who suppose that it is a substitute for the Holy Ghost, that it crushes reason, enervates the soul and kills its life. On the contrary, with the divine external authority of the Church, the Christian soul follows the inspiration of the Holy Ghost with perfect safety, and confidence, knowing he cannot go astray, make a mistake by any self-delusions, or fall into the snares of Satan while watched over by this divinely appointed guide ...

Religion cannot regain her former position by simply repeating and in the same words, what men have already abandoned in great measure. Present the same old trust in a new and attractive aspect to win their admiration and gain their acceptance ... The wise man brings out of his treasure new things and old.

In proportion as the Holy Spirit takes possession and direction of our soul, will our intelligence increase in light (Jn. 16:13), our hearts in love, and our will in liberty (2 Cor. 3:17); action, humility, obedience and every virtue will be practiced.

[From Notes on the Holy Spirit, written between 1870 and 1880]

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