Lectio Divina: Quotes related to the 6th week of Easter

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) the disciples having heard Him say, I go to the Father, and being troubled at the thought of it, He says, “To love Me, is not to be troubled, but to keep My commandments: this is love, to obey and believe in Him who is loved.”

Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-614) Moralia, on Job: The Holy Spirit kindles in every one, in whom He dwells, the desire of things invisible. And since worldly minds love only things visible, this world receives Him not, because it rises not to the love of things invisible. In proportion as worldly minds enlarge themselves by the spread of their desires for things they can see, in that proportion they narrow themselves, with respect to admitting Christ.

St. Augustine (354-430) In Joannem: The lovers of the world, cannot, Jesus says, receive the Holy Spirit: that is to say, unrighteousness cannot be righteous. The love of the world has not invisible eyes wherewith to see that which can only be seen invisibly.

It remains for us to understand, that he who loves has the Holy Spirit, and by having Him, attains to having more of Him, and by having more of Him, to loving more. The disciples had already the Spirit which our Lord promised; but they were to be given more of Him. They had Him secretly, they were to receive Him openly. The promise is made both to him who has the Spirit, and to him who has Him not; to him who does not have the Spirit, that he shall have Him; to him who does, that He shall have more of Him.

(Picture: Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper from the refectory of the Dominican Priory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan. )