St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

Great indeed, and beyond the power of man’s tongue to describe, are the gifts this day bestowed on us by a most loving God. And because of this we all rejoice together, and rejoicing give praise to the Lord.  For today we celebrate a great public festival as well as a feast day.  For as in the course of the year the seasons and the solstices succeed each other, so in the Church one feast succeeds another, and brings us all together.  But recently we celebrated the feast of the Cross, the Passion, the Resurrection, then the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to heaven.  Today we have reached the very summit, the capital (metropolis) itself of the feast, to the very maturing of the promise of the Lord:  If I go not, He said, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go I will send Him to you.

Behold His solicitude for us.  Consider His unspeakable kindness.  Previous to these present days He had ascended into heaven, taking possession of His royal throne, and receiving back His place at the right hand of the Father.  Today He bestows on us this Descent of the Holy Ghost, and through Him imparts to us a thousand other gifts of heaven.  For of all the gifts which contain within them our soul’s salvation, which of them has not been given us by the ministry of the Spirit? Through Him we are freed from slavery, called to freedom, made children of God to freedom, made children of God through His adoption, and above all we have been, if I may say so, remade, putting off the heavy and fetid burthen of our sins.  Through Him we see before us the choirs of priests, through Him we have the help of our schools of instructors.  From this source come the gifts of revelations, the graces of healing, and all the other gifts with which the Ghost adorns the Church of God.