Faith Filled Friday: St. Basil on the Holy Spirit With Commentary

Hat tip to Alice for suggesting this would make a good blog post.

This is my commentary on the Office of Readings for May 19^th 2026, a couple of days ago, which was an excerpt from St. Basil’s treatise, On the Holy Spirit.  It has an extra significance with the weeks leading to Pentecost.

St. Basil the Great (330-379 AD), or sometimes referred to as St. Basil of Casearia, was roughly contemporaneous with St. Augustine of Hippo.  In some respects, St. Basil is the Eastern Church’s equivalent to how we hold St. Augustine in the Western Church.  Both were hugely influential theologians from which subsequently flowed doctrine and spirituality. 

Just as Augustine addressed several heresies in his treatises, Basil responds to Pneumatomachianism, which taught that the Holy Spirit is not God, with On the Holy Spirit,.  You can read the entire treatise at New Advent.  The Office of Readings takes a passage from Chapter 9 of On the Holy Spirit and breaks it down into seven paragraphs.  I will quote the paragraph and comment below it.

†††

From office of readings May 19^th 2026
Second reading
From the treatise On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil the Great, bishop
The work of the Holy Spirit

Paragraph 1:

The titles given to the Holy Spirit must surely stir the soul of anyone who hears them, and make him realize that they speak of nothing less than the supreme Being. Is he not called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, the steadfast Spirit, the guiding Spirit? But his principal and most personal title is the Holy Spirit. 

Paragraphs 691 and 692 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church lists a number of other names for the Holy Spirit.  Let us list them all, including the ones St. Basil identifies:

the Spirit of God, Spirit of truth, the steadfast Spirit, the guiding Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, advocatus (the advocate), consoler, the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of glory. 

Paragraph 2:

To the Spirit all creatures turn in their need for sanctification; all living things seek him according to their ability. His breath empowers each to achieve its own natural end.

Interesting St. Basil says that “all living things seek him according to their ability.”  Other than mankind, what other creature did St. Basil have in mind that has the ability to seek him?  All animals have breath, and so perhaps he considers the breath of the Holy Spirit empowering animals to their natural end?  Is the act of breathing a supernatural sanctification of the Holy Spirit?  It provides life at every moment.  From the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the giver of life.” 

Paragraph 3:

The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, and he offers his own light to every mind to help it in its search for truth. By nature the Spirit is beyond the reach of our mind, but we can know him by his goodness. The power of the Spirit fills the whole universe, but he gives himself only to those who are worthy, acting in each according to the measure of his faith.

Quoting St. Paul: “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:1-4). 

The Holy Spirit is the source of holiness because it sanctifies, just as he sanctified our Lord, and so was the source of Christ’s power.

Paragraph 4:

Simple in himself, the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere. Though shared in by many, he remains unchanged; his self giving is no loss to himself. Like the sunshine, which permeates all the atmosphere, spreading over land and sea, and yet is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all, and yet is present as though exclusively to everyone who can receive him. To all creatures that share in him he gives a delight limited only by their own nature, not by his ability to give.

Contemplate this: The Spirit is present everywhere but yet present distinctly in each individual.  He permeates everywhere, thereby sanctifying everything, and always unchanged.  He is eternally self-giving but yet is never diminished. 

Paragraph 5:

The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself.

Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Priest: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.
People: It is right and just.

“And with your spirit” is a reference of the power of the Holy Spirit at work through the priest.  With that acknowledgement, the priest exhorts the congregation to lift up their hearts.  From the power of the Spirit the congregation then lifts them up.

Paragraph 6:

As clear, transparent substances become very bright when sunlight falls on them and shine with a new radiance, so also souls in whom the Spirit dwells, and who are enlightened by the Spirit, become spiritual themselves and a source of grace for others.

“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Mt 17:1-5).

The light that emanates from Jesus’s face comes from the Holy Spirit burning through Him.  The Holy Spirit is there in the scene as the cloud that casts a shadow.  The glow in Jesus is a foreshadow of the glow when we achieve perfect holiness, either in this life or more likely in the next.

Paragraph 7:

From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations—we become God.

We can only wait for that glorious day with hope and faith.  This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit.  It fulfills Jesus’s promise that He will send the Paraclete to complete the apostle’s baptisms.  From the Gospel of John: “He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20: 22-23).

 

 

Sunday Meditation: One Through Prayer

I know most of the country has transferred Ascension Thursday to Sunday, today.  For us in the Archdiocese of New York, last Thursday was Ascension Thursday and today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Frankly that’s how it should be, and I definitely prefer it this way.  For the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A, Jesus continues his high priestly prayer.  He prophesizes his departure, and then prays for those given to Him.

Three years ago on this Gospel I highlighted what Jesus said was the means to eternal life: “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”  I consider this to be very important.  To know God through Jesus Christ is eternal life. 

But how does one “know God”?  Read Jesus’s last paragraph here; He tells us.  (1) Belonging to God through Jesus, (2) keeping God’s word, (3) knowing that everything comes from God, (4) receiving God’s word, and (5) understanding and accepting God’s word.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the hour has come.

Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

just as you gave him authority over all people,

so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

Now this is eternal life,

that they should know you, the only true God,

and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

I glorified you on earth

by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

Now glorify me, Father, with you,

with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

 

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,

because the words you gave to me I have given to them,

and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,

and they have believed that you sent me.

I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

~Jn:17: 1-11

 

 

Since almost all of the rest of the country is on a different liturgical schedule, it is difficult to find pertinent homilies for the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  This children’s animation from Singapore (I think) called, “St. Joseph’s Corner,” does an excellent job of explaining the readings.

 

St. Joseph’s Corner:

The Seventh Sunday of Easter comes between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is a time when the Church remembers what it means to wait on God’s promise.  The readings show the disciples gathered in prayer holding on to hope for what is to come…The Gospel shares the prayer of Jesus for His friends asking the Father to keep them safe and united.  The Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A invites us to reflect on our faith while we wait for God to act.  It is a call to trust, to pray, and to hope, and to stay close to others who share the same hope.

 

On the Seventh Sunday of Easter of Year A, it aligns with the theme of trusting God while awaiting His work.  [It] invites us to reflect on Jesus’s prayer before He leaves His disciples.  He prays for Himself, His followers, and all who will believe in Him.  His words remind us of the importance of our relationship with God, the need for unity, and the call to love one another.

 

Perhaps that was intended for children, but that was pretty deep for adults too!

I’m going to go all the way to Nigeria for the pastoral homily.  I really enjoyed Fr. Martin Badejo’s homily who outright tells us his central theme: “Cultivate the Habit of Prayer.”

 

Fr. Martin:

This Gospel passage is referred to as the Priestly Prayer of Christ…He asks the Father to glorify Him.  He speaks of the source of eternal life as knowing the Father and Him whom the Father sent.  Then he prays about his disciples as well.  He makes his prayer directly to the Father for them so that the Father will protect them in the world, for they are in the world and He is going back to the Father.  In this short passage we find a lot of themes condensed together; such themes include the unity between the Father and Jesus, the glorification of Jesus, the connection between Jesus and heaven as he lifted up His eyes to pray, the meaning of eternal life, the concern and care of Jesus for his disciples, the manifestation of the Father's name to the disciples.

 

If there is one thing [Jesus] teaches us it is that we also must cultivate the habit of prayer.  In that prayer of Jesus we observe the fluency of His words and His request from the Father.  This can only be possible on the pre-existing Foundation of a Unity which derives from consistency [of] communication.  In other words if he had not been consistently united with His Father and in contact with the Father His communication with the Father at this point would not be as fluent…That communication which sustains relationship is very necessary even between us and God.  Jesus never for once took it for granted that since He's the son of God or because He is co-equal with the Father then He does not need to pray.  He communicated with the father all the time; in fact even his breath was prayer.

 

We should learn from the Lord. We should cultivate the habit of prayer.  We should let our lives be an acceptable offering to the Father.  This can be effectively done and suitably achieved by the foundation of a constant communication with Him.  It must become for us a habit to talk to God.

 

Make sure you watch Fr. Martin to the end where he will take up a guitar and sing a Gospel song.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: " I pray for them.”

 

We sang “One Love Released” as our communion hymn today at Mass and I thought it was beautiful.

 

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Is not this bread we share, the body of our Lord?

Is not this wine we drink, the blood of Christ outpoured?

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

I am the bread of life, eat and you shall live.

To those who share this meal, my strength I'll always give.

 

One bread, one body, one cup, one call, one faith, one Spirit present in us all.

One prayer, one blessing, one hope, one peace, one church, one people, one love released.

 

Unity is necessary.  I can’t stand those that would splinter the Body of Christ.  One!

Handmaids and Warriors Newsletter: May 2026

I have a new feature to present here on my blog.  This is a newsletter written by one of my fellow Lay Dominicans of my fraternity, Alice.  Alice writes a monthly newsletter for two groups, a male group dubbed the St. Michael Warriors and women’s group she calls the Handmaids of Mary.  The intent of the groups are to pray for the guidance and protection of the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.  The only requirements for her groups are, in addition to whatever prayers you normally pray daily, to pray three Hail Mary’s and one St. Michael the Archangel prayer for the Pope.  If you are interested in joining her group and receiving her newsletter, leave a comment and we’ll figure out how to get your email on her list. 

So I helped Alice edit her May newsletter, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought it might be a nice feature on my blog. I offered to post her newsletters and she agreed. I want to be clear, this is all Alice’s writing below.  I just tweaked the language a little bit.  This dovetails nicely with today’s Solemnity of the Ascension.

Before the newsletter, let us pray: For Pope Leo XIV

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Hail Mary, full of grace…

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

 

Alice’s newsletter:

 

  St. Michael Warriors

                                                        Deus omnes amat et malum non praevalebit

                                                       “God loves everyone and evil will not prevail”

 

                                                                            He has Risen

                                                                       He has Risen Indeed!!!

 

As promised in March I write Mary’s answer to a Joseph when he asked Mary “how may I serve you” when they were betrothed.  Mary was 14 years of age, Joseph 33 a native of Nazareth and one of the descendants of the royal race of David. In her shyness Mary called on the angels to attend her when she spoke to Joseph. In the glorious company of angels Mary spoke to Joseph, “my lord and spouse, I acknowledge myself as more beholden than any other creature to God, so at a tender age I consecrated myself to God by a perpetual vow of chastity in body and soul;  I beseech thee my master, to help me in fulfilling this vow while in other things I will be thy servant, willing to work for the comfort of thy life as long as mine shall last.”

The most chase Joseph, full of interior joy at the words of his spouse, replied,  “My mistress, in making known to me thy chaste and welcome sentiments, I had not opened my thoughts to you before knowing your own; I desire thee to know at the age of twelve years I made a perpetual vow of chastity to the Most High.  On this account I will gladly ratify this vow in order not to impede thy own.  I promise to aid thee in serving and loving Him according to thy full desires.” 

By Divine operation the two most holy and chaste spouses felt an incomparable joy and consolation.  They immediately set out from the temple in Jerusalem and settled in Nazareth.

As in past letters I called to mind the apparitions of Mary who comes to earth to show us the way for our times.  Our Blessed Mother reminds us how peace will come to the earth if we follow her messages. Mary wants us to know, as in Our Lady of Guadalupe, that she loves us.  As in Our Lady of Fatima, she wants to show her wounded heart asking us for consolation.  As in Our Lady of La Sallette, she wants us to see her weeping over the abuse of Sundays.  Mary also brings gifts to help us to defeat Satan: the rosary, the scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the springs of holy water for healing the sick.  These are the treasures found only in the Catholic Church.

There are many Catholic treasures that help us in times of need. Such a as when  Pope Pious IX, who during the French Revolution, Rome was being ransacked, displayed in the Vatican the Veil of Veronica and the relic of the true cross.  The Veil of Veronica began to have a strange glow for everyone in the city to see,  the people prayed  to these relics and the French were driven out of Rome.

Another mighty prayer to drive Satan away also happened at the same time of the French Revolution, the prayer the Golden Arrow given to a Carmelite nun by Jesus who said, “this Golden Arrow prayer will wound my heart delightfully and heal the wounds inflicted by the blasphemy of using Gods name in vain.” 

GOLDEN ARROW PRAYER 

  Let us pray: May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious, and unutterable 

Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified in heaven and on earth and under the earth by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

 If we would say that prayer whenever we heard the name of God taken in vain it would console the Sacred Heart delightfully!

So now the Thursday of Holy Ascension is upon us …He goes before us to prepare a place for us, so that where I am you may be also…. In my father’s house there are many mansions.

 

Alice

Handmaid of the St. Michel Warriors

Sunday Meditation: The Spirit of Truth

The Sixth Sunday of Easter—the second to last Sunday of the season—continues with Jesus’s Last Discourse, and, if you notice, these discourses are focused on the coming of the Holy Spirit.  These Gospel readings, then, set the stage for Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus tells the disciples that after He dies and rises and stays with them for a while (forty days) the Holy Spirit will come to them. 

I’ve been impressed with the Gospel reflections of Gina Hens-Piazza who provides reflections at America magazine.  She points out this week that Jesus in this passage is defining what love is.

 

Jesus, however, is suggesting a different relationship between love and obedience. He never threatens to withhold love, even when we turn away from the commandments. Instead, he makes obedience to the commandments the means by which we love one another. The concrete nature of love in human relationships becomes the means by which we love him. After all, whether they be mandates of commission or omission, commandments such as “Honor your father and mother” or “You shall not commit adultery” aim specifically at cultivating and preserving loving relationships among people. For Jesus, love is not contingent upon obedience but is the product of obedience. Divine commandments facilitate love of one another and result in love of Jesus.

Love in the Christian sense is certainly more complex than an emotional feeling.

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father,

and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,

because it neither sees nor knows him.

But you know him, because he remains with you,

and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

In a little while the world will no longer see me,

but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father

and you are in me and I in you.

Whoever has my commandments and observes them

is the one who loves me.

And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,

and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

~Jn:14: 15-21

 

 

Today’s reflection comes from Fr. Greg Heille O.P. from St. Louis.  He is one of the Dominican friars from the St. Albert the Great Province that provides these “Know Before You Go” homilies.  Fr. Greg rightly emphasizes the foretelling of the coming of the Holy Spirit in this passage.

 

Fr. Greg:

Our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate a holiday that is called the Festival of Weeks which is held seven weeks and one day, or 50 days, after Passover…Well fifty days translates to Pentecost, and so we have in two weeks from now the solemn Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after our celebration of our Easter Sunday.  Early in our Easter season our celebration was all about “Alleluia, He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!”  But now late in the Easter season our celebration has more of a spirit of “Veni Sancte Spiritus, Come Holy Spirit."

 

In a way the Gospel from John 14 looks ahead to the next four weeks of celebration in our liturgical cycle.  A week from now we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension…Our Gospel today in a way gives a hint of ascension because as we think about Jesus ascending into heaven we can wonder where is He now.  And our Gospel today, John 14, says, “I will not leave you orphans.  I will come to you.”  “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.”  The word advocate in Greek is paraclete, and its etymology is “one who is called aside to help.”  A helper.

 

So as we approach Pentecost we ae being promised by Jesus a paraclete, one who will walk along side of us to help.  We will not be left as orphans…Jesus was brought to life in the Spirit.  The Spirit walked with Jesus as His helper.  He was raised to life in the Spirit…And we begin to realize that what God has done for Jesus so too He does for us.  He raises us up in the Spirit.  He walks along side of us as a companion, an advocate, a helper.

 

That is the heart of our lives in the Spirit.  We have a “vital connection to Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit.”  Be sure to listen to the end to where Fr. Greg explains that synodality is a walking of us all together on the Way.

For the pastoral homily, Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Archdiocese of Chicago combined this Gospel passage with a link to today’s Mother’s Day holiday.

 

Archbishop Cupich:

We've seen some remarkable transformations in this group of disciples that formed the early church.  We have Philillip who now very publicly addresses the people and speaks of Jesus.  Philip was the one who wanted death to know from Jesus the way that he was going.  And Jesus said to him, "How long have you been with me and yet you do not know me?" But all of a sudden with the gift of the spirit, something changes in him dramatically.  And it occurs to me as we celebrate Mother's Day that there are many qualities that are reflected in mothers that we find in this early church that's transformed by the spirit.

 

The first thing is the way the the disciples take initiative. Jesus is no longer with them. They're on their own.  And yet they go out and they make a difference.  How often mothers are the ones in the home who have to take initiative to get things going. Maybe those times in which there are birthdays or celebrations of holidays. They're the ones who take the initiative. They're the ones who kind of learn on the spur of the moment. I remember my own mother who was married when she was uh a young 22 years old and by the time she was 30, she had six children and she had to learn how to balance her life and balance being a mother to all those children. She took initiative much like we see in that early church.  But we also see these early disciples being willing to adapt and be flexible to the point that there were new members of the community who were different. We hear about of course the formation of the deacons. When the Greek Christians felt that they were being overlooked, the disciples were able to adapt and create a whole new order within the church that of deacons.  They paid attention to the specifics of the different groups that were there.  I think my mother reflected that as well. She always said that each child was different. The being a parent is not an exact science simply because there are so many variables in each child that comes along. She was once asked, "Do you love any of your children more than the others?" And her answer was swift and clear. No, she said, but only if they need it.  I think that that's the way each one of us have experienced our mothers as well.  That they know us and they look for ways in which they're going to meet the needs of each one of us in our particular circumstances, much like the early church was able to do.

 

Mothers as well were the point of unity within a family. So often the ones who brought people together for healing, telling and encouraging us to have forgiveness, but also the kind of unity that stays with us in our life even when our man mothers pass from this life. Much like the unity that we hear about in the gospel where Jesus says, "Even though I will be away from you, I will be in you as my father is in me and I am in you." How often we are able to carry within us the voice, the image, the words of our mothers within us. In a way showing us that the unity within a family is being able to have a sensitivity to the lives of others but also a fond remembrance of each other no matter what the circumstances are in life. Even if we are separated by distance or even by death.

 

God bless our mothers.  They are the image of Jesus in our lives.

 

Sunday Meditation: "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

 

How can we not listen to “Veni Creator Spiritus” after Christ’s foretelling of the Holy Spirit? 

 

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come

from thy bright heav'nly throne;

come, take possession of our souls,

and make them all thine own.

 

Thou who art called the Paraclete,

best gift of God above,

the living spring, the living fire,

sweet unction and true love. (...)

 

O guide our minds with thy blest light,

with love our hearts inflame;

and with thy strength, which ne'er decays,

confirm our mortal frame. (…)

 

Through thee may we the Father know,

through thee th'eternal Son,

and thee the Spirit of them both,

thrice-blessed three in One.

 

In Gregorian Chant!  Beautiful!