examination of the heart 238 The Holy Spirit changes the disposition of sinful people into love for Him, as He did with the apostles. While they were without Him, tongues like fire appeared to them; when He was within them, their hearts were set on fire, as attested by the same Holy Doctor.99 MONDAY AFTER PENTECOST100 Before Holy Communion 1. “For God so loved the world that [H]e gave [H]is only-begotten Son” (Jn 3:16). Occupy your mind with reflections on God’s love towards humanity, which is so great that no human or even angelic tongue can express it, and our mind is unable to comprehend it. For if we were to forget for a second all of His other acts of love for us, and if God had not shown any other besides the one in which He decided to offer His only Son as a sacrifice for the salvation of the entire human race, and in fact did so, this alone would certainly be evidence of His infinite charity and inconceivable love. Consider how many things He does every day out of love for you, and how many things He did in the early stages of the world, as it came into existence. Out of love for you He created the vast universe. He affixed to the heavens the bright [f.58r] ornaments, from which you would have the necessary physical light. Out of love for you He created so many kinds of birds and reptiles, such great hosts of fish swimming in the waters. Out of love for you 99 Gregorius Magnus, XL Homiliarum in Evangelia: Liber II — Homilia XXX (Joan. XIV, 23-31), in: PL, vol. 76, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1857, p. 1220 (n. 1574). Cf. GFGH, p. 236 (Homily 30, § 1): “Today the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples... When tongues of fire appeared outwardly, their hearts within them were set afire; since they received God in a vision of fire they were gently enflamed by love.” 100 In the Novus Ordo this is the beginning of Ordinary Time, and as of February 11, 2018, on this Monday after Pentecost, Pope Francis has added the Obligatory Memorial of “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.” Before the changes to the liturgical calendar in 1969, there was an Octave of Pentecost, and so this would have been the Monday of that Pentecost Octave.
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