Catholic Radio Dramas

The Work of the Holy Spirit

From a Treatise “On the Holy Spirit” by Saint Basil the Great, Bishop (329-379)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

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.

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.

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.

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 by their own nature, not by his ability to give.

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.

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.

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 are admitted to the company of the angels, 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.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Basil the Great (329-379) was one of ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia and was born in Caesarea in Asia Minor in 329. He was educated by his father and his grandmother, St. Macrina the Elder. He took advanced studies at Constantinople and Athens, where Gregory Nazianzen and the future Emperor Julian the Apostate were classmates. Basil was well advanced in rhetoric, grammar, philosophy, astronomy, geometry, and medicine. He taught rhetoric at Caesarea, and then turned his attention to the spiritual life. Basil himself tells us how, like a man roused from deep sleep, he turned his eyes to the marvelous truth of the Gospel. He wept many tears over his miserable life, and prayed for guidance from God: “Then I read the Gospel, and saw there that a great means of reaching perfection was the selling of one’s goods, the sharing of them with the poor, the giving up of all care for this life, and the refusal to allow the soul to be turned by any sympathy towards things of earth” (Ep. ccxxiii). To learn the ways of perfection, Basil visited the monasteries of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. He was baptized and entered the religious life. In 358 he became a hermit by the Iris River in Pontus, attracted numerous followers and organized the first monastery in Asia Minor.

Saint Basil was ordained a priest in 363 at Caesarea and joined Saint Gregory Nazianzen, his lifelongfriend and companion, in combating Arianism. After the death of Eusebius, the Archbishop of Caesarea in 370, Basil was elected archbishop in his place despite objections of the Arian Emperor Valens. Caesarea was then a powerful and wealthy city. Its bishop was Metropolitan of Cappadocia an Exarch of Pontus which embraced more than half of Asia Minor and comprised eleven provinces. Basil was active in helping the sick and the poor and built a hospice and a huge complex to minister to them. He attracted huge crowds by the eloquence of his preaching. He became the leader of the Orthodox Christians in the East in the continuing struggle against the Arian heresy which threatened to destroy the Church in the East. Basil played a major role in the victory of denouncing Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381-82. He fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy and insisted on rigid clerical discipline. He fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was both a statesman and a man of great personal holiness and one of the great orators of Christianity. Basil became known as the father of Oriental monasticism, the forerunner of St. Benedict. His four doctrinal writings which include “On the Holy Spirit”, and four hundred other letters earned him the title Doctor of the Church and patriarch of Eastern monks. He died on January 1, 379 at age 50.