True Grace is the Gift of the Holy Spirit
This week, in breaking the word, Fr. Stanley touched on the power of the Holy Spirit and one of it was on the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer sin.
The Holy Spirit teaches us the TRUTH because “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;” Jn 16:13.
In the book of Confessions by St Augustine, he recalls his experience of how he heard the voice of the children to take up and read the book. And so, he opens the book and he reads Romans 13: 13-14 “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” He knew at that moment that the word was meant for him and he had to give up the life of sin.
St Augustine wrote that “True Grace is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Which Kindles in the Soul the Joy and Love of Goodness.” He says that the free-will of man will only avail him to sin unless he takes delight in and love for the truth. He explains that through the power of the Holy Spirit, man’s heart is set ablaze with the love of God and is able to free himself of sin.
“A man’s free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God’s “love is shed abroad in our hearts,” not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but “through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us.”{https://biblehub.com/library/augustine/anti-pelagian_writings/chapter_5_iii_true_grace_is.htm#1}
Let us also pray for the grace- the gift of the Holy Spirit to set our hearts with love for the truth.
Prayer of St. Augustine to the Holy Spirit
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit,
That my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit,
That my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit,
That I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit,
To defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit,
That I always may be holy.