The life of a Christian should be the faithful reproduction of Jesus in their soul — this radiant transformation is the work of love of the Holy Spirit. “Those whom He had foreknown He has also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” (Rom 8:29) He who loves will resemble the thing loved…

“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5) “Because we are dead or at least wounded through sin, the first effect of the gift of love is the forgiveness of our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14) in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin.” (CCC 734) The Holy Spirit perfects the soul with the first fruits of eternal glory–so we may more closely resemble Jesus Christ. No one has embodied these virtues more perfectly than the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is the most perfect, pure, and faithful reflection of the Face of Christ.

In his classic work on the Holy Spirit, The Sanctifier, Archbishop Luis M. Martinez wrote of the the “mystical reproduction” that the Holy Spirit brings about in souls: “…because God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works…a most perfect unity shines forth from them because the are the fruit of wisdom. This divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.”

Jesus is reproduced in the soul of a Christian in the same way in which He was brought into the world–the way founded in love, caused by love, and which leads to love: “Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit…of the Virgin Mary. That is the way Jesus is always conceived.” That is the way He is reproduced in a Christian soul. Archbishop Martinez reminds us, too, that in order to resemble Christ, Our Lord, we must go through the pain and suffering of the Cross offered in love:

“He whom we love is a God nailed to a cross. Pain makes us resemble him. It is characteristic of love to have a tremendous desire to resemble the beloved. It is characteristic, too, for those who love to resemble each other.” But, as the soul is transformed, it is also filled with joy! Even as Mary suffered at the foot of the Cross she trusted, giving her “Fiat” as she had done at the Incarnation, with hope in the Resurrection; cooperating with God’s design. We, too, must be willing to cooperate with God’s design, as Mary did with docility to the Holy Spirit:

“After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God. This was something we could do only by sharing in the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul writes: ““But we all with unveiled faces, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His very image from glory to glory.” “(2 Cor 3:18)— St. Cyril of Alexandria

The Apostles, “with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14) Mary, as our mother, will also intercede for us, as she did at the first Pentecost to obtain the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and for of the Lord. The Holy Spirit then perfects the soul with the first fruits of eternal glory: charity, joy, peace kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity–so we may more closely resemble Jesus Christ.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit of Love, who is the the light and fire of the Face of God: to sanctify our souls, shining upon us the radiance of His light, transforming us into the His own likeness. Holy Spirit wants to dwell in us and convert our bodies into His temple, as He did in the Virgin Mary to bring grace, mercy, and peace. “Love is not a passing visitor who pays us a call and then goes away. He establishes in us his permanent dwelling and lives in intimate union with our souls as their eternal Guest.”  (The Sanctifier by Archbishop Martinez)

As Jesus promised on the last night of His mortal life: “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you shall know Him because He will dwell with you and be in you.” (Jn 14: 16-17) So, let us remain, “with one accord in prayer,” with Mary as the Apostles did, for it is “through Mary the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the objects of God’s merciful love, into communion with Christ.” (CCC 725) 

To Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Daughter of the Most High, Mother of God, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit — yet also Mary of Nazareth, Joseph’s wife, my mother– hear my prayer for grace, O Full of Grace. Pray your Spouse the Holy Spirit to come upon me — to shelter from all ill, to strengthen me to do what is right, to teach me all truth. Pray him come to me, and abide with me, and be within me a fountain springing up unto eternal life. May he sustain me in sorrow, sanctify me in life, and receive me at the hour of my death. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, pray for us. 

Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of Our Faith

Mother, help our faith! 
Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognize his voice and call. 
Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps, to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise. 
Help us to be touched by his love, that we may touch him in faith. 
Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him and to believe in his love, especially at times of trial, beneath the shadow of the cross, when our faith is called to mature. 
Sow in our faith the joy of the Risen One. 
Remind us that those who believe are never alone. 
Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus, that he may be light for our path. And may this light of faith always increase in us, until the dawn of that undying day which is Christ himself, your Son, our Lord!

–Prayer at the conclusion of the Encyclical Lumen Fidei