Consolations with which the Holy Spirit visits the Just

(Found here)

“‘Light is risen to the just, and joy to the right of heart.’ (Ps. 97:11). The Holy Scriptures furnish abundant proof of this truth. If the path of virtue, O deluded sinner, be as sad and difficult as you represent it, what does the Psalmist mean when he exclaims, ‘O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee!’ (Ps. 31:19). And again: ‘My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall be delighted in his salvation. All my bones [that is, all the powers of my soul] shall say: Lord, who is like to thee?’ (Ps. 35:9-10).

Do not these texts clearly tell us of the joy with which the souls of the just overflow, which penetrates even to the flesh, and which so inebriates man’s whole being that he breaks forth into transports of holy joy? What earthly pleasure can be compared to this? What peace, what love, what delight can equal that of which Thou, O my God, art the inexhaustible source? ‘The voice of rejoicing and of salvation,’ continues the prophet, ‘is in the tabernacles of the just.’ (Ps. 118:15). Yes, only just souls know true joy, true peace, true consolation.

‘Let the just feast and rejoice before God, and be delighted with gladness.’ (Ps. 68:3). ‘They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure.’ (Ps. 36:8). Could the prophet more powerfully express the strength and sweetness of these consolations? They shall be inebriated, he tells us; for as a man overcome by the fumes of wine is insensible to all outward objects, so the just, who are filled with the wine of heavenly consolations, are dead to the things of this world.

‘Blessed is the people,’ he further says, ‘that knoweth jubilation.’ (Ps. 89:15). Many would perhaps have said, ‘Blessed are they who abound in wealth, who are protected by strong walls, and who possess valiant soldiers to defend them!’ But David, who had all these, esteemed only that people happy who knew by experience what it was to rejoice in God with that joy of spirit which, according to St. Gregory, cannot find expression in words or actions. Happy are they who are sufficiently advanced in love for God to know this jubilation! . . .

We are told that St. Ephrem was frequently so overcome with the strength of this divine sweetness that he was forced to cry out, ‘Withdraw from me a little, O Lord, for my body faints under the weight of Thy delights!’ (St. John Climachus). Oh! Unspeakable Goodness! Oh! Sovereign Sweetness, communicating Thyself so prodigally to Thy creatures that the human heart cannot contain the effusions of Thy infinite love! In this inebriation of heavenly sweetness the troubles and trials of the world are forgotten, and the soul is strengthened and elevated to joys beyond the power of her natural faculties.”
~Louis of Granada (from The Sinner’s Guide)