KARVEL

Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, the One hidden in all creation, the One hidden in the rustling of the wind, in the breeze or in the storm, the One in the fragrance of flowers, in the trill of birds and in the silence of the air, let us glorify Him, confessing: Alleluia!

Only You, Most Holy Spirit, can murmur with such clear waters and whisper so softly. Only You alone can wander with such longing throughout the earth and all the air, all lives and all hearts. You shake the depths and You establish Peace, You stir the forests and You calm them. O, You and only You bring us down the Heavens, embracing us in You, for:

Holy are You, Name without a name!

Holy are You, deep humility;

Holy are You, holy comfort;

Holy are You, blessed suffering;

Holy are You, inner and sweet sigh;

Holy are You, Holiness Itself;

Holy are You, unfathomable fragrance;

Holy are You, holy silence;

Holy are You, Most Holy Spirit, You who in Mystery bestow existence on everything!

O, if only we could attain the pure heart with which from the beginning, in the counsel of the triune Love, we were conceived and made!

Only then could we truly see how close to us, through You, Divine Spirit, are the bosom of the Father, the love of Christ the Savior, and Your sharing of all that is holy.

Through You we would know all that, being hers, the Mother of God humbly concealed. And knowing as she did, we would desire to live in holy adoption, inheriting.

Through You we understand the saints and follow them.

Through You we rediscover the whole world and true life.

Through You and in You the elect are united with the Father’s first thought for the world. You exist within the one who bears the image that the Lord desired from the beginning, as He desired.

Through You we are perfectly solitary, in the Solitude of the Unfathomable One; through You we are together with all in common Love.

Do not leave us, Divine Spirit, in our own things, but You in Your own things capture us, so that nothing of the perishable may remain, but all of us, to Your Glory, Lord of endless desire, may become through grace, You…

And in You, may all things be transformed into eternal and Most Holy Love, which You, together with the Father and the Son, are and share with us.

Fra Angelico (Italy 1395-1455)

The Annunciation 

The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, 1630-1631

Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, active between 1630-1660

Moretto da Brescia

Birth of Christ Rueland Frueauf the Elder (c. 1440/1445 Salzburg – 1507 Passau) around 1490/1491