Hence, in the beginning of the world, God created a man, framing his body out of clay and dust, but giving him a living soul by breathing upon him. It was the Spirit of God that gave that soul the touch of life and immortality. There is a wonderful similarity between that breathing into man at his creation, and the time when, after the resurrection, the Lord appeared to the apostles and breathed on them, saying: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” St. Athanasius says, “First by the Word of God, man was made. And the Lord breathed into him the Spirit of life, and confirmed him with a participation of His Spirit. The same God confers His Spirit on His disciples, that we may be renovated in the same Spirit in Whom we first were made.” No doubt both the natural life, the life of the body, and also the supernatural life, the love of God and participation in His glory, were granted by the Holy Ghost at the creation. Prayer. Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, etc., etc. Tenth Day. The Holy Ghost infuses into our hearts sanctifying grace, by which we become pleasing to God, and we can call Him Our Father. What a great grace this is—to be pleasing to God! We had sinned and had become aliens to God’s kindness and grace. We did not live a simple, natural life, for our existence was sinful after the fall of Adam and Eve. But the Holy Spirit came again into our hearts, and we were created new beings. The old scars of sin and condemnation disappeared, and our present supernatural condition is nobler, perhaps, than was the condition of Adam before his fall. It was this consideration which caused the Fathers of the Church, and the Church herself, in her paschal song of the “Exultet,” to exclaim, “O happy fault, which gave the occasion to almighty God to rescue us from eternal death, and to give us new life, in the resurrection of the Lord.” Great, then, is the love of the Holy Ghost for us. He wishes to claim us as His temples. Prayer. Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, etc., etc. Eleventh Day. We are, therefore, different from Adam; since the Fall our condition has been changed. Adam at his creation was constituted in the state of grace, placed in that blessed condition by the goodness of the Holy Ghost. The justice which Adam received was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul, which illuminated his mind to such a degree that he not only understood the things about him, but it also gave him a sight of heaven itself, and the perfections of God. Hence Adam, the pure creature, grand and noble as he was, created and gifted by almighty God, was a favored being indeed, and all mankind after him. For we also are created by God, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us by Baptism, and therefore are children of God by a still greater reason than Adam was. The power of the Holy Ghost has thus been displayed in the creation of man, in the continuation of his existence, and in all his work up to the present time. Prayer.