Are you poor? Repine not, for Jesus has said it is a blessed state. God loves you, and has given you poverty, that through it you may receive the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Money is the riches of man, but the comforting grace of the Holy Ghost is the riches of God; and the poor may have that easily if they will. God has deprived you of the things of this world that you may set your heart on Him. Wonder not that thousands of Christians have left all, and vowed themselves to poverty, that they may get the grace of God easily, like you. {113} Ask for grace, then, poor man, and your requests shall be quickly granted. Cry with the Holy Church--__Veni, Pater pauperum!__ Come, O Father of the poor! and the Comforter will come, and pour out upon you a flood of graces that shall make your heart sing for joy. Then you will say with the Psalmist, enjoying nothing here below, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; it is Thou who wilt restore my inheritance to me." [Footnote 34] [Footnote 34: Ps. xv. 5.] [USCCB: Ps. xvi. 5.] Are you in ignorance of what is best for you here and hereafter? Is it hard for you to think of God? Lift up your heart, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Veni, dator munerum!__ Come, O Giver of every good and perfect gift!--and you shall receive the Comforter's gift of Divine Wisdom. Are you ignorant of the truths of faith, or do they seem difficult to you and beyond your grasp? Pray--__Veni, dator munerum__!--and the Comforter will bestow upon you the light of the gift of understanding. Are you ignorant of the ways of God's providence? Do you look around, and see the wicked prospering, the good suffering, the widow oppressed, and the orphan deserted, while wickedness and injustice are enthroned in high places, and are you tempted to doubt if God careth for His own? Pray with the Church--__Veni, dator munerum!__--and the Comforter will bring you His gift of knowledge. {114} Are you wayward in heart, now overzealous and now too lukewarm, oftentimes grieved and cast down at the ill-success of your undertakings or your prayers, and disappointment and disgrace make you feel as if you would almost give up trying to be good? Cry to the Giver of every good gift, and say--__Veni, Sancte Spiritus!__ and that Comforter will enlighten you with His gift of counsel. Are you hard-hearted, stubborn, and resentful, easy to take offence? Do the sins and offences of others destroy your peace of mind, and dry up within you the fountains of mercy and pity for sinners? Do you wish you could feel more like God, kind and long-suffering, and less like Satan, watching for the falls of others, and exulting over them? Oh! cry to the Holy Ghost, and that Comforter, the Spirit of perfect charity, will soften that dry heart of yours with the grace of His gift of piety.