The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

8/18/2019 The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

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The Seven Gifts of the

Holy Spirit


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Wisdom

Wisdom is the perfection of faith

As Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, "Wherefaith is a simple knowledge of the articles of Christian belief, wisdom goeson to a certain divine penetration of the truths themselves."

The better we understand those truths, the more we value them properly.

Thus wisdom, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "by detaching us from theworld, makes us relish and love only the things of heaven." Throughwisdom, we judge the things of the world in light of the highest end ofman — the contemplation of God.


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Application of Wisdom

Wisdom helps us to love the world properly, as the creation of Godrather than for its own sake. The material world, though fallen as aresult of the sin of Adam and Eve, is still worthy of our love; wesimply need to see it in the proper light, and wisdom allows us to doso.


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Understanding

It is the second gift of the Holy Spirit, and peoplesometimes have a hard time understanding (no punintended) how it differs from wisdom.

While wisdom is the desire to contemplate the things of

God, understanding allows us grasp, at least in a limitedway, the very essence of the truths of the Catholic Faith

Through understanding, we gain a certitude about ourbeliefs that moves beyond faith.


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Understanding

Understanding rises above natural reason, which isconcerned only with the things we can sense in theworld around us. Thus, understanding is bothspeculative — concerned with intellectual knowledge —

and practical, because it can help us to order theactions of our lives toward our final end, which is God.


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Counsel

Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, we are able to judgehow best to act almost by intuition. Because of the giftof counsel, Christians need not fear to stand up for thetruths of the Faith, because the Holy Spirit will guide us in

defending those truths.


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Fortitude

Fortitude is ranked as the fourth gift of the Holy Spiritbecause it gives us the strength to follow through on theactions suggested by the gift of counsel. While fortitudeis sometimes called courage, it goes beyond what we

normally think of as courage. Fortitude is the virtue ofthe martyrs that allows them to suffer death rather thanto renounce the Christian Faith.


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Knowledge

Like wisdom, knowledge is the perfection of faith, butwhereas wisdom gives us the desire to judge all thingsaccording to the truths of the Catholic Faith,knowledge is the actual ability to do so. Like counsel, it

is aimed at our actions in this life. In a limited way,knowledge allows us to see the circumstances of our lifethe way that God sees them. Through this gift of theHoly Spirit, we can determine God's purpose for our liveand live them accordingly


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Piety

Piety, the sixth gift of the Holy Spirit, is the perfection ofthe virtue of religion. While we tend to think of religiontoday as the external elements of our faith, it reallymeans the willingness to worship and to serve God.

Piety takes that willingness beyond a sense of duty, sothat we desire to worship God and to serve Him out oflove, the way that we desire to honor our parents anddo what they wish


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Fear of the Lord

The seventh and final gift of the Holy Spirit is the fear of the Lord, andperhaps no other gift of the Holy Spirit is so misunderstood. We think of fearand hope as opposites, but the fear of the Lord confirms the theologicalvirtue of hope. This gift of the Holy Spirit gives us the desire not to offendGod, as well as the certainty that God will supply us the grace that weneed in order to keep from offending Him. Our desire not to offend God ismore than simply a sense of duty; like piety, the fear of the Lord arises outof love


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The Fruits of the Holy Spirit


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charity generosity

oy gentleness

peace faithfulness

patience modesty

kindness self-control

goodness chastity


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Acts 2: 42-47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching andthe fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe camupon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done throughthe apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things incommon. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings anddistributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day byday, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising Godand having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to theirnumber day by day those who were being saved.


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Koinonia

Community, especially the community of the faithful, ofwhom St. Luke says they formed a fellowship (koinonia)of believers who worshipped together and held all theirpossessions in common (Acts 2:42-47).

It was also the favorite term of St. Paul to identify theunion of the faithful with Christ and among themselves,and it was the Church's term in the earliest creeds forthe communion of saints, i.e., the believers on earth, thesouls in purgatory, and the elect in glory.


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Diakonia

The biblical Greek word for service. As such it applies toall manner of ministry (official) or assistance (unofficial)that a person may perform or render either to theChurch in general or to some private individual. In

recent years the term has come to be used moretechnically of those services in the Church for which aperson is specially ordained (as priests and deacons), oconsecrated (as religious), or designated (as the faithfuteaching or serving the needs of the sick or the poor).


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Didache

The Doctrinal Teachings of the Apostles


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Kerygma

The initial proclamation of the Gospel.


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What "Catholic" Means

The Greek roots of the term "Catholic" mean "accordingto (kata-) the whole (holos)", or more colloquially,"universal." At the beginning of the second century, wefind in the letters of Ignatius its first surviving use in

reference to the Church. At that time or shortlythereafter it was used to refer to a single, visiblecommunion, separate from others.


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Ignatius of Antioch - "Let no one do anything of concerto the Church without the bishop. Let that beconsidered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by thebishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter].

Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the CatholicChurch" (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).


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The Martyrdom of Polycarp - "And of the elect, he wasone indeed, the wonderful martyr Polycarp, who in ourdays was an apostolic and prophetic teacher, bishopof the Catholic Church in Smyrna. For every word which

came forth from his mouth was fulfilled and will befulfilled" ( Martyrdom of Polycarp 16:2 [A.D. 155]).


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The Muratorian Canon - "Besides these [letters of Paul] there is one toPhilemon, and one to Titus, and two to Timothy, in affection and love, butnevertheless regarded as holy in the Catholic Church, in the ordering ofchurchly discipline. There is also one [letter] to the Laodiceans andanother to the Alexandrians, forged under the name of Paul, in regard tothe heresy of Marcion, and there are several others which cannot bereceived by the Church, for it is not suitable that gall be mixed with honeyThe epistle of Jude, indeed, and the two ascribed to John are received bythe Catholic Church. . . . Of [the Gnostics] Arsinorus, also called Valentine,and of Miltiades, we receive nothing at all. Those also who wrote the newbook of psalms for Marcion, together with Basilides, the founder of theAsian Cataphrygians [we do not accept]" (Muratorian fragment [A.D.177]).


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Tertullian - "Where was [the heretic] Marcion, that shipmaster ofPontus, the zealous student of Stoicism? Where was Valentinus, thedisciple of Platonism? For it is evident that those men lived not solong ago--in the reign of Antonius for the most part--and that theyat first were believers in the doctrine of the Catholic Church, in the

church of Rome under the episcopate of the blessed Eleutherius,until on account of their ever restless curiosity, with which they eveinfected the brethren, they were more than once expelled"(Demurrer Against the Heretics 30 [A.D. 200]).


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Council of Nicaea I - "But those who say: 'There was [atime] when he [the Son] was not,' and 'before he wasborn, he was not,' and 'because he was made fromnon-existing matter, he is either of another substance or

essence,' and those who call 'God the Son of Godchangeable and mutable,' these the Catholic Churchanathematizes" ( Appendix to the Creed of Nicaea[A.D325]).


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Council of Nicaea I - "Concerning the Paulianists who take refuge with theCatholic Church, a decree has been published that they should be fullybaptized. If, however, any of these in times past have been in the clericalorder, if indeed they have appeared spotless and above reproach, afterbeing baptized, let them be ordained by the bishop of the CatholicChurch" (canon 9).


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Cyril of Jerusalem - "[The Church] is called Catholic, then, because itextends over the whole world, from end to end of the earth, and becauseit teaches universally and infallibly each and every doctrine which mustcome to the knowledge of men, concerning things visible and invisible,heavenly and earthly, and because it brings every race of men intosubjection to godliness, governors and governed, learned and unlearned,

and because it universally treats and heals every class of sins, thosecommitted with the soul and those with the body, and it possesses withinitself every conceivable form of virtue, in deeds and in words and in thespiritual gifts of every description" (Catechetical Lectures 18:23 [A.D. 350])


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The Apostles Creed - "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the HolyCatholic Church, the communion of saints, theforgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and thelife everlasting. Amen" ( Apostles Creed [A.D. 360

version, the first to include the term "Catholic"]).


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Council of Constantinople I - "I believe in the Holy Spirit,the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from theFather, who together with the Father and the Son isworshiped and glorified, who spoke through the

prophets; in one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church"(Nicene Creed [A.D. 381]).


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Augustine - "We must hold to the Christian religion and to communicationin her Church, which is Catholic and which is called Catholic not only byher own members but even by all her enemies. For when heretics or theadherents of schisms talk about her, not among themselves but withstrangers, willy-nilly they call her nothing else but Catholic. For they will notbe understood unless they distinguish her by this name which the whole

world employs in her regard" (The True Religion 7:12 [A.D. 390]).


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Augustine - "We believe in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic Church; foheretics and schismatics call their own congregations churches. Butheretics violate the faith itself by a false opinion about God; schismatics,however, withdraw from fraternal love by hostile separations, althoughthey believe the same things we do. Consequently, neither heretics norschismatics belong to the Catholic Church; not heretics, because the

Church loves God, and not schismatics, because the Church lovesneighbor" (Faith and Creed 10:21 [A.D. 393]).


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Augustine - "In the Catholic Church . . . a few spiritual men attain [wisdomin this life, in such a way that . . . they know it without any doubting, whilethe rest of the multitude finds is greatest safety not in lively understandingbut in the simplicity of believing . . . [T]here are many other things whichmost properly can keep me in her bosom. The unanimity of peoples andnations keeps me here. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished

by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me hereThe succession of priests, from the very see of the Apostle Peter, to whomthe Lord, after his resurrection, gave the charge of feeding his sheep [Joh21:15 Against the Letter of Mani Called 'The Foundation' 4:5 [A.D. 397]).


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Augustine - "If you should find someone who does not yet believe in thegospel, what would you [Mani] answer him when he says, 'I do notbelieve'? Indeed, I would not believe in the gospel myself if the authority othe Catholic Church did not move me to do so" (ibid., 5:6).


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Vincent of Lerins - "I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very many meneminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule Imay be able to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of hereticaldepravity; and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer to thiseffect:: that whether I or anyone else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid thesnares of heretics as they arise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholicfaith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways: first, by the authority othe Divine Law [Scripture], and then by the Tradition of the Catholic Church. But heresome one perhaps will ask, 'Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of

itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it theauthority of the Church's interpretation?' For this reason: Because, owing to the depth ofHoly Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands itswords in one way, another in another, so that it seems to be capable of as manyinterpretations as there are men. . . . Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so greaintricacies of such various errors, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophetsand apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of ecclesiastical andCatholic interpretation" (The Notebooks 2:1)


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Council of Chalcedon - "Since in certain provinces readers and cantorshave been allowed to marry, this sacred synod decrees that none of themis permitted to marry a wife of heterodox views. If those thus married havealready had children, and if they have already had the children baptizedamong heretics, they are to bring them into the communion of theCatholic Church" (canon 14 [A.D. 451]).


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The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit