The 7 Valuable Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit are immortal means granted by the latter and from which the believer receives from God the necessary favors to endure earthly life with holiness. They make the faithful submissive to promptly obey divine inspirations. In this article we can discover what these gifts are and what they are about.
What are the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit?
If there is a true Catholic faith that cannot be questioned, it is undoubtedly that God is love. He adores us and shows it to us in numerous ways; for example, he instills his grace on our hearts and, through the Holy Spirit, he spreads his gifts on each one of us.
These gifts are a transparent demonstration that the Lord acts as a Father who adores us and helps us to follow after him, despite the fact that to prove his love it is required that we also act as his children. Such gifts come with the Sacrament of Baptism and are strengthened in Confirmation, but we have to develop them throughout our Christian existence.
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Holy Spirit has 7 gifts : Counsel, Understanding, Erudition, Fortitude, Science, Compassion and Fear of God. These support the moral existence of the Christian and make him obedient and sensitive to the divine will. What is the significance of each? Pope Francis has given an explanation in his catechesis, of which we show you a summary of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit :
1.- Advice
By the time we receive it and lodge it in our hearts, the Holy Spirit begins to make us susceptible to his voice and to lead our thinking, feeling and purpose according to the heart of the Lord. Simultaneously, it leads us more and more to direct our inner gaze towards Jesus, as the archetype of our way of proceeding and of connecting with God the Father and with our brothers.
It is the gift of knowing how to differentiate paths and alternatives, of knowing how to guide and listen. It is the light that the Spirit gives us to differentiate what is correct from what is incorrect, what is true from what is false. The Holy Spirit rested on Jesus, fully bestowing that gift upon him, as Isaiah had foretold: “No judgment will be created by appearances, nor will condemnation by hearing alone. He will judge the weak with justice, and he will judge with justice the humble of the earth ”(Is 11, 3-4).
It indicates to us the paths of holiness, the desire of God in our daily existence, it stimulates us to follow the result that most coincides with the divine glory and the good of others.
2.- Understanding
It is intimately linked with faith. As the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and enlightens our minds, he makes us believers daily in the understanding of what the Lord has pronounced and has executed. Understand the lessons of Jesus, understand the Gospel, understand the Divine Word. By reading the Gospel with this gift we can understand the significance of God’s words.
Thanks to this gift, a peculiar participation in the divine understanding, in the enigmas of the world and in the intimacy of the Lord himself is communicated to our hearts. The Lord pointed out: “I will give you a heart to understand me, for I am Yahweh” (Jer 24:7). He reveals to us with greater clarity the abundances of faith.
3.- Erudition
We are not simply talking about human wisdom, which is the product of understanding and experience. Scholarship is the grace of being able to contemplate everything with the divine gaze. It is simply that: observe the world, see the situations, the moments, the inconveniences, everything, with the divine gaze.
In the Bible it is described that Solomon, at the moment of his coronation as sovereign of Israel, implored the gift of learning. It is the gift of understanding what benefits and what affects the divine plan. He empowers our compassion and readies us for a full perspective of God.
Jesus himself pointed out to us: “But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you are going to say. What you have to say will be notified to you at that time. For it will not be you who will speak, but the Spirit of your Father who will speak in you” (Mt 10, 19-20). Authentic scholarship brings the taste of God and the Word of him. It makes us understand the unfathomable miracle of God and leads us to seek him above all things, between our work and our responsibilities.
4.- Strength
The number of men and women, we do not know their names, who have honored our people, our Church, have done so because they are strong in carrying out their lives, their families, their work and their beliefs.
We must be grateful to the Lord for these Christians who carry a hidden holiness: it is the Holy Spirit who guides them. And it will do us good to think: if they achieve all this, if they can achieve it, why can’t I? And it will do us equally good to implore the Lord to grant us the gift of strength.
This is the gift that gives us courage to face the daily problems of Christian existence. Make faith strong and courageous. We must remember the courage of the martyrs. It gives us persistence and firmness in resolutions. Those who have this gift are not intimidated in the face of threats and harassment, because they trust the Father unconditionally. He constantly encourages us and helps us overcome the problems that we will undoubtedly encounter in our march towards God.
5. Science
In Genesis it is emphasized that the Lord was satisfied with his Creation, repeatedly emphasizing the beauty and benevolence of each thing. At the end of each day, it is written: And God saw that he was good. If God observes that Creation is a benevolent thing, it is something beautiful, we also have to assume this position.
This is the gift of knowledge that makes us contemplate this beauty; let us praise God, we thank him for having granted us so much beauty. It is the gift of divine science and not worldly science. Thanks to this gift, the Holy Spirit reveals to us internally God’s thoughts about us, because “no one knows the intimacy of God, only the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2, 11).
It leads us to judge created things with justice and to keep our hearts in God and in creation as long as it leads us to Him.
6. Compassion
The significance of this gift is not to be compassionate towards someone, that is, to be compassionate to others, but rather it indicates that we belong to God and our deep bond with Him, a bond that gives purpose to our entire existence and that sustains us firm, in communion with Him, even in the most difficult and stormy times.
It is a true relationship with the heart: it is our brotherhood with God, which Jesus gives us, a brotherhood that modifies our lives and fills us with enthusiasm, with joy. It is the gift that the Holy Spirit gives us to find ourselves always open to the divine will, always trying to act as Jesus would.
If God lives his union with man in such an enveloping way, man, in turn, feels equally invited to be compassionate with everyone. He leads us to treat God with the frankness with which a son treats his Father.
7. Fear of God
It is not about feeling fear of God: we know well that God is Father, and that he adores us and desires our redemption, and always absolves; therefore there is no reason to be afraid of Him. The fear of God, in contrast, is the gift of the Spirit that reminds us how modest we are before God and his love, and that it is good for us to give ourselves with modesty, consideration and confidence in your hands.
This is the fear of God: the abandonment in the benevolence of our Father who adores us so much. For this reason, Jesus was always careful to practice the divine will in everything, as Isaiah had predicted: “The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of learning and understanding, of counsel and strength, of knowledge and fear of Yahveh” (Is 11 ,two).
It leads us to flee from opportunities to sin, not to give in to temptation, to avoid all evil that can afflict the Holy Spirit, to radically fear separating ourselves from the One we worship and who constitutes our reason for being and existing.