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GIFTS OF KNOWLEDGE AND COUNSEL

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SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 28:16-20,30-31; Ps 11:4-5,7; Jn 21:20-25 The Spirit of Knowledge and Counsel On the last day of our Novena to the Holy Spirit, we consider the gifts of knowledge and Counsel, the last two of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of knowledge is the Spirit’s aid to our knowledge of earthly things. It is surely about knowledge of earthly things, but it goes deeper than our mere scientific knowledge of creatures to ground them in our faith in God. It helps us to know things in their interconnectedness and the way they serve the will of the Creator, God. It offers us knowledge of the divine plan in things and in earthly affairs, all working together for the realisation of man’s salvation and the glory of God. We may have a profound scientific knowledge of creatures, human history, and their activities. Without the spiritual gift of knowledge, we will not see how our scientific knowledge serves the will of God and his divine...
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THE GIFT OF FEAR OF THE LORD

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FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 25:13-21; Ps 103:1-2,11-12,19-20; Jn 17:20-26 The Spirit of Fear of the Lord The Holy Spirit also gives us the fear of the Lord as a gift. As Saint Paul wrote, we have not received a spirit of fear or timidity, but the Spirit that helps us cry ‘Abba, Father.’ Cf. Rom 8:15. The new birth we received from the Holy Spirit through our Lord Jesus Christ is the life of the Son of God, within us. So, our new spirit is able to call God Father, because it is begotten of God the Father and the means of our adoption as children of God. Through this new spirit, tutored and guided by the Holy Spirit, we develop a filial and reverential fear of God. Hence, the gift of the fear of the Lord is another spiritual support received from the Holy Spirit, aiding our transformation into Jesus Christ. We must never understand the fear here in the common usage of the word to mean being afraid or terrorised by another. The fear of the Lord flows out...
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THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING

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THURSDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 22:30,23:6-11; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; Jn 17:20-26 The Spirit of Understanding We arrive at truth through understanding, and truths offer us knowledge. The gift of understanding by the Holy Spirit is a spiritual support to our intellect, enabling us to grasp the mysteries of God and receive divine illumination on the things and events of life. The spiritual gift of understanding is key to our easy and successful journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. Our journey to the mountain of God is not a physical journey, like Elijah’s journey to Mount Sinai, but a spiritual journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The gift of spiritual understanding enables us to penetrate the mysteries of God, human affairs, and situations. This gift, in a special way, renews the image of God in us, for it quickens the working of our rational faculty to see beyond the physical, to the foundations of things in God’s will. We must maintain purity ...
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THE GIFT OF WISDOM

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WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 20:28-38; Ps 68:29-30,33-36; Jn 17:11-19 The Spirit of Wisdom The Christian vocation is to inherit a kingdom. As contained in the scriptures, we are called to inherit God through Jesus Christ. Thus, sharing the same Spirit with Jesus Christ, we are to reign with him in the kingdom of his Father forever. In his prayer to the Father, he requested the same glory that he is to receive from the Father for all of us who believe in his name. So, his gift of the Holy Spirit to us is in preparation for the inheritance the Father has already granted us through the prayer and salvific work of the Son of Man. Thus, among the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us, wisdom is a special virtue for overseers. Wisdom is a kingly virtue that helps us direct all things to their proper end. To each of us is entrusted the kingdom of God that is within us; we are to trade everything to make it properly ours. The parable of our Lord confirms the vocat...
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THE GIFT OF FORTITUDE

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TUESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 20:17-27; Ps 68:10-11,20-21; Jn 17:1-11 The Spirit of Fortitude The love of God the Father makes him give us his Son to save us from sin and evil, and his Holy Spirit to abide with us and bring us into communion with him. These gifts of the divine Persons are gifts beyond our imagination, through which we begin to estimate the love of the Father for us. Jesus especially referred to the Holy Spirit as the Gift from the Father. Cf. Lk 11:13. We have spiritual life when we receive the Holy Spirit, thanks to our Lord’s salvific works. The Holy Spirit, in order to properly strengthen and coordinate our spiritual life, which ought to overflow and oversee our natural life, gives us the seven gifts aiding our sanctification. We reflected on the gift of piety yesterday. Fortitude is the next gift of the Holy Spirit by which he solidifies our spiritual life. Through the gift of fortitude, the Holy Spirit gives us firmness in difficu...
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THE GIFT OF PIETY

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MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 19:1-18; Ps 68:2-7; Jn 16:29-33 The Spirit of Piety One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is piety. The gift of piety is not irrelevant in our spiritual life and walk, for it is a virtue that deepens and strengthens our religious commitment to God. It usually arises from a deep knowledge of God gained through faith. Naturally, we do not know God. We do not understand his essence, which is beyond our comprehension. The little we know of God is usually through analogy, as in the use of metaphors by our Lord. We are made in the image of God, which is within us. But the image is dark without divine light. It is only in Jesus Christ that we see the divine image most illuminated by the divine light. Hence, the Son of Man is a mystery to our human gaze. The image is not what is outwardly given, but inwardly seen with the spiritual sight. None of us has his spiritual sight untarnished by sin. Hence, we need the Holy Spirit to give u...
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THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER

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SUNDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE    Acts 1:12-14; Ps 27:1,4,7-8; 1 Pet 4:13-16; Jn 17:1-11 The Prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ The readings express the yearning of the earth for the spiritual regeneration that the Father planned to accomplish for us. The deep yearning expressed by creatures is already a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to material creation that he brought into existence and sustains as a new beginning of a spiritual life for human beings. We lost our spiritual life with God when our first parents disobeyed the injunction of God not to eat of the forbidden fruit. Their disobedience, which denied them participation in the banquet of the Lord, served by his word, made them participants in the sinful communion of demons. That is what sin makes us, communicants in the cup of the devil. In his infinite mercy and compassion, God the Father promised us redemption through his Son, when He promised to bring forth another woman...
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