1. Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit
NCSU LYFE April 8, 2018
Why are we talking about this and why does it matter? In order to cooperate with grace we have to have some ideas as to how it works on our end
Good to know what is our inheritance and what we have in our arsenal

2. Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit…They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.”
CCC
Why are we talking about this and why does it matter? In order to cooperate with grace we have to have some ideas as to how it works on our end
Good to know what is our inheritance and what we have in our arsenal
Different from charisms like prophecy—recall how we talked about not pursuing those gifts
Gifts differ from virtues by the different manner in which they act
God can act in us in two ways—(1)by accommodating Himself to the human mode of action (virtues) but it is us who act even if under the impulse of grace (2) God takes the initiative and our activity consists in free consent to God’s operation but we do so without any reflection
Because the share of grace is greater with the gifts acts are more perfect
Some comparisons to help us understand—to practice virtue is to row, to use the gifts is to sail so that by the latter one advances more rapidly and with less effort
The gifts are supernatural habits which impart such docility to our faculties that they promptly comply with the inspirations of grace
This docility must be cultivated to attain full development
The gifts are most excellent because they constitute direct action of the Holy Ghost making our union with Him as close as possible in this life
The gift of counsel makes us share in the light of God and the gift of fortitude imparts to us, places at our disposal God’s very strength
The gifts are not superior to the theological virtues especially charity but they do perfect the exercise of those virtues
The moral virtues make the soul tractable and dispose it to complete docility
By being well subordinated to reason man is disposed to be rightly subordinated to God

3. Seven Gifts
“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”
Isaiah 11:1-3
“The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David.”
CCC 1831
The gifts can be classified in a number of ways—(1) order of perfection fear of the Lord least perfect to wisdom most perfect (2) in relation to our faculties intellectual and affective gifts (3) in relation to the virtues they perfect
Counsel perfects prudence, pietyreligion, strengthfortitude, knowledge & understandingfaith, fearhope, wisdom charity

4. General Means to Cultivate the Gifts
Interior Recollection
Follow generously and promptly the least inspiration (docility)
Pray Come Holy Spirit Prayer regularly
St. Thomas ties each of the gifts to a beatitude and sees the gifts as the way in which the Beatitudes are lived out

5. Counsel
“When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.”
Matthew 10:19
Counsel perfects prudence
Typically our actions flow from forethought or deliberation even those that are prudence enlightened by faith—counsel causes us to judge promptly and rightly what ought to be done, especially in difficult cases
The Holy Spirit speaks to our heart so that we know immediately what is to be done
It always pertains to eternal life
Peter and John before the Sanhedrin “we ought to obey God rather than men” and St. Joan of Arc who was completely unskilled in the art of war astonishing the best generals at the time saying “You have your council and I have mine”
Distinct from knowledge and understanding in that they furnish us with general principles while counsel has to do with particular cases
Since human reason proceeds slowly and with caution it is necessary for counsel because there are times when deliberation cannot happen

6. Piety
“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”
Romans 8:17
fills the soul with confidence and love without endangering the reverence due to God—perfects the virtue of religion
Fosters in us a threefold sentiment—(1)filial respect for God by which we love Him as Father leading us to see prayer as a means of speaking with the Father Who loves us and not an arduous task (2)based on generous and tender love leads us to want to please God in everything we do (3) affectionate obedience which sees all commandments and counsels as coming from the hands of a loving Father
It causes us to love those persons and things which have a participation in the Divine Being
Mary
Saints
The Church
Even others that are not in the Church because they are potentially members of the Church that we treat with kindness people we don’t necessarily have an affinity for
Under the influence of this gift we render Him homage joyfully
Cultivate the gift by (1) meditation on passages of Scripture that portray God’s Fatherhood (2) transform even the most mundane acts into acts of religion—“Exercise yourself unto Godliness for Godliness is profitable to all things” 1Tim 4:8
Beatitudes—eager to do things for God and of God

7. Fortitude
“Now Stephen, filled with grace and strength, was working great wonders and signs among the people.”
Acts 6:8
Perfects the virtue of the same name
perfects the virtue of fortitude that imparts to the will an impulse which enable us to great things joyfully and fearlessly despite all obstacles
There are many times when we must do heroic things to preserve the state of grace
Means of cultivation—(1) humility—“my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2) see the Eucharist as the strength of lions (3)look for opportunities to practice patience

8. Fear of the Lord “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
Psalm 111:10
“A heart contrite and humble O Lord You will not spurn”
Ps 51:19
Worldly fear and Servile fear vs filial fear
a gift that inclines our will to a filial respect for God, removes us from sin, displeasing to Him and gives us hope in the power of his help
o Perfects the gift of hope and temperance
o Comprises three principal acts –(1) a vivid sense of God’s greatness leading us to reproach ourselves for even the slightest fault (2) sorrow for the least fault (3) vigilant care in avoiding occasions of sin
o This gift is needed to avoid excessive familiarity with God
o Cultivation—(1)meditation on God’s grandeur (2) examination of conscience

9. Knowledge
“More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”
Phil 3:8
Knowledge—makes us form a sound judgment of creatures in their relation to God
Along with understanding and wisdom bear directly upon contemplation and not through any reasoning process but by shining a light upon us as if we had actual experience of them
Perfects the virtue of faith which gives us a knowledge of created things in their relation to God
St. Francis looked upon created things in this light as steps toward God
Also helps us to perceive quickly and rightly that which concerns our own sanctification or that of others
It helps us be detached from creatures and see them only insofar as they are useful to us
Cultivation—(1)look upon all things through the eyes of faith (2) use things only insofar as they help us be holy

10. Understanding
“’Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he opened their minds to all the scriptures the concerning himself.”
Luke 24:26-27

11. Wisdom “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet” Ps 33:9
"O God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things by thy word, and by thy wisdom hast formed man, to have dominion over the creatures thou hast made, and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by thy throne, and do not reject me from among thy servants.”
Wisdom 9:1-4

12. Beatitudes
“Beatitudes are none but perfect works which by reason of their perfection are assigned to the gifts rather than the virtues.”
ST II-I q. 70 art. 2
Beatitudes flow from the gifts as a kind of fruit in the sense that they are a foretaste of heavenly happiness

13. The Beatitudes
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” Matthew 5:1-12
Poor in spirit—not attached to earthly things and uses all things for how they help
Mourn—blessed are those who are not hardened by suffering
The Christian religion does not profess to give an answer to the mystery of suffering, but it does not ignore it either—instead it sets about the even loftier task of instilling such trust in the goodness of God that we suffer in undisturbed peace
It really isn’t the problem that disturbs us but the character of the Person responsible
There are those whose sorrow spurns them to help the world while others turn in on themselves
Our Lord is telling us that sorrow and suffering have within them a latent power to bring happiness
Suffering when it comes it comes not to hurt but to bless and if it does hurt it is with the surgeon’s knife that only hurts in order to heal
The Meek--the gentleness and readiness to yield are really the outcome of the strength of self-control and a view of life that is altogether supernatural
Hunger and thirst--“blessed are those whose spiritual appetite has not been destroyed and has been well regulated”
“He who feeds his mind at the expense of his spirit must abide by the consequences”—when we feed out minds on junk food the spirit suffers just as when we feed our bodies on junk food our mind suffers
This hierarchy of the person must be respected and to give each its due
Merciful--“Mercy is love when it encounters suffering.”—it is two movements that take place in us when encountering suffering in another (1) compassion as an emotional movement or more accurately a movement of the heart (2) a movement to reach out (i.e. mercy in action)
JPII in DM—“An act of merciful love is only really such when we are deeply convinced at the moment that we perform it that we are at the same time receiving mercy from the people who are accepting it from us”—if I truly believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) then I will realize I get far more than the one I am helping and there will be no sense of condescension on my part
Pure in Heart—“Blessed are those who living in the midst of the world keep their standards unsullied and undimmed by all the lowering influences around them”
Sins cannot be interpreted in terms of human personality—a person living in an objective state of sin (like the legalized adultery that is remarriage) may be perfectly charming in their personality but this cannot take away the judgment that what they are doing is wrong
Some have the ability to make even their faults look attractive
If we cannot see the beauty of goodness we will not be able to see the ugliness of sin because it clothes itself in such a seductive form
Peacemakers--This beatitude comes at the end because it is only the one who has mastered the others that can be the peacemaker—through poverty of spirit he has learned the true value of things, through meekness he has learnt inner self-control, through mourning he has learned not to shrink from sorrow and suffering, by hungering and thirsting for justice he has learnt to bring every part of his nature to its proper end. By mercy he has learned to balance justice and compassion, purity of heart to keep him in accord with true standards and aims of life amidst the seductions of the world
A lasting peace can only be found when based on these principles and the true peacemaker knows there are things worth fighting for
Persecuted—detachment from even ourselves—closes the loop with the same blessing

14. Fruits of the Holy Spirit
“The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: ‘charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.’”
CCC 1832
Gal 5:22
Talk of fruits—(1) certain maturity and (2) certain sweetness
Also way we can know the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling
The fruits of the Holy Spirit are actions that flow from the supernatural virtues planted in the soul—they do not possess the fullness of the beatitudes but come from the ordinary motions of grace
The fruits are no haphazard list but have a definitive ordering to them—the Holy Spirit orders human action in relation to man himself, his relation to his neighbor and in relation to those things below him
To man himself he is rightly ordered when he has the right attitude toward good and evil so that the fundamental disposition to the good is charity because it is the possession of the Supreme Good Himself—this possession leads to joy and along with charity perfects peace. But there is also the relation to evil or the threat thereof to which the ordered mind is patient and is long suffering in the deferment of a desired good
To his neighbor—goodness and benignity and with the right attitude toward evil there is meekness and faithfulness by which he avoids injury to his neighbor by fraud or guile
Towards things inferior there is right ordering of the passions—modesty, continence and chastity

15. In Relation to Man Himself
Charity
Joy
Peace
Patience
Long-Suffering
Charity—the first disposition of the human soul to the good is through love and thus charity is the first fruit from which all the other fruits flow
This is why sins of the flesh are particularly damaging because they destroy the delight taken in a life of right order according to charity
Joy—joy naturally follows charity since it always has God present
Peace—the perfection of joy is peace with respect to two things—(1) quiet from exterior things (one cannot take joy in a thing if one is disturbed from the outside) (2) when one rests in God in charity there is a quieting or calming of fluctuating desires
This refers to interior peace which means a right interior ordering—this is why not waging war when it is rightly ordered is contrary to interior peace since one is seeking exterior peace at the price of interior
Patience—keeps the soul from being disturbed by the imminence of presence of evil
Rather than experiencing evils as unpleasant one experiences delight in being self-possessed
Long-Suffering—long-suffering allows one to arrive at some good which may be difficult or long in coming

16. In Relation to Other Men
Goodness
Kindness
Meekness
Fidelity
Goodness—disposes the soul well to one’s neighbor by willing to do good for him
Kindness—executes the good will brought about by Goodness—it is one thing to will a good it is another to actually do it
Meekness—one refrains from anger or going to extremes in one’s reactions regarding those who harm us—it differs from the virtue of meekness in that it actually makes one meek in action and has a calming effect on the soul
Faith—can be taken in two ways—(1) as in fidelity in that we do no harm through fraud or deceit and exhibit loyalty

17. In Relation to That Which is Below
Modesty
Continence
Chastity
Modesty—governs one’s actions so that he does what he ought, when he ought, how he ought
directed not just to dress but all one’s externals (what he says and does and possesses)
Continence—since continence refers to interior concupiscences or desires it can be taken in two ways—(1) in the use of licit things one uses them in due proportion and practices self-denial (2) one persists in the good even in the face of the tumult of the appetites
Chastity—again taken in two ways—(1) refraining from those things that are illicit (2) stops the concupiscible appetite from being moved toward that which is illicit (i.e. stops illicit desires and move the person only towards that which is chaste)