Gifts of the Holy Spirit
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At Baptism, we receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit—divine tools meant to guide, strengthen, and sanctify us throughout our lives. By the time we reach Confirmation, we’re expected to know them by name—but how many of us truly can? And more importantly, how many of us actually live them?
These seven gifts—Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord—aren’t just words to memorize. They are graces meant to sustain us in the trials of life, transform our hearts, bear fruit in our relationships, and ultimately lead us to Heaven.
Fr. Dave Pivonka, through the Hallow app, offers an inspiring series of short, powerful reflections on the Holy Spirit titled "Daily Holy Spirit " (highly recommended if you subscribe to Hallow). This series includes seven focused sessions (about 5 minutes each) on these gifts. Below, we offer a brief snapshot of each gift, as presented by Fr. Dave. Whether you dive in through the Hallow app or explore other resources, we encourage you to open your heart to the Spirit and let these gifts come alive in you!
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Wisdom"Wisdom is not just merely being smart or a deep thinker or merely a gift of the intellect. Wisdom gives us an ability to make our faith more real. It helps us to comprehend the mysteries of God in a deeper way. Not so that we're able to pass an exam on a give topic, but rather so that our heart would be transformed.
Wisdom helps us see as God sees. Imagine just for a second how our lives would be different if we were able to see situations, relationships, people, complex problems as God sees them. It allows us to see things of God in creation, in ourselves, in one another. So often the times the lens that we look through these things is the lens of our own experience, our hopes, our desires, our brokenness, our woundedness. Wisdom helps us see these things through God's eyes.
Wisdom helps us to see the beauty in the person that at first glance offends or repulses us. Wisdom is ultimately what allowed Mother Teresa to see Christ in the poor.
We pray for wisdom.
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UnderstandingUnderstanding isn't just understanding complex problems; it's understanding the Lord, His grace, His movement, and who we are in relationship with Him.
In understanding, we begin to comprehend how we need to live as a follower of Jesus. Oftentimes, our culture takes opportunities to try to confuse or to distract or thwart the movement in the Grace of God, the beauty of God, the goodness of God. Understanding helps us to see through that and ponder more deeply God's all-merciful and constant love for each of us.
Understanding grants us insights into how the Holy Spirit is actively at work in our daily routines so that we may better serve the Lord in building His Kingdom here on earth. Understanding may help us recognize our God-given talents and discern how to best use them in service of faith, justice and evangelization. It's a deeper understanding of who you are, how the Lord has gifted you, how He has worked in your life, and then ultimately, how this is transforming you and making you holy to build up the Kingdom.
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CounselThis gift is really not about the ability to give good advice or good counsel, but allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our conscience and move us towards good decisions. It's a lot like right judgment.
The gift of counsel helps us to be more attentive to our conscience, helping us have a keener sense of what is right and what is wrong. We see things more clearly. We make better choices -- decisions that ultimately move us towards holiness, godliness, being more like Jesus. We've experienced the gift of counsel when perhaps we were tempted to gossip about about a friend or colleague behind their back, but then something moves in our heart and we realize that it's best that we not do that.
Temptations, multiple things that we're dealing with. Lord, help me to choose well.
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FortitudeNo matter how long we've been walking, how long we've been following Jesus, or how long we've been alive, at times the journey can be difficult. The gift of fortitude allows us the grace to keep going.
With so much against us at so much of the time, it's difficult for us to keep moving forward and not to give up. At times we get frustrated, we get a little bit lost. We have questions, doubts, frustrations. If we're honest, there are moments that we're just not sure the things that we hear. We're not sure the things we pray about. We're not sure what the scripture says, what the teachings of the Church say. And we find ourselves getting weary, frustrated. Fortitude keeps us moving forward.
We receive the grace of perseverance to keep on going one step at a time. Fortitude gives us the courage when things become difficult. Difficult marriages, difficult jobs, difficulty with children, and loving and being patient and being kind. Fortitude allows us to trust in the Lord no matter what the difficulty, no matter what the struggle and keep moving forward one step at a time.
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KnowledgeThis gift is not about "facts of God" but it's about knowledge of who He is. It's the knowledge about His love, his mercy, the beauty of His creation. knowledge moves in your heart that allows you to know that you are loved perfectly and that you are loved unconditionally. It's knowledge that allows us to know that God is merciful, He's kind, and to know more profoundly that God is good.
That there is nothing we can do that could cause him to love us more or love us less. This is knowledge. We don't know this because we've read it somewhere or we've heard it somewhere but knowledge allows us to know this from the depths of who we are.
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PietyPiety is the gift that moves in our heart that allows us to pray. The reason you are praying right now is gift of piety, a desire to long and to come to know the Lord more fully. So my desire to pray, your desire to pray, your desire to listen to this teaching on the Holy Spirit, it's a gift. It's a gift of piety that moves in your heart so that you can be more like Jesus.
Piety moves us to pray not out of superstition, obligation or bribery. Piety moves us to pray because we desire to a deeper, more intimate union with Jesus, to be more like Him, to be in relationship with Him. Our desire to pray, to go to Adoration, to pray the Rosary, to go to Mass, even if not totally perfect or pure. Piety moves us to seek Jesus with a pure heart, with more pure motives. Piety moves us to worship God, to praise Him, and to thank Him. It moves in our heart to give a reverance and worship to God.
Piety moves in the midst of difficulty, when we find ourselves in a situation where we're likely to get angry or react out of anger. Piety moves us to stop and pray.
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Fear of the LordFear of the Lord is a gift and not a curse. We are not praying that we would be afraid of God. Rather, we are praying that we are able to approach Him. That we ought not run away from Him but towards Him.
The fear of the Lord reminds us how good, how beautiful, how big God is and how small we are in comparison to Him. The fear of the Lord is an appropriate reverance for God in His holiness and in His majesty.
The fear of the Lord draws us into that there is something inside of us that says this is the right place to be. It's so good that we're here and something that's at the same time as we're awe inspired by that. And there's this uncomfortableness. The fear of the Lord produces in us a spirit of awe. When we encounter the Lord's presence and understand that this is holy ground.
It's not a fear rooted in punishment. It's a fear of doing anything that would offend God Who loves us perfectly, Who died for us, Who has given everything for us. A fear that would not want us to do anything that would ultimately separate us from Him.
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