7 Sacraments
7 Sacraments
7 Sacraments
The Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are listed in Isaiah 11:2-3.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and under-
standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear
of the Lord;
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears:
They are present in their fullness in Jesus Christ but are found in all
Christians who are graced by The Holy Spirit the life of God within us.
Understanding
Understanding is the second gift of the Holy Spirit, and
sometimes it is difficult to understanding (no pun
intended) how it differs from wisdom. Wisdom is the
desire to contemplate the things of God, understanding
allows us grasp, at least in a limited way, the very
essence of the truths of the Catholic Faith.
Counsel
Counsel, the third gift of the Holy Spirit sometimes
referred to as prudence.Through this gift of the Holy
Spirit, we are able to judge how best to act almost by
intuition or instinct. We need not be afraid to stand up for
the truths of the Faith, because the Holy Spirit will guide
us in defending those truths.
Fortitude
Fortitude is both a gift of the Holy Spirit and a virtue.
Fortitude gives us the strength to follow through on the
actions suggested by the gift of counsel. While fortitude
is sometimes called courage, it goes beyond what we
normally think of as courage. Fortitude is the virtue of
the martyrs that allows them to suffer even death rather
than to renounce the Christian Faith.
Knowledge
Knowledge is the actual ability that allows us to see the
circumstances of our life the way that God sees them.
Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can determine
God's purpose for our lives and live them accordingly.
Piety
The sixth gift of the Holy Spirit, is the perfection of the
virtue of religion. While we tend to think of religion
today as the external elements of our faith, it really
means the willingness to worship and to serve God.
Reverence takes that willingness beyond a sense of duty,
so that we desire to worship God and to serve Him out of
love, the way that we desire to honour our parents and do
what they wish.