Chapter III. Of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in general

Article I

Ofth^ natv/re of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Sanctifying grace requires many other qualities, both for its preservation and for action. These qualities are the theological virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the supernatural or infused moral virtues, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes, the moral virtues, natural or acquired.

The theological virtues hold the first rank, because they f have direct reference to God, and unite us immediately to Him.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit come next after the theological virtues, because they are, as it were, their fulfilment, and serve to make them operate in a more excellent manner.

The supernatural moral virtues are inferior to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because they dispose the soul only to the performance of ordinary good works ; whereas the gifts dispose it to perform extraordinary actions.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are nothing else than infused virtues, when we arrive at exercising them not only without pain or repugnance, but with joy and pleasure.

When these same virtues are ftiUy developed, and have become perfect acts, they are called beatitudes.

The natural moral virtues hold the last place, because they perfect the soul only according to reason and not according to faith, and because they can be separated from sanctifying grace.

§n- The gifts of the Holy Spirit are habits, or permanent qualities, which God communicates to the soul together with sanctifying grace and the infused virtues, to fortify the natural powers, and to render them responsive to the movements of His Divine Spirit, and capable of exercising those acts of virtue, the most difficult and most noble, which are called heroic. There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit j the gift of wisdom, which is the first in dignity, and the gifts of understanding, science, counsel, piety, fortitude, and the fear of God.

The first four enlighten and perfect the understanding ; the last three perfect the will and the interior appetite. The gift of understanding is given us that we may penetrate more intimately into the truths of faith ; the gift of wisdom, that we may perceive their causes and their fitnesses ; the gift of knowledge, that we may judge correctly of human things ; the gift of counsel, to direct the actions of a lively faith ; the gifts of piety, fortitude, and fear, to bring the appetite into harmony with the reason illuminated with so many lights ; piety, to soften our harshness towards others ; fortitude, to strengthen us against our own weaknesses and cowardice ; fear, to repress our pride and the irregularities of concupiscence.

§ ni.

Isaias arranges the gifts of the Holy Spirit in excellent order; he joins together wisdom and understanding, because the one serves to dispose us for the other. The understanding penetrates divine things, to dispose the soul to relish them by wisdom. He joins together counsel and fortitude, because counsel is necessary for the direction of fortitude, which without it would be rashness. He joins together knowledge and piety, because knowledge without piety is dry and barren ; and he assigns to fear the last place, as the base and foundation of all the other gifts.

Faith is not to be compared in excellence with gifts, because they contain it and are its perfection.

Faith is made perfect by the gifts of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, which enable us to see distinctly and with more unction and relish what by faith we discern only obscurely and with repugnance. In this manner it is that truths and extraordinary knowledge are imparted in visions.

§v. Gifts do not subsist in the soul without charity, and in proportion as grace increases, they increase also. Hence it is that they are so very rare, and that they never attain a high degree of excellence without a fervent and perfect charity ; venial sins and the slightest imperfections keeping them, as it were, bound down and preventing them from acting. Thus the way to excel in prayer is to excel in these gifts ; and indeed the most sublime contemplation is scarcely any thing different, for it is by penetrating deeply into supernatural knowledge that the soul falls into ecstasy and swoons away.

Article II

0/the effects of Hue gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We have four kinds of lights to direct us in our actions. First, reason ; which is very weak, and is not sufficient by itself to conduct us to our end. Some have compared it to ignes foMii, which shine in the night a Kttle above the ground, and lead the traveller straight to rivers and precipices ; for, after all, human reason unenlightened by faith is but a low thing, and can conduct us only to our ruin.

Secondly, faith j which, by attaching us to supreme truth, supplies us with a safe guidance secure from error.

Thirdly, supernatural prudence j which, being added to faith, makes us choose those supernatural means which are the most useful for attaining a supernatural end.

Fourthly, the gifts of the Holy Spirit ; which, by principles more exalted, without reasoning, without perplexity, shew us what is best, enabling us to discern it in the light of God with more or less of evidence, according to the degree in which we possess Him.

§n.

We may compare those who are led by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to a vessel running full-sail before the wind ; and those who are led by virtues, not as yet by gifts, to a shallop propelled by oars with more labour and noise, and at much less speed.

§ in. Those great conversions of kings and princes which excite admiration are the effects of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God sometimes communicates to them efficacious impulses so powerful as to lead them to forsake all, and dedicate themselves to the cross. Such graces must needs be very strong to break so many attachments at a blow. This happens to them particularly at times when they meet with reverses, or on other occasions which Providence orders in their favour.

It is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Saints succeed at last in freeing themselves from the slavery of creatures ; the plenteous effusion of these heavenly gifts effacing from the mind the esteem, the remembrance, the thought of earthly things, and banishing from the heart all affection and desire for them, so that they think, as it were, only of what they will, and are affected only by what they will, and in such degree as they wilL They feel no longer the importunity of distractions, nor that disquietude and excitement which troubled them before ; and all their powers being perfectly regulated, they enjoy a sovereign peace and the liberty of the children of Grod.

§v. We who as yet do not partake so abundantly of the gifts of the Holy Spirit must labour and toil in the practice of virtue. We are like those who make way by dint of rowing against wind and tide ; a day will come, if it please Grod, when, having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we shall speed full-sail before the wind ; for it is the Holy Spirit who by His gifts disposes the soul to yield itself easily to His divine inspirations. With the assistance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Saints reach such a height of perfection, as to accomplish without labour things of which we should not venture so much as to think ; the Holy Spirit smoothing away all their difficulties, and enabling them to surmount every obstacle.

There is a great difference between the intelligence of a child and reason ; between reason and faith ; between an ordinary faith and that which is enlightened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or sublime contemplation. There is a still greater difference between such knowledge as we have in this life and that which we shall have in a state of separation from the body ; and this again differs still more widely, beyond all comparison, from that of the blessed souls in heaven and of the lost souls in hell.

In childhood we know neither Gk)d, nor the immortality of our soul, nor the eternity of rewards and punishments. By reason we may learn something of these truths ; by faith we know them with certainty ; by the gifts of the Holy Spirit we touch them and taste them, but still indistinctly. In the state of separated souls we shall see them, as it were, unveiled. In heaven or in hell we shall have a clear evidence of them, a full experience for ever. Alas, what are we amusing ourselves with, and what pleasure can we take in the things of earth !

We should do well to accustom ourselves to notice in the Gospel the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the actions which our Lord performed in accordance with these principles. The parables belong to the understanding. The discourse which Jesus Christ addressed to His disciples after the supper belongs to the gift of wisdom.

Any one illuminated, in however small a degree, by the divine light might easily discern in the records of Holy Scripture, in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, a sovereign wisdom in the conduct of the narrative j for the Holy Spirit menti^is precisely what ought to be mentioned, omits what ought to be omitted, details at length what ought to be so detailed, agreeably to His own intention. In profane histories, on the contrary, it is easy to detect error of judgment, or corruption of heart and malicious design, on the part of the author. Falsehoods are blended with truth. Passion often predominates ; and we may compare them to waters that are muddy and infected with the pestilential nature of the soil through which they have passed. It is in Holy Scripture alone that truth is to be found always pure and free from mixture at its source.

Article III

WTience it comes that the gifts of the Holy Spirit prod/uce so little effect in souls, It is asked^ why the generality of religious and of devout persons who lead a tepid Life form so few acts of the gifts of the Holy Spirit^ since, as they are in a state of grace, they possess them.

The answer is, that this proceeds from their keeping them, as it were, bound down by contrary habits and affections, and that the numerous venial sins which they commit every day shut out those graces which are necessary in order to produce acts of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God refuses them the succour of His graces, because He foresees that if He bestowed them upon them in their present disposition, they would be of no use to them, their will being held bound with a thousand chains which would prevent their yielding their consent.

When we have lived a long time in such tepidity, performing at the same time, nevertheless, many good works, the way of escaping from it is to cultivate purity of heart ; this is the surest road. The devil lays no snares therein, for it is impossible he should prompt souls to purify themselves.

Let us apply ourselves in earnest and without intermission to this holy exercise, with a will determined to refuse Gk)d nothing which He asks of us in order to lead us to a higher perfection ; thus should we be the sooner delivered from those chains which render the precious ' gifts of the Holy Spirit within us of no avail, and shall behold ourselves enriched with their fulness.

§ n.

It is astonishing to see so many religious, who, after having lived in a state of grace some forty or fifty years, saying Mass every day, and practising all the holy exercises of the religious life, and consequently possessing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a very high physical degree, and corresponding with that sort of perfection in grace which theologians call gradual or physical increase, — it is astonishing, I say, to see these religious displaying nothing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their actions and in their conduct ; their life is wholly natural ; when they are blamed or disobliged, they shew their resentment at it ; they exhibit so much eagerness for the praises, the esteem, and the applauses of the world ; they take so much pleasure in them, and are so fond of their own comfort, and seek it so carefully, as well as every thing that flatters self-love.

There is no ground for astonishment in all this : the venial sins which they continually commit keep the gifts of the Holy Spirit tied up, as it were ; so that it is no wonder that the effects are not visible in them. True it is that these gifts increase, like charity, habitually and in their physical being, but not actually, and in that perfection which answers to the fervour of charity, and adds to our merit ; because venial sins being opposed to the fervour of charity, consequently prevent the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

If these religious cultivated purity of heart, the fervour of charity would increase in them more and more, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit would shine out in their whole conduct. But while they live in this way, without recollection or attention to their own interior, letting themselves follow the bent of their own inclinations, avoiding only the most grievous sins and neglecting little things, these gifts will never be very manifest in them.

It is past all conception, says St. Lawrence Justinian, how our heart becomes filled with sins unless we take care to be continually cleansing it. It is a filthy ditch, which always requires emptying. The most spiritual and most perfect are not free from this defect, but ever feel the infirmities and wounds of corrupted nature, which are never entirely cured.

The reason why we are so little illuminated by the lights of the Holy Spirit, and so little guided by the motions of His gifts, is, that our soul is sensual beyond measure, and full of a multitude of earthly thoughts, desires, and affections, which extinguish within us the Spirit of God. Few ^we themselves wholly to God, and abandon themselves to the leadings of the Holy Spirit, so that He alone may live in them and be the principle of all their actions.

As all who are in a state of grace possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they sometimes make acts of the same; but it is only, as it were, in passing, and so rapidly that they are scarcely aware of them. Thus they remain ever in the same state, without sharing the bounty of the Holy Spirit, owing to the opposition He meets with in them.