The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are an enumeration of seven spiritual gifts first found in the book of Isaiah, [1] and much commented upon by patristic authors. [2] They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. [3]
The seven gifts are found in the Book of Isaiah [4] 11:1–2, a passage which refers to the characteristics of a Messianic figure empowered by the "Spirit of the Lord". [5]
The Greek and Hebrew versions of the Bible differ slightly in how the gifts are enumerated. In the Hebrew version (the Masoretic text), the "Spirit of the Lord" is described with six characteristics: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and “fear of the Lord”. The last characteristic (fear of the Lord) is mentioned twice. [6] In the earliest Greek translation (the Septuagint), the first mention of the fear of the Lord is translated as "spirit of [...] godliness" (πνεῦμα [...] εὐσεβείας). [7]
| Verse | Hebrew Masoretic [8] | English New International Version [9] | Greek Septuagint [10] | Latin Vulgate [11] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.1 | א וְיָצָא חֹטֶר, מִגֵּזַע יִשָׁי; וְנֵצֶר, מִשָּׁרָשָׁיו יִפְרֶה. | A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. | και εξελευσεται ραβδος εκ της ριζης ιεσσαι και ανθος εκ της ριζης αναβησεται | et egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet |
| 11.2 | ב וְנָחָה עָלָיו, רוּחַ יְהוָה--רוּחַ חָכְמָה וּבִינָה, רוּחַ עֵצָה וּגְבוּרָה, רוּחַ דַּעַת, וְיִרְאַת יְהוָה. | The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— | και αναπαυσεται επ' αυτον πνευμα του θεου πνευμα σοφιας και συνεσεως πνευμα βουλης και ισχυος πνευμα γνωσεως και ευσεβειας | et requiescet super eum spiritus Domini spiritus sapientiae et intellectus spiritus consilii et fortitudinis spiritus scientiae et pietatis |
| 11.3 | ג וַהֲרִיחוֹ, בְּיִרְאַת יְהוָה; | and He will delight in the fear of the LORD. | εμπλησει αυτον πνευμα φοβου θεου | et replebit eum spiritus timoris Domini |
The names of the seven gifts mentioned in the Greek translation were then translated into Latin as follows:
The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is one of several lists of virtues, vices and blessings in Christian devotional literature which follow a scheme of seven. [12] Others include the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, the seven last words from the cross, the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and the Beatitudes. [13]
The seven gifts were often represented as doves in medieval texts and especially figure in depictions of the Tree of Jesse which shows the Genealogy of Jesus. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, the dove signifies by its properties each gift of the Holy Spirit. [14]
Although the New Testament does not refer to Isaiah 11:1-2 regarding these gifts, [15] [16] according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church , these gifts "complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them." [17] Initiates receive them at Baptism and they are strengthened at Confirmation, so that one can proclaim the truths of the faith. "The reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace," for "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed." [18]
The Catholic teaching is echoed by the Anglican church, which teaches that "the imparting of the gifts of the Spirit is associated with baptism, as well as Confirmation and Ordination." [3] Confirmation completes Baptism for it is through the Laying On of Hands by the bishop that the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are bestowed. [19]
Wisdom is considered the first and the greatest of the gifts. It acts upon both the intellect and the will. [20] According to St. Bernard, it both illumines the mind and instills an attraction to the divine. Adolphe Tanquerey OP explained the difference between the gift of wisdom and that of understanding: "The latter is a view taken by the mind, while the former is an experience undergone by the heart; one is light, the other love, and so they unite and complete one another." [21] A wise and loving heart is the perfection of the theological virtue of charity.
Understanding helps one relate all truths to one's supernatural purpose; it further illuminates one's understanding of Sacred Scripture; and it assists us to understand the significance of religious ritual. This gift strengthens one's insight through prayer, scripture, and the sacraments. This all gives a person a profound appreciation for God’s providence. [22]
Counsel functions as a sort of supernatural intuition, to enable a person to judge promptly and rightly, especially in difficult situations. It perfects the cardinal virtue of prudence. While prudence operates in accord with reason as enlightened by faith, the gift of counsel operates under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the will of God. [23]
Fortitude is often identified with courage, but Aquinas takes its meaning to also encompass endurance. Joseph J. Rickaby describes it as a willingness to stand up for what is right in the sight of God, even if it means accepting rejection, verbal abuse, or physical harm. The gift of fortitude allows people the firmness of mind that is required both in doing good and in enduring evil. [24] It is the perfection of the cardinal virtue of the same name.
The gift of knowledge allows one, as far as is humanly possible, to see things from God's perspective. It “allows us to perceive the greatness of God and his love for his creatures” through creation. [25]
Piety accords with reverence. A person with reverence recognizes his total reliance on God and comes before God with humility, trust, and love. Thomas Aquinas says that piety perfects the virtue of religion, which is an aspect of the virtue of justice, in that it accords to God that which is due to God. [26] In a series of talks on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said that piety is a recognition of "our belonging to God, our deep bond with him, a relationship that gives meaning to our whole life and keeps us resolute, in communion with him, even during the most difficult and troubled moments”. Francis goes on: "Piety is not mere outward religiosity; it is that genuine religious spirit which makes us turn to the Father as his children and to grow in our love for others, seeing them as our brothers and sisters." [27]
Fear of the Lord is akin to wonder (or awe). With the gift of fear of the Lord, one is made aware of the glory and majesty of God. At a June 2014 general audience Pope Francis said that it “is no servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realization that only in him do our hearts find true peace”. [28] A person with wonder and awe knows that God is the perfection of all one’s desires. This gift is described by Aquinas as a fear of separating oneself from God. He describes the gift as a "filial fear," like a child's fear of offending his father, rather than a "servile fear," that is, a fear of punishment. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is the perfection of the theological virtue of hope.
In Summa Theologiae I.II, q. 68, a1, Thomas Aquinas says that four of these gifts (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and counsel) direct the intellect, while the other three gifts (fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord) direct the will toward God. [29]
In some respects, the gifts are similar to the virtues, but a key distinction is that the virtues operate under the impetus of human reason (prompted by grace), whereas the gifts operate under the impetus of the Holy Spirit; the former can be used when one wishes, but the latter, according to Aquinas, operate only when the Holy Spirit wishes. In the case of Fortitude, the gift has, in Latin and English, the same name as the virtue which it is related to, but from which it must be distinguished.
In Summa Theologiae II.II, Thomas Aquinas asserts the following correspondences between the seven heavenly virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: [30]
To the virtue of temperance, no gift is directly assigned; but the gift of fear can be taken as such, since fear drives somebody to restrict himself from forbidden pleasures.
Brian Shanley contrasts the gifts to the virtues this way: "What the gifts do over and above the theological virtues (which they presuppose) is dispose the agent to the special promptings of the Holy Spirit in actively exercising the life of the virtues; the gifts are necessary for the perfect operations of the virtues, especially in the face of our human weakness and in difficult situations." [31]
Saint Augustine drew a connection between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Beatitudes (Matt.5:3-12).
Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God. Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally the theological virtues have been named Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love). They are coupled with the natural or cardinal virtues and opposed to the seven deadly sins.
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian, particularly Catholic, teachings. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.
Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context, piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among countries and cultures.
In Christian theology, charity is considered one of the seven virtues and was understood by Thomas Aquinas as "the friendship of man for God", which "unites us to God". He holds it as "the most excellent of the virtues". Aquinas further holds that "the habit of charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor".
Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholic teachings. It is the most difficult sin to define and credit as sin, since it refers to an assortment of ideas, dating from antiquity and including mental, spiritual, pathological, and conditional states. One definition is a habitual disinclination to exertion, or laziness. Views concerning the virtue of work to support society and further God's plan suggest that through inactivity, one invites sin: "For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.".
Latria or latreia is a theological term used in Catholic theology and Eastern Orthodox theology to mean adoration, a reverence directed only to the Holy Trinity. Latria carries an emphasis on the internal form of worship, rather than external ceremonies.
The cardinal virtues are four virtues of mind and character in both classical philosophy and Christian theology. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They form a virtue theory of ethics. The term cardinal comes from the Latin cardo (hinge); these four virtues are called “cardinal” because all other virtues fall under them and hinge upon them.
In Christian theology, the beatific vision is the ultimate direct self-communication of God to the individual person. A person possessing the beatific vision reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e., heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith..
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a person or community living in accord with the Holy Spirit, according to chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Galatians: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." The fruit is contrasted with the works of the flesh which immediately precede it in this chapter.
Works of mercy are practices considered meritorious in Christian ethics.
The Summa Theologiae or Summa Theologica, often referred to simply as the Summa, is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church, intended to be an instructional guide for theology students, including seminarians and the literate laity. Presenting the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, topics of the Summa follow the following cycle: God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God.
Confirmation in the Catholic Church is one of the seven sacraments. It is also one of the three sacraments of initiation into the Catholic Church, the other two being Baptism and Holy Communion.
Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals, and practices of worship of God or honour of the saints which are in addition to the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops describes devotions as "expressions of love and fidelity that arise from the intersection of one's own faith, culture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Devotions are not considered part of liturgical worship, even if they are performed in a church or led by a priest, but rather they are paraliturgical. The Congregation for Divine Worship at the Vatican publishes a Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy.
Thomistic sacramental theology is St. Thomas Aquinas's theology of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. It can be found through his writings in the 13th-century works Summa contra Gentiles and in the Summa Theologiæ.
In the Bible, the term Seven Spirits of God appears four times in the Book of Revelation. The meaning of this term has been interpreted in multiple ways.
Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Fear of God may refer to fear itself, but more often to a sense of awe, and submission to, a deity. People subscribing to popular monotheistic religions for instance, might fear Hell and divine judgment, or submit to God's omnipotence.
The exterior sculpture of Guildford Cathedral provides many artistic features, including sculptures, engravings and more by some of England’s finest sculptors and craftsmen of the 1950s and 1960s. The people who worked on the cathedral include: Edward Maufe, Alan Collins, Vernon Hill, Eric Gill, John Hutton, Dennis Huntley and others.
The knowledge of Christ refers to one of two possible, and at times related, topics in Christology: one addresses how Christians come to know Christ, the other focuses on the knowledge of Christ about the world. Discussions regarding the knowledge of Christ have had a central place in Christology for centuries. In the 20th century, the interplay between the two concepts was epitomized in the title of a book by Hans Urs von Balthasar: "Does Jesus Know Us? Do We Know Him?"
The Chaplet in Honour of the Holy Spirit, also known as Chaplet of the Holy Spirit and His Seven Gifts, is a modern Christian devotion to the Holy Spirit, asking for seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The devotion was invented in Poland.
The text from which it takes its rise is Isaiah 11:1-3. In the Hebrew original six gifts are listed, and the last, fear, is mentioned twice: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, and fear of the Lord.
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Summa Theologiae III, 39, q. 66, a6. The baptizing of Christ. Article 6. Whether it is fitting to say that when Christ was baptized the Holy Ghost came down on Him in the form of a dove? Reply to Objection 4". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.Besides the five intellectual virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, Aquinas recognizes four other groups of ethical characteristics which are important for his discussion of wisdom.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Summa Theologiae. First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundæ Partis). Question 68. The gifts. Article 1. Whether the Gifts differ from the virtues?". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Summa Theologiae. Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundæ Partis)". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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