The Gift of Understanding

One of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

Understanding is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3. They are present in their fullness in Jesus Christ, Whom Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 11:1), but they are available to all Christians who are in a state of grace. We receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are infused with sanctifying grace, the life of God within us—as, for example, when we receive a sacrament worthily. As the current Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, "They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them."

The Second Gift of the Holy Spirit:

Understanding is the second gift of the Holy Spirit, behind only wisdom. It differs from wisdom in that wisdom is the desire to contemplate the things of God, while understanding allows us, as Fr. John A. Hardon writes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, to "penetrate to the very core of revealed truths." This doesn't mean that we can come to understand, say, the Trinity the way that we might a mathematical equation, but that we become certain of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. Such certitude moves beyond faith, which "merely assents to what God has revealed."

The Gift of Wisdom

Wisdom: A Gift of the Holy Spirit

By Scott P. Richert, About.com

See More About:

• wisdom
• the gifts of the holy spirit
• sanctifying grace
• faith
• charity

One of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

Wisdom is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3. They are present in their fullness in Jesus Christ, Whom Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 11:1), but they are available to all Christians who are in a state of grace. We receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are infused with sanctifying grace, the life of God within us—as, for example, when we receive a sacrament worthily. As the current Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, "They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them."

The First and Highest Gift of the Holy Spirit:

Wisdom is the perfection of faith. As Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, "Where faith is a simple knowledge of the articles of Christian belief, wisdom goes on to a certain divine penetration of the truths themselves." The better we understand those truths, the more we value them properly. Thus wisdom, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "by detaching us from the world, makes us relish and love only the things of heaven." Through wisdom, we judge the things of the world in light of the highest end of man—the contemplation of God.

The Application of Wisdom:

Such detachment, however, is not the same as renunciation of the world—far from it. Rather, wisdom helps us to love the world properly, as the creation of God, rather than for its own sake. The material world, though fallen as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve, is still worthy of our love; we simply need to see it in the proper light, and wisdom allows us to do so.

Knowing the proper ordering of the material and spiritual worlds through wisdom, we can more easily bear the burdens of this life and respond to our fellow man with charity and patience.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

What Are the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

By Scott P. Richert, About.com

See More About:

• the gifts of the holy spirit
• the holy spirit
• sanctifying grace
• the sacraments

Question: What Are the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

We receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are infused with sanctifying grace, the life of God within us—as, for example, when we receive a sacrament worthily. These seven gifts help us to live a Christian life.

Answer: The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (or courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. You can find an in-depth discussion of each in The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

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I Lost my Post.

My post for tonight on the gift of understanding never showed up. After much struggle, I thought I had part of it posted. But I do not. And I tried to correct a problem with the post from yesterday and it disappeared after I did.

And I hate starting over from scratch. I can start my series on the Gifts of the Spirit some other time.

Maybe I can find something I can copy and paste so I don't have to take all this time copying it from a book.

Sabrina's Back

I was getting ready to post a flier about the missing dog and trying to write an ad in my church bulletin. But my friend's daughter called me to tell me she got the dog back. I think someone heard my prayers-probably St. Francis or St. Anthony. I hope I can see her soon.

paula

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

I looked through a prayer book I usually use for my office. They have other devotions or prayers in addition to the office. A couple of them were about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. I'd like to post one each day this week. The gifts are: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

Father taught his Confirmation class about the gifts of the Spirit. You get these when you're Confirmed. The more you pray for them as you're getting ready to be Confirmed, the stronger they'll be for you. I felt badly that I didn't "open" up these gifts and start using them when I was confirmed. In fact, there were some of these I didn't know I had. Father said it wasn't too late; I still have these gifts. Now I need to use them-and pray that I can use them.

Ad Jesum per Mariam (Through Jesus through Mary)

paula

I Got to Go to Mass After All

I was able to go to Mass after all. I was really worried about mortal sin and would have rather gone to Mass than to be tied to the building on Sunday morning-even if I'm excused.

I could stay home from church with a clear conscience if I had the flu. In fact I was wishing I had the flu, as miserable as that would be, since I could stay home without committing a sin. Be careful what you pray for-you might get it! Friday night I did feel nauseated and was kept up both by frequent trips to the bathroom and a fire alarm which kept going off. The fire alarm didn't quit going off until after midnight.

A very traditional Catholic from whom I've been buying from on eBay insisted I go ahead and go to Mass. But the lady at the front desk where I live "reminded" me that leaving during restriction without permission would result in eviction. She was worried about my having to live on the streets of South Bend.

But the priests at St. Patrick's said I'm excused "because of circumstances". That helped me clear my conscience about missing Mass because of the restriction. In fact the priest at the Latin Mass thought that would be the right thing out of obedience to the place I live at-to stay home instead of attending church while on restriction.

Since I had some kind of "bug" as well as the restriction I kept trying to call my ride to tell her I was sick and "grounded" and couldn't go to Mass for those two reasons. But every time I tried to call her her line was busy. I'e been trying to call her from 8:00 am to 11:30 pm and decided it was getting to be too late at night to call anyone. I thought maybe there was a chance that the Lord was keeping me from calling her since He wanted me in church and was going to pave a way. I started feeling better and felt like my room might be able to "pass" if I just pick things up or at least push them out of my way so they don't have to worry about me tripping over them.

I went and got the staff member who was authorized to check my room as she walked in at 7:00. She passed me but said I needed to sweep the floor before leaving. I swept the floor and got out just in time to meet my ride and tell her about her phone being busy. She said it was broken and didn't know it was until she tried to make a call and couldn't get a dial tone.

God works in mysterious ways!

And He and His Blessed Mother must have really wanted me in church Sunday-and could have done this as an answer to our prayers that I'd make it to Mass.

And I got off restriction just in time to go to the Tradtional Mass-even though there were two other Masses I could have gone to at St. Patrick's. The 10:30 and 5:30 Masses just don't hold a candle to the Latin Mass I go to at 7:45 am.

This was the happiest I've been while at Mass. When I saw Father standing on the steps in front of the church after Mass I told him I was really happy to make it to Mass that morning and told him what happened-including being unable to call my ride to tell her not to come.

God works in mysterious ways!