Lesson 17 - Gifts of the Holy Spirit

(Lesson 17)

Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4

Discussion Guide:

The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church as the source of its life and sanctifies souls through the gift of grace. In a mysterious way, the Holy Spirit also dwells within each one of us. Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed on the faithful though the merits of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation. Grace is a free gift from God and it cannot be earned. It is possible for us to resist this grace by hardening our hearts and turning from God. The sacraments of the Church provide the greatest source of grace. Faith, hope and charity are known as the three theological virtues. These virtues are gifts from God and are a result of his grace. Faith means that we believe everything that God has said simply because he has said it. Hope means that we trust God to help us at all times and we should never despair. Charity is the virtue that enables us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The gifts of the Holy Spirit equip us to live our everyday lives in a way that is pleasing to God. These gifts enable us to do things that would not be possible on our own. They help us to live out the precepts that Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes. They help us to draw people near to our Lord by trying to imitate his love for others. There are special gifts of the Holy Spirit that are known as charisms. These are outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit that God uses to build up the Church. Prophecy, miracles, healing, and speaking in tongues are examples of these gifts. St. Paul speaks of these charisms in chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians.

Discussion Points:

· Grace is a free gift from God that we can not earn

· Sanctifying grace is a share in the divine life in our souls

· The sacraments are a source of grace

· Grace proceeds from the Holy Spirit

· The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and within believers

· Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues

· Our good deeds must be done for the love of God if they are to have any merit

· The gifts of the Holy Spirit are cultivated by the sacraments, prayer and other pious activities. (Bible reading, fellowship, acts of charity…etc.)

· Some people are given special gifts called charisms to build up the church. This is sometimes referred to as “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”

· We must use our gifts for the life of the Church

1 Corinthians Chapter 12

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you.” and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.


Grace, Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; …” 1 Corinthians 12:4

Opening Prayer:

Holy Spirit, fill us with faith, hope, and charity as we advance on our journey toward heaven. Give us the wisdom to discern Your gifts in our hearts. Give us the courage to use those gifts for the life of the Church. Amen.

Theme:

Grace is a participation in the life of God. It is a free gift from God that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. The sacraments of the Catholic Church confer sanctifying grace. Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Charisms are special gifts of the Holy Spirit given to some people for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.

Bible Readings:

Romans 5:15 For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Galatians 5:16-25 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

1 Corinthians Chapter 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Explanation of the Bible readings: St. Paul explains that grace is a free gift from God. Although we do not earn that grace, we are obligated to cooperate with it to grow in holiness. With the help of God’s grace, we can overcome any sin. If we walk by the spirit, we will do what God wants us to do. The virtues that God freely gives us through his grace will manifest themselves in the fruits of the Spirit that are mentioned in Galatians chapter 5. He also warns us about the works of the flesh. These works of the flesh encompass all types of sins and bad attitudes. Since God leaves our free will intact, we can always choose to turn our backs on his grace and commit sin. St. Paul clearly says that if we bear rotten fruit, we will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are not walking in the Spirit, we need to repent and confess our sins. Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is known as the love chapter and is often read at weddings. It is all about the virtue of charity. According to the apostle, love is the greatest of the virtues. If we do not do our good works for the love of God and neighbor, they gain nothing.

1 Peter 5:5 God grace to the humble
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 God’s grace is sufficient for you
John 14:26 The Holy Spirit teaches us

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Grace

1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.

1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God….

1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:

Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.

2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love….

2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.

2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and works to conclude that we are justified and saved….

Faith

1814 Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God."

1815 The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

1816 The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."


Hope

1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit….

1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement…

1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will….

Charity

1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment…And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself…

1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony" it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence…..

THE GIFTS AND FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord….

1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

Faith words:

Charisms: a theological term denoting extraordinary graces given to individual Christians for the good of others.

Sanctify: consecrate: render holy by means of religious rites

Supernatural: not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material


Reflection Questions:


What should your disposition be when you receive a free and wonderful gift?









What can you do to comfort someone who may be losing hope?









Name a few ways that you can cooperate more fully with the grace of the Holy Spirit.



The Cardinal Virtues

(CCC 1806 -1809)

Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers.” Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion." Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor." "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven."
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my song." "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. The temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world."