Day Four
The Seven Gifts

Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, pietas

and the fear of the Lord.

Witness:
My family is Catholic and I am from Sardinia. When I was a child, I knew Jesus as a friend. But my dream was to marry and have children, and at University I met a boy whom I began to love and who would become my boyfriend. We had a relationship that lasted for 5 years and we were very, very happy together. I thought that my way was to marry. I was very in love with him and he loved me. It was a fantastic time of my life.

When I was 20, I began to go to Mass every days. But I found it hard to pray and to stay in silence. On one occasion, I attended a wedding, and I encountered people who did not pray at the Mass: I was very sad and I felt the wish to pray to God for the world that had forgotten him. But it was only a passing thought. One time, some people told me about a girl who had left her boyfriend to go into a monastery, the story touched me deeply. I felt there was a bigger love, that hugged God and all people, which was more free. But my life was with my boyfriend.

At the September of 1998, I received an email from a Dominican monastery: they wrote to lots of addresses which they did not know (spamming!!) I looked for their website, and I was fascinated.

I came here to the monastery, and it was a crisis in my life; I went back home, but I had the monastery in my heart! The prayer, the intimate contact with God, the fraternity between nuns, the family air: all these things remained with me. I missed the monastery!

Once, when I was staying here as a guest, in the silence of the night, in my cell, I was looking the Crucifix in front of me: I felt his love was crazy, and I wanted to be crazy with love, like him! But I had boyfriend! It was difficult and painful for both of us. My boyfriend suffered a lot, but he said that he wanted only my happiness! Through him I learnt to love, I learnt tenderness, and the greatness of little things. I had learned to find God in all my days: in my studies, in the times I was with my boyfriend, in having tea with my mother, in sharing with friends, in swimming - which was for me like prayer. I learned to take delight in all things and praise God; but now I understood that though all this was beautiful, He was Beauty! He was the crazy love of my life!

Two years and a half years later when I graduated in 2001, I chose to enter my contemplative Dominican Monastery. My parents were against my choice, but I had strength enough to leave my family! And I used to be so timid! But God changed my heart! I had a new love and strength, that was not mine! My former boyfriend accompanied me to the airport. And from then on, we exchanged our love for a deeper friendship. God is Great!

In Hebrew, the words Spirit and breath are interchangeable. The Spirit is the breath of the Father as he speaks the Word.

READ

Isaiah 10:33-34

In describing the coming Messiah, the prophet Isaiah invites us to see the Lord of Hosts fell the great trees of Lebanon and from the tree stump of the House of King David a branch shall grow, and on this branch the Father shall breathe his Spirit. The Church, interpreting the passage, defines the Spirit by the Spirit’s gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, pietas and the awe of the Lord.

We ask for these gifts to come alive for us in the Church.

Wisdom: I ask the Spirit, who dwells in me, for the power of discernment to choose rightly.

Understanding: About one third of my mistakes come about because I don’t fully understand the issues. Give me your view Lord. You gave me into the care of an angel who has this gift of your Spirit in its completeness. When my angel chooses something, he knows all about it. I ask you to permit my angel to help me and teach me discernment.

Counsel: The gifts of wisdom and understanding, if I cooperate with them, help me to help others. If somebody comes to me for help, teach me, Lord, to listen - really listen. And before I open my mouth I shall pray, “Come, Holy spirit, teach me what to say,” and I shall wait on your answer.

Fortitude: This is the thing I haven’t got much of. I can have the rash sort of bravery to rush in and try playing the hero - perhaps. I can be dared into doing something that looks like courage. But the ability to set my face like flint and go in and take a beating because I am taking a stand for justice or trying to protect the innocent, or simply refusing to accept the safe and popular lie, that’s different. That’s fortitude. Lord, If there is no other honourable way out, give me fortitude. Even if it’s the last thing I have the courage to want!

Knowledge: Wisdom and understanding relate to choosing. They are gifts. Knowledge is the result of trying to find out. I’m not 93 (Not if I hope to go to WYD SYD!) I may not have ackquired knowledge by experience. I’ve tried to take things in and to find things out, but I don’t know everything there is to know.

Lord, give me this knowledge which is especially the knowledge of your pierced heart, the knowledge of what’s in my own heart and the knowledge of what others really need, simply by the grace of your Spirit. I promise to cooperate.

Pietas: Nobody quite likes to be thought as pious. The last Walking Rosary I met was a bit disconcerting. But pietas is different. It is a very deep gift, Lord, and if you give it to me my life will change! Pietas is a very profound attitude, and attitude of love and service that shows itself in a deep respect for the dignity and holiness of the other, even of those who have destroyed their own humanity by the most evil choices. It is a respect for God in all things. You cannot wish it on yourself, but you can ask for it.

The fear of the Lord - Awe: The Lord loves laughter; he made it. He can take a joke (after all, he invented the Wombat, not to mention the DBPlatypus). But flippancy, at the expense of a God who could crush you like a fly with a minute fraction of his thought, is ..... unwise. God may have put on our flesh, but when he asked those who came to arrest him who they were looking for, they all took a sharp step back.

That is the negative side of awe. The positive side of awe is the biggest thing that will ever happen to you. If you ask for this gift (it is rarely bestowed without being asked for because it has consequences) it will change your life. You will discover what it is to be swept off your feet by love. Archbishop Deskur (according to Cardinal Comastri’s reminiscences of J.P.II) had the floor of his private chapel boarded with wood because JP, then Archbishop of Krakow, when he came to stay, habitually spent hours prostrate full length on the floor in front of the tabernacle. You will find out why St Paul says that human marriage is an image of the Church and not the other way round. You will find out why quite a lot of hardheaded, professionally competent saints, who fed the hungry and healed the sick, spent their nights weeping in prayer and singing in tongues. But a gift is a gift - it’s up to you.

Let us pray

Come Holy Spirit,

fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in us the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created

and you will renew the face of the Earth.

Through Christ our Lord .

Amen.