WHAT IS THE GIFT OF WISDOM?
Consideration and prayer.
“We could define the gift of Wisdom, when speaking of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as being a disposition of our intellect which inclines it to esteem and relish God alone and whatever in some way is connected with the glory of his Name.
St Thomas Aquinas explained Sapientia (Wisdom) as being derived from sapida scientia, meaning a knowledge which we can relish, which we find enjoyable.
Let us note that the gift of Wisdom has its seat in our mind, not in our will. Its object, St Thomas tells us, is God and divine things first of all and principally; but it is also related to earthly things, in both the practical and the speculative order, but with respect to their relation with God.
The soul which is fully subject and docile to the action exercised by that gift no longer takes pleasure in anything but God and the things that give him glory. All the rest—pleasures, honors, wealth, the goods of earth—appear to such a soul as having little value, and it finds it easy and requires no longer meditation to be convinced that “all is vanity,” except loving God and serving him alone. To such a soul this is, as it were, self evident.
Such docile persons find all the things of which worldlings are very fond, burdensome. On the contrary, they love and cling with all the strength of their will to whatever is willed by God, even when it is repugnant to the natural man (A. Riaud, The Holy Spirit Acting in Our Souls).”
Consideration
With the vision this gift bestows, the soul who wishes to follow Christ closely contemplates reality from a higher perspective, because it shares in some way in the vision which God himself has of creation. Everything is judged with the clarity given by this gift.
The gift of wisdom, the principle of a living contemplation that directs action, enables the soul to taste the goodness of God to see it manifested in all events, even in the most painful, since God permits evil only for a higher good, which we shall see later and which it is sometimes given us to glimpse on earth (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, II).
SOURCE: ICWG, vol. 2, n. 89
Prayer
“O Spirit of Wisdom, deign to set the fire of your Love to my heart, and make your divine light cast out the darkness from my mind. May I be even more closely united through you, with my Savior Jesus Christ. Grant that, following his example, I may no longer aspire nor live for anything but the glory of the Father!
Love of Father and Son, divine fire, burn away in me everything that is still opposed to the reign of divine Wisdom. Grant that I may get rid of every erroneous thought, that I may put all my complacency in God alone and may thus accomplish in my soul everything that was planned by divine mercy! (A. Riaud, The Holy Spirit Acting in Our Souls).”
SEE AS WELL: THE GIFTS AND FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT HERE.
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