What are the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Mission Lab

The seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They are the gifts listed in Isaiah 11 which were to characterize the Just Man—the Messiah.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are the qualities God gives our souls to make them responsive to the grace of God. They help us practice virtue. These gifts were imparted to us in Baptism as permanent capacities for receiving seven different kinds of supernatural light from the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:14, 16). They are also capacities for using these lights as the necessary foundation for developing habits of the infused virtues.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit implant in us the forms and paths which our spiritual development and our service of God will take, while the infused virtues drive and bring about in us that development and service. Developing the habits of the gifts and virtues will put to death in us the seven Capital Sins, or tendencies to sin. If we give in to the seven Capital Sins, they will block or kill in us the life of the gifts and virtues.

1. The gift of wisdom strengthens our faith, fortifies our hope, perfects our charity, and promotes our practice of virtue to the highest degree. Just as charity (the most perfect of virtues) embraces all the other virtues, wisdom is the most perfect of gifts, since it embodies all the other gifts. Wisdom enlightens our minds to discern and relish things divine, so that the appreciation of earthly joys loses its savor, while the Cross of Christ yields a divine sweetness.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ wisdom and to use it to develop supernatural wisdom—enabling our minds to see, in God’s plan, where we have come from, where we are going, and how to get there.

The gift of wisdom is especially necessary for developing the virtue of prudence, by which we set goals and priorities, plan projects and programs, etc.

2. The gift of understanding helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion. By faith we know these truths, but by understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. Understanding enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths, thus quickening us to the newness of life.
This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ understanding and to use it to develop supernatural understanding—enabling our minds to grasp that which God wants us to understand, especially the meaning for each of us personally and of our relationships with the divine Trinity, Mary, St. Joseph, the angels, the saints, and each other.

The gift of understanding is especially necessary for developing habits of the virtue of hope, by which we commit ourselves firmly to God’s will and plan.

3. The gift of counsel endows our souls with the supernatural light we need to judge promptly and rightly what must be done, especially in difficult circumstances. Counsel applies the principles furnished by wisdom, prudence, knowledge, and understanding, to the innumerable concrete cases which confront us in the course of our daily duty. Counsel is supernatural common sense.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ counsel and to use it to develop supernatural counsel—enabling our minds to discern what God wants us to think, say or do at each moment, and to plan and carry out a daily agenda.

The gift of counsel is particularly necessary for developing habits of the virtue of justice, by which we always do the right thing.

4. The gift of fortitude strengthens our souls against natural fear, allowing us to undertake the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample underfoot worldly considerations, and to endure without complaint the crosses of daily life.

The gift of fortitude strengthens our souls against natural fear, allowing us to undertake the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample underfoot worldly considerations, and to endure without complaint the crosses of daily life.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ mental fortitude (fortitude of mind) and to use it to develop supernatural fortitude—enabling us to control our imaginations and memories and fill them with images of Jesus, Mary, the angels and the saints. These images help us develop and focus our emotions of courage, trusting commitment, and enthusiasm on doing God’s will and carrying out His plan, and our emotions of fear, despair and anger on whatever would prevent or divert us from doing these things.

The gift of fortitude is especially necessary for developing habits of the virtue of fortitude.

5. The gift of knowledge enables us to learn the truths which God has revealed, so that we may believe them and live by them. Knowledge enables our souls to evaluate created things for their true worth, that is, in their relationship to God. This gift unmasks the pretense of creatures, reveals their shallowness, and points out their only true purpose as instruments in the service of God. It shows us the loving care God has for us, even in times of adversity. Knowledge directs us to glorify God in every circumstance of life. Guided by the light of knowledge, we put God first and prize our friendship with Him above all else.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ knowledge and to use it to develop supernatural knowledge—enabling our minds to grasp that which God wants us to know, especially the realities of who God is and who we are in relationship to Him, of God’s call and plan for our Salvation, of our renewed divine adoption, and of God’s New Covenant with us that activates that plan.

The gift of knowledge is essential for developing habits of the virtue of faith.

6. The gift of piety begets in our hearts a childlike affection for God as our most loving Father. Piety inspires us to love and respect, for God’s sake, persons and things consecrated to Him, as well as those who are vested with His authority, i.e., the Blessed Virgin and the saints; the Church and its visible head, the Pope; our parents and superiors; and our country with its rulers. He who is filled with the gift of piety finds the practice of his religion, not a burdensome duty, but a delightful service.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ piety and to use it to develop supernatural piety—enabling our minds to share Jesus’ own vision of our identity with and in the divine Persons and with Mary, St. Joseph, the angels, the saints, and each other.

The gift of piety is necessary for developing strong habits of the virtue of charity.

7. The gift of fear of the Lord fills us with a sovereign respect for God and makes us dread, above all, offending God by sin. Fear of the Lord rises, not from the thought of Hell, but from reverence and childlike submission to our heavenly Father. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, because it detaches us from worldly pleasures that can separate us from God.

This gift is the permanent capacity to receive the light of Jesus’ reverence for God and of Jesus’ compassion for others and to use this light to develop supernatural fear of the Lord—enabling us to fill our minds with images from the lives of Jesus, Mary, the angels and the saints. These images help us develop and focus our emotions of delight, desire, and joy on God’s goodness, will and plan for our Salvation, and our emotions of dismay, aversion and sorrow on sin and whatever would turn us away from God.

The gift of fear of the Lord is necessary for developing strong habits of the virtue of temperance.