Tag: The Sacrament of Confirmation

In Scripture, knowledge and knowing have connotations that don’t make Knowledge seem like a promising gift of the Holy Spirit. One thing that makes knowledge an unlikely gift in the

Knowledge is the fifth of the seven sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit. As we have discussed previously, all the sanctifying gifts are ordered toward conforming us to the image

I once read that there was a person who felt a certain envy for the early martyrs of the Church. Where most people feel fear, the author felt a sort

As we saw last time, the gift of Fortitude, while related to the natural virtue of Fortitude, also goes beyond mere earthly courage — just as the gift of Counsel

As noted previously in this series, grace perfects nature. So we saw that the natural virtue of Prudence is elevated by grace in the gift of Counsel. Similarly, Fortitude is singular, in

So many of us seem to think that while the faith insists on being incorrigibly public and common to all Catholics, it is also “private,” individualistic, and esoteric. Consequently, many

Counsel (aka “Right Judgment) is the third of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive in Confirmation. The gift of Counsel has been called by St. Thomas

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he often had a hard time being understood. The Gospels record numerous moments in which he made cryptic remarks that either made no sense to his

As we saw yesterday, the natural human faculty for understanding means the ability to “read between the lines” and see the inner essence of a thing. At a very basic level,

The second sanctifying gift of the Holy Spirit is Understanding. What is Understanding anyway? And what do we mean when we speak of understanding as a sanctifying gift? Before we