Article III: On the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

St. Thomas, I-II, q. 68, a. 1-4; q. 69 and 70; II-II, q. 8, a. 6.

630. Thesis I. The gifts of the Holy Spirit differ from infused moral virtues:¹ we need the latter so that we may be disposed to obeying right reason promptly; therefore a fortiori we need the former so that we may be disposed to obeying promptly the motion or inspiration of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us through charity (as proper mover). "For the higher the mover is, the more necessary it is that the movable thing be proportioned to him by a more perfect disposition, just as we see that a disciple must be more perfectly disposed in order that he may receive higher doctrine from a teacher." And therefore, just as for obeying reason the appetite needs habits, so a fortiori it seems that the gifts by which we obey the Holy Spirit must be called habits, not transitory dispositions, so that we may be moved connaturally, promptly, easily, and sweetly, and not as if violently, but as instruments adapted and proportioned to Him.

¹ Peter Lombard, William of Auxerre, William of Paris, and among recent authors De Bellevue held only a distinction of reason from the virtues; likewise Scotus, Gabriel Biel, Ockham, and the Nominalists, which we are not able to understand, since they do not even admit infused moral virtues; others are found uncertain, such as Durandus and Vasquez. Alexander of Hales, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas, Suarez, and Billot teach a real distinction. Other antiquated opinions are noted in St. Thomas, a. 1.

Therefore the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernatural habits by which we are disposed to obeying promptly the motion or inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself dwelling in us through charity as proper mover. They are called gifts not only because they are given by God, but because they dispose one to following the instinct of the giving (that is, infusing) Holy Spirit, and render man promptly movable by divine inspiration, which is a special gift of actual grace; they can also simply be called spirits.²

² Concerning these, cf. John of St. Thomas, in the commentary on the Summa; Meschler, Die Gabe des Pfingsfestes (translated into French); Dr. Walter, Der H. Geist in seinen Gnaden und Gaben; Regler, Die sieben Gaben des H. Geistes nach Lehre H. Thomas; Weiss, S. Thomae Aq. de septem donis Spiritus sancti doctrina; Friaque, Le Saint-Esprit, sa grace, ses figures, ses fruits, ses dons; Msgr. Perriot, in the periodical Ami du Clerge, 1892 and 1898; Froget, L'Habitation du Saint-Esprit dans les ames justes; De Bellevue, L'oeuvre du Saint-Esprit ou la sanctification de l'ame; Touzard, in Rev. Biblique, VIII (1899); Raymond, in Rev. Thomiste, 1913-1914; Gardeil, in Dict. de Th. cath., art. Dons; Les dons du Saint-Esprit dans les Saints Dominicains; Schrijvers, Les Principes de la Vie Spirituelle; Meynard, Traite de la Vie interieure; Billot, De Virtutibus infusis; Garrigou-Lagrange, Perfection et Contemplation; - Oeuvres de Ruysbroeck, trans. of the Benedictines of St. Paul de Wisques, vol. II.

631. Thesis II. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary for salvation. - For not only do those who exercise extraordinary and more excellent works (for which their powers are not sufficient) need the motion of the Holy Spirit,³ or the special help of actual grace, but each person needs it in order to persevere and progress in the grace received, as is proved in the treatise on grace. The fundamental reason for this matter is assigned by St. Thomas: through grace and the theological virtues we possess divine nature, life, and powers only in an imperfect mode; but he who imperfectly has some nature or form or power cannot always and as to all things operate per se, unless, at least sometimes, he is moved by Him who perfectly possesses that nature: just as little children in life, who must be led lest they fall, and also so that they may progress. Therefore, imperfect in divine life, we need to be moved and led by God Himself, so that we may so live always that we arrive at eternal life.

³ The motion of the Holy Spirit is special; otherwise it is simply called divine motion. The distinction between each motion occurs in St. Thomas, q. 109, a. 9. Cf. Garrigou-Lagrange, in the work Xenia Thomistica, II, p. 212.

Whence the gifts of the Holy Spirit are necessary for salvation for every just man, and although especially for extraordinary and more excellent works, nevertheless they dispose not only to these but also to common works, when and insofar as they are done by the just under the motion of the Spirit of God. Hence those gifts are granted to all the just (Rom. VIII, 14) and are connected with charity, by which we are united to the Holy Spirit as mover.

632. What those gifts are. - Those gifts are enumerated in Isaiah XI, 2, where they are attributed to Christ, the exemplar of the just and the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. VIII, 9-29; Gal. IV, 6): "The spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him." But, according to the doctrine of the Fathers from the beginning of the Church, they are also granted to all the just.

Concerning the number of the gifts nothing certain can be established, for in the Greek and Latin text seven are numbered, but in the Hebrew text piety is lacking; moreover the prophet does not seem to intend a complete enumeration, but rather indicates the more outstanding gifts in order to teach that the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit belongs to Christ. Nevertheless the Fathers, theologians, and mystical authors are accustomed to order all the sanctifying effects of the Holy Spirit according to the seven gifts which are enumerated in our text, to which the Liturgy alludes in the hymns.

Four are in the intellect, by which we are disposed so that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and as if experimentally: 1. we may penetrate the truths of faith through the gift of understanding; and we may judge 2. concerning created things through the gift of knowledge, according as they lead to God or lead away from Him; 3. concerning divine things, and human things according to divine reasons, through the gift of wisdom, by which we taste them sweetly (Wis. VII, 8, 11); and 4. concerning individual things to be done or avoided in the spiritual life, and in more difficult and unexpected cases, through the gift of counsel, by which we are directed to operate without hesitation. This is the practical gift; the three prior are principally speculative, secondarily practical.

Three are in the appetite: for, with the Holy Spirit impelling, 5. through piety we lovingly revere God, not as creator but as Father, and all men as His sons (Rom. VIII, 15); 6. through the gift of fortitude we confidently despise whatever dangers and adversities there are on the way of salvation; and 7. through filial reverence we fear to offend God, especially in the delights to which we are most inclined, and this is fear of the Lord.⁴

⁴ Thus in the doctrine of St. Thomas. - St. Albert, St. Bonaventure, and Ruysbroeck hold counsel as the gift leading to perfection and contemplation, but knowledge, on the contrary, as the practical gift of the active life; - likewise St. Albert, St. Bonaventure, and Ruysbroeck place piety in the concupiscible; - St. Bonaventure and Ruysbroeck place wisdom in the will; - Ruysbroeck places fear in the irascible and fortitude in the will. This last fits with his doctrine on the cardinal virtues, according to which prudence directs and governs the irascible, temperance adorns the concupiscible, justice the power of natural reason, and fortitude the free nature of the will.

633. The gifts correspond to virtues. - And indeed 1. immediately⁵ to the seven more principal infused virtues: understanding and knowledge correspond to faith; fear of God to hope, insofar as it makes us avoid offense of God; wisdom to charity; counsel to prudence; piety to justice; the gift of fortitude to fortitude; and fear of God to temperance, insofar as it makes us flee the delights which most allure us to sin. By these gifts respectively we are disposed to exercising both the common and ordinary acts, and the more excellent acts, of these virtues under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Thus St. Thomas; nevertheless, according to others, while counsel corresponds to hope, knowledge corresponds to prudence; according to others to hope, to which fear then does not correspond; according to others, as Innocent V, to temperance.

⁵ They also correspond mediately3 to the seven chief acquired virtues: to the understanding of principles, knowledge, and wisdom there correspond the three gifts of the same name; to prudence, counsel; to justice, piety; to fortitude, fortitude; to temperance, fear of God.

2. Immediately, because they are given for the exercise of those virtues; nevertheless not exclusively but principally, for mediately all the gifts have influence upon all virtues. Whence it is not absurd that one gift correspond to two virtues, as fear to hope and temperance, or knowledge to faith and hope; and two gifts to one virtue, as understanding and knowledge to faith.

3. Mediately, for the gifts do not move to the exercise of these virtues, but because the supernatural order perfects the natural order, supernatural life is built according to an analogy to natural life. - But no gift corresponds to art, because it has no influence on the interior life.

634. The beatitudes are not habits but certain perfect and excellent works of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which specially lead to beatitude, and specially merit both perfect beatitude in heaven and also the inchoation (firm hope) of beatitude in the present life. Whence on account of their singular perfection they are a pledge, merit, and inchoation of perfect beatitude.

Concerning their fitting enumeration and signification, cf. St. Thomas, q. 69, a. 3 and 4. - According to him, also one beatitude corresponds to each gift, considering in the beatitudes their motives, namely, in this way:

To the gift of fear, the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; - to the gift of piety, the second: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth; - to the gift of knowledge, the third: Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted; - to the gift of fortitude, the fourth: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied; - to the gift of counsel, the fifth: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy; - to the gift of understanding, the sixth: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God; - to the gift of wisdom, the seventh: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (III Sent., d. 34, q. 1, a. 4). But the eighth beatitude: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice, is a certain confirmation and manifestation of all the preceding, insofar as on account of them it comes about that one does not depart from these goods on account of any persecution (I-II, q. 69, a. 3, ad 5).

635. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are any works whatever of virtue when they have a special delight and sweetness annexed, whence they are called fruits; they are perfected under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whence they are called fruits of the Holy Spirit. Since carnal and worldly delights allure us, the Holy Spirit Himself produces in us a much greater and as it were heavenly delight through the works of virtues; hence the fruits are opposed to the works of the flesh.

The chief ones are enumerated by the Apostle, Gal. V, 22, 23.

636. Corollaries. - From the fact that the gifts dispose man so that he is well movable by God, while virtues dispose him so that he is well movable by reason, which is the fundamental distinction, it follows:

1. that virtues are given so that man may actively act well, gifts so that he may be passively acted upon well; and although he also acts freely under the action of the gift, nevertheless he has himself more passively than actively, "because the mind of man does not have itself as moving but rather as moved";

2. that virtues perfect man for acting in a human mode, accommodated to human nature; gifts, for acting in a higher, superhuman, and divine mode according as it is suitable to the Holy Spirit: thus as to the object when someone exercises more excellent and heroic works, or as to the mode alone when he is moved spontaneously, as if instinctively, and acts without discourse and rather is led than leads himself;

3. that we can use virtues when we will, but gifts when the Holy Spirit wills.

637. Observation. - The gifts are not to be confused with graces gratuitously given, although the latter can be founded in a gift, for example, of knowledge or wisdom, which they manifest: for they remain distinct; and they are rather transitory, not habits. Cf. q. 68, a. 5, ad 1 and 2.