Blessed Pentecost!
St. Francis de Sales shares his insights on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
He says, “These gifts are not only inseparable from charity, but they are the principal virtues,properties and qualities of charity.
WISDOM is nothing else than the love that relishes, tastes and experiences how sweet and gentle God is.
UNDERSTANDING is nothing else than love attentive to consider and penetrate the beauty of the truths of faith
SCIENCE is simply the same love keeping us attentive to know ourselves and creatures to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the service we owe to God
COUNSEL is also love, as it renders us careful attentive and skilled in choosing the means proper to serve God in a holy manner.
FORTITUDE is love that encourages and animates the heart so as to carry out what counsel has determined must be done
PIETY is the love that sweetens labor and makes us with good heart gratitude and filial affection do works that please God our Father
FEAR is simply love as it causes us to fly and shun what is displeasing to God’s majesty.”
Source: treatise on the Love of God, Book 11, Chapter 15