Thursday, March 24, 2016

Lent XXXVIII

...seven gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to help us act effectively. For if our actions are to be fruitful, we must be helped to distance ourselves from evil, and this is done by fear. We must also be aided to progress in good, both that demanded by God's command and that of supererogation. In what is demanded, we are helped by knowledge, which directs our actions, and by piety, which helps us carry them out; in matters that are of supererogation, we are aided by counsel, which directs us, and by fortitude, which helps us carry them out. Lastly, we must find our rest in the Most High, both by knowing the supreme truth and loving the supreme good; the first comes about through the gift of understanding, the second through the gift of wisdom, in which there is true repose.

Bonaventura, Breviloquium, Monti, tr. Franciscan Institute Publications (Saint Bonaventure, NY: 2005), p. 189 [Part V, Chapter 5, Section 7].