Which of those 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit do you need to pray for the most this year? Pentecost ’19

Which of those 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit do you need to pray for the most this year?

I was confirmed in 4th grade.  In those days, the bishop would ‘interrogate’ the class about what we knew about the Holy Spirit.  I confess, that moment terrified me.  I could NEVER remember the list of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.  No one had taught me that anagram – KWiFF-CUP (Knowledge, Wisdom, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, Counsel, Understanding, and Piety) to help me remember. And as the questioning began, I remember praying “Please don’t call on me about that list.  Please, please, please God, if there is a Holy Spirit, please let him make the bishop call on me about my confirmation saint, and not those gifts.”  That was about as much as I understood about the Holy Spirit.  He could plead on my behalf.  And I needed someone to do just that…

Several centuries later in my life, I have a different understanding of those gifts.  They are not a list to be memorized, but a description of what goes on in the heart of someone who trusts and lives the life of the spirit.  They are descriptors, clues as it were, to let you know that the Holy Spirit of God is trying to be active in your life.  And it has guided my prayer as I approach this feast today.  So, of those 7 gifts, those seven ‘experiences’ of God’s Spirit, like a flame, like driving wind, like a power that drove the church from the locked doors of Easter night into the world – which do you hope explodes most for the church this year?  What gift might you/I pray for the church this year?  (And for ourselves as members?)

I have been trying to read “the signs of the times” as Vatican II encouraged us to do.  And I listened to a presentation on Tuesday called Leadership in a time of Crisis, which reinforced my ‘read’.  As you know, there are some sobering statistics about Catholicism out there.  A steady decline in the number of catholics.  And a precipitous decline in the number of people 30 and under who believe in anything.  Add to that the aging of the clergy.  And the fallout from the sex abuse scandal.  And I know that sometime soon, on a timeline that is not mine, our Archdiocese will publish its list of those credibly accused priests who served in our Archdiocese.  Put that all together, and I am drawn to the same need/gift.  It all adds up to a HUGE need to do some basic evangelization.  What gift might help most in that endeavor? –  COUNSEL. (with a side helping of courage, perhaps)  Which I define as the gift of being able to say the right (effective) words at the right time in the right way to help a heart come to know the good news of God and his church. And to hear the right words and the right time in the right way to help my heart come to a deeper belief and trust in God.  Counsel is about timing and listening and inviting – and doing so in such a way that people come to a place of deeper faith and belief in their walk with our Lord.  So I pray for counsel:

  • In conversations that I and the team will have with people about our upcoming ACTS retreats for women and men.  It is an interactive retreat – different from the White House and Kings House retreats which so many of you take part in.  It takes a bit more of a risk to enter into that experience of community.  But I have seen its’ fruits in the lives of so many people.  Counsel us Lord, that your invitation might fall on receptive ears.
  • I pray for counsel about the effects of the coming aging of the clergy – We are less in number and older in age than we have been in a while in this archdiocese. And it will take some adjusting to how we do leadership AND priesthood on a parish level.  Might we not just find the right words, but be given the gift of KNOWLEDGE to know how best to proceed.  AND, how to encourage the next generation of youth to listen for and respond to the invitation to become a priest or religious to serve this church.
  • I pray for counsel when the independent group of ex-FBI and police officers finishes combing through every personnel file of every diocesan priest who has been a member of our presbyterate, as well as every order priest who served and staffed one of the many parishes run by the different congregations here in St. Louis.  I have no idea when that will happen, but I do know that will be a painful, but necessary step in the healing of the church in St. Louis.
  • I pray for the counsel on the sidelines of sports this summer, that parents might know how to share their love of the Eucharist with their fellow St. Justin parishioners who may have lapsed in their Sunday morning practice. 

Certainly, you can pick your own gift, not just to pray for, but to lean into, to rely upon, to let the Spirit make active in you. IMAGINE what will happen when we do.  It won’t be the terror of being quizzed over a list you could never remember – but the joy and freedom of dancing flames and driving winds, and God using us to recreate the face of the earth.  


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