5/23/2021 The Seven Gifts of the Holy GhostPart One: Gift of Fear of the LordThe Gifts of the Holy Ghost (Spirit) are given to us from God and they come esp. during the ceremony of Confirmation. I was able to have one of our children confirmed this year. The ceremony was wonderful and the Bishop was very great. He gave a very long "sermon" before the confirmation! Each child at confirmation also receives a new name at confirmation. So, there are seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, I thought it would be nice to offer information of the seven gifts. The gifts are: Gift of Fear of the Lord, Gift of Piety, Gift of Knowledge, Gift of Fortitude, Gift of Understanding, and Gift of Wisdom. Each gift has a special grace so to speak with it. Each gift helps us reach heaven better. So, in this installment - I want to talk about the Gift of Fear of the Lord. Some of this is from what I teach at the Catholic Doula Program: •In Bishop Farrell’s Blog, he talks about the Gift of Fear as being a way to “rejoice” with God. It is not “fearing God” in the sense that God is mean or an angry God. See link: http://bishopkevinfarrell.org/2013/03/the-gift-of-fear-of-the-lord •Instead the “Gift of Fear” asks us to trust in Him more and also gives us the graces to avoid offending him. Father Hardon notes, "The fear of the Lord is not servile but filial." In other words, it is not a fear of punishment, but a desire not to offend God. Hope is the virtue that goes with this Gift of Fear. Christ is also the vine: •The Bible states that “He who finds wisdom is great indeed, but not greater than he who fears the LORD. Fear of the LORD surpasses all else. Its possessor is beyond compare.” (Sir 25:10-11) and “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”(Ps 111:10). "The crown of the elderly, wide experience; their glory, the fear of the Lord.“ (Sir 25:6) •"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.“ John 15: 1-6 Why is the Gift of Fear of the Lord important? First of all, we don't want to lose our friendship with God - that is committing a mortal sin. When we commit a mortal sin, we are no longer friends with God. Wow! I think a lot of you probably don't think of this. So, we must aim at not committing a mortal sin and be like St. Dominic Savio "Death but not sin". Second, Though we do not want to be "fearful of God" per se - we should be afraid to offend him. One way to stop offending God or things that might help is avoiding "occasions of sin." Well, someone might now days may not understand - what does that mean? An occasion of sin, could be like a bad movie or even some "good movies" these days. There are sometimes impurity or bad things that the movie producers like to sneak into a movie - so that is why it would be better not to watch something then to have "occasion of sin." Third, we should also "love God" more with this Gift of Fear of the Lord. Bishop Farrell told us to "rejoice" in God. We should bring that "joy" of God's love to others. So, this is part of the gift's "blessings" on our soul to bring the gift of joy and God's love to our family and people we deal with everyday. Ok, so I hope this helps you understand this little gift a little better. I will be adding to the series as I have time - I may do a different thought in my next blog - but anyway, hope you enjoy this post! Comments are closed.
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September 2021
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