Rector's Rambling - May 23, 2010

Happy Birthday to The Church! Today is the day we account as the birthday of the Church as God the Holy Ghost empowers Jesus’ disciples to continue His work!
The past 9 days many people have been praying a nine day prayer intention for the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Below is a summation of those gifts.
“Holy Fear – a sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread nothing so much as to offend him. Piety – begets in our hearts a filial affection for God as our most loving Father.
Fortitude – the souls is strengthened against natural fear, and supported to the end in performance of duty. Knowledge – enables the soul to evaluate created things at their true worth, in their relation to God. Understanding – helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion. Counsel – endows the souls with supernatural prudence, enabling it to judge promptly and rightly what must be done, especially in difficult circumstances. Wisdom – the most perfect of gifts! It strengthens our faith, fortifies hope, perfects charity, and promotes the practice of virtue in the highest degree.”
From these gifts we begin to see the Fruits of the Holy Ghost. As St. Paul describes them in his letter to the Galatians, Chapter 5, beginning at verse 22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
As our nine-day prayer intention states, “The gifts of the Holy Ghost perfect the supernatural virtues by enabling us to practice them with greater docility to divine inspiration. As we grow in the knowledge and love of God under the direction of the Holy Ghost, our service becomes more sincere and generous, the practice of virtue more perfect. Such acts of virtue leave the heart filled with joy and consolation and are know as Fruits of the Holy Ghost. These Fruits in turn render the practice of virtue more attractive and become a powerful incentive for still greater efforts in the service of God, to serve Whom is to reign.”
Novena by The Holy Ghost Fathers, 1912 www.ewtn.com