Day 2: The Gift of Wisdom

The second day of the Holy Spirit Novena turns to the first of the seven gifts: the Gift of Wisdom. Catholic theology distinguishes wisdom in two senses: the natural virtue of practical wisdom (a habit of good judgment in matters of life), and the supernatural Gift of Wisdom, an infused disposition by which the soul tastes the things of God and judges all created realities in their relation to Him. Today we ask for the supernatural Gift in fullness.

Today's invocation

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

Today's meditation

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, drawing on Saint Thomas Aquinas, treats the Gift of Wisdom in paragraphs 1830 to 1831. The classical Catholic definition is sapere, to taste: the soul that has received the Gift of Wisdom tastes the goodness of God, finds Him sweet to the inner sense, and judges all created things in the light of His love. The Gift is not the same as scholarly knowledge or even theological learning. The unlettered grandmother who prays her rosary in the parish church may possess the Gift of Wisdom in much greater measure than the academic theologian who has read the Summa Theologiae in Latin but has not yet tasted the things of which it speaks.

The Scripture sources of the Gift are abundant. The Old Testament Wisdom literature (Proverbs, Wisdom, Sirach, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Job) presents wisdom as the supreme gift the soul should ask of God. The Lord Jesus, asked by His disciples how to pray, gives them the Our Father; asked by Solomon for one gift, the Lord gave him wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-12). Saint James in the New Testament gives the apostolic instruction: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him" (James 1:5). The novena's second day is, in effect, the Catholic act of obeying this apostolic instruction.

Today's intention

Today, ask the Holy Spirit specifically for the Gift of Wisdom in your own life and in the situation for which you are praying this novena. Be specific: Holy Spirit, give me wisdom to see this matter as You see it. Free me from my own narrow perception. Let me taste the goodness of Your will in this circumstance.

Reflection

The Gift of Wisdom, in its fullness, is the gift that orders all the other Catholic spiritual goods. The soul that has wisdom prays better, suffers better, loves better, dies better. Saint Augustine, in the Confessions, describes the moment of his conversion as a moment in which the Gift of Wisdom suddenly tasted what previously had only been heard or read about. "Late have I loved You, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved You! And, behold, You were within me and I was outside, and there I sought You..." (Confessions X.27). Wisdom is the moment in which the soul stops merely thinking about God and begins to love Him as Beauty Himself.

In the practical life of the Catholic, wisdom shows itself in the small judgments of the day: which thing to say in this conversation and which thing to keep silent, which task to take up first and which to defer, which long-term project to invest in and which to release. The wise soul does not act from anxiety, calculation, or self-interest but from interior peace under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Catholic spiritual tradition has always understood that the Gift of Wisdom is given quietly, in the small choices, more often than in the grand decisions.

Closing prayers

Pray seven times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of Wisdom, descend upon us and increase Your gift in our souls.