The Gifts: Piety or Godliness

We learn from our guide Archbishop Luis Martinez in “The Sanctifier” that our spiritual life cannot be isolated. Even monks or contemplative sisters have duties toward others and to God, which are not precluded because they live mostly in solitude. Many of these duties are rooted in the Virtues of Charity and Justice, giving to God and our neighbors what is their due. With God, we have the duty to recognize Him as our Creator and Redeemer and to keep His Commandments. With regard to our parents, we have the duty to obey. With regard to those who do not have food or clothing, we have the duty to provide for them when we know we can and should. Virtues, as we have discussed, can only take us to the limit of our human strength. Only the Gift of Piety from the Holy Spirit can rightly order and fulfill all our duties toward God and others.

A child should love their Father unconditionally and have a deep childlike trust in Him and when God is recognized as our Father, we are even more obligated to love Him as much as possible as a human being can. The Gift of Piety allows us to fulfill all the duties we owe to God. The Virtue of religion allows us to know God as the Sovereign Being; the Gift of Piety sees Him as Father. The Gift allows us to complete all our duties toward God in a sweet, childlike manner and to fulfill our duties toward our family and neighbors with true love for all our fellow men. When we give someone their due, for example when we pay someone back who loaned us money and thank the person, this is the Virtue of Justice; with the Gift of Piety, we instead love the person as we love God, with agape love for sharing with us. The absolute surrender of ourselves to God where we put all in His Hands with complete trust, especially with regard to our willingness to suffer all to repair the sins against Him and for the salvation of other souls, comes from the Gift of Piety….so we can say with St. Paul: “But I will most gladly spend and be spent myself for your souls, even though loving you more, I be loved less.” (2 Cor 12:15)

Let us continue the Novena to the Holy Spirit http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/Pentecost/seven.htm

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