January 15, 2011 – Catechism 683-686

No for the part of the Trinity that is the hardest part for us to wrap our heads around.  Yet, we all feel the power of the Holy Spirit in every good action we take and anytime our actions bring about some good thing.  Still, because it is not a physical thing that we can picture, we tend to move the Holy Spirit to the background.  We talk a lot about Christ, God is mentioned almost as much, but we try to avoid talking about the Holy Spirit.  I wonder why that is, because when you think about it, that is the part of the Trinity we have the most contact with.  The Holy Spirit is with us and guiding us in God’s will.  It is giving us the graces we need to make good decisions.  We meet Christ in the Sacraments, and those graces stay with us, but when we are not in liturgy, the Holy Spirit is the part that is with us during our everyday life.  We should all seek these fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (or courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. You can find an in-depth discussion of each in The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity (or love), joy, peace, patience, benignity (or kindness), goodness, longanimity (or long suffering), mildness, faith, modesty, continency (or self-restraint or abstinence), and chastity.