St. Paul and Fortitude

My son's report for Virtue Club:

St Thomas Aquinas, in Summa Theologica, describes the gift of fortitude like this:

With the gift of fortitude/courage, we overcome our fear and are willing to take risks as a follower of Jesus Christ. A person with courage is willing to stand up for what is right in the sight of God, even if it means accepting rejection, verbal abuse, or even physical harm and death.

St. Paul was a great example of fortitude. You remember St Paul . . . .

He was born at Tarsus in Cilicia which is now Turkey. He lived around the time of Jesus but never met Him. Paul was first called Saul. As a young man, he was a very bright student of the Hebrew religion.
He hated the Christians. When he grew older he tortured and harassed the followers of Jesus. He was even at the stoning of St. Stephen the martyr.

In the Bible, in the Acts of the Apostles, you can read about Saul's amazing conversion (chapters 9, 22, 26).
What happened?

The Conversion of St. Paul by Peter Paul Rubens

One day, Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to hunt down more Christians. Suddenly, a great light shone all around him and he was knocked to the ground. He was struck blind; and he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

Saul answered, "Who are you, Sir?" And the voice said, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting." Saul was shocked and confused. After a few seconds, he asked, "What do you want me to do?" Jesus told him to continue on to Damascus and there he would be told what to do.

At that moment, through the power of God, Saul received the gift to believe in Jesus. Weak and trembling, he reached out for help and his companions led him into Damascus. The light had blinded him temporarily. But now that he was blind he could really "see" the truth.

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da
The Conversion of Saint Paul
painted 1600-1601

And Jesus had come personally to meet him, to invite him to conversion. Saul became a great lover of Jesus. He was baptized and changed his name to Paul to show that he was a changed person. Now he thought only of helping everyone know and love Jesus, the Savior.

We know Saul by his Roman name of Paul. He is called "the apostle." He traveled all over the world, preaching the Good News and led so many people to Jesus. He worked and suffered greatly.

He was stoned, beaten and even put into prison.  Even though his enemies tried to kill him several times - nothing could stop him. That is a great example of fortitude (courage).

When he was old and tired, he was once again put in prison and sentenced to die. Still St. Paul was happy to suffer and even die for Christ. (Colossians 1:24 "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking ¹⁴ in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church")

This great apostle wrote wonderful letters to the Christians. They are in the Bible. These letters, called epistles, are read often during the Liturgy of the Word at Mass.


Here is a list of the Epistles of Paul in the Bible. (I am still working on details about each Epistle)

First Thessalonians
Second Thessalonians
First Corinthians	On Paul's first visit to Corinth  he stays a year and a half (Acts 18:5)
Second Corinthians	Corinth is a wealthy, immoral city that is twice evangelized by Paul
Galatians
Romans
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
Philemon
Hebrews
Titus
First Timothy
Second Timothy

SOURCES:
SauldieBibleStudy (Protestant)
Catholic Notebook
NAB @ the USCCB site
Communio
Holy Spirit Interactive
Chronology of St. Paul's Epistles (Protestant)

Virtue Club Assignment - Seed of a Journey

My son was working on small project for his Virtues Club meeting for tomorrow (First Friday).
We were reviewing a prayer he chose to share as part of his assignment. This particular prayer was one by St. Anthony of Padua, who is an important patron saint for us!
It is a beautiful, simple and straightforward prayer to The Holy Spirit. I wanted to make sure he understood all the words completely so we started to review . . . .

I do so LOVE how the simplest of things, when done for God, lead to greater understanding and joy.  The adventure of discovering deeper meaning in words and then our catechism is a journey I absolutely relish.

Here is the prayer (w/ links & footnotes) that was the seed of our journey. Come with us!

O God, send forth your Holy Spirit 

into my heart that I may perceive*1,

into my mind that I may remember and

into my soul that I may meditate*2. 

Inspire me to speak with piety, holiness, tenderness and mercy. 

Teach, guide and direct my thoughts and senses from beginning to end. 

May your grace ever help and correct me, and may I be strengthened now with wisdom*3 from on high, for the sake of your infinite*4 mercy. 

Amen

*1 perceive- understand
Why understand in our hearts? Because
1) To love God with all of our hearts is the best way to know him.
2) Knowing God in our hearts makes sense in the light of love.  We can never know (understand) God intellectually.*1
 St. Anthony asks the Holy Spirit to come into his mind so that he may remember.

*2 meditate - (NOT the Eastern religious definition of meditation)
 Old Testament Hebrew - haga: sigh, murmur, meditate / Greek from the Hebrew: melite / Latin root: ponder 
Catholic meditative prayer can be traced back to a 12th century Carthusian monk, GuigoII*2

*3 wisdom - From the Baltimore Catechism - 

Q. 707. Why do we receive the gift of Wisdom?
A. We receive the gift of Wisdom to give us a relish for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory.

*4 infinite = never ending

____________________________________________________________________________________

More for me! (My son is now fast asleep)

• *1  St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 died @49)  Feast Day - Jan 28

•  On the feast of St. Nicholas in 1273, as he said Mass, he received a revelation which so overwhelmed him that he never again wrote or dictated.  He put aside his chief work, the Summa Theologica (Summary of Theology - his final and most famous work which deals with the whole of Catholic theology).  It was still incomplete.  He said, 

"The end of my labors is come.  All that I have written seems to me so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me."

• What Pope Benedict said in reference to St Thomas Aquinas - June 2010 (key words: faith, reason, democracy, dignity)

• What St. Thomas Aquinas said that I need to remember - "It matters little whether a syllable be long or short, but it matters much to practice humility and obedience."

And, as the clock ticks past midnight . . . . I checked in on the saint quote of the day. What do you think I found? Yep, a wonderful wink from God in the form of serendipity. God is so good!

God's universal providence works through secondary causes . . . The world of pure spirits stretches between the Divine Nature and the world of human beings; because Divine Wisdom has ordained that the higher should look after the lower, Angels execute the Divine plan for human salvation: they are our Guardians, who free us when hindered and help to bring us home.

-- Saint Thomas Aquinas

*2 About Guigo II:
Surnamed "angelic" he was the 9th prior of the monastery. He is considered the first writer in the western tradition to consider stages of prayer as a ladder which leads to a closer mystic communion with God.
His most famous book The Ladder of Monks is subtitled "a letter on the contemplative life" and is considered the first description of methodical prayer in the western mystical tradition.
Guigo named the four steps of this "ladder" of Lectio Divina prayer with the Latin terms  

1. lectio -- first you read, which leads to thinking about (i.e. meditate on / ponder) the significance of the text
2. meditatio -- think about (i.e. meditate on / ponder) the significance of the text
3. oratio -- respond in prayer
4. contemplatio - prayer then points to the gift of quiet stillness in the presence of God, called contemplation

Graphic: A Carthusian enters the Grand Chartreuse,     Here you find Selections from The Ladder of Monks
The Belles Heures of John Duke of Berry, 1408 fol 97.


*Grace (Catholic.org)

Actual Grace
Explains the concept of actual grace, which is defined in the article as "a supernatural help of God for salutary acts granted in consideration of the merits of Christ."

Sanctifying Grace
Describes the nature and characteristics of sanctifying grace; also treats of "justification", which is the preparation for sanctifying grace.

Controversies on Grace
Discusses the various grace-related controversies in history, with a focus on the heresies of the Reformers and the Jansenists. Outlines the various Catholic solutions -- including Thomism, Augustinianism, Molinism, Congruism, and Syncretism.

Supernatural Adoption
Presents one of the most sublime of mysteries -- the gracious divinization of man, which enables him to partake of the inner life of the Most Blessed Trinity. 

SOURCES & RESOURCES

Other prayers to the Holy Spirit

Subject of study in Virtue Club - 7 Gifts of The Holy Spirit

Graphic source
Selections from The Ladder of Monks
Selections from Ladder of Monks - Private Prayer Notebook

Come Holy Spirit! 7 Gifts & 12 Fruits

Come Holy Spirit Fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. 

 

V. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created.

 

R. And you will renew the face of the earth. 

 

Let us pray.

Lord by the light of your Holy Spirit you have taught the hearts of your faithful.

In that same spirit help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in his consolation.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are infused into the soul, along with Sanctifying Grace, and the Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, Charity), at the moment of one’s Baptism. The Gifts are just another example—and reminder—of the Almighty’s overwhelming goodness to His needy children. *1  (Monsignor Charles M. Mangan @Catholic Online 2004)

From The Baltimore Catechism     The red denotes synonyms found in other sources.
Q. 719. Which are the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost?

From the CCC: 1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."¹¹²

Back to the Baltimore Catechism:
A. The twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost are 

• Charity (love) 

• Joy

• Peace

• Patience

• Benignity (kindness) 

• Goodness

• CCC says - Generosity / BC says - Long-suffering   (Patient endurance)  (Love on trial. It enables you to forbear and forgive others Colossians 3:13)

• Mildness (gentle)

• Faith

• Modesty (sister fruit is chastity)

•   CCC says -Self Control  BC says - Continency (self-restraint or abstinence)  (self-control) (Temperance - I Corinthians 9:25)  According New Advent: It is a form of the virtue of temperance.  It requires self-sacrifice and control and finds fruitage in a greater measure of moral power. The words of Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:12) may be here appealed to. Moreover, the abstinence of which we speak is a condition of increased physical vigor and energy. 

• Chastity (sister fruit is modesty)

Q. 720. Why are charity, joy, peace, etc., called fruits of the Holy Ghost?
A. Charity, joy, peace, etc., are called fruits of the Holy Ghost because they grow in our souls out of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Q. 699. Which are the 7 gifts of the Holy Ghost?
A. The gifts of the Holy Ghost are 

• Wisdom
• Understanding
• Counsel  (Right Judgment)
• Fortitude (Courage) 
• Knowledge
• Piety (Reverence)
• Fear of the Lord (Awe and Wonder of the Lord)

The Baltimore Catechism then explains each gift looking at the gifts in the reverse order. We are also  given a bit of very important emphasis after the gift of "counsel."

Q. 700. Why do we receive the gift of Fear of the Lord?
A. We receive the gift of Fear of the Lord (Awe and Wonder of the Lord) to fill us with a dread of sin.
Q. 701. Why do we receive the gift of Piety?
A. We receive the gift of Piety (Reverence) to make us love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him.
Q. 702. Why do we receive the gift of Knowledge?
A. We receive the gift of Knowledge to enable us to discover the will of God in all things.
Q. 703. Why do we receive the gift of Fortitude?
A. We receive the gift of Fortitude (Courage) to strengthen us to do the will of God in all things.
Q. 704. Why do we receive the gift of Counsel?
A. We receive the gift of Counsel (Right Judgment) to warn us of the deceits of the devil, and of the dangers to salvation.
Q. 705. How is it clear that the devil could easily deceive us if the Holy Ghost did not aid us?
A. It is clear that the devil could easily deceive us if the Holy Ghost did not aid us, for just as our sins do not deprive us of our knowledge, so the devil's sin did not deprive him of the great intelligence and power which he possessed as an angel. Moreover, his experience in the world extends over all ages and places, while ours is confined to a few years and to a limited number of places.
Q. 706. Why do we receive the gift of Understanding?
A. We receive the gift of Understanding to enable us to know more clearly the mysteries of faith.
Q. 707. Why do we receive the gift of Wisdom?
A. We receive the gift of Wisdom to give us a relish for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory.

SOURCES:
Baltimore Catechism
CCC
Bible
New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia 
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit - St Thomas Aquinas - by Fr. Peter John Cameron
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit - St. Thomas Aquinas - by Fr. Peter John Cameron PDF
(*1) Utter Magnificence - The Gifts of The Holy Spirit