“… But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.  For if I do not go, the Advocate [the Holy Spirit], will not come to you.”  Jn 16:7

Fearful

Fatigued

Anxious

Troubled

Fretful

Worried

Unsure

Tense

Huddled

Waiting

Anticipating

Prayerful

Encouraging

Hopeful

Desiring

Open

Eager

“(…) and suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.”  Acts 2:2

Like the first disciples, you and I can sometimes find ourselves in The Space Between, that place where we struggle to feel the Lord’s closeness yet cling in faith to His plan for us.  It is in this void that we embrace our humanity and that of our brothers and sisters, we pray for and encourage one another, and we open our hearts to the promised Advocate.  With eagerness, we answer the call to announce the Good News, to indeed live as people born of the Spirit.

Composed by: Br. Simon Billachi

Knowledge is to know something, as it is, in and of itself.  Understanding is to know something as through another, recognition for example.  These have to do with the ‘Speculative Intellect’ or ‘Intellectual Virtue.’  Wisdom is the name for having the habit of ordering things properly.  Wisdom has to do with the ‘Practical Intellect,’ or ‘Moral Virtue’ and describes knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action, particularly in making choices.   

Wisdom is available to everyone, but nobody becomes wise by accident.  It takes boldness, courage and magnanimity to seek wisdom and humility to know that you can’t do it on your own.  True wisdom is a gift from God and though it is a gift, it is a gift that calls us to pursue it.  Wisdom is a taste of heaven in that it satisfies the heart's desire; it contains all at once, both the thrill of the chase and the joy of the capture.  

Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal things, the glory of kings to search things out.” 

 Only if we make a conscientious choice to pursue wisdom will we ever attain it and we should desire wisdom because our happiness necessitates it.  It’s in our nature to ‘know’; from the moment we were old enough to ask, we wanted to know, about everything.  Saint Augustine said, “Our minds were made for Truth!” or as Aristotle put it, “Man was made for seeing.”  We were made to see truth.   

“God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.”   Saint John Paul II, Fides et Ratio 

There is no good gift that God is not willing to give each of us.  Because of His abundant love for us, we only need turn to Him in prayer.  Humility enables one to be docile which in turn enables one to become wise.  Having the right question is often more important than having the right answer, as the right question can reveal the answers to other questions we might never have thought to ask.   

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”   Socrates, Plato’s Apology 38a5-6 

Pray for wisdom. 

The oldest novena in the church, the ‘Novena in Honor of the Holy Spirit,’ was given to us by Our Lord Himself and then passed down by the apostles.  The term ‘novena’ comes from the nine days of prayer from Ascension to Pentecost. 

Acts 1:4-5 While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.” 

Acts 1:13-14 When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.  All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus….   

In the novena we pray for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 

CCC 1831- The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.  They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David.109 They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations. 

Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.110  

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God . . . If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.111  
 
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 

Blessed are the peacemakers. 

"Peace is the tranquility of order…"Saint Augustine (De Civ. Dei xix, 13) 

We are rational animals and virtue means to live that rationality well.  According to Saint Augustine, “wisdom is becoming to peacemakers, in whom there is no movement of rebellion, but only obedience to reason.”  (De Serm. Dom. in Monte i, 4)  In contemplative prayer we are presented with the Highest Cause in whose light we can see to set our lives in order.  Keeping our focus on Christ and His will for us, disordered self-love is healed and our desires are ordered to right reason.  When the intellect shapes our desires, then we can have peace of soul.  We must first make peace with God before we can make peace within ourselves and we must be at peace with ourselves before we can be at peace with others. 

The virtues complement one another.  For one virtue to be truly present, then there must be something of every other virtue present.  In contemplating the mysteries of the holy rosary, we travel a well-known and expeditious path to the virtues.  For those who seek wisdom, Our Blessed Mother, ‘The Treasurer of All Graces,’ is ready to meet them with all solicitude. 
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All sciences are subsets of theology as wisdom shows us all things are ordered to their same first cause. 

Wisdom is the name of the habit, contemplation is what it does.