Week Four // Prayer for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit,
Divine Consoler,
I adore You as my true God,
with God the Father and God the Son.
I adore You and unite myself to the adoration
You receive from the angels and saints.
I give You my heart
and I offer my ardent thanksgiving
for all the grace which You never cease to bestow on me.
O Giver of all supernatural gifts,
who filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of God, with such immense favors,
I beg You to visit me with Your grace
and Your love and to grant me the gift of holy fear,
so that it may act on me as a check to prevent me
from falling back into my past sins,
for which I beg pardon.
Grant me the gift of piety,
so that I may serve You for the future with increased
fervor,
follow with more promptness Your holy inspirations,
and observe your divine precepts with greater fidelity.
Grant me the gift of knowledge,
so that I may know the things of God and,
enlightened by Your holy teaching, may walk,
without deviation, in the path of eternal salvation.
Grant me the gift of fortitude,
so that I may overcome courageously all the assaults of
the devil,
and all the dangers of this world which threaten the
salvation of my soul.
Grant me the gift of counsel,
so that I may choose what is more conducive to my
spiritual advancement
and may discover the wiles and snares of the tempter.
Grant me the gift of understanding,
so that I may apprehend the divine mysteries
and by contemplation of heavenly things detach my thoughts
and affections from the vain things of this miserable
world.
Grant me the gift of wisdom,
so that I may rightly direct all my actions,
referring them to God as my last end;
so that, having loved Him and served Him in this life,
I may have the happiness of possessing Him eternally in
the next.
Week Four Intention
We pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Universal Church.
Week Four // Day Six
Grant me the gift of understanding,
so that I may apprehend the divine mysteries
and by contemplation of heavenly things detach my thoughts and affections from the vain things of this miserable world.
So very often, I find myself deeply distracted by what St. Alphonsus Liguori calls “the vain things of this miserable world.”
Sale e-mails that clutter my inbox. The temptation to complain when traffic is slow and I’m already running fifteen minutes late. My Instagram feed when I view it through the lens of discontentment rather than appreciation. The way I all-too-often find my worth in my job title, and not in my identity as a daughter of the King.
It is one thing to pray against these temptations and distractions once they’re present, but I’m intrigued by St. Alphonsus Liguori’s approach. Rather than allowing the shiny objects of the world to fill his mind and heart and then praying to refocus, he prays for the gift of understanding—that his mind would be filled with things of the Kingdom, leaving no room for anything else.
Pope Francis said understanding “is the gift with which the Holy Spirit introduces us into intimacy with God and makes us sharers in the plan of love which he has for us” (source). Our Faith is mysterious in many ways, but through the gift of understanding, we can grasp at its teachings, God’s calls on our lives, and our true identity in Him. Little by little, step by step.
Imagine scraping the muck off of an old window that has been covered by years of dirt, grime, and mud. That window, so often, is our heart existing here in the world. By the grace of God, through the Sacraments, and with the gift of understanding from the Holy Spirit, we can clean and polish the window until we can see clearly through it.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?’ -Luke 24:30-32
Identify a place where you are distracted by something other than God and take one concrete action to quiet its voice in your life.
Prayer + Discussion for Prayer Partners
Discuss which “vain things of the world” distract you from heavenly things most. How can you clear space in your heart and schedule for contemplation of the divine instead?
Lisa Kirk is a regular contributor to the BIS blog. New York City-born and internationally raised, she now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her study-abroad-crush-turned-husband and their two children. A former wedding magazine editor and fashion copywriter, she now writes primarily for Something Pretty, the Catholic living and classic style blog she began in 2010. She loves learning about the Saints, wandering the city with coffee in hand, and making new friends on Instagram. Read all of Lisa's posts here.
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