Blessed are the Gifts
A couple of days ago on Facebook, my friend Rachel referred to the “seven gifts of the Spirit”. These are the gifts mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah:
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel [right judgement] and might [fortitude],
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord [piety]…
– Isaiah 11:2-3
I commented briefly on Rachel’s Facebook posting, saying that St. Augustine associated these seven gifts with Christ’s beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). In today’s post I wanted to explain in a little more detail what St. Augustine taught about the relationship between these gifts and the beatitudes…



I was back at a Roman Rite parish today to cover the music ministry. The Gospel Reading this week was the episode where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
What’s the big deal with Holy Water?