May 21, 2026
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
Continuing our meditations upon the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, we will meditate to-morrow on the gift of piety. We shall see: 1st, what this gift is in regard to God; 2d, what it is with regard to our neighbor. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to spend in a special state of recollection the three days which separate us from Pentecost, in order that on that great day the Holy Spirit may find our souls well prepared; 2d, always to see in God a Father full of tenderness, and to apply ourselves to love Him rather than to fear Him; 3d, to see in our neighbor a child of God, a brother of Jesus Christ, and on account of these titles, to treat him with tender respect. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Paul: “God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba (Father)” (Gal. iv. 6).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the Holy Spirit shedding on the souls of men the gift of piety, that precious gift which softens the natural hardness of the heart and fills it with tenderness towards God and towards our neighbor. Let us thank Him for this ineffable gift; let us beg of Him to communicate it to us, and to make us rightly understand its excellence.
FIRST POINT
What the Gift of Piety is in Regard to God
Very different from the virtue of religion, which honors God as the Creator and supreme Master, the gift of piety teaches us to honor Him as our Father, and produces with regard to Him, in the soul, a wholly filial affection, full of unction, of tenderness and suavity, which places its whole happiness in occupying itself with God and the things belonging to God, and with doing all things with the desire of pleasing Him. By means of this gift we no longer see in God the Judge whose severity makes us tremble; we only see a tender Father whose kindness consoles us; a Father who looks lovingly upon us, and on whom we look in the same manner. We no longer think of fearing Him, we only think of loving Him. To love Him is everything, and the more we love the more we still desire to love. This affection and this tenderness kindle in the heart an ardent desire to please Him at all costs. If we fall into a fault, we are not troubled. God is a Father; we cast ourselves into His arms to ask pardon, with humble confidence, as a child who has fallen casts itself into the arms of its mother, and the soul is allowed to make amends for its fault by more love, by better behavior, and it resumes its manner of life in peace with renewed fervor. There is no anxiety, no scruple to be entertained in the service of so good a Father; all is love in it, and our heart is always at ease, like that of a child in the society of its good father. Whatever events may happen, we abandon ourselves lovingly to all that comes from His paternal hand. “It is my Father who permits it so to be,” we say to ourselves from the bottom of our hearts; “it is His heart so full of goodness that has ordered it thus: may His good pleasure be accomplished! I will all that He wills, and nothing but what He wills.” From these holy dispositions proceed out of the soul a great zeal for the glory of God, an inexpressible displeasure at seeing Him offended, the displeasure of a child at seeing the best of fathers insulted; from thence, also, a tender love for the divine word contained in the Holy Scriptures; it is the word of a father, always dear to the heart of a son; from thence a special affection for the Church triumphant, that is to say, for Mary, the angels, and the saints, because they are those who have the most loved God, and we owe them infinite gratitude for it; hence a very hearty devotion towards the Church suffering in purgatory, because therein are the just souls whom God desires to receive into His paradise, and whom we can enable to enter therein by means of our prayers and our merits; from thence, finally, a lively interest in the Church militant upon earth, because it has laid upon it the duty of proclaiming the glory of God; and its misfortunes tear our heart as much as its success ravishes it. Let us here examine ourselves: have we this gift of piety? If we have it not, let us ask it of God with our whole heart.
SECOND POINT
What the Gift of Piety is in Regard to our Neighbor
As all men are the images and the adopted children of God, the brothers and co-heirs of Jesus Christ, the gift of piety puts into the heart, with regard to them, a real fraternal love, a benevolent inclination, an abundance of delectation and of sweetness, which is as a ray of the goodness of God, a participation in His charity, an emanation of His mercy, whence result towards all men a frank and gracious manner of acting, an always frank expression of countenance, an always affable intercourse, which is composed of kind and amiable words. We behave towards them with the simplicity of a child towards its superiors, the cordiality of a brother towards his equals; we have entrails of compassion for all who suffer, accompanied with a tender inclination to help them. We are afflicted with those who sorrow, we weep with those who weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice. We bear with cheerfulness the infirmities of the weak, the defects of the imperfect; we make ourselves all things to all, by being serious and reserved with those who are so, prompt and fervent with prompt and fervent minds, merry with those who are merry, without ever exceeding the limits of modesty; and we bring to the practice of virtue, in so far as virtue permits, the condescendence and the attention which the characters of those with whom we have to deal call for. Let us here examine ourselves: instead of the tender sympathies which the gift of piety inspires, have we not often that unfortunate hardness of heart which, being attentive only to that which touches ourselves, prevents us from knowing either how to pity the wretchedness of our neighbor, or to put ourselves out of our way in order to oblige others, or to bear defects and injuries, or to moderate hatred and desires of vengeance, or the bitterness and antipathy which is not afraid of displeasing our neighbor? Do we not belong to those who style solidity of mind and firmness of character this antichristian hardness?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.