# Novena to the Holy Spirit: the gift of understanding
*2020-04-26*

> Bill Young leads the sixth day of the Novena to the Holy Spirit, focusing on the gift of understanding during the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

## Praying for Understanding in Difficult Times

Today is Day 6, Wednesday of the seventh week of Easter, and we continue our novena to the Holy Spirit for the seven gifts. At this specific time, we need the gift of understanding to help us navigate what everyone is going through—the heartbreaks of those who are ill and those who have lost loved ones to this coronavirus.

## The Nature of the Gift of Understanding

Understanding as a gift of the Holy Spirit helps us to grasp the meaning of the truth of our holy religion. While we know these truths by faith, through understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truth, quickening us to a newness of life. Our faith ceases to be surreal and inactive, and instead inspires a mode of life that bears an elegant testimony to the faith within us. Through this gift, we begin to walk in a way that is worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things and increasing in the knowledge of God.

## Prayers and Consecration

We ask the Holy Spirit of understanding to lighten our minds so that we may believe in all the mysteries of salvation and eventually see the eternal light of the Father and the Son. In this spirit of devotion, we offer an act of consecration to the Holy Spirit, offering our soul and body to the eternal Spirit of God. We ask for the grace to avoid even the smallest sin and to follow the generous inspirations of the Spirit, trusting in the precious blood and the stricken heart of Jesus.

We further pray for the full suite of the seven gifts: wisdom to despise perishable things; understanding to be enlightened by divine truth; counsel to choose the surest way to heaven; fortitude to bear our crosses; knowledge to know God and ourselves; piety to find the service of God sweet; and fear to be filled with loving reverence toward God.

## Community Prayer and Hope

I have been participating in the 8 p.m. daily Rosary with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to pray for an end to this horrible disease. It is wonderful to hear the voices of the priests, seminarians, and local families participating together. As we look forward, we hope for the coming weekend when we may finally be able to attend physical Mass and receive Holy Communion.

*The gift of understanding transforms our faith from a set of known facts into a lived experience that bears witness to God's truth.*