The Gift of Piety

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).

The gift of piety, one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, enables us to become like children so that we can appreciate our divine filiation, and give our relationship with God Our Father the tenderness and affection of a child for their father, so that when we go into our room in secret, we pray to Our Father in secret, and Our Father “who sees in secret will reward” us (cf. Matt. 6:6).

This awareness that we are children of God is an effect of the gift of piety. It causes us to relate to Him with this tenderness and affection, and also to relate to the rest of mankind as if we were members of the same family.

Piety heals our hearts of every form of hardness. “Take out this heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). It opens our hearts to tenderness toward God and towards others.

“Tenderness is a truly filial attitude towards God, and it's expressed in prayer”, a prayer of little children. “We experience our own nothingness. We experience the void which earthly things leave in our souls.” We find ourselves with a hunger for God, a thirst for the spiritual.

We see that we “need to turn to God in order to obtain grace, help, and pardon. The gift of piety directs and nourishes that need, enriching it with sentiments of profound confidence in God, who is trusted as a good and generous Father” (Pope John Paul II, Angelus, May 28, 1989).

“If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matt 7:11).

We go to God with a great sense that He's Our Heavenly Father.

St. Paul wrote, “God sent his Son…that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children,” he said, “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child…” (Gal. 4:4-7).

“That tenderness, that fraternal openness towards our neighbor, is manifested in meekness,” which is an ability to control our anger and our temper, to keep our cool, to be calm and serene.

“With the gift of piety that is infused into the soul and heart of the believer, a new capacity for charity leads us to participate in some manner in the very meekness of the Heart of Christ.”

“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt. 11:29).

“The Christian who has this gift of piety sees others as children of the same Father, called to be part of the family of God, which is the Church. A person feels urged to treat them with kindness and friendliness which are proper to a frank and fraternal relationship.”

I heard a story last week from a nun here in Nairobi whose father worked in the police. During the Second World War, some ship docked in Dublin that was on its way to Liverpool.

There were some refugees that were coming from Ukraine or someplace. They were Jews. They didn't speak good English. I think they asked when the ship docked, “Is this Liverpool?”

Somebody said yes, so they got off the boat in the wrong port. They were there on the side of the road. It was getting dark. It was cold. It was raining.

This man, a good Christian man, took this Jewish family to his home for the night, and they stayed a few days until they could get organized.

It was a very beautiful, simple story, a very simple little gesture, but it revealed a profound spirituality in that family, a very ordinary family that knew how to look on others in unfortunate situations, as if they might be there themselves, so knew what to do.

Eventually, that family got organized. Some Jewish organizations came to help them. They got set up, and many decades later, that man passed away.

Lo and behold, at the back of the church, there were four large gentlemen in long black coats. They were Jewish people who had settled from that family that had arrived there at that port. They said to the family, “We will pay for this man's funeral.” It was again a very beautiful gesture of gratitude.

“Piety helps us to treat other people with kindness and friendliness, very much proper to a fraternal relationship,” and to try to look for opportunities where we can practice this spirit.

“The gift of piety extinguishes in the heart the fires of tension and division” which can rage in all societies, in all families: “bitterness, anger, and impatience.”

“Piety fosters feelings of understanding, of tolerance, of pardon.” We have to be sowers of peace in society. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9).

Our role is to bring about peace with all people, within the family, outside the family, among neighbors, among friends.

The gift of piety is very much “at the root of the whole new society that we have to create, very much based on the civilization of love.”

In the Old Testament, we see this gift expressed in many ways, in the constant prayer of the Chosen People to God: sentiments of praise, of petition, of adoration of God's divine majesty, intimate confessions which express to the heavenly Father with all simplicity the joys, sorrows, and hopes.

Especially in the Psalms, we find all the sentiments that fill the soul in its confident dialogue with God.

When the fullness of time had come, Christ taught the proper tone in which we ought to address God. He said, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come…” (Luke 11:2).

Christ was telling us that in all the situations of our life, we can address ourselves to God with this filial trust and know that somehow Our Heavenly Father is taking care of things, even if they might seem to be out of control, or out of this world, or too much to bear.

In many passages of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit has wanted us to find the Aramaic word Abba, which was the affectionate name by which Hebrew children addressed their father. This word expresses our attitude and channels our prayer to God.

In Christ Is Passing By, we're told, “He is not a distant being who contemplates indifferently the fate of men—their desires, their struggles, their sufferings. He's a Father who loves his children so much that he sends the Word, the Second Person of the most Blessed Trinity, so that by taking on the nature of man, he may die to redeem us.

“He's the loving Father who now leads us gently to himself, through the action of the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 84).

God tells us, “Unless you become like little children…” (Matt. 18:3). He wants us to turn to Him with total confidence, like little children who are in need. They ask their parents for the moon.

All our piety is nourished by this fact: that we are children of God. And the Holy Spirit, through the gift of piety, teaches us and facilitates for us this trusting relationship of a child with his father.

We're told in St. John, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).

“It seems as if after the words ‘that we should be called children of God,’” says one writer, “St. John paused to allow his spirit to penetrate deeply into the immensity of the love which the Father has shown us, not limiting himself simply to calling us children of God, but making us so in the most authentic sense. This is what makes St. John cry out, ‘and so we are’” (Bonaventure Perquin, Abba Father).

St. John invites us to consider the great benefit of our divine filiation which we receive with the gift of Baptism, and encourages us to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit so that we can treat Our Father God with great trust and tenderness.

That means we share with Him the ordinary things of each day.

A mother told me once how she brought her four- or five-year-old child to Mass. The mother would go to Mass every day. She would receive Communion and she would stay behind after Mass for a few minutes to do some thanksgiving.

The young child stayed with her. But when the mother got up to go, the little child stayed on a bit longer. The mother was waiting outside the church. Eventually, the child came out and she asked her daughter, “What were you praying about?”

The little girl said, “I was just telling Jesus that today I'm going to be going swimming. And if He wants, He can come and stay inside me, and be like a submarine as I swim around in the water.”

The mother was very impressed with the simple childlike prayer of her daughter, who knew how to tell God the simple, ordinary things that she was going to do that day.

“The Spirit,” we're told by St. Paul, “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but he intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26).

Because of the graces of the Holy Spirit and His gifts, we can talk to God in many different ways, in a rich and varied prayer, like life itself, sharing with Our Lord our sentiments at different moments of the day.

St. Josemaría often told people that sometimes he said to God, ‘Lord, I'm fed up.’ We can turn those moments into prayer. Or if we're feeling a bit lonely or a bit down, or things aren't going right, we can turn to Our God with feelings that are there in our heart, in tones of filial complaint.

You find such sentiments in prayer throughout the Old Testament.

In the Psalms, we're told that the Chosen People said to God, “Why do you hide your face?” (Ps. 43:24). Or, “I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where no water is” (Ps. 63:1). “There is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25).

Another Psalm says of our unshakeable hope we have ‘in your mercy’: “You are the God of my salvation, for I wait for you all day long” (Ps. 25:5).

The gift of piety leads us to ask again and again, like needy children.

Sometimes Our Lord wants us to pester Him in the tabernacle, or to storm the tabernacles with prayers, until we are granted what we want.

There are many times in Scripture when Our Lord highlights the need for the prayer of petition, to keep on asking, like the lady who comes to bang on the door for something that she needs.

She doesn't stop and wakes the man up, and he doesn't go to give it to her because she's a neighbor, but because of her pestering (Luke 18:1-5).

In prayer, our will becomes identified with the will of Our Father, who always wants the best for His children.

“If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts…, how much more…?” (Matt. 7:11).

God knows more, He sees more, He works everything out for the best.

We have to trust in Him like little children who perhaps often don't get what we want, but we know God will give us whatever is best for us.

Sometimes God says yes, sometimes He says no, and sometimes He says, ‘Wait.’

A little girl once asked Santa Claus for a thousand dolls for Christmas. Her father was an atheist and she got one doll.

The father said to the girl, “Your God didn't listen to your prayer, did he?”

The little girl said, “Yes, He did; He said no.”

The little girl knew, with that deeper wisdom: “My God is always there. He always listens to me. Just like you, sometimes He says no, but that doesn't mean He doesn't exist.”

This trust in prayer can make us feel secure, unwavering, daring. It takes away any anxiety and unease that can come from depending solely on our own strength.

And that can help us to be serene in the face of difficulties, serene with the serenity of Joseph, who dealt with all sorts of difficult situations, faced up to life and its challenges, showed initiative and responsibility in everything he was asked to do.

In this year of St. Joseph, we need to go back again and again to see the great qualities of the Holy Patriarch.

We know that “all things work out for the good” (Rom. 8:28). Joseph knew that when he was sent to Egypt. He understood that Our Father God wants the best in all situations, even if they're full of contradictions. God has arranged everything to our best advantage.

Possibly things will not work out today, tomorrow, or the next day, but someday they will. That is why our happiness consists in finding out what God wants for us in each moment of our lives and putting that into effect without delay.

That's where our happiness lies. Happiness comes from doing things that are good.

The world tries to tell us that happiness comes from material things. Or sometimes, that happiness comes from following our feelings or our temptations, suggesting that happiness can come from things that are wrong.

But from that confidence in God's Fatherliness, we can get serenity, because we know that “all things contribute to the good for those who love God” (cf. Rom. 8:28). Those are very optimistic words that St. Paul gives us.

Our Lord will teach us one day why we had such and such a humiliation, or that sickness, or that failure of an exam, or why we lost that game, or why there was that financial collapse. Sometimes God is giving us greater spiritual messages.

The Holy Spirit enables us to carry out promptly and easily all the obligations of justice and charity that come our way.

It helps us to see the people we live with and that we meet every day as individuals who have infinite value, because God loves each one of them with a limitless love and He has redeemed them with the Blood of His Son shed on the Cross.

Every single person is worth all the Blood of Christ. Every person begging in the street has a profound dignity. The gift of piety helps us to see that and recognize it, to get past the externals or the initial impressions.

It moves us to try and share the sufferings of other people and to help them, like that policeman who came across that family very much in need. They had nothing. He didn't have very much. But he was able to share with them what he had, which was a roof over their head and a warm home to adjust in for a few hours and a few days.

Sometimes you might have very little to share with people, but that little can make all the difference.

Our Lord will ask us to account for all the talents He's given to us. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

What a great message to communicate to our children with our example: seizing opportunities to give something to a beggar in the street, or help an old person, or hold a door for a lady; or to reach out to somebody who might be in distress, to stop where we're going.

Like Our Lord, when He saw the widow of Naim, He stopped where He was going. He made time for that widow (Luke 7:11-17). Christ gives us a wonderful example in all sorts of odd moments.

One spiritual writer says, “Piety leads us to judge other people always with kindness” (Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God, Volume 2). that kindness which “walks hand in hand with a filial affection that we have for our Father God” (Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).

“Charity is patient. Charity is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4). It moves us to forgive very easily any offenses that we might receive, even very painful ones.

That's what Our Lord has commanded us: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:44-45).

If Our Lord refers here to very serious offenses, how could we not excuse the little slights that living with others sometimes involves? A generous and unconditional spirit of forgiveness is a characteristic sign of the true children of God.

St. Thomas Aquinas says that the gift of the Holy Spirit leads us also to have a filial love and tenderness for Our Lady, from whom we have received the most tender affection. It leads us to have great devotion to the angels and the saints, especially those who have particular care over us, our guardian angels (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Point 121).

And also, to have devotion to the souls in Purgatory, because they may have need of our prayer.

This gift leads us to love the Pope, the common Father of all Christians. It leads us to give honor and reverence to persons in positions of lawful authority—in the first place, to our parents. “Honor your father and your mother” (Eph. 6:1-2, Ex. 10:12).

When we get to a certain age, we may not have to obey them, but we always have to honor them and teach our children to do the same thing, maybe, making that phone call to a grandmother or grandfather that we might not have seen for a while. A little piece of news can make their day, or just to hear their voice.

Earthly fatherhood is seen to be a participation in and a reflection of God's paternity, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,” we're told by St. Paul (Eph. 3:15).

The Catechism of the Council of Trent says from our parents “we received existence; God made use of them to infuse into us a soul and a reason; by them we were led to the Sacraments, instructed in our religion, schooled in right conduct and holiness, and trained in civil and human knowledge.”

It's very proper that we always have that respect for them, understand their weaknesses, be patient with them in their old age, and make ourselves available to them.

The awareness of the fact that we're children of God can move us to love and honor them more each day, an all-lawful authority, and also to treat in the same way all elderly people, who may have a little difficulty crossing the street, or finding their purse, or their glasses, or their keys, or so many other things.

Elderly people may need our ears occasionally, just to sit and listen, to spend time with them, and with that they're happy.

Lord, open my eyes to see all the ways that this gift helps me to be a better person.

It's a gift that goes a bit further than the acts of the virtue of religion, which is based on justice. It helps us to go further in charity. Its field of activity includes our relations with God, with the angels, and with men.

It also includes all created things. It makes us treat everything with respect, including the animals, because of their relation to the Creator. We avoid all forms of cruelty.

Moved by the Holy Spirit, Christians read Holy Scripture with love and veneration, because it is, as it were, a letter which Our Heavenly Father sends us.

The Second Vatican Council says, “In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven meets his children with great love and speaks with them” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, Point 21).

We're also moved to have a lot of love and respect for all sacred things, especially anything that has to do with divine worship.

We treat our churches well, we pick up a piece of paper on the floor, we have a concern for its well-being, for the sacred vessels, for liturgical items. We try and give God the best.

Among the fruits that the gift of piety produces in souls responsive to the graces of the Paraclete can be counted: serenity in all circumstances of life; trusting abandonment in divine Providence, because if God cares for all His creatures, in a particular way does He care for His children; cheerfulness, which is a proper characteristic of the children of God.

In the Furrow we're told,: “May no one read sadness or sorrow in your face, when you spread in the world around you the sweet smell of your sacrifice: the children of God should always be sowers of peace and joy” (J. Escrivá, Furrow, Point 59).

If we try to consider each day that we are children of God, the Holy Spirit will encourage and foster more and more our trusting relationship with Our Heavenly Father.

We can ask the Holy Spirit during these days of preparation for Pentecost “for a renewed outpouring of this gift, entrusting our prayer to the intercession of Our Lady, a sublime model of fervent prayer and maternal tenderness” (Pope John Paul II, Angelus, May 28, 1989).

Mary, help us to be ready to pray at any time of the day. Even if we might feel indifferent to the things of God, help us to feel attracted to them.

That doesn't mean that our prayer will always be a joy; Our Lord suffered His agony in the garden.

But it will mean that we will know almost instinctively that we cannot get through life without prayer any more than we can survive without food.

May Our Lady, whom the Church greets in the Litany of Loreto as the “Singular Vessel of Devotion” teach us “to adore God ‘in spirit and truth’ (John 4:23) and open ourselves with meek and receptive hearts to all who are her children, and therefore to all our brothers and sisters” (Ibid.)

We can say in the words of the Hail Holy Queen, “O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary!”

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW