The Lord is coming! Isaiah tells us, "On that day a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord."
Here we have the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, will have the fullness of these gifts but we, too, receive these gifts from the Holy Spirit; the Sacrament of Confirmation confirms what we have received in Baptism. We need to take time during Advent to examine how we are developing these gifts as we prepare for the Lord's coming.
In today's Gospel (Luke 10), Jesus "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.'" Jesus wants us to cultivate the qualities we find in children: their simplicity, their trust, their spirit of joy and wonder.
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