COUNSEL, GIFT OF. - One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is classified among the intellectual gifts, since it enlightens the intellect. It is that gift which "perfects the virtue of prudence, making us judge promptly and surely, by a kind of supernatural intuition, what ought to be done, especially in difficult cases" (A. Tanquerey, n. 1331).
Since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are, as St. Thomas teaches, dispositions by which the soul is made docile and mobile by the Holy Spirit (2a-2ae, q. 52, a. 1), and since the virtue of prudence, whether acquired or infused, is "that which directs man to seek, by means of a careful examination and an accurate reflection on the examples of the past and on the present situation, the means to attain a predetermined end," the g. of c. perfects the virtue of prudence to the highest degree "secundum quod regulatur et movetur a Spiritu Sancto" (2ᵃ 2ᵃᶜ, q. 52, a. 2). The g. of c. makes known in particular the best means for attaining the end, "and even where prudence would remain hesitant it shows us what we ought to say or keep silent, what we must undertake and abandon" (R. Garrigou-Lagrange, p. 330). Hence, St. Thomas notes, "donum consilii facit certitudinem a Spiritu Sancto de iis de quibus eubulia inquirit et conjecturat" (2ᵃ-2ᵃᶜ, q. 51, a. 1).
The g. of c. guides us in all things ordered to eternal life, and, as Denis the Carthusian notes (Trattato dei doni dello Spirito Santo, in Opera omnia, XXXV, Tournai, pp. 157-260, tr. 3, a. 7), in the first degree it directs us in matters of strict obligation, in the second it inclines us to the generous practice of the evangelical counsels, in the third it makes us undertake holy works with a truly heroic perfection.
It corresponds, as St. Thomas notes (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᶜ, q. 52, a. 4), to the beatitude of mercy, because only the merciful know how to give good counsel.
The g. of c. can be considered "passively," as a gift existing in all those who are in grace, or "actively," insofar as it is operative, and then it belongs to the order of gratis datae graces (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ 2ᵃᶜ, q. 47, 14, 2; 51, 1, 3).
The proper object of the g. of c. is the direction of particular actions, whereas the gifts of knowledge and understanding give us the general principles.
This gift is necessary for all in certain more important and more difficult cases, when what is at stake is eternal salvation and one's own sanctification, for example, in the matter of vocation or in certain occasions of sin that are encountered in the exercise of one's office, since "in the g. of c. the Christian soul has the sure discernment of means, sees its own way and treads it intrepidly, however arduous and repugnant it may be" (M. Landrieux, Le Divin Méconnu, Paris 1921, p. 163).
The g. of c. is in a quite particular way necessary to priests, spiritual directors and superiors, in order to well and sufficiently combine severity and kindness, not multiplying precepts, but rather moving by the way of love than by that of fear.
As Father Saint-Jure observes (La vie spirituelle, I, Paris 1889, part 1, c. 4 § 7, pp. 495-514), the lack of such a gift in the soul "renders one confused in thoughts, blind in designs, precipitate in resolutions, imprudent in words, reckless in deeds."
In the history of mysticism, numerous are the saints who appear in a quite particular and characteristic way adorned with this gift. It suffices to recall St. Antoninus of Florence, for the sagacity of his counsels called "Antoninus consiliorum," Catherine of Siena, Angela of Foligno, Margaret of Cortona, and, among the unlettered, St. Felix of Cantalice and Blessed Francesco Maria of Camporosso, Capuchin lay brothers.
Bibliography2 works
Umile Bonzi da Genova