THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Ordination to the diaconate of the Rev. Danielle Thompson (kneeling on the left), Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee, June 2010 – The Bishop of Tennessee is officiating. During the ordination the hymn “Come, Holy Ghost” was sung, which will be quoted below.
Second Sunday in Advent, Year A:
Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12
Our blog is focusing on reading Matthew’s Gospel. From time to time, however, there are other passages appointed to be read on which the preacher will focus. The first reading this Sunday from Isaiah (11:1-10) is of unusual importance in Christian history.
The passage opens with the reference to Jesse. Jesse was King David’s father, and Matthew emphasizes Jesus is a descendant of David. A Jesse Tree (which you may find in some stained glass windows in England) is Jesus’ genealogical chart, his family tree.
And the passage ends with the wonderful verses – the wolf living with the lamb – which are a vision of peace. I think of the American Quaker painter Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom.
Isaiah 11:2-3 is the source of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
The attentive reader will note that there are six gifts on this list. When St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin a seventh appeared on the list: pietas, piety. Anyone who knows translators know they sometimes use more than one word to translate something. Pietas is the faithful living out of one’s duties and responsibilities – for us who are disciples of Jesus, faithfully living out our discipleship. Faithfully living out our baptismal promise to follow Jesus.
In the Middle Ages the church loved to make lists of seven, a good Biblical number. There were the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Works of Mercy – also taking a Biblical list, from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25, to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoner, welcome the stranger – to which was added giving a respectful burial to the dead.
God the Holy Spirit, who is God present us, unseen, who gives us gifts to give. In Thomas Aquinas and indeed in the list in Isaiah, the first gift of the seven is wisdom – the gift of knowing we are loved by God, and knowing how to love.
The Rev. Danielle Thompson will be ordained a priest here in St. Chrysostom’s Church on Monday, December 13, at 6:00 PM by the Bishop of Tennessee.
At every ordination of every Episcopal priest, and deacon, and bishop, the Book of Common Prayer has the person being ordained say:
… I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to
salvation;
salvation;
(Book of Common Prayer, page 526)
And there is silence while the person signs this oath.
And then just before the ordination by the bishop (or, in the case of a bishop, by the bishops) the whole congregation sings the ancient hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus. The Prayer Book directs: The hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, or the hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus, is sung.
At Danielle’s ordination Richard Hoskins has chosen that we use the words and music at Hymn 504. There are several translations authorized today. Hymn 504 uses the words translated by John Cosin (1594-1672).
John Cosin was a Cambridge don – head of one of the colleges, Peterhouse (a current fellow of Peterhouse was a regular attender at our nine o’clock with his daughter during a sabbatical year). John Cosin went into exile in France with the Royal Family after the defeat and execution of Charles I by Cromwell. He came back at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 and these words we will sing were printed in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The only hymn – the only words to a hymn – to appear in the Prayer Book.
This hymn (or another translation of this hymn) was sung before the ordination of every Episcopal bishop, priest and deacon you know or have ever known:
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing spirit art,.
Who dost thy seven-fold gifts impart.
“thy seven-fold gifts” refers of course to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In my home parish in Boston, the Church of the Advent – the parish that sponsored me for ordination, and where I met Eve – there are seven brass lamps that hang in front of the High Altar, each with a candle burning in it – symbolizing these Seven Gifts of the Holy
Spirit.
Church of the Advent, Boston -- the seven lamps in front of the high altar
When I first came to St. Chrysostom’s, Chicago in 1993. the Rt. Rev. John M. Burgess, then retired Bishop of Massachusetts wrote me a letter. Bishop Burgess ordained me both as a deacon and a priest. He wrote that I would “need every gift of the Holy Spirit” for ministry in this great city.
The Holy Spirit is given to each one of us. God comes to dwell within us, making our innermost place in our bodies God’s temple. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” wrote Paul. May God give each one of us – may we realize God does give each one of us – the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and first and last the gift of the wisdom to know and trust God’s love and to love one another, and those in need at the heart of a great city.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Raymond Webster at St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago, IL on Dec. 5, 2010 at 5:15pm
