The Feast of the Pentecost

The great feast of the Pentecost invites us to reflect on the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Here is a fine passage from our Father Saint Francis de Sales on the fruits of the Holy Spirit:

The glorious St. Paul speaks thus: Now the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. But mark, Theotimus, how this holy Apostle, counting these twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost, reckons them as only one fruit; for he does not say the fruits of the spirit are charity, joy, but the fruit of the spirit is charity, joy.

Now the mystery of this manner of speech is this. The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Charity is truly the only fruit of the Holy Spirit, but because this one fruit has an infinity of excellent properties, the Apostle, who wishes to mention some of them by way of example, speaks of this one fruit as of many, because of the multitude of properties which it contains in its unity, and conversely speaks of all these fruits as of one only, by reason of the unity in which is comprised this variety.

So he who should say that the fruit of the vine is grapes, must, wine, brandy, the drink that rejoices the heart of man, the beverage that comforts the stomach: – would not mean that they were fruits of different species, but only that, although it was only one fruit, yet it had many different properties, according as it was differently used. 

The Apostle, then, simply means to say that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is charity; which is joyous, peaceable, patient, benign, good, long-suffering, mild, faithful, modest, continent, chaste … (Treatise on the Love of God, Book XI)

May we, at all times possess the divine Charity that has been poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 5:5)