The Holy Spirit’s Gift of Piety
The penultimate Gift of the Holy Spirit is piety. Piety is giving our due reverence to God. Someone with the Gift of Piety worships God, and out of his filial affection and duty to God, pays due duty to all his neighbors, honors the saints, with special reverence to Mary, and never contradicts Scripture. Piety gives us an absolute confidence in God. It is not just an external showing of fervor (though that is often a byproduct of it) but a true religious spirit that makes us joyfully serve God and others.
The Gift of Piety was, in St. Thomas’ view, linked to the Virtue of Justice. St. Thomas views the gift of Piety as even greater than normal religious worship of God. With religion we know to worship God as creator, as did the ancient Israelites. But it is only through Jesus Christ and the Gift of Piety given to us by the Holy Spirit that we can worship God as Father, which, as St. Thomas says, is even more excellent than worshiping Him as either Creator or Lord. One of the saints most known for receiving the gift of Piety is St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine was the 24th of her parents 25 children and from an early age wanted to give her whole life to God. She had her first vision of Jesus at six, had a ‘mystical marriage’ to Christ at 21, lived for three years as a hermit, and pleaded successfully with the Pope. She was even one of the very few saints who has had direct visions from the Father, writing down His words to her in her Dialogues.
St. Augustine linked Piety to the Beatitude blessed are the meek. Someone gifted with Piety will approach the Holy Scriptures with a meek attitude, never rejecting what he does not yet understand, not offering resistance but humbly honoring its inerrancy. This is why according to Augustine, they will inherit the earth, like those dutifully and humbly seeking an inheritance from their father.