Gifts of the Holy Spirit: the 7 gifts and the 9 charisms explained

What are the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit?

The list comes from the prophecy about the descendant of Jesse, the hoped-for king:

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

The Hebrew text names six qualities. The Greek (Septuagint) and Latin (Vulgate) translations rendered the repeated “fear of the Lord” in verse 3 in two different ways, which produced the seventh, piety. Catholic tradition teaches that these gifts are received at baptism and strengthened at Confirmation:

1. Wisdom: seeing things as God sees them and delighting in what is of God.
2. Understanding: grasping the meaning of the faith and of Scripture.
3. Counsel: discerning what to do in concrete situations.
4. Fortitude: courage to do good and persevere in hardship.
5. Knowledge: seeing created things at their true value.
6. Piety: relating to God as a child and to others as brothers and sisters.
7. Fear of the Lord: reverence and the desire never to drift from God, not terror.

What are the 9 gifts in 1 Corinthians 12?

Paul writes to the church in Corinth, which prized the more visible gifts, and reminds them that all come from the same Spirit:

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

He sums it up as “diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (12:4) and uses the image of the body: every member has a role and none can be done without. Other lists appear in Romans 12:6–8 (serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, showing mercy) and Ephesians 4:11.

What is the difference between the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit?

The gifts are distributed differently to each person, for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace…) is the character expected of everyone. Right after discussing the gifts, Paul writes the hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13: without love, “it profiteth me nothing”.

How the traditions see the gifts

• Catholics: distinguish the seven sanctifying gifts, given to all the baptized (Catechism, nos. 1830–1831), from charisms, given to some for the service of the Church (nos. 799–801). The Catholic Charismatic Renewal also emphasizes the charisms.
• Orthodox: see the gifts as the fruit of sacramental life, received in chrismation (the sacrament right after baptism), with an emphasis on prayer and holiness.
• Protestants: Pentecostals and charismatics teach that all the gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, including tongues and prophecy, continue today. Other churches (“cessationists”) hold that the extraordinary gifts belonged to the apostolic age.

The Pentecostal movement takes its name from Pentecost, when the Spirit came upon the disciples.

Read next

• The fruit of the Spirit: the nine qualities and what each one means
• What is Pentecost? Meaning, history and date