The Gift of Counsel raises the virtue of prudence to a new dimension. It not only suggests what to do in the long range, but also what to do in the details of our daily lives. The more open we are to the Spirit, the more the Spirit takes over our lives. The Spirit will even live our lives for us. We make many mistakes but keep coming back to the realization that God knows how to live our lives. Only God knows the long road. Only his plans for us are going to work, not ours.

The inspirations of the Gift of Counsel are closer to us than spoken directives. God is so intimately present to us that the constant awareness of God's presence is always available, if we are open to it. It embraces us, everything in our lives, and all reality at the same time. Being in the presence of God as much as we can all day long is the secret of continuous growth in contemplative prayer.

The first thing that emerges as a pattern as we relate to the Spirit as Counselor is the need to change or modify our behavior. The Spirit teaches us how to behave in the Father's house. We are like a youngster brought off the street into a very cultured family that decides to take him in out of charity He does not know how to behave. When he sees the dining-room table, he puts his muddy shoes on top o£ it. Someone has to tell him that this is not the way to behave.

I remember hearing a story about a Christian Brother who served in one of the order's homes for delinquent bays. He had a terrible time with one youngster, who was absolutely recalcitrant. For one thing, the boy used to spit in the soup. The Brother tried to persuade him in every way he knew how not to do so, but to no avail. One day, the boy came to him and said: "Guess what, Brother?"

"What?" the brother replied.

"Jesus told me not to spit in the soup."

Thus the Gift of Counsel is not limited to the perfect or well behaved, but engages each of us right where we are, guiding us subtly, but sometimes very bluntly, as to how we are to behave.

The inspirations of the Gift of Counsel are usually practical, concrete, and down to earth--suggesting what to do in practical affairs. They may suggest at times some long-range project. But most of the time they suggest what to do right now and often in great detail, such as what to eat or what not to eat, what journey to take or not to take, when to go to bed and when to get up. The Gift of Counsel may suggest things that seem to be contrary to piety. For instance, it may suggest not entering a form of religious life for which one has a strong attraction. God may see that there will be problems down the line that we do not foresee. The Spirit may recommend something that seems strange, such as taking a job that prevents us from attending mass for weeks or months. The Spirit may give us at the same time a peaceful attraction to accept the position. Later that job may enable us to do great good for others.

The Gift of Counsel is flexible and free of preconceived ideas. That is perhaps what characterizes it as a gift. Practices that we think are essential for our carefully laid plans for holiness tend to get shot through with holes by divine providence.

We need to be sensitive to the divine impulse. The "counseling" is not normally a direct message. It is not a "word of wisdom," which is a charismatic gift in which we are convinced that God is talking to us. The Gift of Counsel is normally a delicate attraction that is peaceful even when it is quite surprising. Everyone who is on the spiritual journey has this gift. Its activity is not the result of our planning or reasoning. In particular incidents, the fact that it was the right thing to do is only revealed somewhere down the road.

A classical example is the sending of the seventy-two disciples to heal the sick and to prepare the way for Jesus to come to various towns. The mission was obviously intended to make an impression, so that when Jesus came he would be well received. The disciples were not prepared for this mission by any standard. They had not been to a seminary They did not know much scripture. Their nets were scarcely dry on the banks of the lake when Jesus gathered most of them together. These were not the Apostles. They did not have a long experience with him. They were merely a group of men who had been following Jesus for a short time. Jesus said in effect: "Go out now and heal the sick, cast out demons." How would you respond if such a course of action were suggested to you? Jesus sent them out two by two to give them a little mutual support. But he himself did not go; he sent them off on their own. When they came back, they were full of enthusiasm. The mission was a smashing success. They were excited and thrilled the way people are in a large charismatic gathering with lots of singing in tongues and prophesying.

When the disciples reported their success to Jesus, he told them not to be so excited about their power to work miracles. He put the lid on their enthusiasm, pointing out that they should be more excited about having their names written in heaven-meaning, that they were part of the divine plan. These are words that might be addressed to us. We are part of a plan that we do not know much about. We are trying to follow it and need the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Gift of Counsel.

Let us take a closer look at the story as it might apply in our own lives. We often find ourselves in a situation where we are given something to do for which we do not feel adequately prepared. Our first reaction is "No." Any decision that is not easy to discern requires that we pray over it. On one level we don't want to do it because we feel totally inadequate. And yet peacefully the thought comes: "Why don't you do this anyway?" The point I want to make is that you may feel that you should go against your better judgment. You feel inadequate and perhaps you are! You feel you may do a lousy job, and so you hesitate.

Three stages frequently occur in action that is prompted by the Spirit. The first is that you feel called by God to do something that requires great effort, and sometimes the project is initially a huge success. The next stage is that your initial success fails. You feel that you made a mistake and are humiliated. You resolve never to take a similar risk. Finally, there is the triumph of grace, often totally unexpected. Those three elements almost always go together. The triumph of grace may consist of the fact that one or two people actually connected with what you were trying to teach, and they then become the nucleus of a tiny group that begins to spread. What you saw in the beginning as success was actually a failure, and what you thought was a failure was really the beginning of a ministry blessed by the Spirit to have far reaching effects. All you have to do is to take the first step.

In the case of the disciples, as we saw, they were a smashing success. Actually, nothing fails more than success, especially for beginners. Jesus sent the disciples out without preparation, knowing that they would enjoy stunning success and come back with feelings of vanity and pride. That was their failure. He would have to instruct them that their idea of success was not what he meant by success. Apparent success, whether it be in ministry or in a vocation suggested by the Spirit, is not what success is. Rather, the humiliation of seeming failure makes certain the triumph of grace. It may not be what you hoped for, but it will be much more successful in the long run than anything you could have imagined.

The Gift of Counsel does not act according to human prudence. What it suggests is not usually a well thought-out plan of action. It might suggest a course that contradicts what has been a great source of support in one's spiritual journey. For example, certain devotions may serve as suitable tools for one period of one's life. Later they may not be so helpful and a new set of tools becomes necessary This is not to denigrate the great devotions of the Christian tradition. For some people, these may be excellent means all their life. In the case of others, the 5pirit may inspire them to drop or add some spiritual practice.

The Gift of Counsel suggests how to adjust to circumstances that are unusual or that change. It may happen that at some point the Spirit will suggest that your sacred symbol is not helpful anymore; it only gets in the way. Or again, you may faithfully say the active prayer sentence and along comes the Spirit saying: "The fruit of the practice has been achieved." When that happens, you do not need the means anymore. It is like taking a train to New York. When you arrive, you do not buy another ticket to go to New York, because you are already there.

This movement into the presence of God in daily life begins by bringing all its details to that presence. What we do as soon as we get up in the morning is important. What we do the last thing before retiring is important. Just what we do may be a question of choice, what works well for us. Some like to read a few lines of scripture before retiring, or as soon as they get up in the morning. Others like to practice Centering Prayer right away. Others say a brief prayer from their hearts as soon as they awaken to give themselves to God. Some people who practice Centering Prayer and who wake up in the night and can't get back to sleep enter into the attitude they have in Centering Prayer; they stay in that attitude for an hour or so and find that it brings them as much rest as being asleep. To be creative about ways to be in the presence of God all day long will greatly enhance our openness to God when we come to Centering Prayer.

The result of many of our practices, including Centering Prayer, is to establish a state in which our spiritual will is constantly turned to God. At some point any specific practice may prove to be a hindrance to the divine action. We may be doing something to help God out when God doesn't need any help. The Gift of Counsel suggests the kind of cooperation we should offer to God, and it suggests when it is no longer useful. Then we should just rest in God. There are people for whom any practice they might initiate would be a distraction. Thus, when something comes up from the unconscious that feels like one of the emotional centers going off, they only. have to notice it and it goes away. Any effort to get rid of it would be excessive. When we are at a deep level of peace, even a devout movement is a distraction. It is like the old-fashioned planes that used to fly on a radio beam. If the plane went too far to the right, the pilot heard one beep; if it went too far to the left, the pilot heard two beeps. When there was no sound at all, the plane was right on course and there was nothing to do.

The Gift of Counsel is a peaceful inclination to continue to do what we are doing or to change what we are doing. We can ignore it. It is a suggestion. Take it or leave it. To develop that sensitivity requires work on our part to maintain interior silence, but once it is established the only time we have to take action is when we notice a loss of peace. That means that we are off course. As long as that peace is in place, we are in deep prayer all the time, whether we are praying formally or not. Whether we are counseling or doing heavy manual work, as long as that sense of inner quiet and peace is there, God is not asking us to think about or to judge the situation. He merely wants us to stay on course, to do his will in the present moment. Opposition, negativity, and failure need not be given much attention. Human effort, failure, and the triumph of grace seems to be the pattern the Spirit normally follows. Even that is sometimes hard to perceive because of our preconceived ideas of what the triumph of grace should look like. The triumph of grace is that we accept the humiliation of failure, which is indeed a triumph, a greater triumph than external success.

In actual fact, the experience of failure in ministry teaches us in the long run how to do it, which is with complete dependence on God. I do not know whether there is any other way of learning how to do ministry. Failure is part of the learning process. Then, perhaps to our great surprise, everything calms down and works for a while. However, don't count on lingering on that plateau because, just when everything is going smoothly, the Spirit gets a new idea and you are off to the races again!

To witness ordinary people growing in the spiritual journey is a great encouragement. We can see how they are deepening all the time and we wonder how this happens. They all complain about how many failures they are suffering, but in actual fact they are coming closer and closer to God. That is where the real success story lies. They are taking the counsel of the Spirit and putting it into practice.

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Excerpted from Fruits and Gift of the Spirit by Fr. Thomas Keating

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