The Gift of Wisdom provides us with God's view of things, a kind of divine perspective on reality that penetrates through events and perceives the divine presence and action at work, even in very tragic and painful situations. To see God in suffering is indeed a high level of the Gift of Wisdom. Some things are to be learned in this perspective that cannot be learned in any other way The Gift of Wisdom is the source of the Beatitude of the Peacemakers, those who have established peace within themselves and who have ordered their own great variety of faculties into a unity that submits to God's direction and inspiration. They are also able to establish peace around them--whether it be in their families, communities, or the workplace.

The word "wisdom" comes from the Latin word "sapientia." The very sound is delicious. "Sapientia" actually means "tasting knowledge"--knowledge that is delightful and not merely notional or abstract. It is like the experience of tasting fruit, a very different experience from reading about it in a dictionary.

Is it really possible to taste God? The answer is yes, but we cannot bring it about by our own efforts. We can only prepare ourselves for it by reducing the obvious obstacles we can perceive and by allowing the action of divine love to purify our unconscious motivation.

The Gift of Wisdom has a very important place in Centering Prayer because it is this gift that causes the prayer at times to be full of insights, delightful, and profoundly silent--a silence that can almost be tasted or heard. The Gift of Wisdom communicates the mystery of God's presence as a personal experience. It brings to an end any doubts about God's love for us that we might have brought with us from early childhood, such as feelings of rejection or lack of self-worth. There is no greater affirmation of our goodness than to be affirmed by the Divine Presence.

Sometimes this sense of God's presence may be personified in one member of the Holy Trinity rather than another working within us. The Abba--which means papa, dad, daddy--was Jesus' favorite word for his experience of the mystery out of which he came.

The experience of God, even in a very modest form, is truly wonderful. I am not referring to the superficial consolation that may come from liturgical music or from some great orator who stirs up our emotions. The stimulation that comes from the senses that stirs up sensible consolation is not the Gift of Wisdom, but is simply a good grace. The Gift of Wisdom comes from a very profound source within and wells up unexpectedly That is why at times, when Centering Prayer is most dry and we think it is about time to give it up, to our great surprise we suddenly feel completely at peace and virtually caressed by the interior presence of God. Then we wonder what we were complaining about. After all our groaning and moaning, we perceive that God was close to us all the time. Eventually, we grow out of such childishness and become capable of receiving the profound touches of the Divine Presence--not just a drop of heavenly dew, but what seems like waves of love.

One characteristic of the Gift of Wisdom is that it is a permanent gift, even though it manifests itself transiently. As a permanent gift it shares its inspiration with both the intellect and the will. It is rooted in the will and grows along with charity Charity grows as a result of acts of mercy and fidelity to prayer. There are serious obstacles to it, such as the unwillingness to forgive and the tendency to bear a grudge or to refuse to be reconciled. These things hinder charity more than other kinds of sins. Divine Love is self-giving, self-surrendering, and very powerful. Contemplative prayer draws us little by little into the stream of charity that flows endlessly between the Persons of the Trinity and through the Incarnation into creation, especially into the human family. Grace keeps inviting us further and deeper into that stream. When you finally lose your foothold in the stream and it carries you along, you are in divine union. Your motive for living and for all activity is rooted in this union.

Once in a while you get a particular insight into the divine. The Gift of Knowledge has to do with human affairs; Wisdom, with things that are divine. Insight into aspects of the divine mystery, such as God's mercy, tenderness, and immensity, are the fruits of the Gift of Wisdom. This affects your conduct so that you begin to be guided, even in daily life; not in detail as in the case of the Gift of Counsel, but from a higher perspective that might be called God's point of view. Seeing things from God's perspective enables us to see all things in God. As St. Thomas Aquinas says in his treatment of this gift, "The gift of wisdom makes the bitter, sweet, and labor, a rest." Even in great tragedy you may find a certain divine sweetness. Somehow, from God's point of view, everything is okay. Everything is in fact perfect. When that higher kind of perspective on reality is missing, we suffer greatly.

When I was about to enter the monastery, I had three or four days at home to say goodbye to my friends and my distraught parents. Nobody in the family had the slightest idea what the Trappists were about. In those days there were only three such monasteries in the United States. I remember walking along the street to visit someone in lower Harlem (where I had been teaching catechism) when I suddenly felt completely surrounded by a marvelous Presence. The sense of being in God was just as powerful on the street as it had ever been in church. I was prepared to go through a wall of fire to enter the monastery. That kind of grace protected me from the poignant goodbyes and gave me the courage to be undeterred by my mother's and grandmother's tears. Neither was a Catholic. My grandmother was especially upset, and there was no way to console her.

At the height of the changes being introduced at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts after the Second Vatican Council, I had a hernia operation. I suspect that it was due to carrying luggage full of heavy tools to our South American foundations. I was in the infirmary convalescing, and encountering interior trials, as well as dreading some of the experiments in the Trappist regime that I saw were coming. I decided I would take a little walk. As I stepped out of the door of the infirmary onto the blacktop, a Presence of incredible tenderness engulfed me. I happened to look up, and there was a full moon. God showed me in an instant, without words, that he had arranged everything in my life from the beginning to that instant in order to bring me to accept myself just as I was and to give myself to him. Everything in my life fell into place as part of the divine plan. Waves of joy, gratitude, and praise flowed over me from a source deep within. The Presence was so intimate, so penetrating, so respectful of my freedom; so immense and yet humble; so loving and tender; so all-knowing; all powerful and yet so tranquil. It was strength and stability. It was changeless and timeless--it had the fullness of everything. In that moment, I realized that God knew everything about me, even the minutest details of my life, and still loved me! I understood that God had created the full moon just for me just to celebrate this night on which God chose to manifest his love for me. I also sensed in this Presence a certain amusement at my astonishment.

I began walking slowly down the driveway A large tree next to the road suddenly lit up and my whole life passed in front of my eyes in an instant, leaving the unmistakable impression that everything was okay I walked into a meadow, where everything was God. The trees, the grass-everything was emerging out of God. I started jumping up and down with joy.

I do not know how much of this grace remained. Special graces are very strong when they first come and then they tend to subside, but the substance of them usually remains. This experience lasted for an hour or two. I kept hopping and leaping around with uncontrollable joy As I came back to the house, the Presence gradually subsided, and I realized that God created the moon and everything else for each of us; and not just me. With what tenderness and patience God deals with us! There is no word to describe a Presence that is completely unified but which has at the same time such incredible diversity. One cannot exaggerate how good God is or praise him enough. Yet praises are all platitudes compared to the actual sense of the Divine Presence when it finally catches up with you.

It is characteristic of the Gift of Wisdom to show us how God looks at our lives. It is such a total surprise that one cannot get over it. Each person is unique. God keeps bestowing his unconditional love for everyone coming into the world. That is the view that the Gift of Wisdom imparts: everyone is incredibly loved and cared for by God. Even the things we find in our lives to be most destructive are okay, once we turn to God. They are no hindrance as far as God is concerned.

Wisdom is that mysterious quality that cannot exaggerate the goodness of God and that frees us from worldly ideas about God; such as that God is a tyrant who has a hang-up about obedience or a judge ever ready to bring down the verdict of guilty. Or that he is a policeman with a whole KGB of angels watching our every step to catch us in some fault. These are all projections of our fear of the unknown and are most unworthy of God. To inspire us to think big of God, and always bigger, is the work of the Gift of Wisdom. When we need to act out of that understanding, we take on challenges that we would never dare to assume otherwise. The bigger our idea of God, the more likely we are to act with magnanimity in the service of God.

The activity of the Gift of Wisdom establishes peace in us and puts order into all our faculties, relating them to our inmost being where God dwells. This is the peace Jesus speaks of as "not of this world." Once established in this peace, we can be a source of peace to others. Hence the Beatitude: "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9).

The more the Gifts of the Holy Spirit unfold, especially the contemplative gifts of Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom, the more one tastes with love and delight the incomparable nature of the Triune God.

Still, the spiritual journey continues even after the movement into Transforming Union. There remains the movement from divine union to unity, the letting go of one's self-identity as a fixed point of reference, a passage that might be called the Night of Self. Perhaps a poem can suggest its extraordinary significance for understanding the purpose and meaning of our lives in particular and the whole process of human evolution.

The Night of Self

When the self relativizes
And the "me" disappears
There is not much left of time.
There is only the present moment.

Time which once was most of me,
Like "me," is now no more--
Just a memory.

When all anxious seeking stops
Unity begins.
But every time I act
Even if to pray
Unity dissolves.

When all striving ceases
I awaken to behold
Ever-present Awareness
Keeping silent watch.

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

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