Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/220

208 soldiers, and priests of Jesus Christ, and they have in their measure and proportion the sacramental graces which flow from them. In what do they, then, differ? The difference would seem to be in the use the one makes and the other does not make of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost which are in him. The virtues of faith, hope, and charity are habits; but the gifts are faculties or powers which elicit and perfect these virtues. Three of the gifts—fear, piety, and fortitude—perfect the will; four perfect the reason: intellect and science perfect the speculative reason; counsel and wisdom perfect the practical reason. These seven gifts, when fully unfolded, make men to be saints; unfolded partially and unequally they make the diversities of sanctity seen in the Church; or good, but not perfect, Christians. In the measure in which they are unfolded they give a special character to the mind. Some priests are skilled in counsel, some in intellectual subtilty, some in piety, some in courage, and the like. It is not often that we see all the seven gifts equally unfolded in the same character, for it would form a saintly mind, and saintly minds are few.

But this gives us the key of the great diversities among good priests. Some are wise but not learned, some learned but not pious, some pious but not