In the gospel yesterday as Jesus prepared to return to the Father he instructed his disciples to wait in prayer, for the arrival and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Tradition tells us that they were blessed with seven biblical gifts first spoken of by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, and more recently by Our Holy Father Pope John Paul in organizing this Novena some dozen, or more years ago.

The first is the gift of wisdom, which the Pope describes as the aversion to perishable thoughts of the world and the desire only after the things that are eternal. That sounds very much like Francis of Assisi; yet Francis had the wisdom to know that even many graced filled people could live the intensity of that commitment unless truly gifted by God.

Nevertheless, not being able to live in full intensity does not excuse or preclude us from living in so far as we are able to concentrate our focus of heart and desire on the lord, the creator and not particularly in any one of his creations.

This is not because they are evil. A creation of God cannot be evil; though the misuse of God's gift may become morally evil, but what God has made is alive in Him.

(Take a piece of paper and write the letters: E_V_I_L. Go to a mirror and hold it in front of you and God will transform it into L -I-V E.)

Along with Wisdom comes the gift of understanding, which John Paul, calls the enlightenment of our intellect by grace and counsel, the power to discern, to know, to choose that which is good over bad, or better over good. This gift is linked with the virtue of humility in that it requires listening to the advice of others and not choosing arbitrarily and independently.

The fourth gift and very pertinent to the reading from today's scripture is the gift of fortitude, the courage to embrace and wrestle and be victorious over obstacles to our spiritual growth--the alternative is apathy, ignorance, indifference.

In the gospel Jesus says, you will weep and will mourn, while the world rejoices; but your grief will become joy. Fortitude is what turns healthy grieving into living joy.

Healthy grieving is the pain that is experienced by separation from someone or even something that we have loved. It could be a pet or a plant, or a lost wedding ring, a person or thing which represents a deep emotional bonding that has been broken usually by earth; or it could be desertion, divorce, those painful emotions require time to heal. And they do so as they come to realize that the spiritual bonds are never broken.

When grieving overcomes you, find an easy chair and go into that silent and empty space in your heart and allow God to enter there with you and embrace you in his loving arms and let yourself cry - tears are very therapeutic. There is no shame in crying.

Remember the song by Leslie Gore back in the 60's. It's my party and I'll cry if I want -- cry if I want to. Back in the 60's we were also told its ok for women and girls to cry but men who cry are sissy's. Johnny Cash told us about the man named Sue so he would grow up tough and callous, without feelings. Thank God we learned some lessons from the 60's and have moved on.

But there are some who are not able to let go and move; some who stay locked in an unhealthy grief for their rest of their lives in anxiety, misery, depression, even suicide.

Even with the support of such groups as hospice and others, they become imprisoned in that silent hole in the heart, unwilling or afraid to invite the Lord in. Our fears may be something we are very reluctant to talk about it unless we have been blessed with a good therapist or spiritual director.

But you know what they are. You may play make believe that they don't exist--because you perceive them as big black bears ready to devour you. And there is no place that we can hide form them--day of night. If we allow them to keep us imprisoned and control us, we are unable to make the surrender to God, that the Holy Father calls wisdom.

Fears cause us from making life-changing decisions; whether its where we live, our employment, our daily agenda, our television habits. The Lord says to Paul and to us "Do not be afraid, I am with you." Perhaps we need to go back to the mirror and tape those words so they are the first ones are eyes see as we look at our disheveled selves each morning.

If a comb and brush and soap, and makeup, and whatever else can work such miracles on transforming those ugly faces; can you imagine what God's grace can do with our souls if we put in with him any where near the effort that we spend on our faces and bodies.

Just imagine for a moment if the time sequence were reversed. If we spent as much time in prayer with God on transforming our souls as we do preparing our physical appearance; and only as much time on our physical appearance as we give to our soul each morning. That would be very interesting, to have total serenity within, but look like we barely survived Auschwitz. How many days, or minutes would we be able to deal with that?