Gifts, Talents
See also: Grace.
The gift of God is granted with wisdom and mercy. It can turn into condemnation if the person who receives it makes bad use of it.
In "The Gospel as Revealed to Me"
- Remember that the one to whom more has been given is bound to give more. And to you, the maximum has actually been given in terms of instruction and gift.[1]
- The parable of the talents, in response to a scribe who questioned him about the rewards granted to the different categories of "believers". (Matthew 25:14-30) and [2]
- Man has everything except divinity. He wants that. He wants the supernatural to astonish, to be acclaimed, feared, known, celebrated... And to have something that only God can give freely, he clings to Satan, who is God's monkey, and gives alleged supernatural gifts.[3]
- The greatest and most certain test of the degree of elevation and holy will in a man is to be graced with extraordinary gifts. Very often the man becomes intoxicated humanly, and from spiritual he becomes all humanity, and then he descends and becomes Satanic.[4]
- If a gift granted to help man's weakness, instead of strengthening him and making him desire always more the supernatural Good, or even simply moral Good, serves to weigh him down with the burden of human appetites and to divert him far from the straight way, on paths that make him descend, then the gift becomes harmful. Pride alone is enough to make a gift harmful. It is enough to be disoriented by something that exalts you and makes you lose sight of the supreme and good End, to make a gift harmful.[5]
- The gift of God does not erase. Only sin annihilates it.[6]
- I (Mary) had to accept the gift of my own free will, and with all the consequences it entailed. Indeed, every divine gift is a great blessedness but also a great commitment. And God does not force any man to accept his gifts, but He questions the creature, and if the creature says "No" to the spiritual voice that speaks to it, God does not force it. Every Soul, at least once in their life, is questioned by God.[7]
- It is not always that life is a gift, prosperity is not always a gift, a child is not always a gift; it is not always, yes, not even that, an election is a gift.[8]
- Every gift corresponds to a great responsibility on the part of the one who receives it, a responsibility all the greater as the gift is great.[9]
- Every gift of God is nothing, good only if it is charged with active forces, if man does not have the will to do in compensation the gift of his own spirit to God.[10]
In foundational Christian texts
In the Bible
- Subsequently, says the Lord, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will become prophets, I will speak through dreams to your elders and through visions to your young men.[11]
- God shaped men and gave them a brain to think, filling them with intelligence and knowledge and making them know Good and evil.[12]
- You have received freely; give freely.[13]
- The gifts of God and his Call are irrevocable.[14]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The gifts of the Holy Spirit.[15]