Harpa Dei

Rom 8:14-17 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we […]

At the beginning of the sixth chapter of the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul explains that, through baptism, we share in the death and resurrection of Christ and that, from that moment on, we must walk a new life. This new life requires an effort on our part to detach ourselves from our old,

Rom 4:13-17 The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but

“So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.” (2 Pet 3:15b-16) I begin

Rom 2:17-29 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who

Rom 2:3-11 Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to

Having meditated on the entire Gospel of Saint John and the Acts of the Apostles, and after turning our attention to the Holy Spirit in the context of Pentecost, I would like to focus on Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans over the next few weeks. Of all his epistles, this is the most complete

If the gift of understanding enables us to penetrate the divine mysteries, the gift of wisdom grants us a “delightful” knowledge of God. “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” -exclaims the psalmist (Ps 34:8). First he invites us to taste, and only then to see. The gift of wisdom gives us an experience

“The Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10) While the gift of knowledge helps us to withdraw from the attraction of creatures, recognising in an inner sight their nothingness (inasmuch as they were created out of nothing), and makes us realise that all life and beauty proceed from

“What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life?” (Mt 16:26) Through the first four gifts (fear of the Lord, piety, fortitude and counsel), the Holy Spirit guides our moral life above all. Through the last three gifts (knowledge, understanding and wisdom) He directly guides our supernatural life, i.e. our