Now the moral virtues are habitus [stable characteristics], whereby the powers of appetite are disposed to obey reason promptly. Therefore the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are habitus [stable characteristics] whereby man is perfected to obey readily the Holy Spirit.

So says Saint Thomas in Sum. theol., Ia-IIae, q. 68, a. 3.

Elsewhere he says it’s not enough to have moral virtues and theological virtues; we’d be sure to damn ourselves without the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, too. These Gifts – different from faith, hope, and love, but always present with them – dispose us to listen to the divine partner who’s leading the dance.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit – at least as Saint Thomas understood them – mean that our job is to listen and be guided. Let God make a space in us for himself, let him be jealous, let him give us these seven Gifts. These are Gifts, for sure. But they’re Gifts from a jealous God.