This opening onto the contemplative life, onto the peace of the Fatherland, can be realized in diverse ways. It can happen sometimes – though this is not the most frequent – in the full flourishing of the contemplative Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Gifts of Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom. Other times, these three Gifts seem masked, veiled, and what we see manifested are the active Gifts, or better stated, the Gifts illuminating the active life, the Gifts of Fear, loving fear, Fortitude, Piety, which makes us consider creatures fraternally (my Brother Sun and Sister Moon), Counsel. The seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are like the stem of a flower. You can have lateral growth, even while the petals of the summit of the stem have yet to bud. Or again, you can have a growth of the higher flowers – but that’s more rare, the great contemplation of a Saint Teresa, a Saint John of the Cross… At the heart of the active life the Gifts of the Holy Spirit can manifest themselves. In such a case, the resulting contemplation of the higher Gifts [Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge] will be masked, even though present. It is in a poor person, a sick person, that we see Jesus.
Charles Cardinal Journet (1891–1975)