A wholly different way of living in the Holy Spirit’s gifts Melannie Svoboda, SND, takes seriously the traditional gifts of the Holy Spirit—but she believes that the Spirit’s gifts are far broader and more common than we realize. In Gracious Goodness , Svoboda lists fifty-two gifts of the Spirit, many of which will surprise readers: childlikeness, common sense, pleasure, relaxation, zeal . . . even anger, failure, and guilt are included as gifts! Each two-page meditation, based on Scripture and real-life experiences, begins with a relevant quote and ends with application questions, followed by a short prayer. Ultimately, Gracious Goodness encourages Christians to fully trust the unending goodness of God as they learn to recognize and embrace the abundance and diversity of the Holy Spirit’s gifts in every person’s life. “The Latin phrase nota bene (n.b.) means ‘note well!’ Sr. Melannie Svoboda not only knows that phrase—she lives it. In Gracious Goodness we have fifty-two n.b.’s that will enrich our spiritual treasure troves.” —Bishop Robert Morneau, Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay “In Gracious Goodness , Sr. Melannie Svoboda offers accessible meditations to today’s Everyman and Everywoman. These meditations come from life’s daily gifts and they range from kindness to whimsy. Anyone who wants a spiritual companion for the new millennium could do no better than to turn these pages.” —William J. Bausch, author, The Yellow Brick Road: A Storyteller’s Approach to the Spiritual Journey “Sr. Melannie herself is one of God’s treasures as she so ably demonstrates here. She delights us, encourages us, and surprises us with her inspiring insights and homey images. A wonderful book!” —Gwen Costello, author, A Prayer Primer for Catechists and Teachers “We are once again indebted to Sr. Melannie Svoboda for opening our eyes to the beauty of life. Prophet-like, she guides us in fifty-two brief essays, from Abundance to Zeal, to consider the Spirit’s gifts and qualities with fresh insight, with a new slant. She peppers the chapters with stories, poignant quotations, and references to Jesus’ words and example.” —John van Bemmel, author, Prayers about Everyday Stuff , coauthor, 100 Prayers for Making Faith Connections Sr. Melannie Svoboda, SND, is a popular speaker and workshop leader as well as the author of six books. She is the former provincial superior of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Chardon, Ohio. Introduction Dear Reader: This is a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I use the word “gifts” in a broad sense. I include the traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I also include other gifts such as attentiveness, beauty, diversity, intimacy, leadership, and patience. The book even includes some gifts of the Spirit not always thought of as gifts: bereavement, common sense, death, desire, guilt, failure, relaxation, and levity. The fifty-two gifts are arranged in alphabetical order with the exception of the last selection: death. I’ve placed death at the end of the book since death is, in a way, the last gift, the final gift, the ultimate gift. Each chapter begins with an appropriate quotation from a wide variety of sources followed by a meditation on the particular gift, a meditation rooted in both Scripture and daily life. At the end of each meditation there are one or more questions to facilitate personal reflection on that gift in your own life. And finally, each chapter concludes with a short prayer to encourage your prayerful dialogue with God about each gift. I call this book Gracious Goodness, for the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us by a God whose goodness knows no bounds. How blessed are we to be the recipients of these gracious gifts. May this small book help you to discover the grace, goodness, and surprising diversity of the Holy Spirit’s gifts in your own life. O Lord, it is you who are my portion and my cup; It is you yourself who are my prize. The lot marked out for me is my delight: Welcome indeed the heritage that falls to me! (Psalm 16:5–6) 1 On Abundance We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us—blessing upon blessing heaped upon us. —John 1:16 Astronomers tell us there are between 50 billion and 100 billion stars in our galaxy. (One billion is 1,000 million.) What’s more, there are an estimated 50 billion galaxies in the universe (the known universe, that is). That means, if every galaxy has 50 billion stars (a conservative estimate), then there are 50 billion times 50 billion stars swirling around in space—that is, 2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. That is a heck of a lot of stars! From the sheer number of stars alone, it is pretty obvious: Our God is a God of abundance. It seems that when it came to creating stars, at least, God got carried away. God couldn’t stop with two or three or even a few dozen stars—as reasonableness would dictate. No, God had to keep churning them out, star after star after star. And it is not just with stars that God