the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” – John 4:6-7
The gift of knowledge completes the natural virtues and leads to their perfection. It makes us docile to God and disposes us to obey His promptings. In other words, the gift of knowledge is anything but a static cognition or mere familiarity with facts, such as where Jesus was born or when He died.
Knowledge leads us to a closer relationship with God, inspires us to carry out His will, and moves us to act in accord with the queen of all virtues, charity (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1831).
At the same time, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, the gift of knowledge is not a “practical” virtue meaning that it is not primarily a knowledge of what to do, but a gift that enables us to cling to the “first truth.” That truth—which, of course, is God—is also the ultimate end for which we act, and therefore extends to our entire life of action.
“the only thing that counts is faith working through love” Galatians 5:6
Hence, the gift of knowledge principally empowers us to see what we are to hold by faith, and it secondarily extends to our actions insofar as through a knowledge of what we believe, we are led to do what is right, just, and charitable.
When we ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of knowledge, we are not primarily begging to know whether or not we should accept that new job offer, for example. We are rather begging to see God more clearly via the things we believe about Him through faith, which in turn equip us for better discerning whether we should indeed accept that new job offer. The gift of knowledge can help the soul make a decision about that new job offer by putting all the created aspects of it in their proper place and ordering them all to their definitive, final end: God.
St. John Paul II teaches that knowledge empowers man to discover “the infinite distance which separates things from the Creator, their intrinsic limitation, the danger that they can present, when, through sin, he makes improper use of them. It is a discovery which leads him to realize with remorse his misery and impels him to turn with greater drive and confidence to him who alone can fully satisfy the need of the infinite which assails him” (Regina Coeli, 23 April 1989).