the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love
The gift of piety fosters spiritual dispositions: first, filial respect for God as a loving Father; second, a generous and childlike love, so that a person wants to please God, even if it means making sacrifices; and third, a loving obedience toward the teachings and commandments, respecting them as expressions of God’s love for us.
As such, a person approaches prayer or worship at Mass not as a task or burden but as an act of joyful love; a person adheres to the commandments and teachings of the Church — as difficult as it may be at the time, given “popular” opinion — because he knows they express God’s truth and therefore show the way to eternal life. Immediately, we can see why fear of the Lord and piety are so closely linked.
Piety also makes us love and have affection for “God’s friends” — the Blessed Mother Mary, the saints and the angels; or “God’s representatives” who exercise His authority — the Holy Father, the bishop, or parents; or “God’s treasures” — the Bible, the church, or blessed religious objects. Concerning piety toward God’s treasures, I have learned to kiss the Bible and the crucifix, to bow my head at the name of Jesus, to be quiet and respectful in God’s house, and to avoid walking on blessed graves — all acts of piety.
The best way to cultivate the gift of piety is to pray the Our Father with reverence and devotion, taking time to meditate on the different petitions. A worthwhile endeavor is to read Catechism of the Catholic Church’s explication on the Our Father, (CCC, Nos. 2759- 2865). As the catechism notes, in this prayer one finds “the summary of the whole Gospel.”
A second way is to sanctify our work, meaning to be mindful that whatever we do can be made into an offering to the Lord, whether out of pure devotion, or for the poor souls in purgatory, or the reparation for our own sins. You’ve heard the phrase, “Offer it up.” When we are prone to complain about the heat or something else – Offer it up. When doing a task I don’t like, I always say to myself, “Lord, this is for the poor souls.” Piety truly can help us endure the most distasteful of tasks.
Where there is love, there is no labor.
Pope Francis taught, “Piety, therefore, is synonymous of authentic religious spirit, filial confidence in God, of the capacity to pray to Him with love and simplicity which is proper of persons who are humble of heart. The gift of piety makes us grow in our relation and communion with God and leads us to live as His children; at the same time it helps us to pour this love also on others and to recognize them as brothers.”