Rosal

The twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit

A family picking oranges from a tree in the garden: a girl rides on her father’s shoulders, the boy carries a basket of fruit, and a white dove rests on a branch

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the good things the Spirit forms in us when we let him work, like fruit on a tree. The Church counts twelve: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. The list comes from Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians (5:22-23).

  1. Charity

    Loving God and others the way Jesus loves us.

  2. Joy

    A gladness that doesn’t depend on everything going well.

  3. Peace

    The calm of being right with God and with others.

  4. Patience

    Bearing hard things without losing our calm.

  5. Kindness

    Treating others warmly and gently, the way God treats us.

  6. Goodness

    Doing good to everyone, without expecting anything back.

  7. Generosity

    Giving freely of our time and of what we have.

  8. Gentleness

    Answering calmly and without violence, even when we are treated badly.

  9. Faithfulness

    Keeping our promises, to God and to others.

  10. Modesty

    Simplicity in how we speak, dress and act, without showing off.

  11. Self-control

    Mastering ourselves: our cravings, our temper, our wanting more.

  12. Chastity

    A pure love, which respects our own body and other people’s.

Where are the fruits of the Holy Spirit in the Bible?

Saint Paul names the fruits of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. He lists nine: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Vulgate, the Latin Bible the Church used for centuries, adds three more, which the Catechism in English calls generosity, modesty and chastity, and that is where its twelve come from. Just before, in verses 19 to 21, Saint Paul sets them against the works of the flesh.

The gifts and the fruits are not the same: the gifts are what the Holy Spirit gives us, and the fruits are what shows in our lives when we accept them.

As a family

Choose one fruit a week. At dinner, each person tells where they saw it that day in someone else in the family.

To read more, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 736, 1832.

The feast that goes with this topic

Seven weeks after EasterPentecost

In the app, the lesson “The Holy Spirit, giver of life” in Unit 2 goes with this topic.

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