As the source of spiritual life, the Holy Spirit’s presence cannot be physically observed but He reveals Himself in the actions of any person who is living a good Christian life. These expressions are known as Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The Church teaches that a fruit is a righteous action that brings true spiritual joy, and which is made possible by cooperating with God’s Grace and by using the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.
The Third Person of the Holy Trinity is active in the lives of Catholics, prompting and guiding them to bear good fruit by providing supernatural gifts which are received at Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation.
A Catholic who properly utilizes the Holy Spirit’s special gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God to increase in holiness will exhibit the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Traditionally, the Catholic Church lists 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.
The traditional 12 fruits are based on the Latin translation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. The original Greek text referred to the fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
As signs that a Catholic is on the right path, the good fruits that result from living a life in the Spirit are in contrast to the works of someone who lives according to the flesh and which lead to sin.
Evidence of living a good Christian life:
Manifestations of the Holy Spirit working in a person’s life:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
Galatians 5: 19-25
Fruits that can be seen in those who choose the good:
People who are filled with the Holy Spirit produce these fruits:
Fruit revealed through thoughts, words, and deed:
The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. the tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1832
Building on the Holy Spirit’s gifts to bear fruit:
We remove the “old garments”, which we cannot wear in God’s presence. Or better put: we begin to remove them. This renunciation is actually a promise in which we hold out our hand to Christ, so that He may guide us and reclothe us. What these “garments” are that we take off, what the promise is that we make, becomes clear when we see in the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Galatians what Paul calls “works of the flesh” – a term that refers precisely to the old garments that we remove. Paul designates them thus: “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like”. These are the garments that we remove: the garments of death. Then, in the practice of the early Church, the one to be baptized turned towards the East – the symbol of light, the symbol of the newly rising sun of history, the symbol of Christ. The candidate for Baptism determines the new direction of his life: faith in the Trinitarian God to whom he entrusts himself. Thus it is God who clothes us in the garment of light, the garment of life. Paul calls these new “garments” “fruits of the spirit”, and he describes them as follows: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”
Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 3 April 2010
How a person knows they are in the Holy Spirit:
The fruits of actions done with the Holy Spirit:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Becoming a nun:
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