Fruits of the Holy Ghost

What proceeds from man’s reason is a fruit of reason. What proceeds from man by the working in him of a higher power is the fruit of that higher power. Hence, the action of a man which proceeds from him as the product of what is implanted in him, like a seed, by the Holy Ghost, is the fruit ofthe Holy Ghost.

The beatitudes are perfect works; the fruits of the Holy Ghost are virtuous and delightful works. The beatitudes are fruits; but not all fruits are beatitudes.

The fruits of the Holy Ghost are enumerated by St. Paul(Gal. 5:22-23): charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness,long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity.

In general, the sensitive appetites tend to draw man to goods less than himself; the fruits tend to lift man to what is greater than himself, not only as lying beyond the reach of sense,but beyond the reach of natural reason. Hence there is contrast and opposition between the works of the flesh and the fruits.