In Catholicism, what happens to the gifts of the Holy Spirit after we committed a mortal sin?

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Accepted answer

Discussing the "Connection of the Gifts among Themselves and with Charity", John of St. Thomas writes in The Gifts of the Holy Ghost:

  1. Sinners living without grace can acutely discern, dispute, and even treat of divine things and of mystical or loving understanding as an object and matter of disputation. But they cannot use such an understanding as the principle and motive of their knowledge. For example, I can treat of the intuitive vision of God and of the experimental knowledge of sensible things as the object or matter of a discussion. Yet I do not have the experimental contact with these sensible things nor the intuitive knowledge of God, because I do not use experience and intuition as the principal and formal reason of my knowing. In the same way, the sinner cannot use loving and experimental knowledge as a formal principle. From the very fact that he has not grace, he cannot have a connaturality to the Spirit, nor union with God and experience of Him proper to the gift.
    No one knows except him who has received. [Apocalypse 2:17]
    He may use it as an object and treat of it as he remembers it. And in this respect the great change from the state of grace to the condition of a sinner is in no way felt. However, it is in the experimental and loving knowledge, the internal touch of the Spirit, that a great change and loss is felt.
    For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will draw himself away from thoughts without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity comes in. [Wisdom 1:5]
    The gifts of the Holy Spirit, then, are taken away from sinners.

    On the other hand, those whose hearts are turned to God immediately feel a serenity and tranquillity, and they are relieved of the great burden of sin. This is a sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Who is the inhabitant of rest. [Isaias 38:11] This peace and serenity is an effect of confession, as the Council of Trent teaches. [session 14, c. 3]

The gift of wisdom cannot remain in a soul that has lost sanctifying grace and charity, though acquired wisdom can:

  1. […] not every illumination of the mind constitutes the gift of wisdom, but only the one which makes for a correct estimate of the final end, which is found only in those having grace.
  1. […] it is most certain that when grace is lost through mortal sin the wisdom which is a gift of the Holy Spirit ceases to be.
    For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity comes in. [Wisdom 1:4–5]
    Therefore, the arrival of iniquity signalizes the departure of the motion of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom will flee from the deceitful. This passage of Scripture cannot be understood of acquired wisdom. For it is a matter of experience that acquired wisdom remains even without grace. Nor is it the charism of wisdom, nor prophecy, which can be found even in sinners. It can be understood, therefore, only of the gift of wisdom.
    […]
    Although sin is a moral aversion, it has many physical effects at least by way of demerit; it takes away grace and destroys charity, it wounds the intellect, and drives out the Holy Spirit. It impedes all His friendly motions. Whether it brings about this overthrow physically or by way of demerit is not the present question. It is sufficient to note that all is destroyed by sin.

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