“I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” And the author of these words says that he preferred this wisdom above all other things. What is this wisdom that the author sought and that we, too, should seek and desire above all things?
The wisdom that the author seeks is, of course, the wisdom of God which comes to us in prayer, in scripture, and in church teaching. Prayer. In our busy lives, prayer is often the first thing that we discard in order to have time for other things. Sadly, it is precisely prayer that is needed in order for us to do other things well. Only through a regular habit of prayer do we come to know God and to understand how God is active in us and in our world. Without an active habit of prayer, we can easily think that God is not present with us or that God does not care for us. We then think that we must rely solely on our own wisdom to guide our lives but we soon find that our limited wisdom cannot bring us the happiness and fulfillment we desire. We need prayer to open our hearts to the wisdom of God. Scripture. As Christians, we begin with the Gospels which reveal to us the God who took flesh in Jesus. In the scriptures, we encounter the type of person Jesus was, the values that shaped his life and teaching, and see how his fidelity to the Father filled him with confidence and hope. Through regular reflection on the Gospels, we can come to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus expects of us as his brothers and sisters. Church teaching. When we must make a choice as to how to act in this world, we have an obligation to find out what the Church has taught on this issue. We have an obligation to take Church teaching seriously before we take any action. And if we act in a way that is contrary to Church teaching, it must be for grave reasons that reflect an informed conscience (a conscience informed as to what the Church teaches).
The wisdom of God is very accessible to each of us. The challenge is to open ourselves to that wisdom so that we can confirm our lives to what the wisdom of God teaches us.

Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J.