It may seem unfair, at first, to say that wisdom is a virtue — after all, doesn’t everyone know one or two people who seem incapable of wisdom?
Well, that depends on what we actually mean when we talk about “wisdom.” Wisdom is not mere scholarliness. It is more than being smart. They say that wisdom comes with experience, and it does — but only if you accept it.
Wisdom, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, is a gift of the Holy Spirit born of charity and originating in the human will. But it is also connected to the intellect, because the intellect is where we discern between right and wrong based on all we have been taught and all we have experienced (Sum. II-II, 45, Art. 2).
Therefore, we must ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, and we must make ourselves ready to receive it — remembering always that we cannot recognize it alone. ©LPi