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Archive for 2016|Yearly archive page

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Prayerful Poems

In 07 Observations on 2016/08/26 at 12:00 AM

St. Anthony

We pray to St. Anthony when things can`t be found,
we ask him to please come around;

He never fails to fulfill my request,
for me he`s always done his best;

I remember to thank him for his guidance,
and especially for his presence;

His love and compassion he shares with us,
let`s us know in him we can trust;

God gave him the gift to help others,
to him we are all sisters and brothers.
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by Jackie Duick
The Couple

I hold someone special in my heart,
with him there we will never part,

feelings of care,
make us a loving pair,

when a couple begins their life as one,
the task at hand will never be done;

their lives will always intertwine,
as they follow the pathway through time;

They strive in life to do what is divine,
praying God will say you are mine;

Time will separate us for a while,
but we`ll eventually meet again with a kiss and a smile.

by Jackie Duick
Praying to God

There are many ways to pray to God,
some with their head may just give a nod;

Others will whisper their prayers to Him,
while some may write theirs with a pen;

Many prayers are said aloud,
especially those united in a crowd;

Some praying only with their mind,
which makes praying convenient at anytime;

When ever or where ever or how we pray,
Our Lord is there night and day

by Jackie Duick

Christianity in Eastern Europe

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2016/08/26 at 12:00 AM
  • This past week several of your fellow parishioners and I had the great joy of visiting St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, which is one of the world’s greatest gothic churches.
  • Whenever I travel – especially out of the country – I like to visit important churches not simply because they are churches, but because the art and architecture of a church provides great insight into the faith life of a people.
  • The culture of a particular place is always an expression of a people’s most deeply held beliefs. Churches, which are (at least in part) an expression of culture, are thus a sign of a people’s love for God and their faith in Him.
  • At the time that St. Vitus was begun in the 14th c., Prague was in the midst of its “golden age.” It was one of the wealthiest and most culturally sophisticated cities in Europe, and Prague was a stronghold of the Catholic faith. But times have changed.
  • Though a great monument to faith, sadly there are very few worshipers at St. Vitus today. Most people who visit today simply tramp through the place as if it’s only a museum, whose artifacts, beautiful as they are, hearken back to a distant past with no real relevance for today.
  • Yet this was not the case in the beautiful churches and pilgrimage places of Poland, which were filled with pious Poles praying and doing devotions in every nook and cranny.
  • So while both Poland and the Czech Republic are filled with magnificent churches and beautiful monuments that testify to the glories of Christendom, on the whole we found the Polish people to be far more faithful than the Czechs.
  • Certainly there are historical and political reasons for this difference. While Poland and the Czech Republic were both Communist bloc countries following World War II, the Czech Republic experienced a harsher form of Communism than did Poland. How Catholicism was linked or not linked to nationalism in each country has also played a role.
  • But while culture, history, and politics have all played a role in shaping how the Catholic faith is practiced in each country, I don’t think that’s the full story as to why there are such differences in the practice of the faith between Poland and the Czech Republic.
  • In the same way, I don’t think we can look only at familial and cultural circumstances to understand why a single person practices the Faith or not. While familial and cultural circumstances play a role in a person’s faith and practice thereof, there’s more to it than that.
  • In fact, the person who made the greatest impression on me on this pilgrimage wasn’t a pious Pole, but an elderly Czech sacristan at a church in Prague. This man didn’t speak any English, but the tender affection in his eyes and the filial devotion he showed in kissing my hands when I came to offer Mass in his church spoke volumes about his faith.
  • Despite the general loss of faith and overwhelming secularism of his country, this man has obviously chosen to continue loving God and the Church. I have every confidence that his is a faith that is tried and true because He has made a fundamental choice to love and trust God.
  • You see, t the very heart of faith is an act of the will. While faith is a gift that is not necessarily given in equal measures by our Lord, it is a gift that we must choose to open and to use.
  • In other words, belief in God and closeness to Him is not dependent on God alone. While some souls are chosen by our Lord for special tasks and higher degrees of holiness – and are therefore closer to Him – all of us can be close to our Lord. All of us can be faithful!
  • We just have to choose to practice our faith. And choosing to practice our faith as our Lord would have us practice it is really a matter of simply choosing to love God.
  • A person can certainly practice the tenets of our Faith for reasons other than the love of God, but no one can practice the Faith with integrity without truly loving God.
  • As St. Peter says today, we must “sanctify Christ as Lord in [our] hearts,” which is another way of saying that Jesus must reign as the king of our heart. It’s a way of saying that we must love and trust Jesus because He is Lord.
  • And our Gospel today teaches us that we love our Lord by being faithful to Him and to His commandments. Jesus says to us: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. . . . Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”
  • But He goes on to say, “And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
  • So what we learn from the Gospel today is that love has a price. Truly loving God requires that we submit to Him, that we obey Him – which means being obedient to the teachings and tenets of His one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church, which safeguards Christ’s teachings.
  • We cannot say that we truly love God if we are disobedient to the Church’s teachings. True love is not rebellious; it is submissive – even when it doesn’t fully understand.
  • Thus, there has never been a saint who wasn’t obedient to Christ and to the authentic teachings of His Church. Indeed, saints are people who are willing to die rather than be disobedient to Christ and His Church – and so should we be!
  • Of course being obedient to Church teaching isn’t always easy, is it? Inundated as we are by rampant secularism, sensuality, and materialism in our culture, being obedient to Christ and His Church is often counter-cultural and requires a true death to self and to worldly ways.
  • But the Gospel today also teaches us that God more than repays us if we choose to be obedient to Him out of love. Not only will our Lord love us in return, but He will reveal Himself to us! He tells us that He will not leave us orphans, but that He will come to us.
  • So by choosing to love God by being obedient, we dispose our Lord to uniting Himself to us – even in this life – which prepares us for eternal union with Him in the next life! By obediently loving God and faithfully trusting in Him, we open ourselves up to God’s mercy!
  • One of the great consolations of this pilgrimage was our visit to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland, which is where St. Faustina received so many of her revelations from our Lord about His divine mercy.
  • It seemed that in every church we visited (in both countries) we found an image of the Divine Mercy, just like we have in our narthex. To me, seeing the Divine Mercy image so often was a reminder that God’s mercy is always available to us.
  • Seeing the Divine Mercy image in so many, many places was a reminder that, even when we turn away from our Lord and immerse ourselves in worldly pursuits and values, His love is still there for us, His heart is still open to us. All we need to do is turn back to Him.
  • It was a reminder that God deserves our love, our trust, and our obedience.
  • Practicing our faith and being obedient to God and His commands is not always easy, mybrothers and sisters, but I assure you, loving God in this way is worth the effort, for itprocures for us that mercy without which we cannot be saved.
  • Through our Lord’s divine mercy, may each of us be given the gift of a deep and lively faith.May we choose to exercise this faith and love our Lord through our obedience to His teachings. And may His mercy be upon us as we place our trust in Him.

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

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“Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

In 07 Observations on 2016/08/26 at 12:00 AM

The one essential virtue God requires of us is FAITH.  Without it, nothing has any worth or gains any merit.  And, like Our Lord’s apostles, we must ask Him to increase our faith.  In our times, this is particularly important so that we do not live in fear.  This is because we are by nature cowardly and often quite weak and fearful.   It is only by faith that we can cope with the billowing  storm clouds of our times.

Our only fear should be that of being separate from God. If we compromise on any single truth of the Creed, it will follow that we will gradual compromise on others to the point that we will end up rejecting truth/faith for the value’s of this world’s so called culture.  There are many nowadays who do not want you to reject their false ideas, and it would be imprudent of you to remain silent  when doing so would cause confusion or even scandal.  Do not retreat to your own little world, but instead challenge your erroneous ideas with the truth to transform your milieu.  Our world is in great need of living examples of faith.

Stand up for your faith.  Be a living testimony to Christ despite the ridicule today’s world heaps on you.  Our Christianity obliges us to bear witness to the Truth regardless of the consequences.  We must be prudent and charitable but never cowardly or fearful in the defense of our beliefs.  Christ Himself will give us the courage to face our difficulties.   Throughout His life, Jesus was subjected to constant tauntings, criticism, and insults which He combated with the Truth.

A life of faith is a life of sacrifice meaning sacrificially rejecting whatever prevents us doing what we know is God’s will for us.  You will be faithful in important matters  of faith is you are faithful in protecting yourself from any occasion to compromise your belief, be it a movie, an event, a conversation. Do not be alarmed or discouraged by temptations.  Pray and flee, but if you must stay, stand your ground because by defending your belief, you can be an example that wins others to Christ.    Never follow the weak and blinking light of comfort and conformity which the world advocates; instead, be guided by the principles of Him who is the Light of the world.

If we meditate on the humanity of God Incarnate, we will be nourishing our souls to be faithful, loyal and unswerving in doing God’s will.  Like His Mother, we must keep our eyes on Jesus, trusting Him completely.  Our Lady’s whole existence had the solid foundation of faith in God.  Let us ask her to show us how to grow in faith daily.

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“Blessed are the peacemakers…”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2016/08/19 at 12:00 AM

True peace means being concerned about others, being interested in their plans and projects, their joys and sorrows.  God wants us Christians to bring peace and joy with us wherever we go.  Then, we can say as St. Paul ends his first letter to the Corinthians: “My love be with you in Christ Jesus.”

Peace is a clear sign of God’s nearness and closeness to us. St. Paul consistently exhorted the first Christians to live in peace, saying that the God of love and peace would be with them. True peace results from holiness. St. Augustine also describes true peace as the tranquility of order.

A peacemaker easily abandons her own agenda in order to do what God places in front of her, and she does that without complaining.  Without  making excuses or apologies, she takes on unpleasant tasks.  Share the woes of others by trying to ease their distress, reaching out to them in kindness and compassion, in attitude, words and deeds.

What does it mean to be a Christian?  A Christian views the world as Christ did and reacts to circumstances following the example of Christ’s reaction in similar situations.  He encountered every single problem we will encounter in our lives.  The appearances might be different, but the essence of the concern is the same. We should open our hearts to others and transmit to others the joy that comes from following Christ.  If others are slow to respond, we must treat them with patience, respecting each person’s circumstances. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and do not impute intentions, but rather seek by kindness to bring about reconciliation more for the other’s sake than for yours.  Never let yourself grow cold, distant or sour towards anyone, and above all, never humiliate anyone with a disdainful attitude. Avoid sharp or sarcastic comments or replies, and be patient with the irksome and cantankarous.

The peacemaker meets all angry outburst with gentleness, kindness and humility, never with harshness or vengefulness.  Her forgiveness is readily given; it is quick, sincere, and lasting.  Offenses once forgiven will not be felt and will be easy to forget.  Never, ever, harbor resentment against another because to do so is a form of spiritual suicide by the cancer of bitterness which brings death to the soul. Keep your heart clear of any trace of hostility, anger or bitterness.  Disarm insults or hostility with kindness and a positive attitude.  Clear your your mind of strife and offenses as if they had never occurred.

Be precise in your speech, even in small matters.  Do not hesitate in correcting errors you make, exaggerations or careless language.  Beware of hypocrisy and half truths, avoiding deceitful behavior at all cost.  Speak the truth prudently and without apology but with firmness born of faith. Jesus was a total revolutionary. He turned the  world upside down. His values reverse the usually accepted human values in every age.  We must follow His example and when we hear or see anything that reverses proper human values, we too must become revolutionaries, correcting the situation.

Meditate carefully on the life of Our Lord; He is your perfect model and guide.  We have been rescued because God is compassionate towards us.  Should we not extend that same compassion to those who aggravate us, dislike  us or needle us?  Instead, with sympathy and kindness, help the floundering; you will find that you gain more than you give. Turn to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother for solace and encourage others to do so.

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A Word to the Wise

In 07 Observations on 2016/08/19 at 12:00 AM

Always keep in mind that you have absolutely no right to make known to others what you think about anybody, particularly their defects or problems. Once uttered, words cannot be recalled and the damage it done. Gossip is a form of character assassination. We know calumny is a malicious lie; slander, a debasing of the person; yet, the most common is detraction which is revealing a true fact but one that you have no right to share. Shattering a person’s reputation cries to heaven for vengeance.

Beware of launching into whatever is on your mind. Beware of curious prying. Instead, have a listening ear for the person as if no one else in the world exists. If you start to talk, particularly about a strongly held opinion, you might derail the opportunity and become ineffective. To argue or challenge in some cases cause damage. Instead, be prudent and use common sense. Make every effort to understand the person’s point of view. This engenders trust and permit the person to open up in a way that will make it possible for you to encourage them in following Christ Himself.

It is in our neighbor that God comes to us. Always deal with the person as you would deal with Christ. So, remember that the person you are dealing with has been sent to you by Christ and you are dealing with Christ in them, no matter how disfigured that image seems to you.

Do you recognize Christ in others? If not, why not?

Wheat and Weeds

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2016/08/19 at 12:00 AM
  • The cathedral church in Orvieto, Italy, is most often visited because it is the home of the famous, blood-stained corporal that attests to the Eucharistic miracle of 1263 in the nearby town of Bolsena, which led to the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi.
  • As fascinating as it is to see this corporal upon which a Eucharistic Host began to bleed during a Mass offered by a priest who doubted the Real Presence, in the opposite transept of the church is another extraordinary marvel worth seeing: the Chapel of San Brizio.
  • In the Chapel of San Brizio are the magnificent frescos of The Last Judgment and The Apocalypse begun by Fra Angelico in 1447, but primarily executed by Luca Signorelli between 1499 and 1504.
  • Not only are these frescoes magnificent in their artistic worth and composition, but they’re downright frightening in their portrayal of souls being carried to hell by demons and the events of the end times.
  • Perhaps the most frightening aspect of all is the fresco that shows a Christ-like figure standing on a pedestal amidst a large crowd of people, who have piled gifts at his feet. But to his side is the devil, who is whispering into his ear.
  • When you see this fresco, you’re tempted to ask the question, “Why is Jesus letting the devil whisper in His ear like that?” But upon closer inspection, you find that, though this figure bears many of Christ’s attributes, his eyes and facial expression are not those of our Savior.
  • There is no warmth in those eyes, nor strength or mercy. Only the vacuous and blank look of one in the control of another, more sinister force. This is Signorelli’s depiction of the Antichrist, who masquerades his evil as goodness.
  • He will appear to many – if not most – to speak and act and even appear like Christ Himself, but subtlely he will sow seeds of dissension from the Church’s true teachings, and with his lies and half-truths bring about the persecution of the Church and damnation for many souls.
  • What Signorelli shows us in such masterly fashion in this fresco is that it is often difficult to distinguish evil from good in the world today, for it is a common ploy of the evil one to disguise evil as good.
  • As the Gospel tells us today, weeds and the wheat very often grow together. The problem is that when weeds and wheat first begin to grow, they very often look very much alike.
  • In fact, the weeds referred to in the parable are called darnel, which look just like wheat. When the plants are young, it is almost impossible to distinguish them. And both plants produce a head.
  • The difference is that the wheat head produces fruit: wheat grain, while the darnel head produces nothing. That’s why the people in the parable were not able to recognize the weeds until the wheat crop grew and bore fruit, at which point it was difficult to pull up the weeds without hurting the wheat crop.
  • We can see a real-life example of this parable in the proliferation of federal judges striking down laws banning same-sex unions across our country, despite the will of the voters who put those laws on the books.
  • Disguising the evil of these unions as a civil right and even akin to the natural union of man and woman, this terrible weed is now being sown into the soil of our society.
  • Yet, like the darnel of the Gospel that looks a lot like wheat, in the end, same sex unions are incapable of producing any fruit, which is the primary purpose and good of the marital union.
  • In fact, calling same sex unions “marriages” changes the very nature and purpose for which God designed marriage and the marital act. Trying to redefine something designed and instituted by God Himself is the height of hubris and an act of preposterous pride.
  • Sadly, many people in our society today – even Catholics – say, “What business is it of mine what my neighbor does in his private life.” And believing absolutely in the American value of respect for privacy, we turn a deaf ear and a blind eye and hope that it will all go away.
  • But there are a couple of problems to this approach, my dear brothers and sisters. First of all, the devil is a good farmer, and he will continue sowing his weeds of evil as long as he has fertile ground to do so.
  • Moreover, while respecting our neighbor’s privacy is a good thing, do we not care about his soul? While it may be polite to mind our own business, are we not failing in charity if we do nothing to help our neighbor see the truth?
  • Furthermore, do we not care that God is so terribly offended by sin? Not just by this sin, but every sin! And if we are true in our love for God, should we not try to help others live godly lives while striving to live godly lives ourselves?
  • Most importantly, have we forgotten that there will be a reckoning some day? This is one of the primary points of the Gospel today…and one of the most fascinating and frightening aspects of Signorelli’s frescoes in Orvieto.
  • The weeds and the wheat will be harvested, my dear brothers and sisters, with the wheat being gathering into our Lord’s barn. But the weeds shall be tied into bundles and burned.
  • And so we must choose whether we are going to be weeds or wheat, whether we are going to be the children of God or the children of the evil one.
  • Hopefully we will trust in our Lord’s promises of mercy and become His children. For as our first reading points out, even though our Lord is all-powerful, his “mastery over all things makes [Him] lenient to all.” Our Lord desires our repentance; He is good and forgiving.
  • Yet our faith demands that we be concerned not only with our own salvation. We must care for the salvation of others as well. We must help others along the path to Heaven. This means helping people to distinguish between good and evil, between weeds and wheat.
  • As we live in a country dominated politically by two parties that are often opposed on moral issues, it is easy to sink into an “us-versus-them” mentality when these moral issues come up, and simply write off as enemies those who disagree with us.
  • But that’s not acceptable. In addition to striving to be always children of God ourselves, we must also pray for the conversion of those children of the evil one. And we must also oppose any efforts on their part to sow their evil seeds in our society.
  • The salvation of many depends upon this. If we do not stand up to evil when the seeds are being sown, the weeds may very well overtake the wheat.

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

Bridge Between Liturgical Season

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2016/08/12 at 12:00 AM

• As you know, because we offer both the old Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass here at St. Ann’s, we operate with two different liturgical calendars.
• When the liturgy was changed in the wake of Vatican II, the liturgical calendar was revised as well. And because the two forms of the Mass have different calendars, we occasionally find ourselves in two different liturgical seasons on the same Sunday. This is true today.
• In the new calendar the Season of Christmas ended last Sunday with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, and now we find ourselves in Ordinary Time. But in the Latin Mass we have now entered the Season after the Epiphany, which is really an extension of Christmastide.
• But even though the Christmas Season in the new liturgical calendar ended last Sunday, we still find the vestiges of Christmas lingering on today in our readings as we cling to themes we enjoyed in the Epiphany and Baptism of our Lord.
• Our first reading from Isaiah speaks of the “light to the nations” so that “salvation may reach to the ends of the earth,” which recalls the prominent themes of the Epiphany.
• And in our Gospel story today we have St. John the Baptist’s testimony to the Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove, a clear reference to our Lord’s baptism.
• So why are we lingering with Christmas themes now that we are in Ordinary Time? Simply put, because Christmas is important! The Christmas Season is important to our Catholic faith because it is in the liturgies of the Christmas Season that we learn Who Jesus truly Is.
• You see, Christmas for Catholics is not simply the anniversary of our Lord’s birth. Christmas is the celebration that our Lord Jesus, veiled in human flesh, comes to us to dwell with us, to be one of us, so that He can save us from our sins.
• Christmas isn’t just an anniversary for us; it’s a mystery!
• So throughout the Christmas Season we see this gradual unfolding of the revelation of
the divinity of Christ. First, we see our God-Made-Man as a tiny baby, born in a cave and lying in a manger to be adored by His parents and local shepherds beckoned by an angel.
• But we learn very quickly that He is no ordinary babe. As we celebrate the major feasts of the Christmas Season we find that Jesus is indeed the Messiah of whose prophecies we heard throughout the season of Advent.
• Born of a virgin, Christ is revealed as the Light to All Nations in the Epiphany, as Magi from the East come to pay Him homage, following the light of a mighty star.
• This revelation in His Epiphany is repeated in His baptism and at the wedding feast of Cana – two other mysteries closely associated with the Epiphany.
• In seeing these revelations of the Word-Made-Flesh, in coming to the realization that God loves us so much that He became one of us, we are prepared for the Paschal Mystery, which is the mystery of our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection.
• For Christ did not become man simply for the fun of it. He became man so that He might suffer and die for us, and thereby save us from our sins! As St. Augustine put it, Jesus became man so that men could become like God.
• As John the Baptist proclaims in our Gospel today, Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” a proclamation so important that we proclaim it as well in triple fashion at every Mass.
• As the Son of God, Jesus has come to earth to be the Lamb of God, the One who will sacrifice Himself on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.
• So while today’s readings hearken back to Christmas, our Gospel also points us toward Holy Week, when we will see this Lamb slain. As such today’s Mass acts as a sort of transition between liturgical seasons.
• So the love incarnate revealed to us in the Christmas Season prepares us for the sacrificial love we’ll encounter at Easter.
• This love of God we see poured forth in the mystery of the Incarnation invites us to meditate more deeply on Who Jesus Is, and what the revelation of His love means to our lives.
• To be sure, the magnificent love we see in our Lord becoming man to save us from our sins calls us to a certain response and to a certain responsibility. In response we must first be inclined to give both thanks and praise to our Almighty God for this great, unmerited gift.
• Indeed, human history is all too clear that man has never deserved God’s love and mercy. Made in His image and likeness, we have all too often mired ourselves in the muck of human sinfulness. Yet God, in His unfathomable love, extends His mercy to us anyway.
• And thus our thanks to God and our praise of Him should know no bounds. For we can never repay the Lord for His goodness to us.
• But this inability to repay God’s mercy does put a responsibility upon us: that of doing our best to live a life of holiness. The daily dying to ourselves so that we might rise with Christ in holiness is our baptismal call.
• As St. Paul tells the Corinthians today, we are called to be holy. We are called to be holy so that we may be “a light to the nations, that [the Lord’s] salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” This is a demand that our beautiful Catholic faith makes upon us.
• Throughout the Christmas Season we received the manifestation of the Word-Made- Flesh. We are called to have faith in the divinity of Jesus; we are called to have faith in His power to save us.
• But as St. James tells us, faith without works is dead (cf. Jas 2:26). So what do we do to grow in holiness? What are the works necessary to keep our faith alive?
• First we must remember the highest commandments that Jesus Himself gave us: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:37, 39).
• St. Teresa of Ávila teaches that the very best measure of one’s love for God is actually how one treats his neighbor. This is why the Church has always recommended to us the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
• And this is exactly why we’re filling this 40-foot container with food and other supplies for the folks in Jamaica! Doing so isn’t just beneficial for the poor in Jamaica; it’s also good for us and for our souls!
• But ever before we begin doing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, we must begin with prayer and worship. And as Catholics, we must frequent the sacraments.
• This is why Catholic are obliged to come to Mass every Sunday and to receive Holy Communion at least once a year. Holy Mother Church knows that worshiping our Lord in Mass and receiving Him in Holy Communion is necessary for our salvation.
• But underlying our worship and reception of the sacraments must be a deep, abiding, and personal love for God, which can only be formed in prayer.
• For it is in our prayer that God speaks to us and reveals Himself to us. It is in prayer that God gives Himself to us and we can fully give ourselves to Him, just as a bride entrusts herself to her bridegroom on their wedding night.
• It is in prayer that we share now in the divine intimacy that will find its completion only in the glories of heaven. So make time to pray everyday in order to strengthen your love for God.
• Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: our Lord has revealed Himself to us as both the Son of God and the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Let us respond to Him by growing in holiness and loving Him as we should.
• By doing so, may we be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

© Reverend Timothy Reid

Fr. Reid is the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
To enable the audio, lease go directly to Fr. Reid’s homily homilies and select the matching date.

Link to Homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

Thoughts for Peace of Soul

In 07 Observations on 2016/08/12 at 12:00 AM

We need to live in the present which is when God gives us the grace to do what we ought to do. The present will soon pass and the past only survives in our memory.God respects our free will, permitting us to rebel against Him. He will not imprison us by taking away our freedom. Follow God freely, and you will be freer; actually; you will be more your real self as He meant you to be. Whenever you find yourself to be over-concerned with problems, or in an anxious state, try turning inward and see if you are forgetting to ask for help from Him who promised to come to your aid..We can imagine the future but it only exists in our imagination. So, what we only have is the present, and by living in the present moment as we ought is an aspect of living in the presence of God.
All Christians are called to sanctity. Each  one bears a unique character and personality and reflects or manifests Christ in a different way. Only God’s grace can illumine the soul so one needs to ask God to transform one, to enlighten one, so that one can see Him instead of oneself. Grace is that mysterious sharing in the nature of God because it is by grace that we are raised above our nature so that our souls become capable of knowing God as God knows Himself and of loving Him, and sharing in His life.
If you do not find God in the mirror of your mind it is because you are looking at yourself.  The greatest tragedy that can occur in your life is if you begin to live without God which occurs when you decide for whatever reason to “do it your way”. The devil says that God and everything about Him is a delusion, but it is really but the illusion is you looking only at yourself and not recognizing reality.If you look at things from God’s point of view, you will not confuse yourself because you will be facing reality.
When you begin with loving God, you will find yourself wanting to act virtuously.   Make Christ the center of your life; weigh things as God weights them; His judgment is the norm for truth. Acknowledge with humility your weaknesses and lean on the strength of Christ.
Our spiritual birth occurred when our Baptism gave us a life of grace which is a sharing of God’s own life.This divine life, this gift given to us, created us anew; and at that predestined instance, we joined God’s family by divine adoption.The divine life was given to us in seed state, and it is our duty to make it grow and bloom. That is the task of our entire life.We must constantly “prune” and renew ourselves by conforming ourselves to Christ alone.With gratitude and confidence, we prodigals must return to our Father when we stray and with open arms, He receives us and forgives us.
We go to a physician to halt the progress of an illness or disease; go to the Divine Physician for mercy .The Divine Physician has a cure for every ailment.God is always ready to help us mend our ways. His love for us is the balm that restores us. He re-aligns the pieces of our lives and mends the cracked pot.We can be instruments of God for others, leading them to know or to return to God.When others see themselves in the light of God, their conscience will lead them to see they need to make fundamental changes that will restore peace, calm, order and harmony to their soul.
While His ways are not our ways, His always work out, particularly in bailing us out of difficulties of our own making.Trust in you heavenly Father, in His guidance, in His trust, and He will restore you serenity. So do not fret;carry on. Begin again and again by looking forward and not backwards, by looking to the future and letting the past be past.To do this takes determination, humility, hope and courage. It requires not dwelling on our weaknesses, insufficiencies, failures or defects but resting and trust in Him. Do your best and He will take care of the rest.

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“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2016/08/12 at 12:00 AM

Like the Greeks who approached Philip, we too say that we would like to see Jesus. God Himself and His creation can only been seen by those whose intentions and attitudes are good.

To be clean of heart means to be selfless, looking at everything from God’s point of view rather than our own. By putting God first we can keep our hearts pure. It is in the heart that the soul can defile itself. This occurs when envy, spite, evil desires or evil intentions sprout in our hearts. Once conceived, they are brought to life in actions. You cannot “see Jesus” in your neighbor if your imagination has cluttered your hear with a tapestry of false images. So, it is in the heart that we can offend God instead of loving Him. Consequently, anything that comes between us and God must be avoided, corrected, given up; we must remove all obstacles and ask forgiveness of God for what we have done.

In order to really have a pure heart, we must have right intentions which mean that Christ alone is the reason for and object of our actions. We begin this by making our daily Morning Offering Prayer we learned as children. As the day goes on, we must ask ourselves: What am I doing? Why? and For Whom? Do everything for His glory and when you encounter difficulties, do not allow yourself to be discouraged. Simply ask yourself: Is this God’s work or mine? Is God leading or am I? Correct intention brings interior freedom and peace of soul.

Our exterior appearance is not of any importance compared with our inner life. We must ask God’s help in keeping our hearts pure and must be on guard duty 24/7 in order for it not to be defiled by jealousy, envy, spite or any disordered desires. We must be careful to have proper intentions in our actions because our egotism can make an obstacle out of any good thing. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and follow His guidance with docility as He transforms us.

To maintain a pure heart involves controlling our intellect, our memory and above all, our imagination, and above all the interior dialogue those produce, easily derailing the heart. A wise man once referred to the imagination as the lunatic in the house. Useless imaginings can lead to loss of proper perspective and become a spiritually destructive force. Often the imagination can create false scenarios which can lead to unjust judgments which cool the heart.

The prompt dismissal of useless thought is the initial means of purifying the imagination. Then, comes the replacement of wild imaginings, suppositions, and projections by focusing on some aspect of the life of Christ, thus displacing the unreal with the real and true. Essential to keeping one’s heart pure are: guarding the senses, avoiding sinful situations, controlling ones entertainment, being temperate but above all, having recourse prayer and to the Sacrament of Confession.

If your heart searches for God, your heart will find Him simply because he is looking for you like the father of the prodigal looked for his son. We can always count on Our Father’s help to put us on the right track again. He understands us and is there to encourage us in our struggles. He never ceases to love us even when our hearts have turned from Him. He will never abandon us.

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“Blessed are those who mourn…”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2016/08/09 at 12:00 AM

Your neighbor is anyone who has need of you. So, beware of sins of omission for those who mourn particularly those who are not even aware of their loses, but mourn for their loss without even being aware of what ails them. This refers to those we should mourn for because they have not been taught the basics of the faith and now wander in a spiritual wasteland. Or those who have had their beliefs stolen from them by the bad example of others or the rejection of Christian values by modern culture and an atheistic media. Any thing we can do to alleviate those who mourn for whatever reason, we do for God Himself; the object of our charity being Jesus Himself in the person of our neighbor.

If we hurry through life with our needs in first place instead of in second, where they should be, we fail to see the sufferings of others. In order to be compassionate to those who mourn, we must cease to be the center of our own attention; we must forget ourselves and attend to others’ needs. Some who mourn that we might not be aware of include the victims of calumny, defamation and mental persecution.

God often comes to un in unexpected ways, leading us along the path of suffering specifically for our own good. At such times we need to say to ourselves: “If this is your will, Lord, it is mine also.” What we term misfortunes in life (illness, fatigue, pain, financial problems, whatever the source of the evil be) these trials are actually God’s summons to reach out to Him. These calls are for our hearts to detach themselves from ourselves and attache themselves to Christ who visits us at those times with outstretched hands to helps grow interiorly in a union with Him.

Suffering clears the way for grace, for the transforming power of grace to remold our souls as the divine medication of trials rids us of what pollutes our souls. Trials endured with God’s help will result in blessings because it is only through contradictions and obstacles that our souls can be purified. As mourners we cry in our distress to God who views our problems objectively and will come to our aid in a manner suitable to our individual spiritual benefit.

God takes advantage of everyone’s sorrows to bring about good for others. While God permits these trials which purify others, they are for you opportunities for you to be compassionate. Sometimes the destruction the mourners endure are preface to a spiritual revolution; for as they mourn their losses, God re-directs them in unforeseen ways. God ransomed and saves those who mourn, for whatever reason, in ways we cannot image. We must also pray for those who cause evils that they might cease to offend God in our neighbor. Sometimes all we can do for those who mourn is to encourage them to remain steadfast in their trials and give their complete acceptance to God’s permissive will.

Friday is a good day to reflect on the suffering of Christ during His Passion and His suffering today in the thousands of victims of violence, terrorism and the hordes of refugees who mourn the loss of their homeland and way of life. We must ask Our Lady of Sorrows to help us console those who mourn as she would, for she is their mother. We should ask her to strengthen in us the virtue of fortitude to endure our own sufferings. It is at the foot of the Cross that man learns to understand the real nature of the suffering Jesus endured and to unite his suffering to His.

Despite the onslaught of trials, we must remain faithful and prayerful in the supernatural bond of the Communion of the Saints , giving and receiving. As a member of the Mystical Body of Christ, our suffering and those of others are one and the same. Praying for relief and/or endurance for ourselves and others enriches both as we sustain the others and they sustain us in our solidarity of grace.