• Last Sunday I used the image of expanding one’s soul as a way of speaking about the process of growing in holiness.
• Because our Lord dwells in our souls through baptism, as Christians we should seek to increase the capacity of our soul so that our Lord will find in it a comfortable home.
• According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, we can judge the capacity of our soul by how much charity we possess. But expanding the capacity of our soul isn’t just a matter of practicing the virtue of charity.
• Holiness requires that we make our souls pleasing to God in every way! Thus, there is a purification process through which we must pass if we are to love God as we should. So last Sunday I spoke about the necessity of praying and fasting.
• Through prayer we learn how to focus our attention on God so that we can come to know and trust Him. In prayer we learn to submit ourselves to God’s humble yoke, and we receive the grace to give ourselves wholeheartedly to Him.
• And by the practice of denying ourselves through fasting those things that we enjoy, we learn to master our wills so that we have the courage to turn away from even the most enticing sins.
• So while the evil one does test and tempt us, just as he tested and tempted Jesus in the desert, with God’s grace we can conquer the devil and over time and be freed from the bondage of sin so that we can become more pleasing to God.
• In speaking of people with “spacious” souls, St. Bernard says they, “cannot afford to be entangled in law-suits nor by worldly cares; [they] cannot be enslaved by gluttony and sensual pleasures, by the lust of the eyes, the ambition to rule, or by pride in the possession of power. If [they are] to become heaven, the dwelling place of God, it is first of all essential that [they] be empty of all these defects” (SBoC: Song of Songs, 27:10).
• So as we begin our spiritual lives and seek the “soul-expanding” holiness our Lord desires of us all, in addition to praying and fasting, we must be willing to move away from and detach ourselves from the things of the world, especially our mortal sins.
• You see, there is a radical detachment from the things of the world as well as from one’s own sinful desires that is necessary in order for one’s soul to expand to such an extent that our infinite Lord finds it a comfortable home.
• As we move away from and detach ourselves from the things of the world, we become more and more capable of attaching ourselves to God! Remember: you cannot love both God and mammon. We all must choose Whom or what we will love in this life.
• Truly, the soul that chooses the mammon of this world over God and persists in mortal sin will never be a fitting home for our Lord in this life, and that soul will be denied entrance into our Lord’s eternal home in the next life.
• But if we seek to live in a perpetual state of grace and be free from attachments to all worldly things, and if we are truly humble, then our Lord Himself will set to work on our soul to make of it a fitting dwelling place for Himself!
• Just as our Lord was transfigured before Sts. Peter, James, and John in our Gospel today, so too does He work through the power of His Holy Spirit to transfigure our souls so that they can be a fitting dwelling for our Lord.
• However, I must warn you that, just as sharp scalpels are necessary to excise a cancerous tumor from a body, so too are painful treatments necessary to excise the grave sin from our lives. Our Lord’s favorite tool for such a procedure is suffering.
• As I’ve mentioned so many times from this pulpit, sin disfigures and distorts our true selves. Sin corrupts and misshapes us. So the process of being remodeled and reshaped into an image of Christ is necessarily painful.
• But we must keep in mind the words of St. Paul to St. Timothy in our epistle today, that our Lord has “saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our own works but according to His own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus.
• And therefore, we must be willing, as St. Paul says, to “bear [our] share of hardship for the Gospel.” We must be willing to suffer through whatever pain and suffering is necessary to rid our souls of sinful and worldly attachments.
• Sometimes the suffering we must endure is simply the bad consequences that typically follow a sinful choice on our part. This is the easiest suffering to endure because it is a just suffering. Suffering is easier to accept when we know we deserve it!
• But occasionally suffering totally unrelated to our sins enters our lives, like the loss of a loved one, a terrible accident, a catastrophic loss of property, or a serious illness.
• And as these sufferings come, we may be tempted to be angry with God for allowing something so bad to happen. But in truth, my brothers and sisters, every form of suffering that we must endure is a gift from God, if we have the eyes of faith to see it.
• I say this because there is always a lesson to be learned from suffering. God always has a way of bringing some good out of the evil of suffering. But again we must be willing to face our sufferings with faith in God’s goodness and providence.
• If we bear all sufferings with faith, we learn to cling to our Lord with a confident hope of eternal union with Him. And as we hope in God, we in turn learn to love Him more.
• This is part of the meaning of our Gospel today. Jesus’ transfiguration prepared the
apostles for their future trials by fortifying them with hope of the glory to come, and
their hope in Christ and love for Him helped them to suffer even martyrdom for Jesus.
• Thus, we too must keep before us the vision of Christ glorified, realizing that we are
called to that same glory – but only if we endure our sufferings with virtue.
• When we endure our sufferings with faith, hope, and a true love for God, then our
sufferings help us to make reparation for our sins. They also help us to see how short
this life really is and to cling to God all the more. This is what expands our souls!
• Ultimately, in the face of suffering, we have to make the decision to allow our souls
either to expand in holiness by suffering with a faith that leads us to hope in God and
love Him all the more, or to contract in anger, despair, and self-centeredness.
• While painful, the sufferings of this life are the necessary crucible through which we all
must pass if we wish our souls to expand so that they might be transfigured into the
likeness of Christ.
• So as we continue along our Lenten journey toward the glories of Easter, may we all
resolve to accept and endure our sufferings with faith so that we might hope in God and
love Him all the more.
• And in practicing these virtues, may our souls be expanded so that we might be, with
Christ, God’s beloved in children in whom He is well pleased.

© 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:
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3/16 Trasfiguration of Our Sou

You’ll notice that our beautiful statue of St. Clare – here on my right – depicts this heroic virgin holding a monstrance with our Eucharistic Lord. This is to commemorate a most daring moment in the life of this extraordinary woman.

In September 1240 a band of Saracen soldiers, in the employ of Emperor Frederick II of Sweden, laid siege to the picturesque town of Assisi in the Umbrian mountains of Italy.
Not content to pillage only the town, the Saracens broke into the cloister of San Damiano, where St. Clare of Assisi lived with her newly formed community of women religious, whom we now know as the Poor Clares.
Terrified at the invasion of the Saracen soldiers, the sisters cried for help to St. Clare, who at the time was deathly ill.
Despite her illness and the natural fear that anyone would feel in such a situation, St. Clare summoned her daughters to courage and faith in the Lord.
With a look of steely resolve and unwavering trust in our Lord’s goodness, she took up the monstrance with the Eucharist inside and met the Saracens at the wall of the cloister, all the while praying to our Lord for deliverance.
Though merely a defenseless and sickly woman, St. Clare possessed an authority that made her stronger than all the soldiers in her midst: the authority of Christ Himself. With the authority of Christ, she struck fear into the hearts of those brutish men without uttering a word, and they turned away and fled.
Interestingly, the name Clare means “light that stands against the darkness,” and so she is a natural patron for all who fight the darkness of evil.
While this story in the life of St. Clare is recounted as one of her miracles, the truth is that we are all called to this same type of prophetic witness. We are all called to face evil head on by calling on the authority of Christ, just as St. Clare did.
Our readings today speak of this prophetic witness and the authority of Christ, especially over evil. And as we consider the current state of affairs in our country, I think it’s especially important that we all understand the necessity of being a prophetic witness in our world today.
Truly, now more than ever, our dear country needs people to stand up as prophetic witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is only through Jesus Christ and by the power of His grace and mercy that any of us will ever be saved.
The culture wars that have plagued our country (and all of western civilization) for the past several decades are not merely political issues. They are moral issues.
And the fights that we see taking place in our country are not simply disagreements between opposing political forces. There is truly a fight between good and evil, and souls are at stake.
Last Sunday I mentioned briefly the new mandate from Health & Human Services that beginning this August, virtually all insurance plans must cover contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and even abortifacient drugs free of charge. I’ve also written about it in this week’s bulletin.
Despite the massive protests and lobbying by our Catholic bishops, our Catholic agencies, institutions, and Catholic for-profit companies will be required to provide this type of insurance coverage, even though it violates our consciences and most deeply held principles.
The exemption clause is so narrow that even the Diocese, which is staffed primarily by Catholics and serves primarily Catholics, will have to comply.
This is not simply a religious issue; this is a constitutional rights issue – for Catholics in the United States are now being denied the right to practice their faith fully in the public square.
Last Sunday I spoke about the need to do reparation for the sins of our country, most especially for the sin of abortion. But we must also be willing to fight the evils of our society by other means too.
Whether we want to face the truth or not, our country is now reaping the fruits of widespread acceptance and usage of contraception. Contraception promises the joy of the conjugal act without consequence and without responsibility.
Contraception and sterilization change the very nature of the conjugal act by rendering void its life-giving quality. Over time this had led to the widespread belief that the conjugal act is not primarily about procreation, but rather about recreation.
What was designed by God to be an act of sacrifice and self-gift leading to new life has now become an act of selfishness that often leads to death for an unborn child. We have distorted one of God’s most precious gifts to satisfy our own selfish desires.
And now our country sees fit to enshrine contraception, sterilization, and abortion as rights so sacred that all who want them must have unfettered access to them through their insurance plans, at the expense of us all.
Our government is now telling us that the right to contracept our children into oblivion, to maim ourselves through sterilization, and to take pills that induce the abortion of unwanted babies is so sacred that it trumps even the consciences of those who object to these evil practices.
Truthfully, we cannot be surprised, for we cannot distort the natural law and the God-given order of creation for selfish reasons and expect there to be no serious consequences.
But brothers and sisters, if we are anything as Catholics, we are people of hope. Moreover, we know by faith that when we preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with courage and integrity, we speak with the very authority of Christ Himself.
It is not too late for us to be a prophetic witness to our society that seems hell-bent on destroying itself.
So in addition to doing reparation for the sins of our country, as I mentioned last Sunday, we must also convert! If we want our country to change, we must change by refusing to cooperate with the culture of death in our country.
We must say no to any practices that close the conjugal act to the gift of new life, such as contraception and sterilization.
We must say no to anything that mocks or tears at the fabric of traditional family life, such as cohabitation and same-sex unions.
And we must say no to anything that violates our God-given human dignity or destroys innocent life, such as in-vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and especially abortion.
These things are not freedoms that should be protected and enshrined within our laws. They are evils that lead to selfishness and spiritual bondage, and we must oppose them both privately within our own lives, and publicly as well.
Like good St. Clare, we must arm ourselves with Christ Himself, which we do through prayer and by living our Catholic faith with integrity and in its fullness. And then we must be willing to speak out against these evils and to share the good news of the Gospel.
May God bless our country and save us from our sins. St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

29 January 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

You can go directly to his homilies:
http://stanncharlotte.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=8&Itemid=61

For a Gospel today we are given the familiar story of the rich man, “who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day”, and poor Lazarus, “who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” It’s a compelling story that reminds us of the hellish power of the sins of greed and sloth, as well as the fact that sufferings borne humbly and patiently in this life can lead us to glory in the next life. Ultimately, our Gospel today reminds us to prepare well for death. While the rich man may have forgotten or ignored poor Lazarus, Holy Mother Church has not. In fact, there’s a very beautiful chant that references Lazarus called In Paradisum that is traditionally used at the end of Requiem Masses. The words of the chant are as follows: “May the Angels lead thee into paradise: may the Martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and lead thee into the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choir of Angels receive thee, and mayest thou have eternal rest with Lazarus, who once was poor.” One of the interesting points about this chant is that it references angels twice. And I bring this up because today, September 29th, is the Feast of the Holy Archangels, while this Wednesday, October 2nd, is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. While both the Gospel as well In Paradisum, make mention that it is the angels who lead us into Heaven, they also do many other things as well! And these two feasts that the Church celebrates this week are the Church’s way for giving thanks to the angels for all they do. The primary mission of all of the angels is to give glory to God. However, each angel has it’s own particular mission for which it is perfectly suited and equipped. Scripture and Tradition divide the angels into 9 different categories or “choirs”: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominations, thrones, cherubim and seraphim – the seraphim being the highest and most important and powerful of the angels. Amongst these 9 choirs of angels are 3 hierarchies. The 3 highest choirs of angels: the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, form the first hierarchy, and they are concerned with contemplation of God and His truth These angels help us to have a burning love for God, to understand His mysteries, and they instill humble hearts within us so that God can rest in our souls. The second hierarchy is formed by the dominions, virtues, and powers, and their primary job is governance. These are the angels that help us exercise self-mastery so that we can govern our passions. They also help preserve us from sin, and they sustain martyrs in time of trial. The third hierarchy, formed by the principalities, archangels and angels, are ministerial angels. They help us to be obedient to the will of God, they strengthen us in faith, they protect us in this life and conduct us into the next life. Whereas the liturgical calendar for the Novus Ordo Mass lumps the three named archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael into one feast day, in the old calendar each of the 3 archangels whose names we know from Scripture are given their own feast day. So while September 29th is celebrated as the Feast of Holy Archangels in the new Mass, in the old Mass today is dedicated just to St. Michael. While theologians and saints have debated about St. Michael’s exact place within the entire hierarchy of angels, the Church has long honored him as Her special protector. Following the four times that he is mentioned in Sacred Scripture (Dan 10, Dan 12, Jude, and Rev 12), Tradition has assigned to St. Michael four particular roles. First we know that St. Michael is our leader in the fight against satan and his demons. In that ancient battle in which satan and the other wicked angels rose up in rebellion against God, it was St. Michael who led the good counter-attack and thwarted them. Indeed, Michael’s very name, which means “Who is like God” was the battle cry of the good angels as they cast satan and the demons out of heaven and into hell. But as we know, the war between good and evil is not over. The devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And thus it is St. Michael’s role to rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death. Thirdly, we know that Michael is the champion of God’s people and therefore the special protector of Holy Mother Church. And lastly, it is St. Michael who will bring our souls to judgment when we die. When the world as we know it comes to an end, it is St. Michael who will sound the trumpet that calls all souls to the Final Judgment, and he will witness the weighing of each soul. Given the extreme importance of his 4-fold mission, the Church has always afforded St. Michael a special love and veneration that is reflected in her liturgies, prayers, and in the numerous shrines and churches dedicated to him. In fact, so important and powerful is St. Michael’s assistance that in the 19th century Pope Leo XIII composed a prayer to St. Michael that he decreed should be said after every low Mass – a tradition that we carry on here in this parish. Interestingly, this prayer was written immediately after the pope had a vision of the power God would allow satan to wield in the 20th century. Very interestingly, this prayer was written exactly 33 years to the day before our Lady’s final apparition in Fatima, Portugal. Even though there is truly much evil in the world, as we consider the power of St. Michael and all of the angels, we should not fear. Rather, we should have great hope and confidence! All of the angels, each in their own way, help in the fight against evil and help us along the path to Heaven. For this reason it is so important that we honor and thank them, and that we pray to them daily for their help and protection. My brothers and sisters, through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel, the Archangels Gabriel and Raphael, and all of our guardian angels, may each of us be protected from all evils in this life so that we may enjoy heavenly bliss in the next. May the angels lead us into Paradise where we may have eternal rest with Lazarus, who once was poor. 29 September 2013 © 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

Our readings today speak of the ever-important virtue of faith. While St. Paul encourages us today to excel in faith, in the Gospel we are given two examples of great faith in the persons of the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus, the synagogue official.

When Jairus was told that his daughter had died, Jesus said to him: “Do not be afraid; just have faith,” and so he did. And to the woman with the hemorrhage Jesus said: “your faith has saved you,” thus explaining to her the reward of faith.
In both we see people who trust well in our Lord’s goodness, mercy, and ability to heal. And ultimately this is what faith is: it is a confident trust in our Lord and His love for us.
The Catechism teaches us that: “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith ‘man freely commits his entire self to God’” (CCC 1824).
Faith, along with the virtues of hope and charity, is a gift that is implanted within us by God at our baptism. But at the same time, “faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals Himself” (CCC 166).
Faith is given to us by God to help us develop our relationship with Him. But at the same time, faith is not simply something we have; it’s something we must exercise.
Thus, our faith is not meant to be something completely personal that we share onlywith our Lord. To the contrary, there should be a public aspect to our faith as well whereby we share the fruits of our faith with others with the hope that, they too, might one day come to know our Lord and thereby be saved.
For this reason the Catholic Church has always engaged in works of education and charity of all types, most especially through her hospitals, schools, publishing houses, and social service agencies. Our provision of these services to others is a testament to our faith in God and a sign of His love for us all.
This week our country celebrates its 236th anniversary as a free nation. Throughout the course of our 236-year history, there have been many battles fought to ensure that there might be liberty and justice for all of us who call this great land “home.”
But sadly, even though we are well into our 3rd century as a nation, at this moment in our history there is not liberty and justice for all.
But contrary to popular belief, the next great civil rights issue for us Americans is not whether homosexual persons can marry. The true civil rights issue of our day is whether Americans of faith will have the right to fully exercise their religious beliefs.
To this end, the bishops of our country have dedicated this two-week period leading up to the 4th of July as a period of prayer and teaching on the issue of religious liberty.
In large part this “Fortnight of Freedom” is a response to the recent mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services that requires all employers to provide contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health plans.
Obviously, this is in direct violation to some of our most deeply held beliefs as Catholics. The upshot of this mandate, if it is allowed to stand, is that Catholic institutions will be forced to close or pay fines rather than comply with these intrinsically evil actions.
While the Obama Administration has included a religious exemption in this mandate, in its temerity, the Administration has seen fit to define what constitutes a religious institution, and it has done so in such narrow fashion so as exclude organizations that employ or serve people who do not belong to their own religion.
So for example, the Diocese of Charlotte and our Catholic Social Services agency do not qualify as religious institutions according to the Obama Administration. Neither does Belmont Abbey College, or any other Catholic college or university.
By providing for the needs of the poor, regardless of their race or religion, or by providing education or health care to people who may or may not be Catholic, Catholic hospitals, publishers, schools, and service agencies have lost their status as religious institutions.
As we think through the ramifications of this mandate, it seems to me that our government is telling us that it’s okay if we keep our faith to ourselves, but that if we try to live our faith publically – as we are called by our Lord to do – then we’re going to be in trouble.
But as I mentioned earlier, our faith is not meant to be kept to ourselves; it’s meant to be lived publically. As Christians we must not only keep the faith but also profess it, confidently bearing witness to it and spreading it, for faith is necessary for man’s salvation (cf. CCC 1816).
We hear this in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus tells us: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33).
Living out our faith publically by charitably serving others is absolutely essential to being a Christian and helping others on the path to salvation.
Pope Benedict XVI made this very point in his first encyclical when he wrote: “The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word” (Deus Caritas Est, #22).
To fail to perform works of charity is to be like the tree that does not bear good fruit that is condemned by our Lord in the Gospel of Matthew! Furthermore, if we fail to share our faith through charitable works, souls will be lost, for they will not be given the chance to hear the Gospel proclaimed. And so, my brothers and sisters, the stakes in this battle are high!
Fortunately, we don’t have to fight this battle alone. We have Christ on our side, and we also have His Immaculate Mother.
Indeed, Mary is our model of faithfulness, for she never lost her faith in our Lord’s power to overcome evil, even when she watched Him die on the cross. For this reason we call her the Virgin most Faithful.
But we also call her the Help of Christians. And we must look to her in this decisive battle for sure and certain help.
Throughout the course of our Christian history, Catholics have always turned to our Lady in times of turmoil and persecution, for as we pray in the Memorare: “never was it known that anyone who fled to [her] protection was left unaided.”
So let us turn to our Lady now, for while our own prayers to the Lord are good, her prayers are more powerful. Let us place all our hopes and trust in Mary, who, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, is the patroness of our country.
And let us not only have faith that God will indeed prevail in this struggle we are now experiencing, but let us live our faith publically with great confidence.
Mary, Help of Christians and Patroness of our country, pray for us!
01 July 2012

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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Most Holy Trinity

© Reverend Timothy Reid

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

Homilies from June 17, 2012 onward have audio.
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© 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:
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• By now I think most of you know that our parish suffered a terrible loss last Sunday morning with the unexpected passing of our seminarian, Michael Kitson.
• Michael went to Mass for the final time last Saturday evening, the vigil for the Feast of Divine Mercy. He served the Mass alongside our other seminarian, Michael Carlson, and afterwards we joked around, and I gave them a blessing as they were supposed to travel together back to the seminary last Sunday morning.
• I got a call from Michael’s mother about 20 minutes before the 8 a.m. Mass on Sunday telling me of Michael’s death, and I in turn called Bishop Jugis and Fr. Gober, our Director of Vocations, to inform them.
• For those of you who were able to come to Michael’s funeral on Wednesday morning, you know that we had a huge crowd, and that it was an absolutely hope-filled funeral. As much as such things are possible, it was even a joyful funeral.
• Perhaps it seems a bit strange to call a funeral “hope-filled” or “joyful” as funerals are generally sad and sober events…especially when the deceased is only 20 years old, as was the case with Michael.
• But while every death brings with it a measure of sadness because someone we love has passed, for a Christian sadness and suffering need not preclude hope or joy. Indeed, suffering and joy often exist together within the Christian soul.
• I say this because our Lord brought forth our greatest joy the world has ever known, viz., the resurrection of Jesus, from the greatest suffering the world has ever known, i.e., the crucifixion of Jesus.
• No matter what suffering this world may bring to us, if we have faith, God will always bring something good out of it. In the world of faith, evil never gets the final word!
• Many times the good borne of suffering is the growth in holiness for those of us who choose to suffer with eyes of faith turned confidently toward our Lord.
• But our broken human nature is often slow to believe that good can come from evil and suffering, is it not? We get a sense of this in our Gospel today, which is the story of our Lord’s appearance in the village of Emmaus.
• When the two disciples with whom Jesus was walking express their lack of belief in the accounts of His resurrection they had gotten from some women, Jesus says to them “Oh, how foolish you are!” And He spoke of the necessity of His suffering.
• The point, my brothers and sisters, is that we should never allow the sufferings of this world to damage our faith in God, or to rob us of the joy and peace that are proper to the practice of our Catholic faith.
• When we consider the terrible tragedy of Michael’s death at such a young age, in faith we should be wondering what great good God is going to derive from this suffering!
• While it’s true that we are sad and suffering because of Michael’s untimely death, we have to keep our eyes on God in times like this, trusting in Him all the more, confident that in His love and mercy our Lord will bring good out of this suffering.
• Perhaps our Lord will use Michael’s death as a means of drawing more young men to the priesthood – especially from our parish. Who knows?
• What we do know is that Michael’s unexpected death does not have to be the last word about Michael. If we have faith in God, our Lord will bring something very good out of this suffering for Michael’s family, for our parish, for his seminary, and for our diocese.
• Most importantly, when we suffer with faith in God, one of the great things that God does is to strengthen our faith so that it glorifies Him!
• St. Peter says this so well in his 1st Epistle. He says, “In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7)
• My brothers and sisters, now is a time of mourning and sadness for our parish family. A very promising young man has passed unexpectedly from our midst. His parents and our parish have lost a son, his sisters and our seminarians have lost a brother, and our diocese has lost one of its future priests.
• There is much to mourn.
• But just as surely as our Lord turned the great tragedy of Jesus’ crucifixion into the greatest
victory man has ever known – indeed a victory over sin and death! – let us trust that our Lord
will bring some great good out of our present suffering.
• May our Lord grant eternal rest unto Michael, consolation to Michael’s family and friends, and
an unwavering and hope-filled faith to us all.

© 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:
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· At the very heart of Christianity is the understanding that God exists as a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This belief in the Most Holy Trinity is a belief shared by all Christians: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelicals alike.

With today’s very important feast of Pentecost, we see fulfilled Jesus’ promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, who will lead us to all truth.

In a rather dramatic event in the life of the Church, we recall today how there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and that the Spirit descended upon Mary and the apostles as tongues as of fire as they were gathered in prayer 9 days after our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven.
And amazingly, each of them began to speak in various tongues and languages – and with perfect understanding.
But more important than speaking in other languages, those first followers of our Lord were filled with the power to proclaim and witness to the truths of Gospel, a power that enabled them to endure the most terrible hardships with courage and love – even to the point of being willing to suffer cruel forms of martyrdom for the sake of that Gospel!
This grace that our Lady and the apostles experienced at Pentecost is still active within the Church. Indeed, it is a grace given to us through the Sacrament of Confirmation.
While we may not receive the capacity to speak and understand other languages at the moment of our confirmation, all who are confirmed are given the grace to be good soldiers for Christ and witnesses to His Gospel.
Sealed within us at our confirmation are the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, counsel, knowledge, understanding, piety, courage, and fear of the Lord. It is these 7 gifts that enable us proclaim by word and deed the truths of our Christian faith.
And if we earnestly and consciously strive to use these 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to live our Christian faith well, the Holy Spirit strengthens us so that we are able to be an effective witness to the Gospel, even if we have to suffer and die in order to do so.
Of the 3 Persons of the Holy Trinity, perhaps the Holy Spirit is the hardest to know and understand.
Jesus walked the earth as both God and man; He is an historical figure. We also experience Jesus in a very particular way through the Eucharist. So it is easier for us to know Him and love Him.
And while certainly mysterious and unknowable through our physical senses, God the Father is nonetheless easier for us to grasp and know because we can reason our way to the necessity of His existence.
We instinctively know that there has to be a First Cause or originating principle for all of creation. Simple logic tells us that there must be a Creator for creation to exist!
Furthermore, we also have the experience of our biological fathers who generate us and govern us, and who thereby present to us a concrete image of God the Father.
But the Spirit is different, and we do not have the same helps to knowing Him as we do God the Father and God the Son. But He is every bit as important as the Father and the Son, and as Christians we must all seek to know Him if we are to hope for Heaven!
So as we consider the necessity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and in the personal sanctification of each of us, we must consider how it is that we can draw closer and become more intimate with the Holy Spirit.
The obvious answer, of course, is prayer. We can certainly pray to the Holy Spirit just as we pray to the Father and the Son, and in doing so we naturally grow closer to Him.
In addition to praying to the Holy Spirit, we can exercise the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, and this, too, will naturally draw us closer in union with Him.
But there is another means to drawing closer to the Holy Spirit that we may not readily see, and that is through uniting ourselves to our blessed Lady: Mary.
Outside of Jesus Mary is the person most closely united to the Holy Spirit in
Scripture. In fact, so close is this connection between the Holy Spirit and Mary that Pope Leo XIII referred to her as the “Spouse of the Holy Spirit” in his encyclical, Divinum Illud Munus.

When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary at the Annunciation, he said: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).
Just as a husband “overshadows” his wife in the consummation of their marital vows, so too does the Holy Spirit consummate His marital union with Mary as the Christ Child is conceived within her by His power.
This was not a physical act, but a spiritual one, and it was an act that made our Lady a unique vessel of the Holy Spirit for the accomplishment of God’s will. Thus, her relationship with the Spirit is unlike that of any other person.
And because of this spousal relationship with the Holy Spirit, because of the way she singularly cooperated in obedience, faith, hope, and charity with the Lord’s will for man’s salvation, Mary is the mother of us all in the order of grace (cf. CCC 967-969).
St. Maximilian Kolbe, who wrote so beautifully and extensively on the relationship between Mary and the Holy Spirit, taught that while all grace is given to us by God the Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, and distributed by the Holy Spirit, in the process of distributing grace, the Holy Spirit works in and through our Lady.
Kolbe said that because Jesus, Who is the source of all grace, came to us through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is therefore fitting that all graces poured out upon mankind continue to come through Mary by the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see, my brothers and sisters, because of her intimate union with the Holy Spirit, Mary always and in every way perfectly fulfilled God’s will in every aspect of her earthly life. Indeed, she is united with God more perfectly than any other creature.
Now in Heaven, where she reigns as Queen, the Holy Spirit acts through our Lady’s intercession to bring people into communion with Christ (CCC 725) and to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation (CCC 969).
Like a good mother, she pleads constantly with her Son for our benefit, procuring for us every grace we need to grow in holiness and virtue.
And this is precisely why we should unite ourselves to her: Mary brings us closer to the Holy Spirit so that He can accomplish His work of holiness within us. And by her example, she shows us what the Spirit can accomplish within a soul docile to Him.
St. Louis de Montfort said that “when the Holy Spirit, Mary’s spouse, finds a soul united to Mary, ‘He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse’” (Gaitely, 33 Days to Morning Glory, p. 108).
Trusting in her powerful intercession, let us all unite ourselves ever more closely to her who is “our life, our sweetness, and our hope,” knowing that she will draw us to ever closer union with her divine Spouse so that we may indeed be good soldiers for Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit, come by the means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your well-beloved spouse. Amen.
18 May 2013

© 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

© 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