2cornucopias

Posts Tagged ‘Holy Spirit’

, ,

Does God’s Holy Spirit Living In Us Make Any Difference? by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2013/05/16 at 12:00 AM
At some point in their development, children become interested in knowing what life was like before they were born.  In our family, the children enjoy watching our wedding video.  During the reception, while the video camera was rolling, my brother-in-law Regis—who died suddenly and unexpectedly thirteen years ago—left Colleen and me the following message: “I hope you take the love that you’ve been blessed with from God and make it grow exponentially.  Take the love that you have for each other and share it with everyone.  Open up the flower of your love and spread it like a virus.”
When we were first created in God’s image and likeness, Scripture tell us that “the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).  We have the breath of God’s divine life flowing in and through us right now!  The question we must all ask ourselves is, Does God’s Holy Spirit living in us make any difference in how we think, how we act, and how we live?  Is Jesus Christ the heart and the center of our lives from Monday to Saturday as He is for an hour on Sunday?
In the story of the Tower of Babel, we see that when the people lived in loving obedience to God’s holy will there was harmony, community and peace.  But when they began to build their city and “a tower with its top in the heavens, and so make a name for themselves” apart from God, there was confusion, isolation, and discord (Genesis 11: 4).

We are living in the Babel of the 21st century.  The culture says to us over and over again, and in many different ways, “let us make a name for ourselves apart from God,” but instead of building a tower, we build abortion clinics.  We build a multi-billion dollar pornography industry.  We build new definitions of marriage.  We build a society where poverty flourishes.  We build a culture of dehumanization and death where children are sold as sex slaves and the elderly are euthanized.

Saint Paul gives us hope: “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now, but the Spirit comes to our aid and intercedes […] for the holy ones according to God’s will” (Romans 8:22-27).  We see this clearly in the birth of the Church at Pentecost, which is in stark contrast to Babel.

In the city of Babel, the people were gathered together in community, much like the Apostles were gathered “all in one place together.”  In Babel, the people chose their own spirit instead of the Holy Spirit and their language became confused; they could not understand each other and their community collapsed as they were scattered to the ends of the earth.  Conversely, the Apostles receive God’s Holy Spirit and they begin to speak in different languages, but now with clarity and understanding “as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”  Instead of confusion and disunity, the Spirit-filled Apostles now are equipped to take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth; to build and strengthen the Body of Christ by word and sacrament; to establish Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church!

“‘No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit’” (1 Corinthians 12:3).  God the Father sends the Holy Spirit to meet us, to awaken and ignite the fire of faith within us.  Our journey to eternal life does not begin when we die, but here and now in our own reception of the Spirit, our own Pentecost.  As we live each day of our lives, let us be mindful of the presence of the Holy Spirit and pray to the Lord as David did: “A clean heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me; do not cast me away from your presence nor deprive me of your Holy Spirit” (Psalm 51: 10-11). “If we love one another, God dwells is us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.  The way we know we remain in him and He in us is that he has given us his own Spirit” (1 John 4:12-13).

My prayer is that you take the love that you’ve been blessed with from God in your baptism and make it grow exponentially.  Take the love that you have for Jesus Christ, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, share it with everyone: don’t keep it to yourself!  Open up the flower of your love and spread it like a virus.  †

©2013 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

, , ,

Pentecost

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2013/05/16 at 12:00 AM

• With our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven last week, we were given a promise – a promise that is, perhaps, the most important promise ever made to humanity. I’m speaking, of course, of the promise our Lord made to send us the Holy Spirit.

• Today, we see this promise fulfilled in our midst as we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost! Today we commemorate that moment when the Holy Spirit descended as tongues of fire upon our Lady and the apostles gathered in prayer in the Upper Room.

• And we who are heirs to the faith of the apostles and members of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church, have received this same Spirit, too: first when we were baptized, and then again at our Confirmation.

• While perhaps it didn’t seem as dramatic as the original Pentecost, what the Holy Spirit does within us is no less dramatic than what happened to Mary and the apostles.

• In those very sublime sacramental moments when the Holy Spirit enters into our souls, our souls are changed eternally – shaped more into an image of Christ – so we might, indeed, be made worthy of the Lord’s promise of eternal life.

• Indeed, the waters of baptism, by which the Holy Spirit first enters into our souls, have the power to quench the very fires of hell within us and to unleash within us the same living waters our Lord promised to the woman at the well.

• The Holy Spirit is known by many names and titles: the Consoler, the Advocate, the Paraclete, and the Sanctifier, among others. But His primary purpose is to make us holy so that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

• While it is the Father who creates us and sustains us in being, and while it is the Son who suffered and died for us in order to redeem us, it is the Holy Spirit who works to sanctify us and make us holy.

• As anyone who has earnestly sought holiness can attest, holiness can be elusive, especially when we consider how easily we slip into sin. That’s precisely why the Holy Spirit is so important in our lives.

• It is the Spirit who guides us, helps us discern, and inspires us. It is the Spirit who prays within us. It is the Spirit who dwells within us with His 7 gifts of wisdom, counsel, knowledge, understanding, piety, courage and fear of the Lord.

• It is the Holy Spirit, who is the source of all holiness, who first awakens faith within us. He helps us to grow in spiritual freedom, and He restores the divine likeness within us that was lost by our sin.

• In short, it is the Spirit who shapes and conditions our souls. He re‐patterns them into an image of the Divine and thus makes us holy so that we might be saved when our earthly lives come to an end. And that’s the whole point of our life on earth!

• So many times when a person dies we naturally console ourselves with comments like: “Well, I know he is in a better place now.”

• And while that may be true, especially if the person lived a good and holy life, going to Heaven after we die is not something we should ever presume upon.

• While dying is a certainly a prerequisite for going to Heaven, my friends, we have to do more than just die to get to Heaven!• As I mentioned last Sunday, our salvation is a gift from God, but it’s not something that we sit around and wait for. Our salvation is something we participate in and work out over the entire course of our lives.

• It’s not something we can earn, for it is indeed a free gift, but we must cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls if we wish to be saved.

• God the Father created us out of love; He created us for Himself. When He saw us reject Him through sin, He sent the Son to redeem us.

• This Jesus did by becoming man and by His Paschal Mystery. By His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus made salvation a possibility for mankind. And the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier, works within us to prepare us in holiness so that we might receive this gift of salvation.

• So while Jesus has made salvation a possibility for us by redeeming us, it is the Holy Spirit who enables to participate in the work of redemption for our own salvation and the salvation of other souls as well.

• Moreover, while the Holy Spirit fills the whole universe, St. Basil the Great teaches that He only acts in the souls of those who are worthy. In other words, He acts in the souls of those who are habitually in a state of grace.

• For when we fall into moral sin, we evict the Holy Spirit from our souls. And He will only return after we have made a good confession and received absolution.

• In this process of restoring us to grace, whether it be through baptism or reconciliation, the Holy Spirit restores our original beauty that we forfeited by our sinfulness, freeing us from sin and death, making us children of God and heirs to an eternal inheritance.

• God created us in love, and He created us in His own image and likeness. Therefore we are created with beauty. But we mar, distort, and destroy that beauty by our sinfulness. And through the grace of the sacraments, the Holy Spirits works to restore our God‐ given beauty.

• And so today, above all else, must be a day of great gratitude for us. As we gather to honor the Holy Spirit, we must first and foremost thank Him for the work He does within us so that we might be saved.

• But in addition to being a day of gratitude, today is also a day of commissioning for us, for the Holy Spirit works to make us holy not simply so that we might be saved, but also that we might lead others in the path of salvation.

• The history of the Church is filled with examples of the Holy Spirit working in and through people we now call saints.

• The Spirit has guided many holy men and women to witness to the Faith with their very lives, to found religious orders, and to teach and explain the doctrines of Catholicism so that others might be saved.

• It was the Holy Spirit that led St. Augustine to conversion and inspired his teachings that the Church still relies upon today. It was the Holy Spirit that gave St. Paul the courage to preach the truth of Christ in the midst of terrible sufferings and persecutions, even to the point of death.

• In our modern world it was the Holy Spirit who inspired Blessed Mother Teresa to found a religious order to care for the poorest of the poor, so that they, too, might know Christ.

• And it was the Holy Spirit who nurtured and stirred the young heart of St. Therese to teach the Church how to love.

• The saints, whom we love, venerate, and look up to, were simply people who allowed the Holy Spirit into their lives, and who tried to live by His promptings. And because of their works and examples, many other souls have been saved.

• My brothers and sisters, receive the Holy Spirit. Receive Him in mind and heart. Allow Him to transform you, to comfort you, and to sanctify you. And allow Him to use you to inspire others to holiness. We have nothing to lose, and only Heaven to gain.

Copyright 2011 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

, , , , , ,

What the Resurrection of Christ Means for Our Lives

In Uncategorized on 2013/04/16 at 6:30 PM

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good day!

 Today I would like to reflect on its meaning for salvation. What does the Resurrection mean for our lives? And why, without it, is our faith in vain? Our faith is based on the death and resurrection of Christ, just like a house built on foundations: if they give in, the whole house collapses.

On the Cross, Jesus offered himself taking sins upon himself our and going down into the abyss of death, and in the Resurrection he defeats them, he removes them and opens up to us the path to be reborn to a new life. St. Peter expresses it briefly at the beginning of his First Letter, as we have heard: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”(1:3-4).

The Apostle tells us that the Resurrection of Jesus is something new: we are freed from the slavery of sin and become children of God, that we are born to a new life. When does this happen to us? In the Sacrament of Baptism. In ancient times, it was normally received through immersion. Those to be baptized immersed themselves in the large pool within the Baptistery, leaving their clothes, and the bishop or the priest would pour water over their head three times, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then the baptized would emerge from the pool and put on a new vestment, a white one: they were born to a new life, immersing themselves in the death and resurrection of Christ. They had become children of God. I

In the Letter to the Romans Saint Paul writes: you ” For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father! ‘”(Rom. 8:15). It is the Holy Spirit that we received in baptism that teaches us, leads us to say to God, “Father.” Or rather, Abba Father. This is our God, He is a father to us.

The Holy Spirit produces in us this new status as children of God, and this is the greatest gift we receive from the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. And God treats us as His children, He understands us, forgives us, embraces us, loves us even when we make mistakes . In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah said that even though a mother may forget her child, God never, ever forgets us (cf. 49:15). And this is a beautiful thing, beautiful!

However, this filial relationship with God is not like a treasure to be kept in a corner of our lives. It must grow, it must be nourished every day by hearing the Word of God, prayer, participation in the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist and charity. We can live as children! We can live as children! And this is our dignity. So let us behave as true children! This means that each day we must let Christ transform us and make us like Him; it means trying to live as Christians, trying to follow him, even if we see our limitations and our weaknesses.

The temptation to put God to one side, to put ourselves at the center is ever-present and the experience of sin wounds our Christian life, our being children of God. This is why we must have the courage of faith, we must resist being led to the mentality that tells us: “There is no need for God, He is not that important for you”. It is the exact opposite: only by behaving as children of God, without being discouraged by our falls, can we feel loved by Him, our life will be new, inspired by serenity and joy. God is our strength! God is our hope!

Dear brothers and sisters, we must first must firmly have this hope and we must be visible, clear, brilliant signs of hope in world. The Risen Lord is the hope that never fails, that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). God’s hope never disappoints!. How many times in our life do our hopes vanish, how many times do the expectations that we carry in our heart not come true! The hope of Christians is strong, safe and sound in this land, where God has called us to walk, and is open to eternity, because it is founded on God, who is always faithful.

We should never forget this; God is always faithful! God is always faithful! Be risen with Christ through Baptism, with the gift of faith, to an imperishable inheritance, leads us to increasingly search for the things of God, to think of Him more, to pray more. Christianity is not simply a matter of following commandments; it is about living a new life, being in Christ, thinking and acting like Christ, and being transformed by the love of Christ, it is allowing Him take possession of our lives and change them, transform them, to free them from the darkness of evil and sin.

Dear brothers and sisters, to those who ask us our reasons for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), let us point to the Risen Christ. Let us point to Him with the proclamation of the Word, but especially with our resurrected life. Let us show the joy of being children of God, the freedom he gives us to live in Christ, who is true freedom, freedom from the slavery of evil, sin and death! In looking to our heavenly home, we will also have a new light and strength in our commitment and in our daily efforts. It is a precious service that we give to our world, which is often no longer able to lift its gaze upwards, it no longer seems able to lift its gaze towards God.

VIS

, ,

Pope Benedict XVI’s Final General Audience: “I asked God to enlighten me to make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church.

In 13 History on 2013/02/28 at 12:00 AM

Vatican City, 27 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, Benedict XVI celebrated his last general audience. In St. Peter’s Square, crowded with tens of thousands of people wishing to bid him farewell, the Pontiff said: “Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this, my last general audience. Thank you, I am truly moved! And I see the Church is alive! I think we also have to thank the Creator for the beautiful weather that He is giving us now, even in winter.”

Following is the entire text of the Holy Father’s words.

“Like the Apostle Paul in the Biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart that I have to especially thank God who guides and builds up the Church, who plants His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His People. At this moment my heart expands and embraces the whole Church throughout the world and I thank God for the ‘news’ that, in these years of my Petrine ministry, I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love that truly circulates in the Body of the Church, making it to live in the love and the hope that opens us to and guides us towards the fullness of life, towards our heavenly homeland.”

“I feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).”

“At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel’s Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God’s grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.”

“When, on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every day. It has been a stretch of the Church’s path that has had moments of joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the Apostles in the boat on the See of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful, but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His love.”

“We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God’s arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every morning, say: ‘I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian…’ Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us to also love Him!”

“It is not only God who I wish to thank at this time. A pope is not alone in guiding Peter’s barque, even if it is his primary responsibility. I have never felt alone in bearing the joy and the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed at my side so many people who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me. First of all, you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your advice, and your friendship have been precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my secretary of state who has accompanied me faithfully over the years; the Secretariat of State and the whole of the Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in their various areas, serve the Holy See. There are many faces that are never seen, remaining in obscurity, but precisely in their silence, in their daily dedication in a spirit of faith and humility, they were a sure and reliable support to me. A special thought goes to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot forget my Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, consecrated persons, and the entire People of God. In my pastoral visits, meetings, audiences, and trips I always felt great care and deep affection, but I have also loved each and every one of you, without exception, with that pastoral love that is the heart of every pastor, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I held each of you in prayer, with a father’s heart.”

“I wish to send my greetings and my thanks to all: a pope’s heart extends to the whole world. And I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes the great family of Nations present here. Here I am also thinking of all those who work for good communication and I thank them for their important service.”

“At this point I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all of the many people around the world who, in recent weeks, have sent me touching tokens of concern, friendship, and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone. I feel this again now in such a great way that it touches my heart. The Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel very close to him. It’s true that I receive letters from the world’s notables—from heads of states, from religious leaders, from representatives of the world of culture, etc. But I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their hearts and make me feel their affection, which is born of our being together with Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write to me the way one would write, for example, to a prince or a dignitary that they don’t know. They write to me as brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with the sense of a very affectionate family tie. In this you can touch what the Church is—not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian ends, but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ who unites us all. Experiencing the Church in this way and being able to almost touch with our hands the strength of His truth and His love is a reason for joy at a time when many are speaking of its decline. See how the Church is alive today!”

“In these last months I have felt that my strength had diminished and I asked God earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its seriousness and also its newness, but with a profound peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, agonized choices, always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not of oneself.”

“Allow me here to return once again to 19 April, 2005. The gravity of the decision lay precisely in the fact that, from that moment on, I was always and for always engaged by the Lord. Always—whoever assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and entirely to everyone, to the whole Church. His life, so to speak, is totally deprived of its private dimension. I experienced, and I am experiencing it precisely now, that one receives life precisely when they give it. Before I said that many people who love the Lord also love St. Peter’s Successor and are fond of him; that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion; because he no longer belongs to himself but he belongs to all and all belong to him.”

“’Always’ is also ‘forever’–there is no return to private life. My decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I am not returning to private life, to a life of trips, meetings, receptions, conferences, etc. I am not abandoning the cross, but am remaining beside the Crucified Lord in a new way. I no longer bear the power of the office for the governance of the Church, but I remain in the service of prayer, within St. Peter’s paddock, so to speak. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example to me in this. He has shown us the way for a life that, active or passive, belongs wholly to God’s work.”

“I also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to accompany the Church’s journey through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. Many the Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.”

“We call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.”

“Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.”

VIS 130227

, ,

“Come, Sanctifier, almight and eternal God”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/05/16 at 9:11 AM
Be a eucharistic soul! If the centre around which your thoughts and hopes turn is the Tabernacle, then, my child, how abundant the fruits of your sanctity and apostolate will be! (The Forge, 835)

I was talking to you about the love of the Blessed Trinity for man. And where can we see this more clearly than in the Mass? The three divine Persons act together in the holy sacrifice of the altar. This is why I like to repeat the final words of the collect, secret and postcommunion: “Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,” we pray to God the Father, “who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”

In the Mass, our prayer to God the Father is constant. The priest represents the eternal high priest, Jesus Christ, who is, at the same time, the victim offered in this sacrifice. And the action of the Holy Spirit in the Mass is truly present, although in a mysterious manner. “By the power of the Holy Spirit,” writes St John Damascene, “the transformation of the bread into the body of Christ takes place.”

The action of the Holy Spirit is clearly expressed when the priest invokes the divine blessing on the offerings: “Come, Sanctifier, almighty and eternal God, and bless this sacrifice prepared in honour of your holy name” — the holocaust that will give to the holy name of God the glory that is due. The sanctification we pray for is attributed to the Paraclete, who is sent to us by the Father and the Son. And we also recognize the active presence of the Holy Spirit in this sacrifice, as we say, shortly before communion: “Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the will of the Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, by your death have brought life to the world…” (Christ is passing by, 85)

, , ,

The Many Aspects of the Christian Apostolate

In 07 Observations on 2011/08/28 at 1:11 AM

The apostolate is not something one adds to one’s normal Christian activities.  It is the Christian life itself.  A Christian needs to be many things, but above all, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, consistently giving example with cheerfulness.

Aspect 1:  The Sanctity of Today
God gives Christians the help needed to turn each routine day into a day of value and influence.  Christians can and must manifest Christ, and in doing so, bear great witness to their Christian faith in an exemplary way.  The Holy Spirit, sanctifier of the soul, inspires the desires that prod us to be better.  When the Christian meets the day, he needs to remember that today is the only time he can offer to God.  The past is memory; the future, imagination.  Therefore, he has only the present, and it is only in the present that God gives the grace to cope with whatever happens. Keeping this truth in mind, one can sanctify the day, heeding the many inspirations and graces given throughout the day to cope with its problems. This grace also enables us to concentrate on what we are doing, being faithful to those seemingly insignificant details that can be vivified by grace.

Aspect 2:  Carrying One Another’s Burdens
Our neighbors’ problems must be our problems.  As Christians we cannot be indifferent to anyone.  Friendship with the enriched by grace is powerful.  Friendship is an instrument we can use to reach others, particularly our relatives, friends and co-workers with the love of God.  With our friendship, we can lead others to God by offering encouragement, support and sound advice.  In the New Testament, the paralytic represents all of us whose sins or ignorance keep us from God.  Remember that it was his friends who cared not for human respect but went about the task of removing the roof to help their friend reach Christ, who was waiting for him and who waits today for us.  We must learn to see Christ in our neighbors, to take up His cross by taking up theirs, to minister to Him by ministering to those in need.

We simply cannot make  islands of ourselves.  We should seek to have as many friends as possible and encourage the deepening of those friendships.  It was often through friendship, as we see in the Gospels, that people were brought to Christ.  Andrew through friendship brought Peter to Christ; Phillip brought Nathaniel.

Aspect 3:  The Special Graces of Femininity
Women, in particular, are endowed with special traits given them by their Creator: gentleness, warmth, generosity, love of detail, piety, perseverance, constancy, quickness and, above all, intuition.  Pope John Paul II said:  “Your example of honesty in thought and action, joined to some common prayer, is a lesson for life and an act of worship of singular value.  In this way you bring peace to your homes.  It is thus that you build up the Church.”

Aspect 4:  Collaborating with Grace
St. Thomas Aquinas refers to men as collaborators with God’s grace, the Holy Spirit using them as instruments of that Grace.  We must be good collaborators with God’s grace, for the Holy Spirit uses men and women as an instruments.  The inert tools in the hand of a good craftsman can produce a masterpiece.

Let us ask Christ to give us a good heart, capable of having compassion for the pain of others.  To enable us to bring our suffering friends face to face with Christ and then humbly recede to leave them in the presence of Him, who alone can transform souls.  We must never forget, though, that we cannot do any good nor make Christ known if we are not making a sincere effort to live the teachings of the Gospel.  We must fix our eyes on Jesus, and with our eyes thus fixed we need fear nothing.

Aspect 5:  Listening in Silence
To make our apostolate effective we need to imbibe the doctrine of Jesus Christ which is always relevant and timely, a teaching directed to each one of us personally.  Christ always has something to tell each one of us individually.  In order to hear him, we must have a heart that knows how to listen and is attentive to the things of God.  Blessed Mother Teresa used to say: “God speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.”  His words in the New Testament speak to us; they are always relevant because they are living and eternal.  Blessed John Henry Newman says of Jesus: “He took on a human heart so he could feel.”

Aspect 6:  Viewing Decisions with God’s Eyes
When I make a decision, however large or small, do I keep in mind above all else what it is God wants of me?  We must remember that what God considers important might be very different from what we might decide is important.  Let us follow the example of His mother whose words echo in Scripture: “Be it done according to Thy will” and “Do what He tells you.”  We must meet each day’s challenge with a smile and fulfill our daily tasks regardless of their difficulties.

Aspect 7:  Forgiving Faults
A generous Christian will quickly forget the little irritations that are part of daily life, doing the unpleasant task first, accepting people as they are, ignoring their faults, giving others the benefit of the doubt and, all in all, trying to make life more pleasant for those with whom we are in contact, assisting them to grow closer to Christ by our example.

Aspect 8:  Finding Happiness in Suffering
Happiness can be found in everyday things rather than in flights of fancy and daydreams  And, we know that we will be tested.  Pain of body or mind serves to purify the soul and make it yield a better harvest.  Although suffering is a mystery, through faith we can see the loving and provident hand of God who sees the whole narrative of our lives.  Accepting the suffering, leads us closer to God and produces peace and serenity of mind and soul.  We can find God in everything including challenging situations.  God is always present, often in secret and mysterious ways.  Place your hand in His; He will never abandon you.  And if you do abandon Him, He is always ready with an extended hand to receive the prodigal child.

St. Augustine said with experience that “even our mistakes and wanderings from the right path always end up well, for God arranges absolutely everything to His own advantage.”  St. Paul also tells us “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”  Isaiah reminds us that “no one who works for God with rectitude on intention can work in vain.”

To be instruments of God, we must cherish a life of prayer, of a personal relationship with Christ through prayer.  Prayer is the mainstay of a Christian life and the irreplaceable source of strength for any Christian work or apostolate. The apostolate is the fruit of our love for Christ, and it is only possible if we are united to God through faith, through love and through prayer.

, , , ,

How Do I Love You? Let Me Count the Ways

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/08/10 at 7:00 AM

The Beatitudes describe the most perfect fruits of the Holy Spirit in man.  They are the most divine-like human acts that men can perform, and Christ attached a reward to them both in this life and in the next.  The Beatitudes promise blessing and redemption to all those whose moral conduct meets the demands Christ sets.

The Beatitudes correspond to man’s natural desire for happiness: a desire of divine origin that God has placed into the heart of men to draw them to Himself, He who alone can fulfill that desire.

The Beatitudes are the gateway to the Sermon on the Mount.  This discourse contains various teachings that essentially deal with the attitudes and heart condition a person must have TO enter the Kingdom of Heaven: simply, how one relates to God as Father and the human beings as siblings.

The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity.  They are descriptions of His perfect humanity, for He  is the model for them.  And in them, He present the New Law: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Jesus Christ was the greatest revolutionary that walked the earth.  He made a complete change from the generally accepted human values to this new law.  The message was that only in serving God could man achieve the happiness he desired.  Thus,  Jesus Christ clarified the attitudes and moral behavior that his perfect nature required of all those who desire to follow Him.

The Beatitudes teach us that the real success of our lives is to love and fulfill God’s Will for us.  They are an invitation to an upright and worthy life.  Will you accept this Divine invitation?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Matt. 5:12.

, ,

“The solemn coming of the Holy Spirit”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/06/12 at 7:07 AM

 There are three important things you need to do to draw people to God. Forget yourself, and think only of the glory of your Father God.  Subject your will filially to the Will of Heaven, as Jesus Christ taught you. Follow with docility the lights of the Holy Spirit. (Furrow, 793)


The solemn coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was not an isolated event. There is hardly a page in the Acts of the Apostles where we fail to read about him and the action by which he guides, directs and enlivens the life and work of the early christian community.

The strength and the power of God light up the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit is present in the Church of Christ for all time, so that it may be, always and in everything, a sign raised up before all nations, announcing to all men the goodness and the love of God. In spite of our great limitations, we can look up to heaven with confidence and joy: God loves us and frees us from our sins. The presence and the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church are a foretaste of eternal happiness, of the joy and peace for which we are destined by God.

For this reason, Christian tradition has summarized the attitude we should adopt toward the Holy Spirit in just one idea: docility. That means we should be aware of the work of the Holy Spirit all around us, and in our own selves we should recognize the gifts he distributes, the movements and institutions he inspires, the affections and decisions he provokes in our hearts. The Holy Spirit carries out in the world the works of God. He is, as we read in a liturgical hymn, the giver of grace, the light of our hearts, the soul’s guest, our rest in work, our consolation in sorrow. Without his help there is nothing innocent or valuable in man, since he is the one who cleanses the soiled, heals what is sick, sets on fire what is cold, straightens what is bent and guides men toward the safe harbor of salvation and eternal joy.  (Christ is passing by, 127-130)

, ,

Solemnity of Pentecost by Fr. Reid

In 05 Homilies by Fr. Reid on 2011/06/11 at 7:00 AM

• Immediately before the Alleluia today we heard the singing of the Pentecost Sequence, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is a poetic text set to a Gregorian chant mode.

• While there have many sequences for various Masses composed over the centuries, since 1570 there are only four feast days in the liturgical calendar that still employ these beautiful chants: Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and All Souls Day.

• The purpose of the sequence is to help us delve more deeply into the mystery of Faith that we are celebrating, but to do so in a way that not only provides some measure of catechesis, but that also inspires us with its artistic beauty.

• Moreover, the use of a sequence at Mass marks a feast day as being particularly important to the life of the Church. As such, today’s feast of Pentecost is one of the most important feasts that we celebrate each year!

• This is because this is the particular day of the year that we honor the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Comforter, and the Sanctifier.

• The sequence that we used today serves as an invitation to the Holy Spirit to come to us. Indeed, Veni Sancte Spiritus means “Come, Holy Spirit!” And in this sequence we invite Him to come and impart to us His gifts of holiness, comfort, and peace.

• On this glorious feast of Pentecost, not only should we beg for the Holy Spirit to come to us, but we should also meditate on His nature and role in salvation history.

• As the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, because He is God, it is impossible to fully understand Him, but there is much that we do know.

• As we mediate on the Holy Spirit and contemplate His role in salvation history, we can see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Love, and the Spirit of Power.

• It is Jesus who, in the Gospel of John, refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, and in doing so Jesus tells us that when the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – comes, He will guide us to all truth.

• This is because the Holy Spirit is a unifying force who has come not only to enlighten our hearts and minds, but Who also safeguards the Church’s teachings from error. He is also a light that shines upon our intellects so that we may know and accept the teachings of Christ.

• Jesus knew that He would not be staying on earth forever and that He would need a mechanism for continuing His mission on earth after He ascended into Heaven.

• Thus He created the Church, built upon the foundation of the apostles, to be both the repository for His teachings and the means for spreading those teachings throughout the world.

• Because man’s salvation depends upon His teachings, it makes perfect sense that Jesus would want some means in place to protect the truth of His teachings, and that means of protection is the Holy Spirit.

• Thus, because of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, we can be confident that the teachings of the Catholic Church in matters of faith and morals are all objectively true and therefore can never be changed.

• While Church leaders may themselves fall into sin or have lapses of judgment, the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that what we believe as Catholics in matters of faith and morals is true and has been revealed by Christ Himself.

• The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Love, enflaming our hearts with desire for our Lord.

• The Scriptures tells us that when Our Lady and the Apostles were gathered in prayer at

Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them like tongues of fire. In fact, the red vestments that we wear today are meant to symbolize this fire of the Holy Spirit.

• This fire of the Holy Spirit is a fire of love, which purifies our hearts of sin and evil desires and enflames us with a desire to serve our Lord and our fellow man.

• As the Spirit of Love, the Holy Spirit enkindles within us a burning charity that helps us reach out to others and that ultimately sanctifies us.

• Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power, a power that not only can affect natural phenomena, as we hear in the first reading today, but that can also change and purify hearts and bring unity and peace to people of disparate lands, cultures, and languages.

• As we consider the mystery of Pentecost, we must realize that the Pentecost is not an isolated event in Church history. Indeed, the Holy Spirit continues to come upon His Church in this way, particularly through the Sacrament of Confirmation.

• While we may not experience the same phenomena of tongues of fire and rushing winds that our Lady and the apostles experienced at the first Pentecost 2000 years ago, the Holy Spirit is no less powerful today.

• We experience the power of the Holy Spirit within ourselves. At times we experience Him as an inspiration or a sudden thought to do or say something. At other times we experience Him as a deep and abiding sense of peace in the midst of trials and sufferings.

• The history of the Church is suffused with examples of the Holy Spirit working in and through the saints. The Spirit has guided many holy men and women to witness to the Faith with their very lives, to found religious orders, and to teach and explain the doctrines of Catholicism.

• It was the Holy Spirit that led St. Augustine to conversion and inspired his teachings that the Church still relies upon today. It was the Holy Spirit that gave St. Paul the courage to preach the truth of Christ in the midst of terrible sufferings and persecutions, even to the point of death.

• It was the Holy Spirit who inspired Blessed Mother Teresa to found a religious order to care for the poorest of the poor. And it was the Holy Spirit who nurtured and stirred the young heart of St. Therese of Lisieux to teach the Church how to love.

• As we consider how the Holy Spirit works through us and in us as the Spirit of Truth, Love, and Power, we must do our best to receive Him and cooperate with Him.

• We do this first by exercising the virtue of docility, which enables us to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and His Church, which guide us and protect us from sin.

• We do this by seeking to unite ourselves to Him in prayer, conversing with Him, listening to His promptings, and asking Him to fill us with His love.

• And finally, we do this by exercising the virtue of courage, which enables us to embrace the cross, which is the heart of living our Christian faith and which is absolutely essential for growing in a life of holiness.

• Suffering comes to all of us, and this is not because God doesn’t love us. God allows suffering because He does love us! And it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to courageously accept our sufferings so that we may become more like Jesus.

• My dear friends, as we invite the Holy Spirit to come to us today, may we truly receive Him. Through humble docility, prayer, and the exercise of courage, may He transform us, comfort us, and sanctify us. And may He bless us always with His peace.

Copyright 2010 by Reverend Timothy S. Reid

Reverend Reid is pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic  Church in Charlotte, NC

, , , , ,

The Risen One, the New Temple

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/04/12 at 5:34 PM

The Apostle John records a three word powerful sentence concluding the Prologue:  He explains Him. John 1:18.  He (Christ) explains Him (the Father).

In this theological Gospel, John reveals the person of Jesus intimately, perceiving His inner most thoughts and emotions. If you want  to understand the true meaning of life, if you seek eternal life, if you long to know God, you will find all those desires fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in all the Gospels.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten the apostles so that they recorded, with divine authority, God’s truth.  Imagine the power that inspired a teenage fisherman to later write: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1: 1. And, later in an epistle:  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” I John 1:1.

Each Gospel writer had a goal and specific audience in mind, which  guided him to select certain miracles or signs to point to the different aspects of eternal truth. The Synoptic Gospel were recorded much earlier than John’s Gospel.  Matthew, Mark and Luke simply recorded what Jesus did and what He said. It is the beloved disciple, John, who  gives a special emphasis on what Jesus meant. All four portrait painters of Jesus had one goal, expressed by John: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:31

Jesus is divine; He is also human.  He is now in heaven in His human resurrected body which although invisible to us, is nonetheless is as real as you are. Peter knew what was what when he said to our Lord: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6: 66-69. The doubting disciple,  Thomas who as a Jew was strictly monotheistic, recognized the divinity of Christ when he exclaimed in faith: “my Lord and my God.”  John 20:28.

Christ is a living person, who has come to make knowledge become light and life in you.  Trust Him and as you read the Gospels, expect Him to show you He can help you now.  Seek to find  in the heart of Jesus, the meaning  of His words and miracles. Look  into your own heart.  Expect Him to enable you to see whatever changes you can make in your life for your own good.

In his recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, Pope Benedict XVI states: “God revealed his ‘name’ to Moses.  That ‘name’ was more than a word.  It meant that God allowed himself to be invoked, that he had entered into communion with Israel….God’s name means: God present among men.”

“The revelation of the name is a new mode of God’s presence among men, a radically new way in which god make his home with them.  In Jesus, God gives himself entirely into the world of mankind: whoever sees Jesus sees the Father. (cf.Jn 14:9)”

“In him God is truly ‘God-with-us’….As the Risen One, he comes once more, in order to make all people into his body, the new Temple.”