Pentecost 2025 - 7 Gifts of the Spirit

 Last week, on the feast of the Ascension, in our scripture readings, we heard Jesus instructing his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father. Well, the waiting is over, we celebrate now the promise fulfilled: the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church 50 days after the Lord’s resurrection 

The Holy Spirit, as we proclaim in our creed each week, is the Lord, the giver of life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit souls are brought to new life in the Sacrament of baptism; they are strengthened in confirmation, healed in the sacraments of reconciliation and anointing of the sick, nourished in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and empowered with special graces for unique vocations in the sacraments of marriage and Holy Orders.

The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, helps us to truly live by bestowing upon us special gifts, you may have memorized the list of them as you prepared for your Confirmation. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The Catechism says, these gifts belong in their fullness to Jesus Christ. Meaning if you wanted to see what wisdom looks like, sounds like, and acts like, look at Jesus. If you want to know the highest form of counsel, piety, and fear of the Lord, look to Jesus. 

So let’s consider each of the gifts. How was Jesus’ life filled with wisdom? Well, what is wisdom? Wisdom seeks what is of the highest importance. To be wise is to recognize that our highest priority in this life  isn’t career or wealth, pleasure or power, but getting our souls to heaven and becoming the person God made us to be: saints.

Jesus taught us not only to be wise, teaching us to “seek first the kingdom of God”,  but his wisdom was evident. He embraced the greatest suffering imaginable the weight of our sins as he hung upon the Cross, in order to achieve the highest good, our salvation. We are fully alive when we, wisely, we embrace the cross with Christ in order to obtain our highest good.

The second gift is understanding. The gift of Understanding enables us to penetrate the mysteries of God and see the deeper meaning of God’s plan. Jesus’ understanding is manifest in his ministry. He explains the deeper meaning of the Scriptures, helping others understand God’s plan of salvation. 

With Understanding comes patience and gratitude. Think of how understanding has changed your experience of Mass. As a young person you may have been restless and impatient for mass to be over, but recognizing what is really going on here, understanding that the Eucharist is truly Jesus Christ, that changes things. That understanding enables us to more fully engage in the Mass and appreciate the great gift Jesus has left us, and to encourage others to join us here.

The third gift of the Spirit is Counsel . Counsel means knowing and choosing what is right in difficult situations. Jesus always chooses the Father’s will, even when he was tempted. In the desert, He rebuffs Satan’s temptations with clarity. We are fully alive when we follow not the counsel of the world or the devil, but the counsel of God. 

Like all the gifts, counsel is for ourselves, but also for others. For example, a friend confides in you that they are considering making a terrible decision, like abortion. The Gift of Counsel enables you to speak with compassion, truth, and hope—encouraging them to choose life and offering concrete support.

The fourth gift is fortitude. Fortitude is the courage and strength to  do good and endure difficulty for the sake of what is right. Jesus endured opposition, rejection, betrayal, scourging, and crucifixion without faltering in His mission. He exhibited courage in confronting hypocrisy and injustice, even when it meant risking His life. In His Passion, He reveals fortitude in its purest form—persevering in love to the end.

Fortitude enables us to work for justice despite opposition, to witness to the faith in the face of mockery or persecution, or to persevere doing what is right despite hardship—like taking care of an elderly parent despite their complaints. To be fully alive is to be full of Courage and Strength for doing what is right when it is hard.

The fifth gift of the Holy Spirit is knowledge – Knowing the things of God and how to remain in right relationship to God. Jesus helps people to know the presence of God in their midst. 

This gift helps us to know what is good or bad for our soul and to discern God’s will. Think of a young person discerning that her social media habits are fueling vanity and envy. So, she chooses to limit her use to protect her spiritual health. Or any of us for that matter, when facing temptation, calling to mind the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Church. We are fully alive when we have that ability to rightly discern between good and evil.

The sixth gift is piety--filial reverence and trust in God as a loving Father. Jesus refers to God as Abba, Father, and teaches His disciples to do the same. Jesus is faithful in prayer, obedient to the Father’s will, and models loving trust even amid suffering. His entire life is an offering of reverent love for the Father. We exercise piety when we cultivate heartful devotion for God and the things of God.

For example, a family gathering together once a week to pray the Rosary, not out of obligation but from a desire to honor and love God together. Or coming to church on Saturday to spend time in adoration, simply to spend time in the presence of the Lord manifests piety. We are fully alive when we desire God and what to live lives pleasing to God.

And lastly, fear of the Lord—we are fully alive when we allow the Spirit to teach us to hate sin and to become humble in God’s presence. Jesus, taught us to hate sin, to seek conversion and drive out corruption from our lives. In the Temple, He drives out the money changers, zealous for the holiness of God’s Temple. 

The Holy Spirit helps us to hate gossip and lying, not simply because they are socially rude, but because they offend God. He teaches us to guard ourselves from perverted images on the internet, lest you fall into sin, manifests fear of the Lord. This gift makes us fully alive by hating what is evil, rightly protecting ourselves from what corrupts us and others.

Dear ones, the Holy Spirit was not poured out on the Church merely so we could decorate our altars with red once a year. The Holy Spirit was poured out so that we might become fully alive—with the very life of Christ.

As I quoted last week, St. Irenaeus wrote, "The glory of God is man fully alive." But not just biologically alive. Not just scrolling and surviving and chasing the next comfort or pleasure. Fully alive means burning with the fire of the Spirit—filled with wisdom, courage, purity, purpose, and joy. Fully alive means no longer being ruled by fear, sin, or confusion, but walking in step with the Spirit, living in truth and love.

It should be a common occurrence for us to ask the Holy Spirit: Which gift do I need to grow in most? What part of me is still half-asleep, half-committed, half-alive? And then pray: Come, Holy Spirit. Awaken me. Fill me. Make me fully alive in Christ— for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Ascension 2025 - Promise of the Father

 For the past 40 days of the Easter season, we’ve reveled in and celebrated, contemplated and hopefully lived out and proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Throughout the Easter Season, our Sunday readings have led us to consider what it means to live in the peace of the Risen Christ, what it means for us to feed the lambs and tend the sheep of the Risen Christ. We’ve considered what it means for us, as members of the Risen Christ’s flock, to continue to listen to the Shepherd’s voice, and what it means to love one another so as to glorify the Risen Christ.

Hopefully, during these 40 days you have seen and witnessed in your own life and in the lives of one another the effects of Christ’s resurrection: greater peace and joy and courage and charity.

Today’s feast of the Ascension marks the final phase of the Easter Season which will culminate in the Feast of Pentecost next Sunday. Our Scripture readings today look forward to Pentecost, too. We heard in both our First Reading and the Gospel about “the promise of the Father” and “in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

During those days between the Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost, the apostles gathered together to pray with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Cenacle. So, imitating how the earliest Christians prepared for Pentecost, in invited you, over this next week, to consider adding to your daily prayer routine special prayers for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Especially as our parish prepares for a retreat next Saturday on the discernment of our spiritual gifts, please pray for each other and for yourselves, that Pentecost can be for you and our fellow parishioners a new openness to the promises of the Father. 

That’s an interesting phrase, the Lord uses in the Gospel, isn’t it? “The Promise of the Father”. The phrase “promise of the Father” is rich in theological meaning and ties together the Old and New Testaments.  Throughout the Old Testament, God makes promises to His people—not only of land and descendants, but of new life and interior renewal:

In the prophet Ezekiel we read: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you”. In the prophet Joel we read, ““I will pour out my spirit on all flesh”. Again in Ezekiel we read, “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live”

In using this phrase, “the promise of the Father” Jesus is drawing attention to the fact that these ancient promises are not abstract—they are now being fulfilled in the Church. The Father has promised His very Spirit, and Pentecost will mean an outpouring of the Spirit on the Church.

Calling the Holy Spirit “the promise of the Father” reminds us that the Spirit is not just a force or an impersonal gift—He is the personal bond of love between the Father and the Son. And Christians brought into that very communion. In calling the Spirit “the promise of the Father” Jesus is saying, “My Father has been longing for you to be brought into full Communion with the Trinity. And that plan of the Father is now being fulfilled.” 

God is faithful to his promises. The Father is not like the world, which makes and breaks promises. What God promises, He brings to fulfillment. Just as He fulfilled the promise of the Messiah in Jesus’ coming, so now He fulfills the promise of divine indwelling in the sending of the Spirit.

In speaking of the promise of the Father, the Lord Jesus invited his apostles to continue just a little while longer to wait with trust, and Jesus invites us into that same posture: expectant, receptive, persevering. For, the promise of the Father was not just for the apostles. It is for us, here and now—in this age of the Church. The Father wants life for us. As St. Ireneus said, the glory of God is man fully alive. And the Spirit enables us to abound with the life of God.

Particularly, the Spirit is given to restore us to life due to our sins. It is through the Holy Spirit that the redemptive grace of Christ’s Paschal Mystery is applied to us through Baptism. And it is through the Holy Spirit that sins that we commit after baptism might be absolved.  The absolution prayer in the Sacrament of Confession echoes this. After the penitent makes the act of contrition in the Sacrament of Confession, the priest prays: “God the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.”

The forgiveness of sins is truly a restoration of life. What is dead in us is brought to life through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

But the Holy Spirit also causes spiritual gifts to sprout from seed form, to grow, flourish, and bear fruit. In baptism, each of us the gifts of God are given in seed form: knowledge, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. And as we cooperate with the Spirit in the course of our lives, and receive the Sacraments, we increase in these gifts.

The Gifts of the Spirit are gifts God has given to each of us to be active and alive and effective in our Christian mission. But there are also unique gifts, charisms, given to me that he hasn’t given to you, and gifts that he has given to you that he hasn’t given to me. And we are to seek to discern and cultivate those as well.

Again, our retreat next Saturday will help us to discern those gifts and how they can be put to use in God’s service.

None of God’s gifts are to be hidden under a bushel basket. We are fully alive when we have allowed promises of the Father to be fulfilled in us, when we have allowed the Holy Spirit to animate us—our words, actions, and decisions.

So again, this week, in preparation for the Feast of Pentecost: pray for greater openness to the Promise of the Father. Take some time this week to ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify gifts that have gone dormant, gifts that need strengthening, and the courage to put those gifts into action. Lord, what gift right now, do I need to cultivate more than others? What gift have I fearfully or lazily hidden away? 

And please pray for your fellow parishioners who will be attending next week’s retreat. If the glory of God is man fully alive, fully utilizing his gifts, then God is certainly glorified when brothers and sisters in Christ come together in seeking to put their gifts in service to God collectively as a parish.

May God’s promises and gifts become ever more manifest in each of our lives and families and relationships for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Monday after Pentecost 2021 - Mary, Mother of the Church

 The title “Mother of the Church” is not new. St. Ambrose, great Bishop of Milan who was instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine called Mary, Mater Ecclesiae, “Mother of the Church.” 

Fifteen centuries later, the title was still in use when Pope Leo XIII wrote a beautiful document on Our Lady, titled Adjiutricem Populi, Helper of the people in which he invokes our Lady under this title.

 “The mightiest helper of the Christian people,” Pope Leo writes, “and the most merciful, is the Virgin Mother of God. How fitting it is to accord her honors ever increasing in splendor, and call upon her aid with a confidence daily growing more ardent. The abundant blessings, infinitely varied and constantly multiplying, which flow from her all over the whole world for the common benefit of mankind, add fresh motives for invoking and honoring her…She is invoked as Mother of the Church and the teacher and Queen of the Apostles".

So too, As the third session of the Second Vatican Council closed on November 21st, 1964, Pope Paul VI declared: "We declare Mary Most Holy Mother of the Church, that is, of all the Christian people"  writing elsewhere, “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ.”

Just in 2018, Holy Father Pope Francis instituted a new liturgical feast to be celebrated universally the Monday after Pentecost, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Church. 

The day after we celebrate, the birthday of the Church, so to speak on Pentecost, we celebrate our Mother, who was present, praying for the apostles, as the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

As our Lady was instrumental in the Apostles receiving the new life of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, she is instrumental in all of our lives, praying that we may open our hearts, minds, souls, and lives to the life-giving Spirit of God. She prays that the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and good counsel, and fear of the Lord will flourish in us. She prays that we may bear the Spiritual Fruits of patience, courage, and joy.

Mary, Mother of the Church, Our Mother, prays constantly for us. As the Apostles devoted themselves to praying with Our Lady, their Mother, Our Mother, in the upper room, may we too, be devoted to prayer with her—prayer for openness to the full life of God’s Spirit—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, we recommend ourselves and the entire Body of Christ.

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Mary, Mother of the Church: Guide and assist our Holy Father and our Bishops in their apostolic mission, and aid all who help them in their work.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! You were given to us as a mother by your Divine Son at the moment of his redeeming death.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Remember us your children, support our prayers to God. Preserve our Faith, strengthen our Hope, increase our Charity.

Mary, Mother of the Church and Immaculate Heart: Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, and from every kind of war, deliver us. From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From attempts to stifle the very truth of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting; for our deceased family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, for all the poor souls in purgatory and for N.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

7th Week of Easter 2021 - Monday - Did you receive the Holy Spirit?

For a few weeks, I’ve been preparing a number of our young people for the Sacrament of Confirmation, which we’ll celebrate Sunday at the 11am Mass. And I’ve been encouraging our youth to ensure they are praying every day with their Confirmation in mind—praying to be strengthened in the gifts of the holy spirit and the fruits of the holy spirit. I asked them to examine their lives and ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify the Spiritual Gifts that he wants them to grow in: wisdom, understanding, right judgment, fear of the Lord. And to examine their lives and identify the fruits of the Spirit that seem to be lacking: patience, joy, fortitude. And after considering what is lacking, to pray that as they receive the Sacrament of Confirmation they may be strengthened in these gifts.

During his third and final missionary journey, Paul visited Ephesus.  And there he found a group of believers who seemed to be missing something.  He pinpointed the problem by asking, “Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?”  They gave the surprising answer that they had never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.  They had never received the Christian Sacrament of Baptism, and therefore they had never received the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  

What caused Paul to ask them if they had heard of the Holy Spirit?  Though they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, likely, what was missing was the sort of activity that should mark a Spirit-filled group of full-fledged Christians.  Remember, by this time, Paul had visited and established many communities.  He would have seen the gifts of the Spirit at work, with his own eyes: prophesying, speaking in tongues, healings, mighty exhortations, Christians teaching the faith, speaking words of knowledge and understanding.

So immediately Paul baptized them and laid hands on them, and the outward signs of the Spirit began to manifest: speaking in tongues and prophecy.  These are among the many charismatic gifts of the spirit listed by Paul in his letters.

If Paul were to visit a typical Catholic parish today, he’d find in most places the Holy Spirit at work: he’d see the gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, fear of the Lord; he’d see the fruits, patience, joy. He’d see the charismatic signs: those with the gift of encouragement—strengthening those with wavering faith, he’d see those with the gift of teaching, passing on the faith and correcting error, he’d see those with the gift of mercy assisting the suffering.

As we prepare for Pentecost this Sunday, we’d do well, like our confirmandi, to pray for an increase in the spiritual gifts, the fruits of the spirit, the charismatic gifts, in our own lives, and in the life of our parish, that Church may continuously be built-up, and faithful in her mission of being sent out to preach the Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For our young people preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend—that they may open their hearts to the gifts God has in store for them. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote domestic tranquility, national unity, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life. Let us pray to the Lord.

Like the apostles gathered with Our Lady in the Cenacle, may the Church grow in Marian devotion this month, especially in devotion to the Holy Rosary. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: that they may know the peace and consolation of the Good Shepherd. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for …for whom this mass is offered. Let us pray to the Lord.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.

 

Pentecost 2017 - The Holy Spirit fills the Church

Today we celebrate the great feast of the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, the word “Spirit” is used about a thousand times, the Holy Spirit certainly left his mark on the inspired Scriptures. The word “spirit” is a translation of the Hebrew word ru’ach and the Greek word pnue’ma. These words refer to that which gives life to a body—the breath of life.

The body needs the spirit in much the same way a radio or mobile phone needs electricity. As long as electricity runs through the device it will work, when the electricity runs out, the device is unusable, except as a paper-weight.

Having “spirit”, the “breath of life”, is something we humans share with the animals and plants, the living beings. What separates us from the animals and plants, is that part of us that is immortal, the human soul. The soul is that part of us that goes before the judgment seat of Christ when we die, and waits to be rejoined with the body in the resurrection.

We also use the word “spirit” to refer to the purpose that unites a particular group, l’esprit de corps, as the French say. We speak of the “spirit of the American people,”, “team spirit”, “the fighting spirit of the United States Marines”.

St. Paul speaks of the Spirit of the Church in our second reading, but he’s not speaking of a club or group, he’s speaking about something entirely new in the course of history. The Church is not a club, but a living organism; not a building, but a body made up of baptized souls united and filled with the Holy Spirit.

A radio’s purpose is to broadcast news, music, entertainment. The Church’s purpose is to broadcast, as St. Paul says, “Jesus is Lord”. Lebron isn’t Lord, politics isn’t Lord, pop stars aren’t Lords, not even the Pope is Lord, money isn’t Lord, sex isn’t Lord, celebrity and power aren’t Lord. The Holy Spirit enables the Church to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, amidst all the noise and distraction of the world.

The Holy Spirit also animates the Church to engage in many kinds of service: we feed the hungry, we clothe the naked, we call sinners to repentance, and instruct the ignorant, we go out to the lost and forsaken, the addict, the imprisoned, and help them to know the comfort of God. And yet the Church is more than a secular charitable organization, She’s an organism of Love, concerned not simply for earthly welfare, but the eternal soul.

She speaks the truth when no one else will, when the world is against her, in and out of season. She comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable, speaks truth to power, and suffers for the sake of righteousness.

St. Paul also says the Holy Spirit produces many different kinds of spiritual gifts, what are known as the charismata, the spiritual charisms: some members of the Church are blessed with gifts for preaching, gifts for teaching, gifts for comforting, gifts for organizing, gifts for fundraising, gifts for hard-labor, gifts for grand visions, and gifts for minute details, gifts for healing. What is your unique gift? Is it being used to build up the Church?

There are also the seven Spiritual Gifts given to every baptized soul. In each and every member of the Church, the Spirit produces wisdom which helps us desire God over the things of the earth; Understanding, which helps us to grasp the divine truths of our faith, knowledge; which helps us to see God’s plan in the events of our life and use the things of creation in a way that will lead us to heaven; counsel, which helps us to judge how best to act in the circumstances that confront us in our daily life; fortitude, which helps us to remain sturdy against the temptations and challenges in the Christian life; piety, which fills us with love affection for God and enables us to experience joy in prayer and service; and fear of the Lord which helps us to be conscious that the eye of God is watching us always, helping us to be mindful that we will all face judgment for the choice we’ve made in our life.

The seven-fold gifts are given to every Christian, but to grow in them, we must nurture them through the practices of the spiritual life. This is why there are wise octogenarians and foolish octogenarians, young people who are wise for their age, and young people who…well, don’t have a clue.
What is animating your life? The Spirit of God or the spirits of the world. When we are cooperating with the Spirit of God he produces the good spiritual fruits of gentleness, self-control, meekness, patience, and temperance. When we are indulging in the spirits of the world there is recklessness, irascibility, perversion, addiction, greed, anger, envy, jealousy, pride.

How do we become so filled with these worldly spirits? Part of it is how we spend our time: inordinate time with entertainment, social media, insufficient time studying and praying with the Word of God, undue focus on selfish pursuits, rather than service. These things have spiritual consequences.
In the Gospel reading for Pentecost, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit through whom sins are forgiven. To be free from the spirits of the world, we must turn our souls over to God in the sacraments. In Sacramental Confession we name those spirits that we might be delivered from them.

In the solemn ritual of exorcism, in which a soul held captive by a demonic spirit is liberated through the power of Christ, before deliverance can occur, the demonic spirit must be named. The need for solemn exorcism is extraordinary and rare. But Christians must face and name the unclean spirits which seek the ruin of our souls, by naming them, by bringing them to Christ in Sacramental Confession, by turning away from the near occasions of sin, and by strengthening the weak parts of our souls through prayer and acts of charity.

On this great Feast of Pentecost, as the Easter Season comes to a close and Ordinary Time begins again, we recognize how the Holy Spirit wants to produce new a glorious effects in our lives. He wants to help us take up new modes of serving those in need, the physically poor and the spiritually poor. He wants to produce in us new charisms for the building up of the Church. He wants to deepen in us the seven-fold gifts. He wants to help us to be cleansed of the unclean spirits of the world. He wants to do all these things and more, that we may proclaim to all the world “Jesus is Lord” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday - 7th Week in OT 2017 - Fear of the Lord

One of the most repeated and emphasized statements in the Bible is: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Deuteronomy tells us “fear of the Lord is good always and good for our survival.”

Psalm 112 says “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands”
Proverbs says “Fear of the Lord prolongs life” and that the “reward for humility and fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life”

The book of Sirach (from which we'll be reading until the beginning of Lent) repeats over and over the importance of holy fear, “Fear of the Lord is glory and splendor, gladness and a festive crown. Fear of the Lord warms the heart, giving gladness and joy and length of days."

Here at St. Clare, the first seven stained glass windows on the west side of the church depict the seven gifts of the spirit. Fear of the Lord is depicted as the eye of God watching over the world. What is fear of the Lord? It is the constant consciousness that the eye of God is watching us always. “l'occhio di Dio che sempre ti vede” as Padre Pio said. The eye of God that follows you always.

Coming from the eye of God in our stained glass window are lightning bolts of divine judgment, symbolizing God’s judgment. Christians are to live mindfully that the eye of God watches us always and that we will have to face judgment for our choices in life.

Speaking on this most important gift of the Spirit, Pope Francis said “The gift of fear fills us with awe and reverence for God. It makes us dread the thought of displeasing God because of our love for Him. A right-ordered and healthy fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

Why is the fear of the Lord the beginning of Wisdom? Because if we are to live a rightly ordered life, we must first be conscious that our actions, decisions, and attitudes must be rightly directed to God, and that we will be held accountable for those actions. Without fear of the Lord we cannot remain on the right path of wisdom, we cannot even find it.

The Spiritual masters give us three practices for increasing our fear of the Lord. First, meditating frequently on God’s infinite grandeur and sovereignty. On a beautiful day like today, we do well to behold the beauty and splendor of God’s creation, and being amazed at God’s handiwork.
Secondly we are encouraged to make a frequent examination of our lives in light of the truth of the Gospel. Frequent confession of sin helps us to remain accountable and mindful of our impending judgment.

And lastly, to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; spending time face to face with Jesus in the Eucharist, prepares us to meet the Lord face to face at the end of our earthly life.
By the great gift of fear, we seek to live lives pleasing to the Lord, seeking never to offend our gracious God, to become worthy of eternal life with Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We pray that the gift of Holy Fear may deepen in the souls of our Church leaders and in the hearts of all Christians.

That our government leaders, and particularly our president, on this president’s day, may be filled with holy fear in seeking to guide our nation according to the commands of God.

For all those who have fallen away from the Church, who have fallen into mortal sin, for their return to the sacraments.

That through the gifts of the Holy Spirit we may respond to the Spirit’s promptings in caring for those most in need.

For the sick…
For the souls in purgatory…