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.

Memorial Day 2024 - Love of God, family, and country

 “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  asks the man in today’s Gospel. Amidst all of our many earthly concerns—concerns about family, health, nation, and community—obtaining eternal life must be our ultimate aim. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul?”

In answer to the man’s profound question about obtaining eternal life, the Lord teaches the importance of following the commandments of God, while also stressing the need to surrender one’s entire life to God. 

“Go, sell everything, and follow me”, means that everything we have is to be put at the feet of Jesus. If we hope to attain eternal life with God, our whole lives, our possessions and our relationships are to be oriented to God and placed in God’s service. All that I am and all that I have is to be offered to God. 

Jesus himself models for us that total orientation we owe to God in his self-giving on the cross, his total self-offering to the Father. This passage challenges us to consider what it means for each of us to “go, sell everything, and follow him in order to more fully and deeply orient our lives to God in imitation of Christ. 

On this Memorial Day, we also consider the honor we owe those who fought and died for our country’s freedom. Participating in Memorial Day festivities in no way detracts from the honor we owe to God, rather, remembering and honoring those who sacrificed something for you is a godly thing.

St. Thomas Aquinas said: "After God, man is chiefly indebted to his parents and to his country, and, therefore, just as religion must render worship to God, so, to a lesser degree, piety must pay honor to parents and to country."

So, love of country and honor of those who sacrificed their lives for our country’s highest ideals is a godly thing. We are the inheritors of the blessings of freedom, and we have a duty to live in a grateful manner for those blessings.

Over a million and a half servicemen and women fought and died in our wars and battles over the many years: a million and a half men and women who put service before self for the country they loved, for ideals which serve as the foundation of freedom, for a better and more secure future for their family, friends, and even total strangers.

We honor them by remembering them and honoring them with parades and civic exercises, yes, but most importantly utilizing those freedoms to grow in virtue, not to squander our freedoms on vain pursuits, but striving to develop our minds and characters to become worthy of their sacrifice: to raise our families, to educate our children, to be responsible in our duties toward God, family, and nation for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - -  

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

On this Memorial Day, we pray that our nation may live with ever-greater gratitude for the sacrifice of those who fought and died for our freedom. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our President and all government workers, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote authentic and lasting peace in the world, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war. 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, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for N… 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.

Ferial Day of Christmastide 2021 (EF) - Monday - Grace made visible

Between the great Feast of Christmas and the Epiphany, Christmastide finds the Church reflecting upon the mission and identity of the Christ child.

Yesterday, on the Christmas Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, we reflected upon the meaning of his name. The name of Our Lord, “Jesus”, the name announced by the angel, means “God Saves”. Jesus is God and Savior. He is the God who saves.

On this ferial day, we read in our epistle, St. Paul reflecting upon the identity and mission of Christ. Paul writes to titus that the grace of God has appeared. Jesus, the Lord, is the grace of God made visible.

Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart, as Pope Benedict XVI has said. And through Jesus, who is the love, mercy, and grace of God made visible, salvation is offered to all, Jew and Gentile alike.  Jesus is truly God and savior.

St. Paul then goes on to explain how salvation involves us being trained to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly. In the face of God’s overwhelming goodness and mercy and grace made visible by Jesus, we are to respond by rejecting all that is godless. Aware of God’s love for us, we respond by engaging in training. Like an athlete or soldier trains, we are to train our minds, bodies, and souls to reject what is worldly and godless. And this might be difficult for a good many of us, for the worldly and godless is deeply ingrained in us. So great effort is to be exerted, suffering is to be endured, to be trained in grace. 

But we willingly do so in order to live in a pleasing manner for the one born for us as savior.

St. Paul then mentions temperance, justice, and devotion, specifically. These three virtues regulate how we deal with the created things of the world, how we deal with other people, and how we relate to God. By temperance, we are to practice self-control in moderating our use of the goods of the earth. By justice, we regulate our relationships with others, treating people with the respect, patience, and generosity owed to them. And by devotion, or piety, we give to God what belongs to God—worship and obedience and prayer and faithfulness in our God-given mission to evangelize.

On the feast of Epiphany, we find Magi from the east, bringing gifts to the newborn King gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This reading from St. Paul to Titus is a beautiful prelude to the Epiphany, hinting at the fact that the Lord desires more than these physical gifts, the one in whom grace has been made visible desires his grace to be made visible in us, that the  gift of grace may fill our lives, transforming them, delivering them, purifying them, sanctifying them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - 

 A reading from the epistle of St. Paul to Titus

Brethren: For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good. Say these things. Exhort and correct with all authority: in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke

At that time, when eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

April 28 2018 - St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen - Disgust with the world's corruption

Have you ever become so fed up with the corruption in the world, that you just wanted to leave everything to become a monk? Well, that’s kind of what our saint today did.

His birth name was Mark, like the evangelist, whom we celebrate tomorrow, and he was born in the southern German town of Sigmaringen. Mark studied law and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, earning his Doctorate in Law. During his time at university, he was already known for his modesty, meekness, sobriety, chastity, and for wearing a hair-shirt a
s a penance.

After achieving his law degree, he traveled throughout Europe, where his piety became more evident. He visited the hospitals and churches, he spent hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and was generous to the poor, even giving away the clothes his was wearing.

At the end of six years of travel, he came to Alsace, France, where he came to be known as the ‘poor man’s lawyer’. But he became so disenchanted with the evils associated with his profession that he became determined to enter the religious life. I think many good pious young people today, experience a similar disgust with our modern culture, and find in the priesthood or religious life the fulfillment they long for.

He entered the Capuchin Franciscans where he was given the religious name, Fidelis, which in Latin means, “faithful one”. He was ordained a priest, and in addition to his Sacramental work, he cared much for the weak and needy.

A bishop in Switzerland invited the Capuchins to come preach to the people who had abandoned Catholicism for Protestantism. Father Fidelis was asked to head this dangerous mission—dangerous, because religious tensions were high.

Initially, Fidelis and the other preachers were met with success, which the people attributed the prayers and penances of Fidelis.

In the spring of 1622, Father Fidelis was approached by a group of Calvinists. They called for him to renounce Catholicism to which he responded: "I am the one who made every effort to fight against your errors; I am he who has proclaimed to you the Catholic faith, to which I adhere with utter conviction and affection, I have come to you to root your sad heresies, but not to adopt them myself; see to it that you will not regret this act." The Calvinists then stabbed and bludgeoned the holy friar to death.

What a model of Easter faith for us! Devotion to charity, evangelization, and courage. He was truly Fidelis, faithful unto death. May his heroic faith and heavenly intercession increase our faith, hope, and love for the building up of the body of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - - - -
 

God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.