23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Church of the Immaculate Conception

September 4th 2011

Deacon Kevin F. Reid.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name,there I AM IN THE MIDST OF THEM. What do these words mean to us here today, as we gather together as a faith Community?

Do we acknowledge that Christ will soon be physically present here in the Eucharistic Celebration?

And that when we lift up our prayers that he will be present listening and guiding us as he once guided his early followers.

Christ spoke these words to us in today's Gospel but he also just said previously "If two of you AGREE on Earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my Heavenly Father.

After we stand together and profess our faith in the Creed, we will also stand and profess the concerns of this Community, and make our communal response "Lord HEAR our Prayer".

In the prayer of the faithful we are asking the Lord to LISTEN to what we have to say about what we want, to listen for what we as a Community are concerned about, what we as a Community hope and pray for.

Basically we are saying that as a Community we AGREE on these needs and concerns and that we are lifting our hearts up to the Lord, our petition is for the Lord to listen to what we as Community all believe that we need this from him and that is why we petition him with our prayer.

To take this a step further, what it means is that we can't be praying for pro- life PRO LIFE issues and also at the same time be for the Death Penalty, we can't be PRO LIFE and decide who should die whether its a baby or a convicted killer, only God can give or take away life.

We can't pray for vocations if our prayer is that those vocations to the Priesthood or the Consecrated Life are only for other people's children, but not our family.

My friends we can't pray for an end to violence if we think that perhaps "THOSE PEOPLE over there DESERVE WHAT THEY ARE GETTING", violence has no place in any our lives.

Next weekend on Saturday we will have the Annual Jessica Meredith Jacobson Memorial 5K race, a race that says that we as a Community Abhor domestic Violence,of any kind.

We do this when we come together and run or walk, we continue her legacy and we support her family each year as we celebrate her life by remembering her and honoring her memory.

We can't pray for peace if there is nothing that we are doing to promote true justice in our world, in our country or in our communities.

There will only be lasting peace when there is lasting justice in the world. We can use the teachings of the Prince of Peace to work for equitable working conditions for all Laborers around the world. For safety in the home from domestic abuse for all women.

It was Pope Paul the VI who once said "if you want Peace you must work for Justice"

Christ is saying to his disciples and to us that we have to HEAR the evidence and that we must then come together and ACT upon it. We gather together as a faith Community as a Church, and we condemn all those behaviors that take away another human beings dignity or life.

He is asking us not to be JUDGES BUT TO BE WITNESSES, what a powerful message there is to each of us in that suggestion, he is saying as is Saint Paul and Ezekiel that we OWE this to each other, that this Sacred responsibility comes with the territory for the chosen people, those Christians who have been baptized to be Priest, Prophet and King.

My sisters and brothers we do all of this through the guidance of our Good Shepherd our Bishops and by our Church's Teachings, which are based on the teachings of Christ, and also all that what was revealed to us through him and by the Apostles.

We have taken those teachings from Christ and the Apostles and have used them as foundation for the rules and guidelines of living a Holy Life within our present day world , “The Catechism of the Catholic Church”.

If you think back for any of us people here in the Congregation who are older then forty, that “BACK IN THE DAY” it used to be called the old "Baltimore Catechism" for the Catholic Church started here in America in Baltimore.

If you were fortunate enough you went to a Catholic School you were quite used to the term, because SISTER made sure of that each and everyone of us knew it understood and breathed it, that old Baltimore Catechism, that I can assure you .

Well how then can we teach this new generation how to follow the Catechism, all though some of us remember the days when the Sisters ruled by ruler, actually they were the living witnesses to us of the teachings of Jesus, they in their vocations gave it all back to those in whose care was placed upon them.

I’m sure they through their vocations and the grace of God helped lead many of those school children to the path of Salvation, for me they were the ones who helped plant the seed for me follow my Vocation to be me a Deacon.

It's amazing to me that we all go through such extraordinary steps these days to insure that our children will MAKE IT to a good University, a secure job we do whatever we have to, achieve that GOAL.

But how about the goal of teaching them how to find Salvation in our Church, by loving their neighbors as themselves.

Just how often do we take the time to teach them how to LOVE, others as Christ loves us, to see the good in each other rather then the faults.

To teach our children to learn what the Sisters taught us, to be living Witnesses to the TRUTH. We often in life have to make difficult choices, when we HAVE to tell someone that what ever it is that they are doing goes against what we believe to be sacred or hold true.

Perhaps it could be a coworker that tells jokes that offend your morality, it could be with a friend who brags about cheating on his wife and getting away with it. A boss who purposely overstates Business expenses and wants you to sign off on them.

For our younger children it can be watching some of their friends cheating in school or perhaps Bullying another child.

For our teenagers it can be letting a friend get drunk at a party and watching them try to drive, or perhaps being promiscuous and lying to their parents about where they are spending the night.

Our children need us to be the witnesses of the behavior that will teach them how to confront wrongs in a way like Jesus suggests in Matthews Gospel this morning, to take them aside and to speak privately to them without fear of embarrassment .

And if that does not work to get a small group together to confront the behavior and not condemn the individual.

The old saying that a lot of 12 step groups is for us to hate the SIN and to love the sinner.

Let us pray that as we approach the Altar to receive the real physical presence of Christ that we will have the Grace and Courage to confront the Evil in our Broken World.

KOC September Reflection

Chaplain’s Summation for September

We are starting to finally feel the effect of some cooler temperatures, Children and Grandchildren will soon be going back to school. And before long the wind will start to pick up and our weekend afternoons will be divided between football and raking leaves.

For us Knights in the Father O’Neil Council it also means the annual Jessica Meredith Jacobsen 5K Memorial Run, the Crab Feast and the continued breaking in of our new officers.

But life is more then buying back to school clothes and raking leaves, there are in fact somethings that are more important then picking your fantasy football team now that the strike has settled.

In the midst of our busy lives we MUST make time for our Families, we MUST make time for private and family Prayer, and we also must continue to look after those who have no one but us Knights to depend on.

When Fr. Michael McGiviney founded the Knights I am sure that in his wildest dreams he would have never been able to SEE what Good works would come from the seed that he has planted.

God himself was able to SEE and he has made possible through the men who call themselves the Knights of Columbus, a whole community of Love, Compassion, and sincere Spirituality. Brothers to the man, loyal to God, Church and Country.

Fall for me has always involved planting bulbs, tulips, and other beautiful fall flowers.

The funny things about bulbs is that you sometimes forget what or where you planted them and you have a surprise in the Spring.

As Knights let us plant the seeds of our good work, our faith sharing and our Charities for in our efforts we will be Blessed with unexpected Graces and joy in continuing with the good work that Father McGiviney has started.

Let us pray that the good work that has begun will begin to Blossom and will Multiply through the Graces of the one who has promised to us that he would prepare a room for each of us, and that he himself would welcome us to his Father’s House if we Live his Gospel as our own.

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily

22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time August 28th 2011
Deacon Kevin F. Reid
Church of the Immaculate Conception

Whoever wishes
to come after me
must deny
himself,and take up his Cross, and Follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will FIND IT.

We gather today and

come together as a faith

Deacon Kevin Reid

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

community, we come to be fed with the Sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we come together to listen to the Word of God Proclaimed and Broken open.

My good friends the truth
is that the Cross that you
see up here on this Altar is not the only one here in this church. Each of us here has a special Cross to carry, each one of them different but

Deacon Kevin Reid

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none the less each is a Cross.

It could be the cross of recently losing a job, of a broken partnership, perhaps Children who have rebelled against their parents, an elderly relative struggling to maintain her independence .

Paul in our second reading this morning is urging the new Converts in Rome
by the mercies of God

to offer up their bodies

Deacon Kevin Reid

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

as a living sacrifice, not to be conformed to the present but rather to be TRANSFORMED by the renewal of their minds so that they could DISCERN what is the Will of GOD.

To choose to do what is good, pleasing and perfect to God. This is a type of ongoing conversion that is taking place in the early converts and within our community

Deacon Kevin Reid

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our Church here today just as it happened back in the early church in the time of Paul.

But is it truly God's will that we must suffer, to know him? Suffering is part of the human condition, and we all go through it in one form or another.

Sometimes we in the midst of our suffering do meet God, in those different times when we might feel we are most

Deacon Kevin Reid

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alone, we sometimes meet him in those people that God has sent to be with us.

Sometimes it in our failings, in our betrayals
The prophet Jeremiah suffered for telling the truth, he was mocked and made a fool.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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None of the people wanted to HEAR what he was saying. I'm sure you have heard
the saying "Sometimes the Truth HURTS".

Often as part of our Human Condition we do not want to hear the truth, we WISH to save what we think is important, and ignore what is precious.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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Certainly in today's Gospel Jesus is speaking the TRUTH to his disciples, at this time as they get closer to his destiny, to Jerusalem he
has started to REVEAL to them the TRUTH about his upcoming death and his suffering.

Imagine how hard it was for Jesus to be obedient
to the point of Death, to suffer by friends who would

Deacon Kevin Reid

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

betray and abandon him, for a people who would in the same week greet him with palms as their King
by shouting out "Hosanna Blessed is he who comes in the NAME OF THE LORD".

A week later this same crowd would shout out to the Roman Governor "Crucify HIM".

They would choose to crucify him over a convicted

Deacon Kevin Reid

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

murderer.

Jesus has told them all of this so that they might come to UNDERSTAND who he was and why he came down from Heaven to be one of us.

Peter big bag of wind that he was at the time says "God forbid Lord" Nothing like this should ever happen to YOU. Like he himself could prevent or dissuade Jesus from letting this happen.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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Jesus sees Peter as a STUMBLING BLOCK, and he shouts "GET BEHIND ME SATAN",he has come to terms with what he MUST DO, and nothing or any one can stop him.

Peter in his usual voice proclaims that THIS should never happen, certainly not if this was HIS Way.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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Sometimes we can stumble over ourselves, Peter back in the time before Christ was crucified, certainly if we think back and remember did this more then once .

My Sisters and Brothers what kind of Stumbling blocks, what fears do we have in our lives, what

Deacon Kevin Reid

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are the things are holding us back or causing us to stumble.

Maybe possibly to even give up, on our wishes, hopes dreams and commitments.

Christ mentions to Peter that HE is not thinking like God does, sadly my friends often we don't think like God does either, we let our fears run wild and forget how to trust

Deacon Kevin Reid

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each other and even to trust God.

I think that it's safe for us to say that God sees the " Big Picture" he is able to see down the road.

He knows the difficult road that we are on, knows what is BEST for us because he knows and understands
our fears, our hangups, he himself has traveled as we do with friends and family.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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When we fail he forgives us, he loves us and supports us through all of our darkest times, and rejoices when we come BACK.

He comes to greet us today with his Holy Spirit,with his body and blood here at the Altar.

After he rose into heaven, he sent his Holy Spirit to Peter and the others hiding

Deacon Kevin Reid

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alone in the upper room
in Jerusalem, it was Peter the former bag of wind who led the others and went out into the streets where they proclaimed the miracle of the Resurrection.

My Brothers and Sisters we know that Simon was probably a pretty good fisherman before he met Jesus. He would not have

Deacon Kevin Reid

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survived in his occupation if he wasn't one.

But after he met Jesus and became one of his followers he was able to find his true calling as a FISHER of MEN.

He gave up his old life of dragging nets through the Sea of Galilee and now with his new one he found himself as the leader of the Apostles.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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He was renamed PETER by Jesus. He is the first of our Popes, the beginning of the Apostolic Succession, he is the foundation named the Rock of our Church.

There were probably times when he wished for the relative safety of his former occupation, he stumbled more then once, but he persevered.

We know that he had

Deacon Kevin Reid

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his heart changed by his encounter with Jesus, after the Resurrection and after that, he just like Jeremiah could no longer hold himself BACK.

Many famous people have overcome adversity and found their calling after they

"Came to Jesus", many of the Saints were outcasts, considered flakes they went against the grain of contemporary society.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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An example of that in
our recent time was
Saint Maximilian Kolbe,
a Franciscan priest in
Poland who was sent to a Concentration Camp for opposing the Nazis, after an attempt by eight prisoners to escape, eight prisoners were lined up to be shot, one was a Father of small children.

Just as they were about to be shot Maximilian volunteered

Deacon Kevin Reid

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to take his place he gave up his life so that this father who was going to lose his would be spared.

What better example of living out the teachings of Jesus can we find?
He gave his life to gain eternal life.

There are many more examples of this type of selfless giving. Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Deacon Kevin Reid

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who gave her everything to those who had nothing.

Another contemporary example would be with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who also gave up his life.He did it by resisting the tyranny of Hitler. The Nazis had Nationalized the Lutheran Church and Bonhoeffer led others away to a new break away church.

He wrote not long before

Deacon Kevin Reid

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he was executed that “The Christian also has to undergo temptations, he too has
to bear the sins of others;

he too must bear their shame and be driven like a scapegoat from the gate of the city.

He goes on to say that “He would certainly break down under this burden, but for the support of HIM who bore the sins of ALL.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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He finishes by saying that “ My Brothers burden which I MUST bear is not only his outward life, his natural characteristics and gifts, but quite literally his sin. and that the only way to bear that sin is to forgiving it in the POWER of the Cross of Christ in which I now share.

In the end perhaps one of the most difficult Crosses for any of us to carry is the Cross of Forgiveness, those wounds

Deacon Kevin Reid

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are often the deepest ones that we choose to carry.

Dear Friends if we look to the example of the dying Jesus when He said “Forgive them Father for they know not what they have done’. We soon remember that he is still with us, always there with us carrying his cross along side of ours.

Deacon Kevin Reid

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary time "A"

torch.op.org ~ Preaching - The Wells of Salvation

torch.op.org ~ Preaching - The Wells of Salvation

March 2011 Chaplains Summation KOC

Our Lenten Journey

March Reflection

Deacon Kevin Reid

We as Catholics begin our 40 day Lenten Journey on Ash Wednesday and we end it on Easter Sunday.

Out of the ashes the Phoenix will rise, but our journey that starts out with the acknowledgment of our own sinfulness, ends in the reality of Christ's victory over Sin and Death. We are given the gift of eternal salvation.

We mark our time in the "Desert" with Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.

As Advent was a journey outward from Darkness to meet Christ. Lent is an inner journey into our relationship with the same Emanuel that we encountered at Christmas.

During the time of Lent, we are able to see the reality of our own limitations with out Christ and each other and also the Hope that we together can bring to the world by our going the "Extra Mile" during these 40 days.

We like Christ must turn and set our eyes firmly on "Jerusalem" to the promise of the Resurrection. My Brothers and Sisters along the way we will be tempted as Christ was, tempted to give up, to turn away to think that we can't on own possibly ever make a difference. And on our own it is difficult but in Christ all things are possible.

The presence of Evil in our World is very real and it must be confronted with faith, hope and with love. Not with fear, hate or indifference, but with forgiveness and understanding. We need not fear the Evil one but we must always be aware of his intent and his methods.

The dreaded Cross once the brutal symbol of Death that the Romans used to keep their occupation intact was turned by Christ into the tree of Life, each of us must have our own Resurrection experience to get through the fears that hold us back. We must die to ourselves and "Live" within him.

We are confronted by a Secular World that tries to minimize all that we hold Sacred.

The value of life, the obligation to be children of the light, rather then a people held hostage by fear, greed and prejudices.

Jesus was tempted in his own Desert experience, his perseverance was and continues to be an example of how Satan is always there trying to chip away at our "truths" with his lies.

He knows our individual weaknesses and uses them to divide us rather then to let us unite us, remember the example of the rope and how the individual strands easily broke, but when joined together formed something that could not be broken.

When we Knights give up hope, we stop being Knights and we no longer are the example to others that we were originally Knighted to be. Our Prayer to Mary our Queen should be prayed frequently and with renewed fidelity.

Our Almsgiving can take the form of giving something up or by doing something extra, but it should cause a feeling of sacrifice a giving not from our excess but rather from our needs.

Our prayers can be one with Christ in his journey, perhaps along the FridayStations of the Cross, or in the encounter of Reconciliation with the "Light being left on" for us on Wednesday nights at our Parishes.

It can also be a quiet time each day where we ask for help, as we confront the World but do not give in to it.

Finally our fasting can be a renewed effort to by our doing with out increase our dependence on the one who truly gives us sustenance. Perhaps if possible we should make a renewed effort to attend daily Mass for the more frequent reception of "The Bread of Life".

Or perhaps in those times of Hunger of o our feeling empty we can fill ourselves up with some quiet time in the Chapel at Immaculate Conception in Eucharistic Adoration.

We will be filled a and satisfied by either of those experiences, and will also be given the strength that we need to continue in our Journey to the Light of the Risen Christ. As we too continue toward Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God.

I pray that Almighty God will continue to walk with us in our Lenten Journey as we go forth as Knights of Columbus. All for the greater glory of God.

Deacon Kevin

Roman Missal Changes: 'Missal Moments' in the Diocese of Charlotte

Roman Missal Changes: 'Missal Moments' in the Diocese of Charlotte: "The Diocese of Charlotte, N.C., has debuted a new video series 'Missal Moments' about the upcoming revisions. The first explains the people'..."

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

Martha and Mary

16th Sunday Ord. time "C"

Each of us at different times has had a "Martha or perhaps a Mary" experience.

Perhaps it was similar to the situation that Martha found herself in, we got so busy getting our place ready for our guests that we were not able to enjoy them when they were there.

We got so caught up in the idea of the experience that we in fact missed out on the experience it self. If we look back we probably can recall that we got so caught up in the details that we often let the experience slip right by.

In this busy crazy world, of multi tasking it can seem like there is never enough time to smell the flowers. To take things in, to savor the moment.

Jesus in his experience with Mary was able to see the struggle in his friends that all of us feel at times. We are as parents often have to act like time keepers that try to divvy up the time that we devote to each of our children.

We in our secular busyness may think that as long as we work hard that our families will understand, let me share with you that after working as a Chaplain for the past three years at GBMC that what families need most is more time with each other.

And just as we need that time with each other, we come to realize that we need quiet time with God each day, we need to be more like Mary in the midst of our very busy Martha like

We can if we choose look at life as a journey with many opportunities for us to participate in the Kingdom of God that is at hand, not like it is a series of obstacles that we need to check off as we move along, but rather that it is an opportunity each day to choose the better half.

It is in the journey that we can experience the Divine life giving presence of God imagine Abraham in today's first reading, he had once been told that he was to be the Father of many Nations.

His faith in this prophecy must have been challenged in all of the years that he and Sarah had remained childless. So when the three strangers arrived at his tent his extension of Hospitality to these strangers was an epiphany of sorts his prayers were going to finally be answered even in his old age. it was like they had been waiting all along for just the right gesture from Abraham to appear to him and to announce this new life into the lives of Abraham and Sarah.

Think about it my friends how many of us would offer Hospitality to three strangers who just showed up, Honey I'm home and by the way I'd like you to cook that very special meal with that secret recipe for these folks" for me these strangers had better be from Publisher's Clearing House and hopefully they have a check with them for my wife to entertain them on a moment's notice.

Yet back in both the Old and in the New Testament times such a request would not have earned someone a month in the proverbial dog house. It quite simply was what you did when strangers showed up unexpectedly. No there were no texts that were exchanged in advance, no map quest to follow and no protocol in advance was even thought of.

For certainly it was seen as a Blessing to receive guests graciously, to open one's home and share one's bounty and give freely to the stranger. We from this meal we have the expression be ready always for you never know when Angels will come to your house for dinner.

In today's Gospel reading we see Jesus as both the guest and the Host, as he often was in so many of Luke's many stories of Jesus at table. It was Jesus who showed us how to welcome tax collectors and sinners to table when he entered their houses and taught them with Authority, it was Jesus and by his loving example who taught them and us to recognize that the Law that he had written unto our hearts calling them to welcome the Stranger among them. Remember that what ever you do to the least of God's people you do unto me.

Our readings today challenge us this week in our Prayer time to be attentive to our sense of "WELCOME" do we make time to sit with those who most need our time and our attention .

And most importantly do we make time for ourselves and the attention that we also need to receive when we let our selves be in the presence of the Son of God, that same Jesus who Mary sat so attentively listening to.

Brothers and Sisters, as we prepare ourselves to join Jesus our host at his table to be fed with his Sacred Body let us pray that we will go forth both as an attentive and as a Welcoming Community, mindful that in doing that what the Lord calls us to do in love is truly choosing the better part, the part where we experience Jesus our friend and our Lord.

August Chaplain's Summation KOC

Martha and Mary and their Brother Lazarus

Deacon Kevin Reid

Salutations, greetings and all good Blessings to you my Brother Knights and to all your families as well.

Jesus had three very good friends that we know about from Scripture.

Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus and they lived in a house outside of Jerusalem on the way to Bethany. Jesus in his travels often would stop and visit with them and they at least from the little that we do know were his closest friends outside of the Apostles.

We do know that Jesus performed one of his most significant Miracles after Lazarus had died, when he raised him from the Dead. The story of Lazarus is significant because it shows the power of Christ as God and the ability to suffer as a Man.

Jesus had been asked to go to their home for Lazarus had taken ill, and by the time he finally did arrive Lazarus had already passed away. And now my Brothers comes the important part, when Jesus saw how sad Martha and Mary were he himself wept.

The man who created the stars and the heavens wept over the loss of his friend, and he prayed to his Father to our Father and asked to Raise his friend. We know that Lazarus rose and he came out of his tomb.

What is significant here is that Christ has promised to raise each of us like Lazarus on the last day, in Baptism we are for ever reborn into eternal life. We will one day join him and his Father and hopefully our friends and family that have gone before us to a life in eternity.

The other lesson that we learn from the friends of Jesus, is the difference between being present in mind and body to the Ones that we love.

It's so easy for most of us Men to convince ourselves that our work is what defines us.

Look to the Lesson from the friends of Jesus who had welcomed him to their home, Martha had been busying herself in the kitchen preparing some food for her guest.

Mary meanwhile was sitting in the other room, just listening to Jesus speak. Her thoughts were not in the same place as her Sisters, she had found in Jesus all that she was looking for or would ever want.

When we are able to separate what it is we might think we want, from what we truly need this lesson will be easier to understand. When the day comes what will our children be able to say about our relationship with God and with them.

Will we put things like work or our Season tickets to the Ravens ahead of regular attendance at Mass as a family. Will they remember that we were there for them when they needed us, if we can achieve this then we have succeeded as Fathers and as Knights.

We are constantly observed by those in whom care and teaching we have been entrusted. The lesson of Lazarus and his rising will only be possible for our Children and for us if we are the best of Teachers.

The lesson of where to find our true calling can only be found where Mary the friend of Jesus found it. At the feet of the one who is with us always to the end of time. Jesus the one who tells us to leave our yoke and to take up his, for his burden is light and that we will find rest with him on our Journey home.

Brothers let us pray for the coming of the Kingdom and for the wisdom and the Grace to count Jesus as our friend just like Martha,Mary and Lazarus.

Peace,

Deacon Kevin

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

What is the meaning of Life, or perhaps more specifically what is the meaning of our own life's, and is our treasure something here? Were you able to take it along with you when you moved here?

The question that we hear today in our readings, points us in a direction that maybe, just maybe the things that we work for all of our lives are just things.

And that perhaps the things that really matter to each of us in the end, when we look back and see things more clearly with the wisdom that comes with age, looking back over our life's through a different kind of a Lens, were acquired maybe not always as a result of being able to buy them at the time, but were the sum of our relationships that we formed and are still forming along the way.

Jesus is telling us in this Parable in today's Gospel that we should be aware and know the difference between being rich in earthly possessions and by being Blessed with the richness of knowing God.

We can be blinded by our ambitions, and we can lose ourselves if we allow things like money and possessions to divide our families, Jesus has been asked by the one gentleman to settle a money matter that had arisen between two brothers, certainly nothing has changed there in the last two thousand years. Money has been the culprit in many broken families, everything that one generation has sacrificed for, another might squander. Good men, Brothers and family members can, and often do fight over inheritances each unwilling to yield. Many might stop talking to each other, and will turn away from God and their brother over money or over possessions.

This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the very things you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves.

But are not rich towards God.

There is no need to build bigger barns, but rather as Jesus has suggested perhaps there is a need to reappraise where are treasure lies. Open the eyes of my heart Lord, open the eyes of my heart. I want to see as you see Lord, when we are looking at things from the Heart, we can see the futility of Life as our first reading told us today if we put all of our hopes and dreams in this life and not the next.

Vanity of Vanities, All things are vanity says the teacher. The writer was despairing over what he saw is the reality that all that we can spend our lives toiling for at times can seem like it's for nothing if we are looking for our happiness in all that we have accumulated.

Perhaps the way we might look is to see in the good work that we have accomplished in our brief lives might be in the way we have witnessed the Gospel to others. Do our children have a relationship with Christ that is modeled on the one that they saw in our lives?

Do they value the things that truly matter in life like love and faith, are they going to be able to pass these qualities along to their children. The questions is will the examples that we have taught, be based on building up relationships or will it be based on building barns to store things that will ultimately fade and pass away.

Saint Paul in our second reading warns the Colossians to seek what is above, that just as they have been raised with Christ Jesus so too have they died with him. Jesus reminds us to suppress the earthly desires we might be tempted by and to seek the things that are from above.

Loving Children, Good Friends, Good Health and an active relationship with the Lord these my good friends are the items that we can not purchase with money but rather can only be purchased with the hearts of the faithful.

The graces of Love, Charity and friendship, the brotherhood of sharing not only our wealth but also our poverty. Yes each of us has both wealth and poverty to share, and we each have something ton give and to take. The Church and the Body of Christ present and active in this faith community cares for the Common Good as the original Community of believers cared for each other.

Paul tells his followers to follow him and to strive to put to death their immorality, impurity, passion and evil desires.

His advice that he gives to them is to stop lying to each other, and also to put on our new selves, he has told us over and over to open the eyes of our Hearts, to see things in a NEW way, in his way.

Patient Trust

Patient Trust

By Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of progress that it is made by passing through some states of instability and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.

Your ideas mature gradually --- let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

Copyright: The Institute of Jesuit Sources

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

19th Sunday in Ordinary time "C"

Finding the Faith to Live each day as if it was our last.

My Sisters and Brothers, some of us have been Blessed with near death experiences, there are those among us who have survived Cancer, that have lived through Heart Attacks, and have walked away unscathed from total car wrecks.

Many sadly of course do not live through these types of experiences, and we are often left to wonder why some survive and some do not, perhaps for those who live for another day their job is to remind the rest of us how fragile and temporary this life that we share for a brief time really is.

February 6th this past year for most of us was the day that Snowmegedon came to Baltimore, the whole state was paralyzed for about a week. I was away up in RI attending the celebration of the fifty year anniversary of my Catholic Elementary School's opening. I had caught the last plane out of Baltimore the day before, just as the snow had started to fall here in Baltimore.

While up there in RI, I suffered a major Heart Attack and was fortunate enough to be delivered to a Trauma Center within 8 minutes of my attack. I had found the Grace of God's Providence in Providence.

That very same day another friend named John back from my old elementary school was living in Boynton Beach Fl, and he also had a Heart attack, sadly he was buried the day after they put three stents in my clogged artery.

If my Heart attack had happened here in Baltimore that day, there is no doubt in my mind that I would not be standing here in front of all of you. I'm quite sure that the ambulance would never have been able to make it through my neighborhood.

Faith is something that we profess to believe, but yet at the same time we also confess that we can no easier prove it then we can explain why some of us live to survive and others don't.

The living have an obligation to go out and to live as witnesses to the Grace and Love of the truth of the Gospel, proclaimed by Christ Jesus and his disciples.

In our second reading today we are reminded of the great faith of our fathers from the Old Testament.

The letter to the Hebrews starts out by saying; "Brothers and Sisters, Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen". Because of it the Ancients were well attested.

We know that their faith was constantly being tested, and that many times they stumbled but they none the less persevered.

Our Father Abraham journeyed in Faith, to become the Father of many nations.

He did this by the time that most men of his age were already dead.Three of the major religions of the World; Judaism,Islam, and Christianity all count him as a Spiritual Father.

His descendants lived and died in Faith for the Homeland that was promised to them.

We have come to trust and believe that it is the same Homeland that Christ Jesus speaks of, the same Homeland that has been promised to us by him.

In today's Gospel he says affectionately "Do not be afraid any longer little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom"

He goes on to tell us the parable of when the son of man will come, and how we must be prepared for that faithful encounter. I am not sure that I was ready for that encounter back that day in February and I pray that my friend John, God rest his soul was there with his lamp lit waiting for the Master to arrive, ready to greet him and to join him.

I know that having had this near death experience that I am more ready now to go out and to greet him then I was that day.

When I was there in my Hospital Room my window looked out at the Steeple of the Church that I was Baptized in. The light of the Steeple brought me great comfort, and greatly helped strengthen my Faith in God's plan for me as a Deacon, as a Father and a Husband.

One Hundred and Six years ago on September 8th, 1904 James Cardinal Gibbons dedicated this Church that we are now in, he spoke that day here in front of 1500 people who were in attendance as he presided over the Ceremonies of Dedication.

We wonder where we get our Faith, perhaps it is by standing on the shoulders of those many early believers who have stood in this Church that we now stand here today, together with one common Faith as a Community.

Cardinal Gibbons in his book "The Faith of our Fathers" was speaking at the time of our Catholic Faith and the truths of our Church when he wrote :

"The prophecies were fulfilled. The Apostles scattered themselves over the surface of the earth, preaching the Gospel of Christ. "Their sound," says St. Paul, "went over all the earth and their words unto the ends of the whole world." 6 Within thirty years after our Savior's Crucifixion the Apostle of the Gentiles was able to say to the Romans: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ because your faith is spoken of in the entire world" spoken of assuredly by those who were in sympathy and communion with the faith of the Romans.

St. Justin, Martyr, was able to say, about one hundred years after Christ, that there was no race of men, whether Barbarians or Greeks, or any other people of what name so ever, among whom the name of Jesus Christ was not invoked.

St. Irenaeus, writing at the end of the second century, tells us that the religion so marvelously propagated throughout the whole world was not a vague, ever-changing form of Christianity, but that "this faith and doctrine and tradition preached throughout the globe is as uniform as if the Church consisted of one family, possessing one soul, one heart, and as if she had but one mouth.

For, though the languages of the world are dissimilar, her doctrine is the same. The churches founded in Germany, in the Celtic nations, in the East in Egypt, in Libya, and in the centers of civilization, do not differ from each other; but as the sun gives the same light throughout the world, so does the light of faith shine everywhere the same and enlighten all men who wish to come to the knowledge of truth."

We who are here today are part of that great tradition of faith started with Abraham and lived out in the never-ending story that we proclaim in our Liturgy.

Friends within our Liturgy we enter into the timeless and eternal brotherhood of the faithful who have come before us, and that hopefully that we ourselves will lead those who will one day follow after us into, till we all meet in that same Heavenly Kingdom that Christ Jesus has promised to each of us.

Until that day, let us continually be strengthened by the frequent reception of the Body of Christ to Live each day as if it were possibly our last.

Ready always to go out immediately when he knocks and to joyfully greet him in Faith and in Love when our own last hour finally arrives.

September Chaplain's Summation September 2010

Mary Star of the Sea

Deacon Kevin Reid

This past Sunday we celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mother who was physically taken body and soul into Heaven.

Her Ascension into Heaven is celebrated usually as a Holy Day of Obligation, in other words a day that the Church declares to be so special that we are REQUIRED to attend as if it was a Sunday.

This week I am in the Outer Banks vacationing with my family along with my Mom Muriel, my mother in-law Marilyn and my Father in-law David. So counting Lisa and the boys there are 7 of us here.

Of the seven present here, three of them are Mothers. As Catholics and as Knights of Columbus we count Mary as our Spiritual Mother. Mary who has so many titles, that each culture claims as their own. Each culture has a special devotion and reverence that they hold for "Our Lady".

Our Lady of Guadalupe the Patroness of the Americas, Our Lady of Knock for the Irish, Our Lady of Fatima for the Portuguese, Our Lady of Lourdes for the French, Our Lady of Pompeii for the Italians. Of course there are many more then I can name or that we have the time or the space for.

This past Sunday while attending Mass here on in the Outer Banks, the Priest who presided at the Liturgy said of all of the Titles that have been given to Mary, perhaps the one that best fits her is the title of "The Perfect Disciple" for in all of Mary's life she was and is always the perfect disciple.

We do not think of Mary as a God, but rather as the perfect example of Discipleship, she is the model of obedience and of love for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Her "YES" to the angel Gabriel was a yes for all of Humanity, she became the second more perfect "Eve" the Spiritual Mother of all of us.

So perfect was her discipleship that she is the only person born to be called the Christ Bearer her body was the Tabernacle that held the Infant Jesus before he was born, when she visited her cousin Elizabeth it was her own son John the Baptist who leapt in the womb at the sound of the voice of the Mother of God greeting his Mother.

Brothers and wives of Knights how easy is it for us to be able to recognize the Lord when he appears in our presence. Our prayers in the Rosaries that we carry in our pockets can be part of the key for own attempt to be perfect disciples.

In our reflections on the Mysteries of the Rosary we enter into the Graces that Mary her self received in her own perfect discipleship, to know sorrow and joy at the same time.

So as we pray the Rosary whether at home in our own private prayer time or as a group in a Public setting, we too enter into the mysteries that help us to better grasp at the path of true and perfect discipleship that Mary emulates in her joys and in her sorrows.

The path to Discipleship is not unlike the path to Knighthood, it involves self discipline, faith and a willingness to offer our lives up in sacrifice as Christ did for the least of his people.

Mary our Spiritual Mother always there guiding her children and especially her Knights who have sworn an Oath to her son and to be her Knights and to defend life and to be examples of Discipleship to all who observe us.

I started this refection with the Title of Mary Star of the Sea, while on the beach here I have reflected on Mary guiding Columbus in his journey to the Americas and in the trust he had in his Lady guiding him through then Stars across the Seas to this new land of hope and promise. Mary is like the moon reflecting God's love to his people and his Holy Church.

Let us pray for that same guidance and reflection of his unending love for us this month in our own journey towards perfect discipleship, as we trust in the perfect light as we follow our "Stella Maris" Mary Star of the Sea.

Deacon Kevin Reid

Making the Best of a Good Thing!

Making the best of a good thing

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time "C"

Amos 8:4-7

1st Timothy 2:1-8

Luke 16:1-13

Deacon Kevin Reid

My sisters and brothers, surely at one time or another we have all heard the popular saying about someone making the best of a bad thing, but perhaps maybe today we might after hearing the Good news in our Gospel might want to prayerfully consider making the best of a good thing.

The good thing that WE might just want to consider making the best of is in the life that we are ourselves are living, do we find ourselves consciously making the best of it or are we struggling, maybe we are just getting by, scraping along sadly from one day to the next.

OR are we using the many GIFTS and the life giving GRACES that we have been Blessed with to contribute to the GREATER GOOD of the rest of the world.

I don't mean that perhaps you personally have to build an irrigation system in sub-Saharan Africa, but have we in some small or major way made a difference for someone else anywhere ?

It could be in the life of a stranger or a neighbor that we have befriended, or the child living with out a Father, or the Widow that can't get a ride to the store or even to Mass.

Jesus in today's Gospel is not praising the so called dishonest steward, but rather he is preparing each of US for the time when we one day will stand before him and we will be asked to explain our own "STEWARDSHIP" .

My friends have we in our time, as the stewards of the Graces and the opportunities that we have been Blessed with used them for the Greater good, or have we ourselves perhaps squandered them.

To squander them might be to hold on to our things like they are more then things, if we share what we have been given then it multiplies.

The so called dishonest Steward had the sense in today's Parable to reevaluate his present day circumstances, he had been given an extraordinary opportunity to get his "house in Order" to prepare for an Audit that would possibly put him into a life of servitude and hard labor.

Friends the Lord today is offering us all that same opportunity this is the "GOOD NEWS" in today's Gospel that you have heard proclaimed here.

This story can have a good ending for bus just has it did for the Steward in the Parable.

All we have to do is to decide that enough is enough and that we want to make a difference in this world.

My friends the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Scripture reminds us to think of the boy with the five fish who gave all that he had, so that ALL could eat, the five fish that according to Luke fed the five thousand. His act of goodness multiplied one thousand fold by Jesus blessing his offering.

He could have easily taken the five fish home and handily fed his family, Lord knows they probably were counting on him to do just that.

One could be Blessed with a voice like an Angel but if no one ever gets to hear us sing, of what use is that talent, sadly it will eventually die and fade away with you if you don't share it.

You see that is why we are called to make joyful noise when we are singing. To let our voices rise up to Heaven and to stir in our Hearts the joy that the Good News brings to our Lives.

Just be glad that when I am singing that I'm not that close to any microphone so that you can in the Congregation can see my effort but not suffer with my flat off key and out of tune voice.

Rest assured good people if you do use your talents the way God intended you to, they will live on in our collective memories long after you have left us.

How many of us sitting here can remember that special recipe that our long since departed Grandmother made for us when we visited her house.

We can still smell and almost taste that memory.

Years may have definitely passed, its been forty five years now but I can still see that kitchen and taste in my mind my Nana's wonderful cooking.

She was the inspiration for my becoming a Chef, and helping me to discover the talent that I was blessed with. She brought out the good in me by her example of loving service to her family. No one was more important for her to cook for then her family.

When we stand before the Lord on that fateful day, maybe we could let our cooking story be the one where we faithfully made a few pans of meatloaf for Our Daily Bread, each month for all of those many years and the taste memories will then be something that the Lord himself will recall.

He will say to us when we stand before him in judgement "When I was Hungry you fed me", and when we say "when did we feed you Lord" he will say to us "I was the boy standing in line at Our Daily Bread on that cold November day, and your Meatloaf was the only warmth I felt that day".

We never know the time or the hour when we will stand before the Master in this life or in death.

The Lord has has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

"Never will I forget a thing they have done".

So today's readings have a collective theme, that the Lord in his Wisdom has chosen us to be his faithful Stewards and he has described to us all of the benefits of joyful stewardship and also the dangers of not being good, and honest stewards.

The prophetic voice of Amos today speaking across the ages to us today, think back not that long ago to the decision by the folks on that Oil Platform owned by BP to keep going on with the drilling even though the warnings of possible problems were plainly there, the decision was simply based on Greed to make more money and not on any other factor.

Surely the full impact of that decision to press on would not have been made if the blinders of Greed were not so securely in place, but that is the difference between living in a world of MAMMON, and not of God. The world of Mammon is fueled by our desire for more and more, me,me, ME.

Let every one fend for himself no one ever helped me.

We can not choose to be "Children of the Light" if we are living in that kind of darkness.

Our choices according to Jesus have to be radical ones that may just go against the grain of so called economic sense, we all know that economic sense and moral sense are sometimes further apart then men being from Mars and women being from Venus.

Yet even in our present day world we are reminded of the COST of our neglect as Stewards of our planet.

This past week I heard an interview with a Coal Miner in West Virginia who was describing how his father and father in law both Miners had died from Black Lung Disease, how they literally in the end of their lives were coughing up parts of their lungs before they passed, and that NOW he too had the same illness. But ironically he was lamenting the loss of the Mining jobs in his community and not the loss of his lungs. You can not serve both God and Mammon.

The odds are just not with you when you try to do both, it's like betting against the Casino, my friends the Casino never loses.

We can have a difficult road ahead of us, if we choose to serve God the rewards are not always apparent. To many the work that the sisters in Calcutta chose to do with Mother Teresa did with the untouchables was unthinkable most folks could not even bear to look at these poor unfortunates, and yet Mother Teresa said she could not bear to do otherwise.

She now has a crown to wear and is reunited with those poor unfortunates in Heaven. No more suffering or pain only joy and beauty.

In the popular movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" based on the novel of the same name, the main character is a widower Lawyer named Atticus Finch, who lived in the 1930's in a small Alabama town with his two school aged children.

Atticus has been assigned by the County Judge the job of defending Tom Robinson a black man falsely accused of crimes against a white women.

The townsfolk can not understand why Atticus did not turn down this demand, after all he was one of THEM, and why would he go against his own people. he and his children suffered greatly for his decision to represent this MAN who had been falsely accused.

They were taunted and they were threatened, you can not serve both GOD and Mammon. The children of the light must be there as a symbol of God's love for his people.

The reason that Atticus gives for making his decision is pretty concise and actually pretty simple he says in the end of the book "I just can't live one way in Town and another way in my home".

That's what it means to have an undivided heart, that was the secret of his Integrity, his strength of soul and his peace of mind. Can we there for live one way in our homes, in our Churches and live in another way when we are in our TOWN.

In a few minutes we will be beginning our preparations to receive the body of the one whose heart was never divided, who had the love of his friends above the love of his own life.

As you extend your hand today in peace, let us pray that the Peace we extend to our neighbor will be the genuine lasting peace of having an undivided heart.

Our stewardship here is a relatively short one if we compare it with the rewards of eternity, on the other hand we can always choose the low road but remember that the low road only leads us to one place. The high road on the other hand takes us to a place of unsurpassed beauty and unending joy.

Life is a series of choices that together make up the story of our existence, it is up to each of us to write and to live out the conclusion to that particular novel.

By the Grace of free will we are the Authors of our own stories, we can allow ourselves to serve either God or Mammon that choice good people will determine the ultimate outcome of our story, the one that people one day will remember us for.