“For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”  Luke 12:12

In the gospel reading, Jesus calls upon us to declare ourselves publicly for him. We are not to be afraid to witness publicly to our faith in the Lord. It can be difficult to witness publicly to our faith today, in our time and place. Pressure is coming from various directions to keep faith out of the public domain, to marginalize it to the private realm. 

Yet, Jesus suggests in our gospel reading that, whereas our faith is always personal to each one of us, it is not to be merely private. We are to declare our faith in the presence of others. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus calls upon us to let the light of our faith shine and not to hide it under a basket. 

Recognizing that this public declaration of faith will be difficult for his followers, Jesus speaks a word of reassurance towards the end of that gospel reading. He tells his disciples that when they encounter hostility because of their public witness to their faith, they will not be left to their own resources. The Holy Spirit will be with them, teaching them what they are to say. 

Perhaps we don’t rely enough on the Holy Spirit when we feel pressure to keep our faith to ourselves, to hide it away. The Lord is always offering us the Holy Spirit with his many gifts, as strength in our weakness, as wisdom in our confusion and as courage in our fearfulness. We just need to keep on praying with hopeful expectation, “Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart. Give me the gifts to witness to the Lord in my life”.

Blessings, 

Deacon Jack

St. Clare of Assisi

Houston, TX

P.S.

Please join us at St. Clare’s Mass Schedule:

1) Sat 4:30 PM (in person and livestream via facebook and our website)

2) Sunday 9:00 AM (in person and livestream via facebook and our website) and 11:00 AM

3) My deepest gratitude to you for your financial support during this difficult time, without your generosity, we won’t be able to sustain our various ministries at St. Clare. THANK YOU!

I am looking forward to welcoming y’all. Have a blessed weekend!

Air hug >-(^_^)-< , Fr. Vincent