Homily for Tuesday of the 1st Week of Advent

Everyone is offered gifts from the Holy Spirit that help us live as children of God and enable us to be instruments of God's love and grace in the world. 

As a sacramental Church, we open ourselves to the creative grace of God, our loving Father; the compassionate grace of Jesus Christ; and the transformative grace of the Holy Spirit. In the Sacrament of Confirmation, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as described in our first reading from the prophet Isaiah: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, holiness, knowledge, and fear of the LORD. 

These gifts can transform us if we are genuinely open to the Spirit and to God's love and grace. True transformation means using these gifts for our own good and for the good of all people. 

This Advent season calls us to slow down and reflect on how the Holy Spirit has gifted us and how we are called to use these gifts. However, we cannot stop there; we must actively work to utilize them so that God's love and peace may flow through us, allowing us to fulfill our vocation of bringing ourselves and others into God's kingdom of love.