: Published: 26 March 2023

‘I Am With You Always’

BELMONT — Waking early on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, more than 850 young people traveled to Belmont Abbey College for the Bishop’s Youth Pilgrimage March 25. Due to rain, the event was held indoors at the college’s Wheeler Center. The spirits of the youth, however, were anything but dampened.

“This is a beautiful thing to do with almost young adults who are transitioning into high school or college, and it’s especially beautiful today as we celebrate Jesus’ Incarnation together,” said Anna Terrell, a high school junior who attended the pilgrimage with her youth group from Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro.

Among the prayers of the day was a consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in honor of the day’s feast. Speakers included Meg Hunter-Kilmer who gave the keynote address and led the breakout session with the high school girls, Jake Burns, who led the breakout session for high school boys, and singer Tori Harris Gray who led the music and middle school breakout session.

“We get to meet people from other parishes and listen to the talks about our faith. It’s powerful,” Terrell said. “In the high school breakout session for the girls, the speaker talked to us about saints who didn’t live super holy lives at first. It made it easy to relate to them as we seek holiness.”

The Bishop’s Youth Pilgrimage, held each spring, is designed to provide young people of the Diocese of Charlotte with a day of reflection, prayer, formation, vocation awareness and fellowship. It is a component of the annual Eucharistic Congress, and the annual event shares the 2023 congress theme: “I Am With You Always,” which is based on the words of the Gospel of Matthew (28:20).

At this year’s event, Abbot Placid Solari offered Mass and led the Holy Hour of Adoration and Eucharistic Procession. He was assisted by concelebrant Father Peter Ascik and ten seminarians from St. Joseph College Seminary. In his homily, Abbot Placid explained the dignity of the human person through the events of the Annunciation and the Institution of the Holy Eucharist.

“Because Jesus became one of us, a real and true human being, a man like us, he was able to take other created things, bread and wine, to be the unique Presence,” he said. “He wishes to remain with us in the sacrament of His Body and Blood, so we are never without His Presence, without His love, without His forgiveness and without His life.”

Abbot Placid also connected the Blessed Virgin Mary’s fiat to the youth and their quest to discover their vocations, asking them what their reaction would have been if the Angel Gabriel had visited them. He also asked the congregation to say out loud the words of Mary’s response in Luke 1:38: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.”

“She obeyed, and by that, she became the Mother of God,” Abbot Placid said. “After she said that what happened? The Angel left, and for the rest of her life — even after Jesus had ascended and until she died and was Assumed into heaven — she had to figure out by the events of her everyday life how she was to live that vocation she had been given, unique among all vocations, and she did that because she was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

He reminded the youth to call on the Holy Spirit for guidance in the process of discerning their unique vocations.

“That is powerful because, in our baptism and our confirmation, we have received the very same Holy Spirit that overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring forth the created humanity of the Son of God.”

Abbot Placid explained that by assuming our human nature, Jesus was able to make us sharers in His divine nature. He said, “That’s why receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. It is the food of everlasting life.”

— Annie Ferguson. Photos and video by Troy Hull

: Published: 29 March 2023

HEAVEN’S ANGELS

Brother Knights on Bikes members, Father David Miller, Jim LaLonde and Dave Tagye met up at Belmont Abbey March 20. The Knights on Bikes is a fraternal organization of men, dedicated to faith in action. The group is open to any members of the Knights of Columbus who are in good standing. (Troy Hull | Catholic News Herald)

CHARLOTTE — It’s not every day you see a priest and a group of bikers in black leather vests hopping off motorcycles in front of a church to spend time in prayer. But for parishioners around the diocese, this is becoming a common sight as more Knights of Columbus join the Knights on Bikes ministry.

Father David Miller, pastor of St. Dorothy’s in Lincolnton, was recently installed as the North Carolina chaplain of Knights on Bikes. He was encouraged by a fellow Knight of Columbus, Dave Tagye, the state president of Knights on Bikes, to take the motorcycle exam and purchase a bike to join the ministry and become its state chaplain.

“I’ve wanted to ride since I was 16,” Father Miller said. “My mother was vehemently opposed, so I put away the idea. When Dave asked me if I would be interested in riding, we talked about what my role might be in the ministry, and I reached out for permission from Bishop (Peter) Jugis before I bought a bike.”

He says his mother prayed a novena that Bishop Jugis would say no to his request.

When Father Miller received word that he did not have to have the bishop’s permission to ride a motorcycle, he ordered a 2022 Indian Chief Dark Horse bike, took the motorcycle exam and told his mother. “She was not happy with the bishop,” Father Miller said, smiling. “But she’s forgiven him now.”

To console his mother, he bought all of the protective gear a biker can wear – helmet, crushproof boots, gloves, knee pads and special clothing which covers his whole body when he’s riding. He also blessed a St. Benedict patch and sewed it to his Knights on Bikes leather vest in addition to a handmade cord of a decade of the Rosary one of his youths at the parish made for him.

Now officially one of “Heaven’s Angels” this side of the veil, Father Miller hops on his motorcycle whenever he can to experience the thrill of the road.

“It feels like you’re flying,” he said. “There’s no shell of a car to protect you. You feel the wind and you’re out in the weather. You’re flying down the road. It’s really an amazing feeling!”

He explained that even after a stressful day, taking a ride is very edifying. “I love to just to go ride for a while if the weather is nice, just to relax,” he said.

Tagye, the catalyst in Father Miller living out his childhood dream, is a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo in Morganton. He rides an immaculate shiny royal blue Indian Challenger motorcycle. As state president of Knights on Bikes, he helps coordinate local rides and charitable outreach for the ministry.

“I also started riding later in life,” Tagye said. “My parents didn’t want me to ride either. Some time ago I finally went out and bought the biggest motorcycle I could find. I learned to ride and took the safety course.”

Tagye recalled he was speaking with another parishioner after Mass one day who suggested they start a motorcycle group to ride and do charity work. “I told my wife, and she found the Knights on Bikes’ website online. I called the prior state president, and he asked me if I would take over western North Carolina.”

He now collaborates with Father Miller and state chairmen, as well as the other state president in Raleigh.

“Our motto is ‘In God We Trust and Ride,’ and we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary by stopping in churches to pray the Rosary on our rides,” Tagye said. “Like St. Francis, as we ride we hope to preach Jesus often and sometimes use words.”

The Knights on Bikes have the Knights of Columbus emblem and a cross on the back of their vests. “We’re dressed this way with emblems of the Order so people can see what we represent and ask questions. It’s our opportunity to evangelize,” he said.

“It’s also a chance to tell people what we believe. It’s amazing to see how many people don’t know what the Catholic Church is about. They believe rumors, but when we talk and they find out we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ, they change their perspective,” Tagye explained.

He and the North Carolina Knights on Bikes riders also participate in regional and national rides as they are able. In times past, they have ridden from the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville to the Abbey Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Belmont, stopping at local parishes along the way to pray the Rosary. Some riders have also joined Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami on his annual ride from Miami to the Florida Keys in January.

“We also ride with the Christian Motorcycle Association when they sponsor rides. That’s our chance to do charity work and get out there and witness. We evangelize with other groups as we go on those rides,” Tagye said.

Jim LaLonde of St. James Parish in Concord rides his Harley Davidson Road Glide motorcycle as often as he can with Tagye and the other Knights on Bikes.
“Most weeks I wear my Knights on Bikes vest to church,” LaLonde said. “It’s a conversation starter. There’s been a very positive reaction and people come up to me and ask questions.”

He loves doing the Rosary rides where they stop into parishes along the way. “Our Knights of Columbus emblem on our vest helps ease tensions when people see motorcycle riders stopping at the parish,” he said.

Now, with Father Miller on board as chaplain, LaLonde believes that Father Miller “is helping hold us accountable and gives us more visibility and credibility.”
When it comes to Knights on Bikes, all three men say the brotherhood has made an impact.

“I pray the Rosary so much more now,” Tagye said. “To ride with brothers in Christ and to serve our vets, parishes and priests however we can is important.”

LaLonde echoed those remarks, adding, “Having a group that can help hold me accountable is good. As Isaiah 27:17 says, ‘Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.’ It’s important to have like-minded men with the same morals and values to help each other.”

Father Miller agrees. “It’s true for most people, but especially for men, we need groups men can be a part of,” he said. “The Knights of Columbus are themselves a group, but motorcycle riders have their own little niche. For the Knights to combine both of those loves, it creates a further niche where men can tighten their brotherhood and support one another, and that is wonderful.”

“It has made me work even harder to stay in a state of grace in case I get in an accident. So, in case anything happens, I am ready for the Lord!” Father Miller said.

— SueAnn Howell. Photos by Troy Hull and provided