Comparing his excitement to that of a child on Christmas Eve, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he waits each year at Pentecost “to see what it is that the Holy Spirit is going to do in our local Church when we open our hearts to the gifts of the Spirit.”
“We heard in our readings how the Holy Spirit is able to breathe life into dead bones. Imagine that,” Archbishop Hebda said, referring to Ezekiel 37:1-14 read at the Extended Vigil of Pentecost May 18 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
“Just think what the Holy Spirit will be able to do through us when we offer ourselves … as his instruments, when we really strive to be faithful and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.”
The archbishop noted that the feast of Pentecost, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, has been at the center of renewal in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since 2019. That was the year the archdiocese — on Pentecost — opened three years of listening and prayer sessions, faith formation and education opportunities that culminated with an Archdiocesan Synod Assembly held on Pentecost weekend 2022.
Now, implementing aspects of the archbishop’s post-synodal pastoral letter, “You Will Be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent From the Upper Room,” has led to at least 1,200 parish-based small groups forming over the past 12 months to promote faith and fellowship. More than 16,000 people are participating in small groups. This year, there is a special focus beginning in July on the Eucharist and the Mass, and the following year will focus on parents as the primary educators of the faith to their children.
“We know the power of the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost,” the archbishop said in his May 18 homily, “and we know what it is that the Holy Spirit can do in our lives and in our Church. We’ve seen those first signs. But sisters and brothers, if you’re like me, you know that we can go further. We know that if we open up our hearts to the Holy Spirit, that the Lord is going to do amazing things.”
Archbishop Hebda also urged prayers for preparations for Pentecost 2025, when another assembly will be held to look at initiatives for years four and five of implementing his pastoral letter.
Calling on the Holy Spirit continued after the Mass at a special prayer service led by Father Joseph Taphorn, rector and vice president of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, and a band of musicians that included young people from Mendota Heights-based college ministry St. Paul’s Outreach and charismatic community People of Praise.
With hymns rising and echoing through the Cathedral, many in the congregation raised their hands to join in prayer and song. A line formed as people brought their own petitions to prayer teams ready to focus on their needs. Similar prayer services were held by the archdiocese after the vigil of Pentecost Masses in 2022 and 2023.
Brenda Studeman, 65, of St. Patrick in Inver Grove Heights, was among those who remained after Mass. She said she has been on fire with the Holy Spirit since retiring in January from her job as a project manager for an insurance firm. A friend invited her to the vigil Mass.
“I just wanted more,” Studeman said of putting time into her faith life, which has included participating in a Life in the Spirit Seminar, Encounter Ministries and a 10-week School of Charism Discovery course offered by Father Michael Becker, the archdiocese’s vicar of charisms. “I wanted more, and he (God) gave me more.”
Studeman said she senses the Holy Spirit’s presence in the archdiocese, reflected in part by Archbishop Hebda’s pastoral letter. She is involved in a small group at her parish focused on lectio divina (divine reading) of each Sunday’s Scripture passages. She also is a member of her parish’s Stewardship Committee, which stresses prayer, participation and generosity among parishioners.
“The Holy Spirit is doing something in our archdiocese” and in the wider world, Studeman said. “(And) to me, the basis of everything is prayer. If you don’t have prayer, you can’t do any of it.”
