Mass, lunch, farm activities and music will be part of Rural Life Sunday June 23 on a farm that seems tailor-made for the occasion: Father Michael Miller’s “A Taste of Heaven” in New Prague.
“It is the first time, as far as I know, that this Mass will be offered on the farm of a priest,” said Father Miller, pastor of nearby St. Patrick in Cedar Lake Township and St. Catherine in Spring Lake Township. “People will get to see where I grew up and where I now live. We will have the holy Mass, a great lunch, farm animals and tractors, polka music after Mass, and a good dose of the country life.”
Bishop Joseph Williams, coadjutor bishop of Camden, New Jersey, and most recently an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will preside at the Mass.
The archdiocese’s annual Rural Life Mass is a core component of celebrating the “taste of heaven” that Father Miller said can be found in rural life. Father Miller pointed out that at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, people can find the FFA Miracle of Birth barn, which is very popular, especially with children, as they see nature in action.
“In the not-too-distant past, when farms were smaller, more people had a direct or indirect connection to rural life,” Father Miller said. “As farms grow larger, (fewer) people have this connection. The Rural Life Mass seeks to maintain this connection by celebrating the goodness of this way of life.
“When I was in college from the fall of 1983 to the spring of 1985, I remember the emphasis was to diminish the ‘way of life’ outlook of the farm and concentrate only on the business aspect,” Father Miller said. “I thought then, as I do now, that if people lose this connection to agriculture our culture will be negatively affected. I think that this is observably true.”
Serving as a priest in a rural community provides Father Miller with the opportunity to share his love of nature and God’s creation with others in surrounding communities.
“I love that I am not in the city, surrounded by concrete, but in the countryside surrounded by nature. I love seeing the crops planted and harvested, and all the stages in between,” Father Miller said. “I love being able to see the moon and the stars, and the beauty of the changing of the seasons, all of which are shared and appreciated by my parishioners.”
RURAL LIFE MASS
Date: Sunday, June 23
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Location: Father Michael Miller Farm — “A Taste of Heaven” — 12890 70th St. W., New Prague
Details: Mass will be followed by lunch (freewill offering accepted), polka and old-time music, children’s activities, games and a petting zoo. All are invited.
Seating will be limited; please bring lawn chairs. Parking for people with disabilities will be available, as will outdoor restrooms and hand-washing stations. If it rains, the celebration will be held inside the farm’s pole shed. Questions? Contact Dale Hennen at 651-238-2074.
In the country, everyone knows there are various things they cannot control, particularly the weather, and they understand their dependence on those things, Father Miller said. For example, when it rains, everyone knows how much precipitation they received and is ready to answer that question when asked, he said.
“We pray for protection from storms, (for) good weather, and safety for the planting, growing and harvest seasons,” Father Miller said. “We know our neighbors and the history of their various families and their farms or businesses. And all the parishes are very old.”
St. Patrick in Cedar Lake was founded in 1857; the current church was built 150 years ago. St. Catherine’s parish was founded in 1865; the current church was built in 1896.
“We also do not view the neighboring parishes as rivals, but rather as siblings,” Father Miller said. “We help each other out. And, if an individual family is in need, the whole community joins in to help them.”
Calling his farm “A Taste of Heaven,” Father Miller recently wrote, in a bulletin to parishioners:
“God has blessed me, in His wonderful providence, in letting me return to the farm on which I have grown up and that I had given up to follow Him as a priest. It was here that I grew in age and wisdom and grace; working and walking these grounds. It was here that I learned about life and the Author of it; that though there are times when we must pass through a valley of tears, we are being carried on the shoulder of One who will never let us down, if we just hang on. It was here that I looked at the stars and was amazed; at the moon and saw not just a reflection of the sun, but as an image of the Church reflecting the light of the Son. It was here that I saw in the changing of the seasons, in the wind, in the rain, and the snow, in the life-giving warmth of the sun, an image of the Holy Spirit bringing us life. It was here that I saw the animals and the plants in all of their great beauty, large and small, as a reflection of the beauty of the One who made them. And it was here that I saw the love of my family as a reflection of the love that God has for me, and why I know that this farm has truly been a taste of heaven.”
THE STORY OF A FARM
Father Michael Miller’s parents, Carlton and Mary Jane Miller, purchased “A Taste of Heaven” farm in 1962. It was a dairy farm. They milked 41 cows and worked 230 acres of oats, alfalfa and corn. The family’s plan was for Father Miller to take over the farm.
“We sold the cows on Sept. 15, 1994, as I was beginning my third year in the seminary,” Father Miller said. “We continued to grow corn, soybeans and some alfalfa until 2003. Since then, our neighbor, Marty Shambaur, from whose uncle my parents bought the farm, continues to grow the same crops.”
After high school, Father Miller attended the University of Minnesota in Waseca and earned an associate and applied science degree in diversified agriculture. He returned to the farm in 1985 and worked full-time with his dad until the spring of 1989, when he attended the then-College of St. Thomas in St. Paul to answer what he discerned was a call to the priesthood.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history, Father Miller said, the signs kept pointing him to the priesthood. He attended The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul and was ordained in 1996.
“I continued to come home every fall to help with the harvest,” Father Miller said. “There is a saying that goes, ‘You can take the boy off of the farm, but never take the farm out of the boy.’ That was certainly true for me.”
In 2014, Father Miller’s parents decided it was time to sell the farm. On All Souls Day of that year, it became very clear to Father Miller that he was supposed to purchase the farm, and he did so. Four months later, he was assigned as pastor to St. Patrick in Cedar Lake and St. Catherine of Spring Lake Township — two small and beautiful churches within 14 miles of the farm.
“The joy that I had in returning home was truly a taste of the joy of heaven,” Father Miller said.
