“Do you realize how blessed you are to be in this archdiocese at this time? The Lord is really blessing this local Church, doing things that he is not doing elsewhere.” In the last two months, I’ve heard those sentiments at least a half dozen times, coming in a variety of contexts, but in ways that have always rung true to me. I have been grateful for these reminders, and indeed feel blessed to be here.
When I first came to the archdiocese, the listening sessions that we held highlighted that this local Church is blessed with lay Catholics who desire to exercise leadership in our parishes, schools and institutions, as envisioned at the Second Vatican Council. I recently saw that illustrated convincingly as more than 1,300 people gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Catholic Community Foundation. The CCF traces its roots to a collaboration between Archbishop John Roach and lay leaders who saw the need for an independent foundation that would support Catholic activities in the archdiocese. Archbishop Roach was ahead of his time in trusting the leadership of the foundation to lay Catholics, and the abundant fruits of his wise decision continue to be seen.
The CCF has grown substantially from those early days. It continues to serve as an excellent vehicle for supporting our parishes, schools and institutions and for addressing the basic needs of our neighbors as we together strive to live out the beatitudes. There are similar Catholic foundations around the nation, but I know of none that carries out its mission more effectively than the CCF. We have indeed been blessed.
That sense of being particularly favored was certainly felt as well when more than 1,700 of the faithful of our archdiocese gathered recently in Minneapolis for our Activated Disciple workshop and joined me in praying for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As Professor Mary Healey, Jeff Cavins, Father Michael Becker and Bishop Joseph Williams spoke that day, the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable. I bet I was the proudest bishop in the country as we listened to testimonies from our brothers and sisters about how the Holy Spirit had been leading them to share the Gospel in the weeks since they had completed the School of Discipleship and its 40-Day Challenge. As I left the venue that afternoon for an evening Mass, there were still hundreds waiting to be prayed over. This is anything but “business as usual;” we’re living in an extraordinary — and blessed — moment.
That wave of grace continued the following Saturday as we gathered at the Cathedral for the Vigil of Pentecost. The ecclesial unity that only the Spirit can bring was evident as the readings of the extended vigil were proclaimed by representatives of our Vietnamese, Latino, Hmong, Polish and West African communities. The joy exuded by the Karenni choir was particularly memorable for me, knowing that their home country of Myanmar, still wracked by political unrest, had just suffered the added damage of tropical Cyclone Mocha. In the midst of the Church that they loved, they found the solace that only the Paraclete, the consoler, could bring — and they shared it with the rest of us.
I was particularly grateful for the prayer experience that followed the Mass. I once again detected the extraordinary openness to the Holy Spirit that has characterized our vigil celebrations ever since we gathered at St. Peter in Mendota in 2019 for the formal announcement of the calling of our Archdiocesan Synod. The presence once again of so many young people associated with St. Paul’s Outreach and NET Ministries, both based in our archdiocese, as well as so many families from the Community of Christ the Redeemer and the People of Praise, reminded me that this local Church is particularly well-equipped to discern the movements of the Holy Spirit.
Like every faith community since the time of the Acts of the Apostles, we face challenges, real challenges. But, as in the past, the Lord continues to raise up an army of witnesses to spread the good news. I presided at a wedding of a young couple this week and I was moved by their commitment, and that of their peers, to live out and share our faith. Moreover, we’ve been blessed in recent weeks by the ordination of four new priests and 11 new deacons, and we are rightly celebrating in these days the religious professions of a number of young women from this local Church who are responding generously to Christ’s call to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. We can’t forget, moreover, that earlier this spring we had the consecration of four women as consecrated virgins living in the world, and two more consecrations are to be celebrated in the next few weeks.
Something unusual and beautiful is indeed happening in our Church. We know that the Lord expects more from those who are given more. Please join me in praying that we might be able to continue responding to the amazing opportunities that the Lord is giving us. As we sang at the Pentecost vigil, “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here!”
