A local pilgrimage that kicked off in January in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis offers an opportunity to celebrate the newly canonized Martyrs of Damascus and to, in prayer, walk alongside members of the faithful facing uncertainty and persecution in Middle Eastern countries like Syria.
As Hurricane Milton threatened Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast and cleanup continued in Florida and five other states after late September’s Hurricane Helene, Archbishop Bernard Hebda urged parishes to conduct special Sunday collections for hurricane relief.
The bishops of our ecclesiastical province (consisting of the 10 dioceses of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota) recently gathered for our annual August meeting, hosted this year by the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. While there is always a business element to the gatherings, there are also opportunities for the bishops to pray together and to spend time together in a way that enables us to build the fraternal communion that the Church expects of her bishops.
Two women from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who recently visited the Diocese of Kitui in Kenya, Marci Franzen, project manager in the Office of Communications at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Julie Woodruff, a parishioner of St. Joseph in Red Wing, shared their experiences with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley.
After separate missionary trips to Alaska, India, Jamaica and Kenya, four witnesses of Christ in others and of his love in their own lives share some of their experiences of the universal Church with The Catholic Spirit this World Mission Sunday.
While on an immersion and service trip to the tiny, remote village of Galena, Alaska, Dianne LaScotte approached an older resident outside St. John Berchman church to thank her for sharing her life story at a parish event. The woman, an elder in the Athabascan Indian community to which most of the village’s 470 residents belong, responded with curiosity, “Why are you here?”
All the meetings Debbie Keller attended in Kitui, Kenya, during a Center for Mission partnership trip started in a surprising way — whether they were about community building and resources or gatherings with local women.
A calendar of prayers and suggestions for action such as meatless Mondays and shopping at farmer’s markets is available to help people in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis enter the Season of Creation Sept. 1 through Oct. 4, members of the archdiocese’s Care for Creation Team said.
Deacon Mickey Friesen, 59, a St. Paul father of two, serves as director of the archdiocese’s Center for Mission and as a deacon at St. Thomas Becket in Eagan. A lifelong lover of nature, his goal is to see every state park in Minnesota. He often writes and preaches about the connection between faith and the outdoors.
“Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John records that Jesus spoke those words to his disciples after the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
The Center for Mission helps unite individuals, parishes and the entire Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to the universal mission of the Church, which is carrying Jesus’ saving message of love and healing to all corners of the world.
When Christians think of art depicting the conversion of St. Paul, they likely think of the saint falling from his horse on the road to Damascus after being temporarily struck blind. But in Acts of the Apostles, where the event is chronicled, no horse is involved, said Deacon Mickey Friesen, director of the Center for Mission at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
