NEVER TOO YOUNG FOR MISSION
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ To whomever I send you, you shall go;
Whatever I command you, you shall speak.” -Jeremiah 1:7
The Scripture abounds with excuses; but it also abounds with examples of God’s persuasive power and unrelenting call. Jeremiah could not refuse the Lord, nor Moses, nor Ananias, nor Paul, nor any of the Apostles. As we come once again to Christ’s calling of the Twelve, we should remember that the Lord’s call extends back to our origins: to our very conception and to our new birth in Baptism. His call does not begin when we are fully mature, but when we are immature, that we might grow into the full stature of His call.
On June 5th we witnessed the conferral of the Sacrament of Confirmation on several young people from our parish. The celebrant was the ‘newly-minted’ Auxiliary Bishop Michael Izen. He spoke humbly about being new to his role and relying on the support of the MC and others to keep him on track. Truly God worked through his preaching and his invocation of the Holy Spirit.
I include a photo (below) from a recent Baptism at Holy Cross, the first-born of a couple married last year through our Pre-Cana Cohort: Noah and Melanie Maldonado. I was privileged to baptize Theodore Rafael Maldonado and if you look closely at the photo, you may see his godfather was a priest—in fact, a ‘newly-minted’ priest, Fr. Ryan Glaser, ordained on May 27th. This is yet another example of how God calls the young on mission: a newly-ordained priest, a first-time godmother, a newly-married couple, a newly-born baby!
Early June has been filled with some wonderful things in our parish: a well-attended Holy Hour of Thanksgiving for our Parish Clergy where we prayed together for vocations; graduation Mass for the 8th graders of St. John Paul II; a truly splendid NE Eucharistic Procession; the end of our Choral Season for our choir at the 9:30 am Mass on Corpus Christi (thanks are due to them for their hard work throughout the year!); a few early summer weddings; new renters in the convent at Holy Cross (a group of young men who will be living in intentional community, many of whom have been associated with N.E.T. Ministries).
The summer is just getting started so much is yet to come:
+ Priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis will be gathering from Monday-Thursday of this coming week in Winona, MN for the bi-annual Presbyteral Assembly. Please pray for a fruitful and restful time of fraternity. Note the various adjustments to our liturgical offerings.
+ Don’t miss the theatrical production of His Name is Michael being hosted this coming week in the St. Clement Church Hall. Tickets are still available. See p. 6 for information on reserving tickets for the play which includes a soup supper. Most all of the actors and actresses are parishioners!
+ During the 9:30 am Mass this coming Sunday, June 25, members of our Parish Synod Evangelization Team will be commissioned. Let’s pray for them and the evangelistic task they are preparing to take up in the coming months. We will soon be sharing more about the implementation of the Synod priorities in our parish.
In Christ who calls us,
~Fr. Howe