Honoring many living for Christ

Anniversaries are wonderful opportunities for taking stock of what God is doing in our lives and recognizing how he has blessed us and our Church. I recently had the opportunity to celebrate Mass at our Cathedral with couples celebrating significant marriage anniversaries and their families, and I was overwhelmed by the love and commitment that was present on that occasion. More recently, in the course of our biennial presbyteral assembly in Winona, the priests serving in our archdiocese had the opportunity to celebrate the priest jubilarians among us. Three of our brothers shared reflections from their particular vantage points, after 10, 25 and 50 years of priestly service, acting in the person of Christ and in the name of his Church. As I listened to their wise words, I couldn’t help but sense the same sense of commitment and love that was so evident at the Marriage Anniversary Mass.

This issue of The Catholic Spirit focuses on another segment of our local Church celebrating anniversaries: our sisters and brothers in the many different forms of consecrated life. While they were particularly honored at a celebration in our Cathedral this past May 14, I’m grateful that The Catholic Spirit is allowing us to recognize again the phenomenal contribution that they have made to our archdiocese in living out their lives of consecration. We need to be reminded to pray in gratitude for our jubilarians in consecrated life and to ask the Master of the Harvest to prompt more of our sisters and brothers to discern and accept these beautiful vocations. The listings of our jubilarians, and a reflection on the breadth of their apostolic work or contemplative presence in this archdiocese in accordance with their own