The Catholic Spirit - October 26, 2023

October 26, 2023 • Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

TheCatholicSpirit.com

Compassionate care Nurse quietly accompanies patients in their last days — Page 6

BRINGING CHRIST TO U OF M 4 | YOUTH CAMP FINDS A HOME 7 | SYNOD OF BISHOPS 8 WAR IN HOLY LAND 9-11 | MAKING SACRED MUSIC 12 | EUCHARIST TO HOMEBOUND 20

2 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

PAGETWO OVERHEARD It became clear within a week of his election that this was a man of God who was going to boldly proclaim the Gospel, and who was going to challenge the forces of atheism precisely because they were harming human beings, that the human person without God is a lesser creature, and he would make that clear, which he did for 26 and a half years.

George Weigel, papal biographer, reflecting on the election of then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyła to the papacy on Oct. 16, 1978. St. John Paul II was instrumental in the fight to peacefully overthrow communism and spread the idea of the new evangelization. The first goal would not have been achieved if not for the first papal trip to his native Poland in June 1979, a trip of nine days recognized by historians as a turning point in the 20th century, Weigel said.

NEWS notes COURTESY ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER

JAMS AND JELLIES Father Mike Sullivan, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove, works with members of the Lady Knights of Columbus as they make jelly and jam for the parish’s Nov. 4-5 fall craft sale.

Father Sullivan began making jam in 2003, in honor of his late mother. He shared it with parish staff and demand took off. Collecting the fruit varies from parishioner donations to partnering with a food shelf for fruit that otherwise would be thrown away. Father Sullivan makes his jam year-round; he produced more than 650 jars last year. More than 800 pressure-sealed jars of jelly and jam have been produced this year, including blackberry, apple and rhubarb.

Twin Cities native Bishop Emeritus Richard Pates was recognized and greeted with applause at the installation Mass of Archbishop Thomas Zinkula to the Archdiocese of Dubuque on Oct. 18 in Dubuque, Iowa. Bishop Pates served as the apostolic administrator for the archdiocese for six months, since the resignation of Archbishop Michael Jackels for health reasons. Bishop Pates served as an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2001 to 2008, and as bishop of Des Moines, Iowa, from 2008 to September 2019, when he retired and returned to Minnesota. But he has had a busy retirement. In December 2019, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, as Bishop R. Daniel Conlon took a medical leave of absence and then retired in May 2020. In April 2021, Bishop Pates was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Crookston, until Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ installation in that diocese in December of that year.

People interested in helping preserve and restore the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and hoping to learn a bit more about the Cathedral have an opportunity the evening of Nov. 13. The Cathedral Heritage Foundation is hosting a 5:30 p.m. fundraising dinner and a 7 p.m. fundraising discussion of the work done on the interior dome and other Cathedral projects by Italian immigrant Joseph Capecchi. Grandsons Paul and Mark Capecchi and their cousin, Jerry Capecchi, will talk about early color sketches of the interior dome their grandfather created for the Vatican Studios. The grandsons also worked as assistants on many of the projects. Joseph Capecchi is the greatgrandfather of Christina Capecchi of Inver Grove Heights, who writes a Q&A series for The Catholic Spirit and whose column, “Twenty Something,” also appears in the newspaper. Links to both events can be found at cathedralheritagefoundation.org/calendar.

The Office for the Mission of Catholic Education (OMCE) has launched two videos promoting faithful, joyful and zealous leaders and teachers in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In four-minute videos, Aaron Benner, assistant principal at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, and Katie Erickson, middle school teacher at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in West St. Paul, talk about what drew them to Catholic schools and the faith they can share daily with students. The videos will be part of a digital advertising campaign to recruit leaders and teachers for Catholic schools in the archdiocese. Ads will appear on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The two videos can be seen now at youtube.com/@catholicschoolsarchspm.

OMCE is encouraging people to share them with family and friends who might be interested in serving in a Catholic school.

COURTESY OMCE | NEAL ABBOTT

SERVICE HONORED Kim Doyle, principal of St. Wenceslaus Catholic School in New Prague, accepts a service award for her 35 years as a head of school in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from Jason Slattery, director of Catholic education, and Archbishop Bernard Hebda. The archdiocesan Office for the Mission of Catholic Education (OMCE) hosted its second annual Catholic School Leadership Banquet at The St. Paul Seminary and University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Oct. 14. OMCE recognized other service milestones, retirees, clergy and schools that have completed the Catholic School Study.

ON THE COVER: Tom Cassidy, a nurse at Our Lady of Peace Residential Home in St. Paul, visits with Cindy Edberg Oct. 11 at the home. He has worked there for 35 years and belongs to St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

The Catholic Spirit is published semi-monthly for The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Vol. 28 — No. 20 MOST REVEREND BERNARD A. HEBDA, Publisher TOM HALDEN, Associate Publisher JOE RUFF, Editor-in-Chief REBECCA OMASTIAK, News Editor

PRACTICING Catholic On the Oct. 20 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, host Patrick Conley interviewed Cathy Blaeser, co-executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, who discussed the educational meetings MCCL staff are conducting to inform Minnesotans about what they can do to “work back toward a pro-life Minnesota.” Also featured were Kathleen Osberger, who described her experience as a lay missionary teaching at a Maryknoll school in Chile at the height of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s; and Ron Snyder, president of the St. John Henry Newman Association of America, who discussed the saint’s writings and wisdom. Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show with links to streaming platforms.

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OCTOBER 26, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 3

FROMTHEBISHOP ONLY JESUS | BISHOP MICHAEL IZEN

Heal the world through the family

O

f the many changes in becoming an auxiliary bishop, one is that I am now pastor of a much smaller parish, St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach. I have transitioned from Stillwater, where I had two parishes and seven Masses on the weekend, to one parish and two Masses on the weekend. The lighter schedule enables me to extend myself as a bishop. But having this connection to a parish also keeps me in touch with the people of God and the pulse of our culture.

Understandably, a big concern right now is peace (see the centerpiece on the Hamas-Israel war starting on page 9 in this issue of The Catholic Spirit). If you’re like me, one of the first things you think of when you think about the patron of my small parish, St. Francis, is his prayer for peace.

Prayer continues to be one of the most important things we can do to promote peace. Striving to be an instrument of peace is another thing we can do. While we can doubt that our actions will affect world peace, it was St. Teresa of Kolkata who once said, “The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.”

We are called to pray for peace. Pope Francis has declared Oct. 27 to be a day of prayer and fasting for peace in our world. Even if you are reading this after Oct. 27, consider taking on a day of prayer and fasting for those who do not have the blessing of living in peace. Our prayers have power. And as the Lord teaches us in the New Testament, fasting has great power as well. I usually recommend to parishioners that when it comes to fasting, simply imitate what the Church says about fast days. We can

still have one main, modest meal. Then, two much smaller meals, with no eating in between.

Besides prayer, fasting was another practice that St. Francis valued. Since his prayer for peace was one of the few things I knew about St. Francis when I became pastor of my new parish, I figured I needed to learn more. So, I read G.K. Chesterton’s biography of the great saint, simply titled: “Saint Francis of Assisi.” I learned that St. Francis was a peacemaker in part because he was a man of love, prayer and fasting.

One day as St. Francis was riding his horse in the countryside, he came upon a leper. Most would have made a wide turn around the leper or maybe even a U-turn. St. Francis jumped off his horse, went up to the man and hugged him. Additional stories of St. Francis reveal the value he placed on penance and fasting.

Another time when he was traveling, he came upon a patch of rose bushes and discerned that he needed more penance, so he jumped in the bushes. Miraculously, there were no thorns in those particular rose bushes.

St. Francis lived a life of fasting and penance because he knew that we must make room for sacrifice if we hoped to imitate Christ. A few weeks ago, at a Sunday Mass, we had St. Paul’s famous line from his Letter to the Philippians. St. Paul says, “Though Jesus was in the form of God, (he) did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself” (Phil 2:6-7). It struck me that this is how St. Francis lived his life. St. Francis, like the Lord, was never about filling himself up, but about emptying himself out.

St. Francis was also a man of the Eucharist. As Archbishop Hebda wrote last year in his post-synodal letter, it’s in the holy Eucharist that Jesus gives himself despite his suffering. Similarly, we are given the power

Sanar el mundo a través de la familia

que San Francisco valora. Desde su Oración por la Paz fue una de las pocas cosas que sabía sobre San Francisco Cuando me convertí en pastor de mi nueva parroquia, pensé que necesitaba aprender más. Entonces, leí la biografía de G.K. Chesterton del gran santo, simplemente titulado: “San Francisco de Asís”. Aprendí que San Francisco fue un pacificador en parte porque fue un hombre de amor, oración y ayuno.

Un día, mientras San Francisco montaba a caballo por el campo, se encontró con un leproso. Mayoría habría dado un amplio giro alrededor del leproso o tal vez incluso un cambio de sentido. San Francisco saltó su caballo, se acercó al hombre y lo abrazó. Historias adicionales de San Francisco revelan el valor impuso penitencia y ayuno. En otra ocasión, mientras viajaba, encontró un parche de rosales y discernió que necesitaba más penitencia, así que saltó entre los arbustos.

Milagrosamente, no había espinas en esos rosales en particular. San Francisco vivió una vida de ayuno y penitencia porque sabía que debíamos dejar espacio al sacrificio si esperábamos imitar a Cristo. Hace unas semanas, en una misa dominical, escuchamos la famosa frase de San Pablo en su Carta a los filipenses. San Pablo dice: “Aunque Jesús era en forma de Dios, no tuvo en cuenta la igualdad con Dios como algo que hay que captar. Más bien, se despojó a sí mismo” (Fil 2,6-7). Me llamó la atención que así es como San Francisco vivió su vida. San Francisco, como el Señor, nunca se trataba de llenarse, sino de vaciarse a sí mismo.

San Francisco fue también un hombre de la Eucaristía.

Como escribió el arzobispo Hebda el año pasado en su post-carta sinodal, es en la sagrada Eucaristía donde Jesús se entrega a pesar de su sufrimiento. Similarmente, se nos da el poder de dar de nosotros mismos a través de la Eucaristía (parafraseando el #36 del Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica). La sagrada Eucaristía nos permite entrar en las prácticas de oración y ayuno porque la Eucaristía exige que vivamos nuestras vidas no para nosotros mismos, sino para Dios y los demás.

Sigamos orando por la paz en Tierra Santa y en el mundo. Si deseamos trabajar para paz, haríamos bien en imitar el ejemplo de San Francisco. Comienza en

D

e los muchos cambios al convertirme en obispo auxiliar, uno es que ahora soy pastor de una iglesia mucho más parroquia más pequeña, San Francisco de Asís en Lake St. Croix Beach. He hecho la transición de Stillwater,donde tenía dos parroquias y siete Misas el fin de semana, a una parroquia y dos Misas el fin de semana. El horario más ligero me permite extenderme como obispo. Pero tener esto la conexión con una parroquia también me mantiene en contacto con el pueblo de Dios y el pulso de nuestra cultura.

Es comprensible que una gran preocupación en este momento sea la paz (ver el artículo central sobre la guerra entre Hamas y Israel en esta edición de El Espíritu Católico). Si eres como yo, una de las primeras cosas en las que piensas cuando lo que uno piensa del patrón de mi pequeña parroquia, San Francisco, es su oración por la paz.

La oración sigue siendo una de las cosas más importantes que podemos hacer para promover la paz.

Esforzarse ser un instrumento de paz es otra cosa que podemos hacer. Si bien podemos dudar de que nuestras acciones afectará la paz mundial, fue Santa Teresa de Calcuta quien una vez dijo: “La forma en que ayudas a sanar el mundo es empezar con tu propia familia”.

Estamos llamados a orar por la paz. El Papa Francisco ha declarado el 27 de octubre como un día de oración y ayuno por la paz en nuestro mundo. Incluso si estás leyendo esto después del 27 de octubre, considera emprender un jornada de oración y ayuno por quienes no tienen la bendición de vivir en paz. Nuestras oraciones tener poder. Y como el Señor nos enseña en el Nuevo Testamento, el ayuno también tiene un gran poder. Suelo recomendar a los feligreses que a la hora de ayunar, simplemente imiten lo que el la iglesia dice sobre los días de ayuno. Todavía podemos tomar una comida principal y modesta. Luego, dos mucho más pequeños comidas, sin comer entre medias.

Además de la oración, el ayuno era otra práctica

ST. FRANCIS’ PRAYER FOR PEACE Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek O to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

to give of ourselves through the Eucharist (paraphrasing No. 36 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church). The holy Eucharist enables us to enter the practices of prayer and fasting because the Eucharist demands that we live our lives not for ourselves, but for God and others.

Let us continue to pray for peace in the Holy Land and in the world. If we desire to work for peace, we would do well to imitate the example of St. Francis. It starts in our hearts and in our communities. Ask the Lord to make you an instrument of his peace, and like St. Francis, spend some extra time praying and fasting.

SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS ORACIÓN POR LA PAZ Señor, hazme un instrumento de tu paz Para sembrar amor donde hay odio Donde hay ofensa, dar perdón Donde hay duda, fé Donde hay desesperación, esperanza Donde hay obscuridad, luz Donde hay tristeza, alegría.

O Maestro divino, concédeme que no busque el ser consolado, sino el poder consolar que no busque el ser comprendido, sino el comprender que no busque el ser amado, sino el amar Porque es en dar, que recibimos Es en perdonar, que somos perdonados Es en morir, que nacemos a la vida eterna.

Amén.

nuestros corazones y en nuestro comunidades. Pide al Señor que te haga instrumento de su paz y, como San Francisco, dedica algo de tiempo extra para orar y ayunar.

OFFICIAL Archbishop Bernard Hebda has announced the following appointment in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:

Effective September 28, 2023 Reverend Francisco Pérez Colunga, C.Ss.R., assigned as missionary in residence at the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center. Father Pérez is a priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Mexico Province.

4 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

LOCAL

Bearing Christ in Dinkytown

SLICEof LIFE

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

It takes courage to follow Jesus. sjvseminary.org

A Eucharistic procession with Father Jake Anderson carrying the monstrance winds its way through Dinkytown and the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota Oct. 10. More than 100 people, many of them students, took part in the procession, which began with a talk at St. Lawrence, where Father Anderson serves as pastor. “I’m just thrilled to have gotten a chance to gather with my fellow Catholics on campus,” said Emily Schoenbeck, a graduate student at the university who walked the 1-mile procession route. “To see this many (students) turn out — especially on a weeknight when they’ve definitely got homework and (yet) they’re still wanting to be here — is just wonderful.” Father Anderson said he and Catholic students at the university wanted “to bring the light of Christ into the darkness of a world quite ignorant of the joy of Jesus.” It also was a way to take part in the Eucharistic Revival going on across the country. “We have been seeking to build a Eucharistic culture,” he said, “such that people can connect everything in the faith back to the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian faith.”

Please Pray for Your Future Priests

LOCAL

OCTOBER 26, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 5

Anselm House’s renovated gathering space for Christians serves U of M campus

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit

FELLOWS PROGRAM

Moving from a home on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul last November to a newly renovated and much larger space on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, Anselm House serves 10 times more people through its programs than it did before the move, said Dan Olson, its managing director.

Its 20,000-square-foot space called Melrose Station is a gathering space for Catholics and other Christians. It is open to students, faculty and staff, offers a quiet place to study, hold deeper conversations with peers, attend a study group or presentation, or relax in a game room.

OK, some might be drawn to the place on Thursdays for the free waffles. Coffee and tea are always available, too.

The organization also hosts conversations, lectures and courses for the general public, Olson said.

For example, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, whose visit was hosted by Anselm House, spoke to a nearly full house earlier this year at the U of M. And Anselm House’s Center for Faith and Learning hosts conversations and roundtables for the university’s academic community.

Olson describes Anselm House as a center for Christian hospitality and study that helps students and faculty connect faith and knowledge with all of life.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Elena Fultz, left, a staff member at Anselm House’s Melrose Station on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, serves waffles to U of M student Mia Olson, right. The waffles are a free treat for visitors on Thursdays.

“For more than 40 years, we have been equipping the next generation of servant leaders,” Olson said.

Father Jake Anderson, pastor of St. Lawrence and director of the Newman Center in Minneapolis, which serves the university community, is a board member at Anselm House, which is named after a Catholic saint, St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). The saint “among other things, was a great champion of the pursuit of truth,” Father Anderson said.

The Catholic connection at Anselm House is that “we are truly friends and partners in the mission of the pursuit of truth, particularly as it relates to the truth of Jesus Christ,” Father Anderson said.

Anselm House has a unique

importance in relating to the U of M community “since it can operate as a true leaven for the Gospel in its educational apostolate,” Father Anderson said. With the Catholic connection, this leaven “lifts up the culture of being in the university system,” he said.

Father Byron Hagan, co-pastor of St. Mary in St. Paul and a third-year tutor in Anselm House’s “Colin MacLaurin Fellows Program,” said the name Anselm symbolizes “the great patrimony that all Christians share — East, West, Protestant, Catholic — and to which we are responsible.”

The greatest scandal the Christian world places in front of the secular world is its own disunity, Father Hagan said. “John Paul II, in his encyclical ‘Ut

Father Byron Hagan, co-pastor of St. Mary in St. Paul and a third-year tutor in Anselm House’s “Colin MacLaurin Fellows Program,” described the program as “sort of the heart of the Christian Study Center at Melrose Station,” Anselm House’s site on the U of M campus. The free, one- to four-year co-curricular program of Christian education and community is open to all students pursuing a University of Minnesota undergraduate or graduate degree. Students receive a certificate in Christian Studies after completing three years of the program.

The program’s goal is to help equip Christians in various disciplines to faithful obedience, helping students “pursue their studies and vocation in the light of the Gospel,” said Dan Olson, managing director of Anselm House.

Unum Sint’ (1995), re-emphasized the commitment of the Catholic Church to ecumenism made at the Second Vatican Council.”

Having Catholics, non-Catholics and Orthodox work together “to explore the great tradition of the faith” is about “the commitment to the one truth of Christ and the prayer of Christ to the Father for his disciples,” Father Hagan said, that they “may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (Jn 17:21-23).”

To learn more, visit anselmhouse.org.

Cultivate generosity at home.

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Call 651.389.0300 or visit ccf-mn.org to learn more.

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6 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

How to care for the dying: Longtime nurse gives high doses of comfort and compassion

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit Tom Cassidy begins his nursing shifts at Our Lady of Peace Residential Hospice facility in St. Paul with a simple routine.

“Every day when I get here, when I put on my uniform in the locker room downstairs, I say a short prayer,” said Cassidy, 64, an RN who has spent 35 years at this care facility, opened by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in 1941 and now an independent nonprofit, with Franciscan Clarist Sisters helping with patient care.

“I just say, ‘God, please give me the strength, give me the knowledge, give me the inner peace, give me the wisdom, the patience to go on with my day.”

These prayers matter, and they help him with the task that lies ahead — caring for people in their last days, and sometimes, their last seconds.

In a culture that is uncomfortable with death and dying, Cassidy has learned over the last three-and-a-half decades to find beauty in it. When there is a chance to sit with patients taking their final breaths, he does not hesitate to slip into the room, pull up a chair, take their hand and offer simple words of comfort.

“It’s a very intimate experience to be with that patient, hold their hand, saying, ‘It’s going to be OK. You’re going to be with your family. It’s OK to go. Your family’s going to be OK,’” said Cassidy, a member of St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. “It’s a special moment, it really is.”

Cassidy is special, too, say those who work with him.

Denise Borglund, the assistant director of nursing at the residential hospice facility, is his supervisor and began working with him eight years ago. She had previously held a corporate nursing job at 3M, then started working at Our Lady of Peace part time as a nurse.

She wanted “something a little bit different than the corporate world.”

“I was a little bit nervous about a new setting,” said Borglund, 48, a member of St. Genevieve in Centerville.

“The very first shift that I had was (working) with Tom, and I still remember it to this day. Tom just sends off this calming vibe, puts any of your concerns at ease. He is an excellent teacher.”

Early on, they worked side by side as nurses caring for terminally ill patients. His attentiveness to patients and families continues to inspire her, she said.

“He’s just one of these people that you wish you could be like,” she said. “He is just so great. He is what I aspire to be.

“I don’t even know what adjectives to use to describe him. He’s just so caring, so giving, so thoughtful, considerate. He does the best patient care I could ever explain.”

Whenever a new caregiver comes on board at the 21-bed facility, Borglund brings in Cassidy to serve as a mentor and teacher. That role is becoming more important as he scales down his work hours while approaching retirement age. He currently is working 32 hours (four days) a week. He plans to go down to three days a week in January.

“He does such a great job of leading by example; I’m hoping that people will soak in what he is doing,” Borglund said. “He’s always been our go-to for having

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Tom Cassidy visits with Cindy Edberg Oct. 11 at Our Lady of Peace Residential Home in St. Paul. people work with him. Even if they (just) get one full shift with him, it makes a difference.”

A 35-year career in nursing is not what he envisioned after graduating from Totino-Grace High School in Fridley in 1977. He wanted to go into accounting and began to study that subject at St. Thomas College in St. Paul (now the University of St. Thomas). It didn’t last long. He took his first accounting class in his sophomore year and did poorly on the first two tests.

“I was lost,” he said. “I knew right then and there that wasn’t meant for me.”

He tried working in physical fitness, then worked for a lawn care company. Still dissatisfied, he went to visit his sister-in-law, Sharon Cassidy, a nurse who had cared for his mother, Marie, who died of ovarian cancer in 1984.

“She (Marie) was 52 when she passed away,” said Cassidy, who still gets emotional telling the story about his mother’s death. “She was the most beautiful person I’ve ever known.”

Inspired by the way Sharon had cared for his mother, he asked her about the possibility of becoming a nurse.

Sharon’s brother had a friend who was working at OLP — then called Our Lady of Good Counsel Home — and Cassidy got a job as a nursing assistant there in 1988.

“I was so pleased to start there; I got $5 an hour, but I didn’t care,” Cassidy said. “The sisters were great to me.”

He studied nursing while working there and became an RN in 1992. The sisters were supportive, and he was inspired by the way they cared for patients.

“I can’t say enough about the sisters,” he said. “They

were so dedicated and so caring, so much compassion.

I was really blessed to be there. The Sunday mornings I worked, I’d go to 6:30 Mass, and then go to work at 7 o’clock. I just admire them for all the sacrifices they had to put in.”

Current leaders praise the work Cassidy has done for patients and families. Jeff Thorne, president and CEO who came on board in December 2022, said “we are so blessed to have Tom as a part of our staff for 35 years.

He truly, in my mind, is a humble servant leader. He leads by example. His compassion that he shows our patients and their families is just outstanding.”

For Thorne, proof is in the number of people who come back every year for the annual butterfly release at the residential home. Many are family members of patients who have spent their final days at OLP and have been cared for by Cassidy.

“They want to see Tom,” Thorne said. “They want to hug him. They remember the care he provided.”

That care springs from an active prayer life and a strong relationship with God. Cassidy has felt rooted in this work since he started. He has never wavered in his belief that this is what God has called him to do. He is sustained by his faith and by advice he received years ago from his father.

“I feel the strength in my soul,” he said. “I just say to myself, I’m going to work as hard as I can, do the best I can, and just leave it up to God. My dad used to say that to me when I was having trouble in school. … So, that’s what I try to do.”

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 7

Sister Norma Pimentel: To eradicate hate, radicalize kindness

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit Some people ask Sister Norma Pimentel why she helps immigrants.

“I don’t help immigrants,” she replies. “I help persons,” people who are hurting, suffering, being tortured and who share their stories with her.

The most important thing to offer someone in those circumstances is “your presence,” Sister Norma said. Because that brings them hope, brings God to them, because it shows them that they matter, “just by the fact that you … listen to them, say ‘I can,’ ‘I would like to listen to your story.’” And the transformation starts to happen, she said.

Oct. 19, Sister Norma, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, was the featured speaker at the Ignatian Volunteer Corps’ Minneapolis and St. Paul 2023 Evening of Gratitude at St. Thomas More in St. Paul. Sister Norma spoke on the topic of “Immigration: Crisis in America.” That same afternoon, she spoke and took questions at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

A daughter of Mexican immigrants, Sister Norma is the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, responsible for the charitable arm of the Diocese of Brownsville. She oversees ministries and services in the Rio Grande Valley through emergency assistance, homelessness prevention, disaster relief, clinical counseling, pregnancy care, food programs and humanitarian relief to immigrants.

Listed as one of Time magazine’s 100

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Sister Norma Pimentel describes her experience working with immigrants at the Mexican border during her presentation Oct. 19 at the Ignatian Volunteer Corps’ Minneapolis/St. Paul 2023 Evening of Gratitude at St. Thomas More in St. Paul. most influential people in the world in 2020, Sister Norma has been praised by Pope Francis for her work with refugees and immigrants. The University of Notre Dame awarded her the Laetare Medal in 2018 in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society.

After Sister Norma chose religious life, the archbishop in her area assigned her and other sisters to a shelter that welcomed families from Central America during a time of war there.

Sister Norma said helping families was a good fit for her. People’s lives matter, she said.

“It was there that I discovered the stories, the horrible stories about how people were tortured,” she said. She recalled a young man who showed her his hands that told of how he was tortured. “I understood then that we need to be willing to step up and be that presence that says, ‘this is wrong.’”

Sister Norma believes the immigration crisis is not about

immigrants, but rather the lack of response “to welcome them, to treat them as people, human beings — they’re just like us,” she said. “They are mother, father. They have parents; they have stories.” Sometimes, people in the United States are “so enclosed in our own world, living through our everyday, doing what we do.”

Helping immigrants is “how I think we can transform the world to be a world of love, a world of fraternity,” she said. “And yes, at night I do get tired. But I go home, and I feel that I’ve accomplished something good.”

Immigrants are not the crisis, Sister Norma said. “Instead, we need to reach out to them,” get to know them, ask them what they need, learn their story, she said.

That’s why the Church today is listening, Sister Norma said, and that’s what the synod on synodality at the Vatican is all about. “The Holy Spirit becomes present to all of us,” she said.

Sister Norma said she finds strength in the Eucharist; receiving it daily is “a form of nurturing that gives me guidance and strength.”

In Pope Francis’ words, the only way to eradicate hate is through radical kindness, Sister Norma said; “being present with love and care, compassion and mercy.”

“Our only mission we have in this journey” is to eventually become beacons of hope, she said. “That can only happen if we radicalize kindness, gentleness, tenderness” in our homes, community, country and the world, she said. “This is who we are called to be.”

Private donors buying property for youth camp in northern Wisconsin

By Barb Umberger The Catholic Spirit A nonprofit group of private donors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has signed a purchase agreement to buy a property on 700 acres in northwestern Wisconsin to be used for a Catholic summer camp for middle schoolers and for conferences, retreats and faith and science camps used by parishes and schools in fall, winter and spring.

The nonprofit Minnesota Catholic Youth Partnership (MCYP) has been evaluating properties to host summer camps and weekend retreats. MCYP will be partnering with Extreme Faith Camp (EFC), founded in the archdiocese more than 20 years ago, to facilitate a deeper encounter with Jesus for young people as they grow in fellowship with other Catholic youth in summer camps.

Part of EFC’s strength is its parishbased approach, with parish leadership teams of high school teens and adults that encourage relational ministry before, during and after camp.

The property chosen by MCYP has operated as Heartwood Resort near Trego, Wisconsin, which is about a two-hour drive from the Twin Cities.

Closing on the property is expected in January, said Tim Healy, who with his wife, Helen, leads the partnership.

The property includes a grand lodge, large meeting space, a fullservice kitchen, housing options from two-bedroom cottages to a variety of

A bonfire burns brightly behind the Grand Lodge at Heartwood Resort near Trego, Wis. COURTESY HEARTWOOD RESORT

houses, plus three large dormitory-style buildings. The property has access to two lakes and the Namekagon River, and more than 12 miles of hiking trails. It also has athletic fields, a sand volleyball court and tennis, basketball and pickleball courts. Every cabin has a lake view, Healy said.

Starting next summer, EFC will use the property as its home base. John O’Sullivan, director of youth ministry at St. Michael in St. Michael, founded EFC 23 years ago as a week-long summer camp experience for Catholic middle school students run by the parish in collaboration with other parishes from the archdiocese.

Healy said that with a permanent camp site, “our hope is that summer camp participation will increase.” EFC’s parish model promotes involvement from the whole parish, including campers, high school students, young adults and adults. “You are encouraging a culture of discipleship,” he said.

O’Sullivan said he “and all the parishes involved in EFC are excited for this amazing opportunity to have a permanent camp to host EFC.” “I am grateful and humbled that Minnesota Catholic Youth Partnership chose a ministry that I helped start and have seen amazing fruit not only in my parish, but many parishes throughout

the archdiocese,” O’Sullivan said.

The partnership estimates that buying and renovating the property would more than double capacity for EFC participants, enabling more than 2,500 young people to experience camp each summer, as well as hundreds of adults at retreats and other events throughout the year. In addition to EFC, Healy expects other parishes and ministries will use the facility.

Reflecting on the journey to find a suitable property, including a recent effort to purchase one in Washington County, Healy said “God’s faithfulness does not disappoint.” The Trego site’s quality of buildings and “housing options in such great quantity and variety afford us a lot of options and possibilities,” he said.

In consultation with the archdiocese, MCYP’s board recently determined that the diocese can only support one summer camp ministry — and chose EFC. The Office of Marriage, Family and Youth issued a statement Oct. 12 thanking both EFC and Ohio-based Damascus, whose missionaries served some parishes in the archdiocese with camp experiences the past several years.

“We appreciate the commitment of the faithful, parish staff and clergy to providing the opportunity for ... youth to encounter Christ at camp through both groups, and we are confident Extreme Faith Camp will provide a positive Catholic camp experience for years to come,” the statement said.

8 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

NATION+WORLD

Delegate from archdiocese: Listening, discussion, prayer mark Vatican synod

By Joe Ruff The Catholic Spirit War breaking out in the Holy Land, continuing in Ukraine and violence elsewhere around the world even as delegates gathered for the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Oct. 4-29 added another dimension of prayerful intensity, a delegate from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said.

“It has been incredibly moving,” said Cynthia Bailey Manns in a Zoom interview from Rome on Oct. 23.

“Some of the sacred stories being told, particularly now that we are in the midst of war in so many places on this earth.

We have people here from Ukraine and Palestine, and so it has been really deeply moving.”

Islamist militant group Hamas led an attack with missiles and a ground invasion in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Israel has responded with airstrikes and preparation for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Thousands have died in the war.

Bailey Manns, adult learning director at St. Joan of Arc, said Sunday Mass at the Minneapolis parish always includes a minute of silence while praying for peace. “I knew I would never fully understand and grasp what that means because it’s so big and I’m so far away,” Bailey Manns said of that prayer. “But

COURTESY BISHOP JOSEPH DO MANH HUNG, DIOCESE OF PHAN THIET, VIETNAM

Cynthia Bailey Manns, seated, second from right, on the synod assembly floor with members of a third small group she participated in. Bailey Manns was the reporter to the entire assembly on the thoughts and suggestions from two small groups. During her first report, Pope Francis was with the assembly, directly participating in the proceedings. when you listen to these stories of people, it changes who you are. At least it has changed who I am. So, I will go into those moments of silence in a very different way. Because I’ve heard stories that have seared my heart.”

“I’ve had those conversations oneon-one with people, where they are in the midst of war and talking about their families and friends who have died and they witnessed it, and then being here while wars are going on,” she said.

Bailey Manns, 65, related the listening and awareness she has tried to bring to those telling their stories of war to

the rest of the process at the synod on synodality. It is a process of discerning the Holy Spirit’s invitation to be fully with all people, she said.

“That’s something that this process promotes,” Bailey Manns said. “How can we help each other? How can we fully be a Church that supports everyone, that wants everyone to live into their baptismal dignity, if we aren’t even in conversation with each other, if we aren’t in community with each other, if we aren’t noticing the Holy Spirit in each other? That’s what is happening here, and my hope is that I am able

to take that back with me and start to implement it in St. Joan’s in a much deeper way.”

The assembly is wrapping up this phase of the synod with a “Letter to the People of God” as a companion piece to a synthesis report on the proceedings.

The synthesis report will promote further discussion and study on the synod’s themes of synodality, communion, mission and participation in the Church.

The report will help lead to a second and final synod assembly of current participants in October 2024, Bailey Manns said. The final report also will go to Pope Francis for his discernment.

Heading into the final week of this assembly, Bailey Manns, one of 10 nonbishop voting delegates chosen by Pope Francis to represent the North American region, and one of four laypeople from the United States appointed by the pope, said she is grateful for the opportunity to participate.

“I think it’s been amazing for us to be in space every day at all different levels,” she said. “We have laity, we have religious brothers and sisters, we have priests, we have deacons, we have archbishops, we have bishops, we have cardinals, we have theologians, we have canon law experts. And all the people who are voting delegates seem to have somehow figured out that we’re all trying to do this together.”

As synod winds down, members urged to sow patience

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service As members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops return home, share the results of their work and prepare for the final synod assembly in 2024, they must be on guard against people who will want to make them take sides as if the synod were a political debate, said Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe.

“The global culture of our time is often polarized, aggressive and dismissive of other people’s views,” Father Radcliffe, spiritual adviser to the synod, told members Oct. 23. “When we go home, people will ask, ‘Did you fight for our side? Did you oppose those unenlightened other people?’”

“We shall need to be profoundly prayerful to resist the temptation to succumb to this party-political way of thinking,” he said. “That would be to fall back into the sterile, barren language of much of our society. It is not the synodal way,” which is “organic and ecological rather than competitive.”

Having discussed synodality, communion, mission and participation over the previous three weeks,

Fr. Peter

Fr. Fitz

• • • • • • • Fr. Binsfeld •

•

members of the synodal assembly began the final segment of their work with talks from Father Radcliffe, Benedictine Mother Maria Ignazia Angelini, the other spiritual guide for the synod, and by Father Ormond Rush, a theologian from Australia.

After a day off Oct. 24 to give time to the committee writing the synthesis of the assembly’s discussions, participants were to meet again to examine, discuss and amend the synthesis and to propose “methods and steps” for continuing the synodal process in preparation for its next assembly in October 2024.

“We have listened to hundreds of thousands of words during the last three weeks,” Father Radcliffe said. “They will be at work in our lives, in our imagination and our subconscious, during these months. When the moment is right, they will bear fruit.”

Father Rush said that as he listened to the discussions, “I have had the impression that some of you are struggling with the notion of tradition, in the light of your love of truth.” During the Second Vatican Council, when different approaches to the question of tradition were hotly debated, then-Father Joseph

The Second Vatican Council “urged the Church to be ever attentive to the movements of the revealing and saving God present and active in the flow of history, by attending to ‘the signs of the times’ in the light of the living Gospel,” he said. As synod members continue their discernment, he said, they are urged “to determine what God is urging us to see — with the eyes of Jesus — in new times,” while also being “attentive to the traps — where we could be being drawn into ways of thinking that are not ‘of God.’” The traps, Father Rush said, “could lie in being anchored exclusively in the past, or exclusively in the present, or not being open to the future fullness of divine truth to which the Spirit of Truth is leading the Church.”

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Ratzinger — later Pope Benedict XVI — explained the two approaches as being “a ‘static’ understanding of tradition and a ‘dynamic’ understanding,” Father Rush said. The static version “is legalistic, propositional and ahistorical — relevant for all times and places,” Father Rush said, while “the latter is personalist, sacramental and rooted in history, and therefore to be interpreted with an historical consciousness.”

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OCTOBER 26, 2023 HAMAS-ISRAEL WAR

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 9

PRAYERS FOR PEACE

OSV NEWS | DEBBIE HILL

A Franciscan prays in St. Saviour Monastery on the day of prayers and fasting for peace in the Old City of Jerusalem, Oct. 17. That day a massive blast rocked CNEWA-supported al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said.

Mourners grieve the loss of loved ones amid calls for prayers for war-torn Holy Land

P

ope Francis has called for a day of prayer and fasting on Oct. 27 in response to the conflict in the Holy Land that began Oct. 7. A vigil in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican was planned for that evening as well.

Responding to the pope’s call, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis invited the archdiocese to fast and pray for peace Oct. 27. Those celebrating Mass that day may choose one of the Masses from the Roman Missal section called “Masses for Various Needs and Occasions,” such as Mass n. 16 (For Reconciliation), n. 30 (For the Preservation of Peace and Justice) or n. 31 (In Time of War or Civil Disturbance).

The call for prayer follows a day of prayer and fasting Oct. 17 encouraged by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa — the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. Cardinal Pizzaballa encouraged worldwide parishes and religious communities particularly to participate in “prayer times with Eucharistic adoration and with the recitation of the rosary to Our Blessed Virgin Mary,” Catholic News Service (CNS) reported.

In a statement about the day, Cardinal Pizzaballa said that “in this time of sorrow and dismay, we do not want to remain helpless. We cannot let death and its sting be the only word we hear. That is why we feel the need to pray, to turn our hearts to God the Father. Only in this way we can draw the strength and serenity needed to endure these hard times, by turning to Him, in prayer and intercession, to implore and cry out to God amidst all this anguish.”

On Oct. 18, well over 500,000 children across the world prayed the rosary as part of a campaign sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a nonprofit that works under the pope’s guidance to provide humanitarian assistance to persecuted Catholics. OSV News reported that ACN dedicated the annual rosary this year to the “healing and protection of the suffering in the Holy Land,” according to a press release issued by the organization.

National and global Catholic leaders have also called for prayers for peace.

“The world is once again shocked and horrified by the

outbreak of ferocious violence in the Holy Land,” said Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, who is also chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. “As we pray urgently for peace, we recall especially all the families and individuals suffering from these events.”

“Our hearts are shocked and saddened by the death of hundreds of people, and thousands more who are wounded or dispersed already,” said Bishop Michael Burbidge, of Arlington, Virginia, in an Oct. 8 statement. “It is my hope and prayer that the international community will work together to help ensure a peaceful and just resolution for the good of all.”

Oct. 12, Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch of Chaldean Catholic Church, led prayers for peace at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod, according to Vatican News.

The assembly prayed a series of prayers, including Psalm 129, with Cardinal Sako praying: “Oh God, who cares for all, let the whole of humanity who have one origin from you, form one family, without violence, without absurd wars and with brotherly spirit, live united in peace and concord for our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son who is God, lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever,” Vatican News reported.

Margaret Karram — a Palestinian born in Israel and president of the Focolare Movement, an Italy-based international organization that seeks to promote a more unified world — read prayers of petition for “the Holy Land; for the people of Israel and Palestine, who are in the grip of unprecedented violence; for the victims, especially the children; for the injured; for those being held hostage; for the missing and their families,” OSV News reported.

“I believe that we can take many steps for peace, but I also believe in the power of prayer,” Karram said.

Please turn to pages 10-11 for local coverage on events in the Holy Land.

— Rebecca Omastiak

HAMAS-IS

10 • OCTOBER 26, 2023

Hamas attack, Israel’s response g

By Rebecca Omastiak The Catholic Spirit

J

oseph’s neighbor, a woman in her 80s, is helping to guard the entrance to Zichron Ya’akov, the town in Israel about 20 miles south of Haifa in which she and Joseph live.

“Everybody’s doing something,” said Joseph, who has lived in Israel for over 30 years and asked that his full name not be used. “I went to give blood. We give food, we all gave from our paychecks this month to the military in order to bring stuff to the south, to the people who lost everything.”

These are examples of a community responding in the aftermath of an attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The Catholic Spirit spoke with Joseph via video call, facilitated by Eric Simon, mission promotions manager for the Center for Mission, which serves the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“The great thing about Israel is when things happen, whether you’re left or right or middle (politically speaking), it doesn’t matter — we all pull together,” Joseph said.

Meanwhile, roughly 80 miles from Zichron Ya’akov in Bethlehem, Isam Asfour — a parishioner of St. Maron in Minneapolis — found an open road out of the West Bank.

While Asfour has lived in Minnesota for the past 30 years, he lived the first 19 years of his life in Jerusalem. His immediate and extended family members live there currently. His wife’s family lives in Bethlehem. Asfour said he returns to the Holy Land each year “to visit the family, to visit with friends, and to just be in the culture and to see the land.” Asfour and his wife arrived in mid-September for this trip.

The road Asfour found was cleared of cement blocks Israeli military had placed on several West Bank roads in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.

Driving at night, he made it to Jerusalem in time to say goodbye to his family before he and his wife faced their return through Jordan to the Twin Cities.

Asfour said in the first couple of days after Oct. 7, borders were only open to “a certain number of people, about 1,000 people, to go through each way from Israel to Jordan, from Jordan to Israel and Palestine. We had to make sure that we arrived at a certain time early in the morning so that we were below that 1,000 threshold.”

He and his wife left at 5 a.m. in a taxi, ultimately arriving at the Israel-Jordan border checkpoint. Ahead of them, they saw “close to 200 taxis waiting,” Asfour said. “They started distributing the ticket numbers and we were ticket numbers 749 and 750. So, we managed to make it below the 1,000 threshold and we went through the border,” staying in Jordan for two nights before flying back to the United States and arriving Oct. 17 in the Twin Cities.

“Our main worry, right now, is the family, the immediate family back home, whether in Jerusalem or in Bethlehem, because it’s only getting worse,” Asfour said.

The war’s effects in an area of such significance have gripped the hearts of many worldwide, including in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

‘A national trauma’ in Israel Islamist militant group Hamas led an attack with missiles and a ground invasion in approximately 22 locations in southern Israel on Oct. 7, the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which marks the completion of the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll.

The Associated Press reports Hamas was

founded in 1987 and rose to political power in 2006 before an armed takeover of the Gaza Strip the following year from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State, the European Union and other Western countries.

During its attack, Hamas militants killed civilians in their homes and vehicles. The Associated Press reported militants opened fire on thousands of young Israelis who had gathered for an outdoor music festival in Israel near the Gaza border. Hundreds of people taken hostage in the attack were brought to Gaza.

Ambassador Raphael Schutz, Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, told OSV News Oct. 9 that the number of men, women and children who have died is on “a scale that we have not known, I would say, since the beginning of the establishment of Israel.”

“I would say this is a catastrophe that I would describe in biblical dimensions,” Schutz told OSV News. “Total families were murdered — grandparents, parents and children, in villages, in kibbutzim, in the towns around Gaza. There is a feeling of a national trauma.”

Joseph said because of Israel’s size — at 8,550 square miles, it’s slightly smaller than New Jersey — “nobody is free from this, even if you haven’t been involved. You know somebody who was killed or family members who were killed.”

Joseph said a colleague of his “lost three people from her family down in the kibbutz. It’s close. I mean, we all know somebody, it’s just as simple as that. My wife — a friend of hers lost children.”

Reaching out to family, friends and colleagues and staying vigilant have been part of day-to-day life in recent weeks, Joseph said.

“I hear the planes all night long flying south, and north now, and that’s hard because we know what’s going on,” he said. In addition to what’s happening in Gaza, crossfire has taken place between Israeli military and militant group Hezbollah at the northern Israel-Lebanon border.

Joseph said sirens will sound to warn people to shelter in place. In Israel, houses and residential and industrial buildings are required to have bomb shelters, or access to bomb shelters, he said.

It was a requirement in a civil defense law passed in Israel. The family shelter in Joseph’s house is a room encased in metal. It has metal shutters and an air filtration system “in case of gas.” It’s also stocked with food and water.

Pope Francis has condemned Hamas’ attacks on Israel, repeated calls for peace and prayers, and insisted that hostages be immediately released.

“I strongly ask that children, the sick, the elderly, women and all civilians not be made victims of the conflict,” the pope said, according to Catholic News Service (CNS).

Reflecting on prayer and calls for peace, Joseph said he has been “on the peace side of things, always have been.”

“I wouldn’t call myself religious, but I believe,” he said; he puts tefillin on, which are black leather boxes containing Hebrew scrolls that are traditionally strapped to the arms and forehead, worn during prayer.

“Do I want peace? Yeah, I’d like to live side by side with Palestinians and with all equal rights and equal everything,” Joseph said. “Unfortunately, there’s too many people on both sides who don’t want that.”

To date, roughly 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mostly in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the Associated Press reported.

A humanitarian crisis in Gaza The fact that movement into, and out of, the Gaza Strip is restricted creates problems, said Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun, who has been leading St. Maron, a Maronite-rite Catholic

Buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes are seen in Gaza City Oct. 10. Israel launched the air

OSV

People mourn during the funeral for Israeli Col. Roy Joseph Levy at Mount Herzl Military Cem Levy was killed following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip. church in Minneapolis, since 1989.

“There are Palestinians who live in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip and there is nothing that connects them together as a community,” Chorbishop Maroun said. “That already there is a problem. … And then, they live there in poverty.”

Pope Francis expressed his concern about the impact Israel’s tightened restrictions on electricity, food, fuel and supplies to Gaza were having on civilians, “where there also have been many innocent victims,” the pope said. Israel halted deliveries while urging Hamas to release its hostages in Gaza.

“Terrorism and extremism will not help reach a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but only increase hatred, violence and vengeance and only make each other suffer,” Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis urged that “humanitarian law is to be respected, especially in Gaza, where it is urgent

and necessary to ensure h and to come to the aid of “Casualties are rising an is desperate,” the pope sa everything possible be do humanitarian catastrophe United Nations spokesm told the Associated Press t situation in Gaza was bec the day, if not by the hou essential supplies.

The Israeli government Egypt to begin delivering 11 days of restrictions, th reported.

During those 11 days, I and launched military-led across the Gaza Strip, incl Palestinians were seeking installations in Gaza were

SRAEL WAR

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 11

grip global and local communities

OSV NEWS | MOHAMMED SALEM, REUTERS

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V NEWS | LISI NIESNER, REUTERS

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OSV NEWS | FOURTH PHOTO ISRAELI COLONEL

The daughter of Zakaria Abu Maamar, a member of Hamas political office, is comforted as she cries during her father’s funeral after he was killed in an airstrike Oct. 10 in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli tanks in the week following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, causing fatalities, according to the Associated Press; Israeli military said it had been targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.

To date, over 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the Associated Press reported.

Ongoing conflict Chorbishop Maroun, Simon and Father Erich Rutten all referenced the longstanding nature of the conflict in the Holy Land.

Israelis and Palestinians have clashed over land and independence for decades. The world’s three major monotheistic religions — Christianity, Islam and Judaism — have roots in the Holy Land.

“There is a deep conflict over the land and, of

course, it goes deeper with religion,” Chorbishop Maroun said.

It’s “a conflict of two worlds coming together,” and includes questions of what human rights and land ownership means, said Simon.

“Israel has a whole different perspective on that, and Palestinians have a whole different perspective.” Simon said. “It’s just very complicated; I don’t think there are any easy answers. ... The depth of feelings and ownership go (back) hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.”

“In particular with Israel and Palestine … each group has a very different perspective on this, and each of the two feel somehow aggrieved by the other; they’re different narratives,” said Father Rutten, who became pastor of the clustered parishes of St. Thomas the Apostle and Christ the King in Minneapolis in July.

Father Rutten, who has served as the chair of the Archdiocesan Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, also worked in the public policy sphere with the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, both based in St. Paul.

The ongoing conflict is a Christian concern, Father Rutten said. “All Christians should be concerned with violence and with the ways that we do violence to one another. Clearly, this is not how God made us to be, as brothers and sisters were called to be. Brothers and sisters are supposed to treat each other well. So, the question of how do things become violent is, I think, a concern for all of us, and potentially, it’s even within our own heart.”

With an understanding of his own rite’s persecution and displacement throughout history, Chorbishop Maroun said “for us Maronites, who are in the Middle East, we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, and we’ve been paying prices for thousands of years, paying the price of what’s happening around us.”

Chorbishop Maroun added that Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Maronite Church, has consistently urged the need for Lebanon, in which the Maronite Church is prominent, to be a neutral country.

Lebanon shares borders with Israel and Syria.

There are roughly 210,000 Palestinian refugees currently living in Lebanon, according to UNICEF’s Lebanon office.

“We need to live naturally and to live in peace with everyone around us,” Chorbishop Maroun said.

It’s a sentiment he feels broadly applies to the conflict in the Holy Land.

“I think the human right is so important, the dignity of the human person, because everybody — Muslim, Christian, Jews, everyone else — they want freedom. They want to live in freedom, they want to have their dignity respected, and they want to have their children live in dignity and security. The Jewish child as well as the Palestinian child, they deserve good schooling, they deserve love, they deserve peace. They don’t deserve to live under fear.”

“The Palestinians, they deserve like the Israelis,” Chorbishop Maroun added. “They deserve to have land and they deserve to have a country. And the refugees who are in Lebanon and Syria and Jordan, they deserve to go back to their country.”

‘Opportunities for encounter’ Chorbishop Maroun said he encourages Catholics in the archdiocese to pray, learn about the conflict in the Holy Land, and seek ways to connect.

“And pray for conversion; I always pray that the Lord will work a miracle and open-heart

LOCAL INTERFAITH REACTION The Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at St. John’s University in Collegeville issued a joint statement in response to the latest conflict.

The centers “affirm our solidarity with all those who in any way have been affected by the recent genocidal attack by Hamas terrorists on people in Israel — especially those who have loved ones who were killed, wounded or taken as hostages — and also with innocent civilians in Gaza and elsewhere who have been directly and indirectly affected by the Israeli government and military response to the Hamas attack. Along with millions of people in Israel and worldwide, we grieve the suffering and death on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We hope and pray that the Israelis and Palestinians who yearn for peace will be able to bring about a just solution to this conflict and thereby increase the collaboration and friendship that many of them have already fostered between their communities.”

The centers partner to “foster understanding, cooperation and friendship among people of diverse religious, spiritual, and secular identities, worldviews and lifeways through academic study and civic engagement,” the University of St. Thomas website states.

Learn more about the centers, including upcoming interfaith events, online at cas.stthomas.edu/centersinstitutes/center-for-interreligious-studies and csbsju.edu/ jay-phillips-center-for-interfaith-learning — Rebecca Omastiak

RESPONSE IN TWIN CITIES Separate events in support of Israel and Palestine have been held throughout the Twin Cities.

A “Community Gathering in Solidarity with Israel” event was held the evening of Oct. 10 at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park.

“This is going to be a difficult time; but it’s a time of clear moral clarity, of what needs to be done and what will be done,” Gov. Tim Walz said during the gathering. “This is a time to stand together, to stand on those basic human principles of decency.”

Minnesotans also gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul to show support for Israel.

Meanwhile, hundreds gathered for a “Stand with Palestine” event Oct. 9 along Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, voicing their support of Palestine and holding flags and signs.

Other events in support of Palestine took place at parks and intersections in St. Paul and Minneapolis as well as at the State Capitol in the following weeks.

— Rebecca Omastiak surgery to change all the hearts of the Jews and all the hearts of the Muslims into Christian hearts,” Chorbishop Maroun said. “Love your enemies, pray for them, rather than to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he said.

“Unless they use that spirit, the spirit of love your enemies and pray for them, we’re never going to have peace in the Middle East.”

Simon echoed that sentiment: “I’m a big believer in prayer, as a Catholic. … (P)ray for peace, for people’s hearts to change.”

Father Rutten said it’s also important to “keep your eye out for opportunities” for encountering those who cross your path, to listen and to understand.

“Whether it’s in your neighborhood or whether it’s in your local town or city, or at a local university … there are just opportunities for encounter all around us.”

12 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

FAITH+CULTURE Finding inspiration in the mess of daily life

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

basic framework on a little notepad of music paper. We had an 11 p.m. New Year’s Eve Mass, and then after Mass I stayed up until 2 a.m. on the organ sketching it out. It was handwritten for the 9 a.m. Mass and later that day, after our family’s Christmas party, I wrote it out on a computer program. It was later performed in the Diocese of Wilmington, at our Cathedral (of St. Paul in St. Paul) and another place and got quite a few views on YouTube.

Following the spark of inspiration to compose a song can keep Jacob Flaherty up late at night. But as a father of six, the 41-year-old eventually must surrender to sleep. “It’s hard to give it up,” said Flaherty, director of sacred music at Holy Family in St. Louis Park. “I pray, ‘Well, Lord, you’re the inspiration behind this in the first place, so if you want it to continue, give it to me tomorrow when I’m well rested.’”

For Flaherty and his wife, Esther, balancing their full lives takes patience, perspective and prayer.

Q How does that initial spark of inspiration feel?

A It’s a little bit intimidating. Do I have

Q What fostered your love of music?

A I was in fourth grade, and it was

Holy Thursday. I was going to Mass with my grandma, and I was about to genuflect, and she looked at me and said, “Not tonight” and she pointed to the tabernacle, and it was open and the veil that’s normally on it was taken off. It was a very stark image. It brought me to the history of that night, and I was caught off guard by the liturgical subtlety. It was beautiful because it was completely synced up. That was the start of a deep curiosity about the faith and getting into Scripture and the liturgical parallels in our Catholic life.

The next year, I entered the choir.

We had a wonderful Schola Cantorum program. Diving into these classic, traditional pieces caught my artistic imagination. I was impressed how music could convey the different liturgical and scriptural emotions of the season. We’d be singing this very mournful song at Lent and then this super joyful, almost bursting-at-the-seams song at Easter. I remember it giving me goosebumps as a 10-year-old boy. It awakened something in me. I knew the Lord was working on me through music.

Q And look at you now!

A Right! But I didn’t have any plans

when I was 10 that this would be a thing for me. I was going to be a fireman, a cook, a priest and a professional baseball player — back-to-back.

Q Has that early exposure to liturgical music influenced you as a parent?

A That definitely has trickled through.

At Holy Family, we have five choirs and a strings group. I want to cultivate these opportunities where young people can experience something similar. As a dad, I want to put our kids in a position where they can experience beauty. We really care about family time. We try to keep our kids well rounded, so we do some sports, we do theater, we do music.

It’s all too often that people who are interested in something — whether it’s music or sports — they treat their field like it’s the end. It’s the thing. I look to St. John Boscoe, my patron saint, and his way of using things as hooks for getting kids interested in the divine.

I try to be the music guy, but in the hands of a kid who hasn’t been given the same charism as me, it can seem a little dry, so I have this sense that I need to use other hooks. I’ve coached baseball for eight years at various schools.

I want them to love the Lord a different way. I can do so through my joy

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

or my association through other activities — kind of like St. John Boscoe and his tricks or circus acts. I can do other things to be a source of Christ’s light. He was joyful — with direction. In that joy, there was order. Joy is the bridge that connects truth and love.

Q Do you carry music with you throughout the day?

A For sure! There’s a tune going through

my head all the time. I’m talking to you, and the windshield wipers are going, and I’m hearing the notes of the windshield wipers.

Q What is your process for composing?

A For me, the music always starts with the text. That informs the melody.

Perhaps we finish the Communion chants a little early at a Mass I’m playing at, and I’ll have my missal open and I’ll be looking at the readings and I’ll see an instance of Jesus healing someone or raising someone from the dead or there’s a reference in the Old Testament to a sound of thunder. I improvise: What could that sound like? What could that feel like? And I try to integrate that. If it’s a trumpet call, there will be a perfect fifth — bump, bump! Something triumphant is happening, something royal.

Q Tell me more.

A It’s using main themes and my

knowledge of music theory and voice leading. If you’re writing for the voice, it’s very helpful to know what a voice will do and what a voice will struggle with. You can’t keep a tenor up in this particular range for too long. You can’t ask him to sing a huge interval up and then an awkward interval going down, so there are ways to avoid that.

I take themes from events in Scripture and work those out in all the different voice parts at different times, which is what polyphony is, and then that main theme repeats itself in the alto part or the tenor part or the bass part. All of a sudden, you’ve got four different things happening simultaneously.

That’s a bland explanation, but there’s a lot of wonder that goes into the middle part of that process.

Q How do you get through it?

A I’m not exactly sure. It’s sort of like the Lord works it out.

It demands a decent amount of time and relative quiet — which is the hardest, being a dad.

On Tuesday of last week, I knew I would be going back to All Saints (in Minneapolis) for a Mass on that Friday for the Filiae Laboris Mariae Sisters who were having an investiture for three of their postulants. I was going to help them out because they’re between music directors. There’s this great text for The Commons of Virgins about the Lord calling these women: “I will give you a crown.” It’s super touching.

We were under-impressed with the options we had, so I got this little bug up my craw: I want to compose something.

We had rehearsal the next day, so I sat down at 5:30 p.m. and my wife patiently delayed dinner for an hour and a half.

I was sitting at the piano in our living room. The kids were buzzing around — doing homework at the kitchen table, playing with blocks and dolls in the living room. “I’m going to be done in five minutes, honey!”

It was wild, but it was also kind of beautiful. I felt like I was being taken on a ride.

There’s lots of imagery in the song — it was this otherwise quiet, intimate piece with a triumphant moment and then back to the intimate calling of the Lord.

We ended up practicing it the next night and singing it on Friday at the Mass. It went really well.

Q You also composed a song after Pope Benedict’s death.

A His final words were: “Jesus, I love

you” (in German). That was really inspiring to me because I saw this really well-learned theologian who had this complex knowledge of the faith, and in the very end, all of that was one arrow that pointed to the culminating phrase “Jesus, I love you.” That’s what the study of theology should do — to lead to a greater knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

I read the article about his death on Dec. 31 and was hired to play music at a Christmas party that night for a couple hours. In between Christmas carols, I started improvising on some ways of expressing that — “Jesus, I love you, Jesus, I love you.” Then I came back to church before Mass and wrote out the

the stamina to follow it up to the end?

There have been pieces where you start and then run out of steam or the piece maybe didn’t have as much as I thought it did. There’s excitement, but it’s a bit of a fright, hoping I’ll be worthy of it.

“Lord, help me to persevere in this.”

Q What’s the hardest part of composing?

A I can improvise fairly well. But

the hard part is remembering what I improvised. Sometimes I lack the patience: I know I want to write it down, but the heart wants to just keep making music.

Q What are little ways you exercise creativity in daily life?

A When I send emails to parents about

choir, rather than just spit out the facts, I try to make it fun. We’re not utilitarian beings. We’re meant to be in relationship.

My kids and I play a lot of board games — Skull King, Splendor, Kingdomino.

There’s creativity in that — we’re always coming up with strategies.

I no longer use Twitter — it’s such an awful echo chamber. I know people say social media is inevitable, but couldn’t we just quit? I can see how it really escalates joylessness. For me, that’s a huge problem. My favorite Gospel verse is: “The joy of the Lord is my friend,” Nehemiah 8:10.

Q And with your kids? Your oldest is 12.

A We’ve decided we’re just not going

to do smartphones (for our kids). I tell them, “We were the first people who ever got them, and they didn’t know how it was going to go.”

Thanks be to God, we’re really close to our kids. We have fun together, we go on adventures together, so building that closeness has allowed us to be trusted and have dialogue about it. I told my 12-year-old daughter about this study that the most depressed group of people are preteen and teen girls, and I’ve talked to her about how social media perpetuates self-doubt and low selfesteem.

This is my chance with these kids. I’m a little more OK with saying no.

Q Good for you.

A I’ve noticed how our overuse of

technology blunts wonder. I see this even with the silliest of things, like weather apps. As a kid, I remember lying in bed at night, and the windows were open because we didn’t have any PLEASE TURN TO Q&A ON PAGE 19

FAITH+CULTURE

OCTOBER 26, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 13

St. Thérèse teaches simplicity, love, trust, pope says in document

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service St. Thérèse of Lisieux, long one of Pope Francis’ favorite saints, teaches Christians “the little way” of love, self-giving, concern for others and complete trust in the mercy of God, the pope said in a new document.

“At a time when human beings are obsessed with grandeur and new forms of power, she points out to us the little way,” he wrote. “In an age that casts aside so many of our brothers and sisters, she teaches us the beauty of concern and responsibility for one another.”

Published Oct. 15, the pope’s letter is titled, “C’est la Confiance,” the opening words of her phrase, “It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love.”

The papal letter is subtitled, “On confidence in the merciful love of God.” “At a time of great complexity, she can help us rediscover the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment, and thus move beyond a legalistic or moralistic mindset that would fill the Christian life with rules and regulations and cause the joy of the Gospel to grow cold,” the pope wrote.

In the letter, the pope explained that he chose not to release the document on her feast day, Oct. 1, or the 150th anniversary of her birth last Jan. 2 or the 100th anniversary of her beatification, which was celebrated in April, because he wanted to “transcend” those celebrations and emphasize how her life and writings are part of the “spiritual treasury” of the Church.

Pope Francis has spoken often about his devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who also is known by her religious name, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, or as St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, because she described herself as a little flower in God’s garden.

But there is another flower connection as well.

While still archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis told journalist Sergio Rubin in 2010, “When I have a problem I ask the saint, not to solve it, but to take it in her hands and help me accept it, and, as a sign, I almost always receive a white rose.”

And the pope closed his new exhortation with a prayer: “Dear St. Thérèse, the church needs to radiate the brightness, the fragrance and the joy of the Gospel.

Send us your roses! Help us to be, like yourself, ever confident in God’s immense love for us, so that we may imitate each day your ‘little way’ of holiness.”

Although she died at the age of 24 in a cloistered convent, her passion for sharing the Gospel through her prayers and example led Pope Pius XI to declare her patroness of the missions in 1927, and her writings led St. John Paul II to proclaim her a doctor of the Church in 1997.

OSV NEWS | GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is featured holding an image of the Holy Face in this stained glass depiction of beloved female saints in the church of St. Therese, Montauk, N.Y. Illustrated are Sts. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux and Catherine of Siena.

“In the heart of Thérèse,” Pope Francis wrote, “the grace of baptism became this impetuous torrent flowing into the ocean of Christ’s love and dragging in its wake a multitude of brothers and sisters. This is what happened, especially after her death. It was her promised ‘shower of roses.’”

The “little way” of St. Thérèse is a path to holiness anyone can follow, the pope said. It is about recognizing one’s own smallness and trusting completely in God’s mercy.

“This is the ‘sweet way of love’ that Jesus sets before the little and the poor, before everyone. It is the way of true happiness,” the pope said.

In place of a notion of holiness that is individualistic and elitist, one “more ascetic than mystical, that primarily emphasizes human effort,” he said, “Thérèse always stresses the primacy of God’s work, his gift of grace,” trusting that he would bring her to heaven one day.

Even in speaking about the Eucharist, her desire to receive Communion took second place to “the desire of Jesus to unite himself to us and to dwell in our hearts,” the pope said. “Her gaze remained fixed not on herself and her own needs, but on Christ, who loves, seeks, desires and dwells within.”

In his exhortation, Pope Francis focused on St. Thérèse’s reflection of St. Paul’s description of

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the Church as the body of Christ with each part or member having a role to play in the functioning of the entire body.

But she did not see herself as the foot or the ear or the eye or the hand, as described in First Corinthians, the pope said. “In the heart of the church, my mother, I shall be love,” she wrote.

“This heart was not that of a triumphalistic church, but of a loving, humble and merciful church,” the pope wrote. “Thérèse never set herself above others but took the lowest place together with the Son of God, who for our sake became a slave and humbled himself, becoming obedient, even to death on a cross.”

Rediscovering love as the heart of the Church can be “a great source of light” for Catholics today, Pope Francis said. “It preserves us from being scandalized by the limitations and weaknesses of the ecclesiastical institution with its shadows and sins, and enables us to enter into the church’s ‘heart burning with love,’ which burst into flame at Pentecost thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

“It is that heart whose fire is rekindled with each of our acts of charity,” he wrote. “‘I shall be love.’

This was the radical option of Thérèse, her definitive synthesis and her deepest spiritual identity.”

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14 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

FOCUSONFAITH SUNDAY SCRIPTURES | FATHER PAUL EILEN

Jesus commands: Love God, neighbor, self Can love, let alone forgiveness, ever be commanded?

The short answer is yes, because Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew that his command to love God, neighbor and self — in that order — is the fulfillment of the whole law and prophets (the commandments): “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind …

You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37-39).

Still, I ask again, can such love or forgiveness be commanded?

As any parent with children knows, and anyone like me who grew up in a large family (seven siblings) knows, the long answer is no, as the not uncommon family narrative makes clear in the following passage from an unknown author: “Two little brothers, John and Peter, had finished supper and were playing until bedtime. Somehow, John hit Peter and tears and bitter words followed (funny how that happens). Charges and accusations were still being hurled as their mother prepared them for bed. ‘Now boys,’ she said, ‘what would happen if either of you died tonight, and you never had the opportunity to play together again?’ Peter spoke up, ‘Well, OK, I’ll forgive John tonight, but if we’re both alive in the morning, he’d better look out.’”

While Jesus commands us to love God and one another as he

ASK FATHER MIKE | FATHER MICHAEL SCHMITZ

How do I handle distractions in prayer?

Q I have been trying to pray more regularly, but I keep getting so distracted. It is frustrating. What am I doing wrong?

A First of all, praise God! The fact that you are

making prayer a regular priority is excellent.

One of the first obstacles people often face when starting to develop their relationship with God through prayer is the obstacle of consistency. Many times, we begin by being highly motivated and want an incredible intensity in prayer. The fact that you are pursuing a regular prayer life proves your wisdom: You realize that consistency in prayer beats intensity in prayer every time.

Second, when it comes to distractions, you are not alone.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that distraction in prayer is one of the primary obstacles people face when pursuing a relationship with God. I hope that this is a word of encouragement for you; the presence of distractions does not mean that you are necessarily doing anything wrong!

Nonetheless, your question remains: How do we deal with them?

First, we need to realize that our brains are never “static.” We never rest on one thought. Our brains are constantly moving, and we are constantly having to rein in our thoughts and direct our attention back to whatever task is at hand. We notice this more readily in prayer, because there are fewer external distractions. But your brain will have to do what it always does throughout the course of your day: It will constantly be

has loved us, he knows full well that to love and to forgive as he loves and forgives is only possible through his gift of grace.

I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” Truth be told, sometimes I don’t feel like loving, and oftentimes I don’t feel like forgiving.

And while grace doesn’t make something easy, it does make it possible. Therefore, if loving and forgiving is the right thing to do — in order to love God, neighbor and self — how can I choose to do it anyway, however imperfectly?

Hence, the radical love that Jesus commands of us in the Gospel is never dependent on feelings or emotions. And while never denying nor repressing our feelings and emotions, such acts of love witness that the Lord is our strength, as the antiphon for our responsorial psalm proclaims.

This command from Jesus today couldn’t be simpler, yet putting such Christ-like love into practice daily is much more difficult than it sounds, because our whole heart, soul and mind must engage or desire it.

So, how can you and I grow to love God first, and second, to love our neighbor? Begin by doing so in little ways each day, first in your own marriage and family, the very school of love and forgiveness. For, in fact, if you learn to love and forgive in little ways (i.e., St. Thérèse) in marriage and family, then, and only then, will you be able to give credible witness to why Jesus indeed came to save the world, not to condemn it.

St. Augustine says that charity, the greatest of Christian virtues, must be at the root of all Christian action, but adds a clarification of the utmost importance for proper practice: This same charity can, in fact, inspire in the heart of the faithful behaviors that must be dictated by the true and generous love of God, neighbor and self. It’s why he often said: “Love and do what you will.”

Father Eilen is pastor of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake.

in a process of refocusing. Again, this is a good thing. But be attentive to this because it helps with the next step.

Second, when you recognize that you are distracted in prayer, simply and calmly notice it. One of the things that happens with beginners is that they become very disturbed by their distractions. They want to be able to focus on God so much that anything that distracts them becomes distressing. When this happens, we can tend to be a little bit like a new driver on slippery roads for the first time. We have all been there: The car starts sliding in one direction, and so we end up yanking on the steering wheel in the other direction a bit too aggressively and end up in the opposite ditch. This happens when we allow our distractions to distress us. Instead, when you notice that you have been distracted in prayer, calmly notice it and gently bring your attention back to what you had been praying about previously.

I apologize ahead of time, but you will have to do this many times during your prayer. In fact, I think that it was St. Thérèse of Lisieux who once said that she had to constantly (but gently) return her focus back to God because she was continually distracted in prayer. Staying calm and being gentle with yourself is vital.

Of course, at some point, you might realize that your mind keeps going back to the same topic. This may be a sign that this “distraction” is the most pressing issue in your life now. In fact, it might be an indication that you want to talk with the Lord about this issue. Many times, our distractions are merely distractions. But there are other times when the thing we are distracted by is the thing that we need to bring to the Lord in prayer the most.

Do not be discouraged or distressed by your distractions.

Realize that they are a normal part of prayer, gently refocus your attention on God, and trust in the process.

Father Schmitz is director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

DAILY Scriptures Sunday, Oct. 29 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Ex 22:20-26 1 Thes 1:5c-10 Mt 22:34-40 Monday, Oct. 30 Rom 8:12-17 Lk 13:10-17 Tuesday, Oct. 31 Rom 8:18-25 Lk 13:18-21 Wednesday, Nov. 1 Solemnity of All Saints Rv 7:2-4, 9-14 1 Jn 3:1-3 Mt 5:1-12a Thursday, Nov. 2 Commemoration of All Souls Wis 3:1-9 Rom 6:3-9 Jn 6:37-40 Friday, Nov. 3 Rom 9:1-5 Lk 14:1-6 Saturday, Nov. 4 St. Charles Borromeo, bishop Rom 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29 Lk 14:1, 7-11 Sunday, Nov. 5 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13 Mt 23:1-12 Monday, Nov. 6 Rom 11:29-36 Lk 14:12-14 Tuesday, Nov. 7 Rom 12:5-16ab Lk 14:15-24 Wednesday, Nov. 8 Rom 13:8-10 Lk 14:25-33 Thursday, Nov. 9 Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17 Jn 2:13-22 Friday, Nov. 10 St. Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church Rom 15:14-21 Lk 16:1-8 Saturday, Nov. 11 St. Martin of Tours, bishop Rom 16:3-9, 16, 22-27 Lk 16:9-15 Sunday, Nov. 12 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 6:12-16 1 Thes 4:13-18 Mt 25:1-13

KNOW the SAINTS ALL SAINTS. The Apostles’ Creed lists “the communion of saints” among Catholic beliefs, and since at least the ninth century the Church has honored everyone in heaven, including angels, formally recognized martyrs and saints, and all those who had died in God’s friendship, with a November feast. As early as 411, the Eastern Church celebrated a feast of all martyrs in May. The custom gradually spread to other regions and included non-martyrs. In England the feast formerly was known as All Hallows, that is, made holy, which gave rise to Halloween. The feast day is Nov. 1.

— OSV News

OCTOBER 26, 2023

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 15

COMMENTARY FAITH AT HOME | LAURA KELLY FANUCCI

To feed the body of Christ: What could be more profound?

My husband and I have a stubborn, unresolved argument in our marriage: What would we do if we won the lottery?

We do not actually play the lottery, to be clear, but reality never muddles a good debate. What we might do if we did win — that question makes for endless dinner discourse. My spouse insists you must give all the wealth away. Otherwise having too much money ruins your life.

I agree — mostly.

“But could we get a hot tub?” I plead each time. “That wouldn’t change anything!”

No, he shakes his head. It has to be all or nothing.

Otherwise, it’s a hot tub and a pool, or a hot tub and a dream vacation, or a hot tub and college tuition for all the kids. We either give it all away, or we’ll start to make

CATHOLIC OR NOTHING COLIN MILLER

The good Samaritan Last month, I wrote about hospitality houses as schools of virtue. My point there was that within the Catholic Worker tradition, encountering the poor is not about what we can do for them, but what they can do for us.

Because we find Christ in the poor.

We are not their benefactors — they are ours. This point is so important for understanding the spirituality of the Catholic Worker, and the spirituality of engaging the poor in the Catholic tradition in general, that I think it’s worth dwelling on just a little longer. For we find this model directly in Scripture, in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan (Lk 15:25-37).

But wait, you might say, this can’t be right! The good Samaritan parable is exactly the place where we have found the benefactor model — that we are the ones helping the poor. It’s the story, after all, of a Jew who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and is robbed, beaten up, and left in critical condition. Two members of the religious establishment hurry by to their own business. Then a Samaritan, a foreigner, comes by, binds up the man’s wounds, takes him to an inn, and promises to return to take care of any expenses. Go, Jesus says, and do likewise.

And so, we have thought, Christian commitment to the poor is primarily about helping them. And we have based this, often, exactly on this passage. But this interpretation doesn’t fit with some important details of Jesus’ parable. In

exceptions everywhere.

He and I may never resolve the hot tub question. But thankfully we do agree on the more important point: While there are countless worthy causes, we would give our theoretical lottery winnings to those who lack food and water. Nothing feels more pressing.

Scripture speaks abundantly about feeding the hungry. Jesus gave himself to us in bread and wine, flesh and blood, because he knew hunger and thirst are humans’ most basic daily needs — just as we would always need his presence and love. The Church reminds us that feeding the hungry is a corporal work of mercy.

Clearly, as Christ’s followers we are meant to feed others.

Yet despite my love for the Eucharist, I did not fully grasp the truth of what it means to feed the hungry until the body of Christ began to feed me anew.

Translation: Our parish has been bringing meals to our family for months following my cancer diagnosis, and their loving service is transforming my faith.

As I look out on the congregation now, whenever I am well enough to join them for Sunday Mass, I see the faces of all those who have been bringing dinner to our doorstep. Casseroles, soups, salads, lasagna, enchiladas, home-baked bread, fresh fruits and endless desserts.

I watch the same parishioners who baked and cooked for us come forth to the altar to serve as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. The body of Christ bringing the Body of Christ to the body of Christ. What could be more profound?

They have taken up the call to feed the hungry and

the first place, Jesus surely intends the hearers of the parable to identify with the Jew taking the journey, not the Samaritan. All of Jesus’ hearers were Jewish, including the person he was addressing. Samaritans, on the other hand, were the Jews’ sworn enemies — the despised neighboring ethnic culture that they would never think of identifying with.

What our prevailing cultural reading of the parable gets wrong, in other words, is that we are not the Samaritan.

We are the man in the ditch.

And this makes sense after we think about it. One of the main messages of the Gospel is precisely that we are in trouble and need saving. We are beaten up and broken and left “half-dead.” Our sins and the devil and the world have all had their way with us, and we are desperate, lying there on the side of the road. We cannot save ourselves. We are the ones that need saving.

Who, then, is the Samaritan? Well, the description of him sounds a lot like Jesus. He comes from a far-off place, is despised and rejected, but comes to us while we are dying and gives us, as the parable says, oil and wine (think: sacraments). Then he takes us to an inn (the Church) and promises to return to make a final accounting and take care of us. Jesus has told a parable, in other words, in which he is, appropriately, the hero, and we are the ones he rescues.

Jesus has also identified himself with the Samaritan — with the outcast. Jesus is the oppressed and forgotten. He’s the one at the homeless shelter, the elderly shut-in that never gets a visitor, the prisoner. And this one, Jesus says, is the one coming to save me. For this is none other than Jesus himself.

I’m not the Savior. I am the man on the side of the road. I’m bloody and desperate. I need Jesus.

Catholic Worker houses are designed to make it easier for him to find me.

Miller is director of pastoral care and outreach at Assumption in St. Paul.

are living out the spirit of the Eucharist in their own kitchens to bring to ours. In chicken and rice, chili and chips, stuffed peppers and broccoli casseroles — not to mention the ministry of mailing gift cards from one busy family to another — our parish is teaching me what it means to reach out to the hungry body of Christ and become part of the healing work of God. Honestly, we won the true lottery.

This truth brings me to my knees.

Jesus knew what it meant to be hungry. Mary fed him, first from her own body, then from her kitchen.

He shared meals with his family, stopped to eat with his disciples on the way, and made miracles happen over meals. He understood hunger, and he fed the hungry.

Our call is the same.

Whether we have a million dollars or only five to spare, the need is real and the commandment unmistakable. Jesus gave Peter this lasting charge — “Feed my sheep” (Jn 21:17) — and the words echo for us today: to feed those in our own homes, our community, and around the world.

Christ continues to nourish us in sacrament and Scripture. As St. Augustine wrote, we become what we receive: the Body of Christ. What a wonder when we live up to the call we have been given, and what a gift to learn what it means to receive.

Fanucci is an author, speaker and founder of Mothering Spirit, an online gathering place on parenting and spirituality at motheringspirit.com.

INSIDE THE CAPITOL | MCC

Renewing the pro-life movement It is no secret the 2023 legislative session set back Minnesota’s pro-life movement, especially regarding the protection of women and girls’ health and safety. But there is no time for lamentations. Instead, we must move forward in a united and collaborative way to create a state where every preborn child is welcomed in life and respected by law.

But what does that look like, and how do we get there? These were questions posed at the Pro-Life Leadership Summit on Sept. 27.

This vital summit — spearheaded by the Minnesota Catholic Conference and other key partners — brought together more than 140 pro-life leaders including medical professionals, pregnancy resource center staff, lobbyists, lawyers, sidewalk counselors, post-abortive women, parish leaders, pastors and others. The goal was to start a discussion about building a movement dedicated to making abortion unlawful, unnecessary and unthinkable.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis opened the summit by acknowledging the discouragement felt in Minnesota following the brief jubilation of the Dobbs decision. He emphasized the importance of the pro-life community coming together with respect for the complementarity of gifts and roles within the movement and with a renewed commitment to creating a

common vision. This hope for renewal can strengthen our mission and provide us a common path forward to incorporate others into the work.

Attendees agreed with the archbishop’s call for unity and collaboration. The summit provided the space for all areas of the movement to freely share their successes, challenges and hopes. Although not everyone may agree with one another all the time, cultivating space for frank discussions and strategic conversations in a respectful manner is an important component in moving us forward together. A key takeaway from the summit is the desire to build on common principles and identify new modes of collaboration. The end goal we all share is to reduce abortions in Minnesota by offering a winsome defense of the humanity of the unborn and by walking with women in need.

Difficulties we face in the courts, legislature and culture emphasize the importance of a unified movement.

During the 2024 session, we expect pro-abortion proponents to continue pushing. In Illinois, for example, a new law imposes another level of control over the speech used at pregnancy resource centers and ultimately requires them to refer for abortions.

We will likely see this bill, and others, introduced in Minnesota.

In the courts, a group of MOMS — Mothers Offering Maternal Support — is working to challenge the Doe v. Minnesota ruling in state district court that struck down the parental notification requirement for minors seeking abortions. The ruling puts young girls in danger should any complications occur after they leave the abortion facility.

Ultimately, this battle goes beyond the legislature and courts. It is in the hearts and minds of ourselves, our friends, neighbors, co-workers and communities.

“Inside the Capitol” is an update from Minnesota Catholic Conference staff.

OCTOBER 26, 2023

FROM THE LOCAL CHURCH | ANNE ATTEA

‘Driver’s Licenses for All’ – a broader perspective 1986. It has been 37 years since we have had comprehensive federal immigration reform in this country.

Over the years, such reform has been backed by the Better Business Bureau and many policing entities and community organizations across the country. But the use of reason when addressing this issue has been clouded by political posturing and fearmongering.

And yet, those who have befriended and worked with undocumented immigrants know many of them as hard-working, long-suffering people. Most come to the United States searching for a better life for their families — both in their country of origins (sending money back to extended family) and here in the U.S. (seeking opportunities for themselves and their children). They are human beings who might have overstayed legal visas or undertaken perilous journeys to come to this country to work, just like my immigrant grandparents did in the early 20th century. Unlike my grandparents, however, these immigrants often have no realistic, legal way to regulate their status because the federal process is broken. Nonetheless, they bring a strong work ethic, cultural traditions and God-given gifts that enrich our churches, schools, communities and society.

Many families in my faith community are of mixed status: undocumented parents who have U.S.-born citizen children. I have been at Ascension in north Minneapolis for 15 years. People I knew as children

COMMENTARY

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 17

are now young adults who have graduated from high school or college and are bilingual, bicultural contributors to our society in health care, education, social work, engineering, construction and other professions. Others have DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status and use their education and status for entrepreneurial endeavors that stimulate the economy and create jobs. They often care for their undocumented parents and relatives by taking out mortgages to provide a home and help pay household expenses.

These children know that their parents sacrificed much and took great risks for them. Many of those parents drove every day without a license because in Minnesota, since 2003, undocumented individuals had no access to a driver’s license.

I have been involved in advocating for our immigrant brothers and sisters for the past two decades to help them gain access to driver’s licenses. I worked on this issue as the director for Latino Ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis (1998 to 2008) and as a pastoral associate at Ascension (2008 to present). I know that having a driver’s license means eligibility for car insurance and an ability to drive children to school, have readier access to medical appointments and shop for groceries with less fear and trepidation. It means being able to drive to work, access jobs that require licenses and visit relatives in other states.

Overall, granting driver’s licenses to all residents of Minnesota fulfills a foundational premise of Catholic social teaching. It promotes human dignity and advances the welfare of society.

Thank you, Archbishop Bernard Hebda and the Minnesota Catholic Conference for encouraging lawmakers in our state to pass the “Drivers’ License for All” bill this past legislative session.

For information about the different driver’s licenses in Minnesota and to learn more about both sides of some concerns raised during the legislative process, please see the excellent, informative article by Anna Wilgenbusch in the Oct. 12 print edition of The Catholic Spirit (For

iSTOCK PHOTO | VICTORIA STRELETS

I know that having a driver’s license means eligibility for car insurance and an ability to drive children to school, have readier access to medical appointments and shop for groceries with less fear and trepidation.

It means being able to drive to work, access jobs that require licenses and visit relatives in other states. over 80,000 undocumented Minnesotans, new driver’s license law could be life-altering) or online at tinyurl.com/pp6rj698.

Wilgenbusch’s interviews echo the stories of my friends and parishioners who are grateful, relieved and even a bit fearful about entering the new system.

Regardless, the benefits for many through this legislation far outweigh the fears of the few. All of Minnesota will be better for it.

Attea is director of faith formation and social justice at Ascension in north Minneapolis.

Faithfully Preparing for End of Life It’s been said that angels have appeared in the halls of the Our Lady of Peace residential hospice home on the corner of Cleveland and St. Anthony Avenues in St. Paul. We’ve witnessed faith excelling for hospice patients as they approach their final days on earth and prepare their souls for ascension. Our job is to give them the physical, emotional, and spiritual support they need during that time From a calming spa bath upon arrival to the ministration of last rites by a parish priest, we meet the needs of our patients with kindness, dignity, and respect, rooted in Catholic principles. We have pride in our Catholic identity and sponsorship by the Archdiocese, and work to ensure we uphold Catholic values.

Parish priests are welcome here, and work alongside our chaplains to provide on-going spiritual care. Chaplain Judith Oberhauser describes the final days of a patient’s life as their “grand finale” or “swan song.” “We want it to be beautiful, so we focus on resolving all the minor and dissonant cords of their lives, so they can go in peace.”

We provide the highest quality of life for our patients, so they can live well….always.

Read about us at ourladyofpeacemn.org Call us at 651-789-5031 Our newly renovated hospice residence has 9 private care suites and 12 private patient rooms.

Care is provided at no cost, beyond what is covered by Medicare.

18 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Why I am Catholic Bill Price

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Editor’s note: Bill Price, 93, a member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul,

faith. I began to realize, after much soul searching, that pride was in

wrote an essay about his faith for his eight children, 18 grandchildren and

my way. This is where the sacrament of reconciliation (which is only

T

25 great-grandchildren. He agreed to share an edited version with The

available to a Catholic) plays a vital role. The sacrament requires a

Catholic Spirit.

thorough examination of one’s conscience. You really have to look

his is written as my own reflection and is intended to

express my own personal feelings based on my life’s

experiences, what I was taught and learned throughout my

90-plus years here on earth. My hope is that everyone who

chooses to read it may gain something from it that will be of

some personal benefit in understanding what my life was like.

As you all know, I was born and baptized in the Catholic faith,

as most of you were. So, I didn’t struggle with whether to convert

my religious beliefs, as some members of my family and some of

my friends did. My beginning was the easy part, and growing up in a Catholic atmosphere carried me through my first 20-plus years or more.

Then life began to get complicated, or so it seemed. Actually, the complications were more of my own doing than anything else, with marriage, family, learning a new profession (civil engineering; farming had only taught me a good work ethic). I became so caught up in being successful in my work that God played a lesser role every year. Then came the big awakening — my wife, Mary, nearly lost her life when we were only 60 years old. I realized then that I had put God on the shelf and almost completely out of my life, and now I needed him the most. lt took hours of prayer and sacrifice to get my values back on track. This is where my Catholic faith came back. Not roaring back, but slowly over a period of a few years. At a time like this, you learn that when you have not taken your religion seriously for a long time you might not be able to just snap your fingers and everything is all right (outside of a big miracle of course).

I also had to fight off a false belief that I could accomplish anything I tried. Even though by this time I was going to Mass and receiving Communion four or five times a week, I was going nowhere with my

deep inside your soul and ask God for help in finding the truth about yourself. I found that only lots of sacrifice and prayers will get a person out of sin. And I find that with all human weaknesses, you never achieve completeness. We just have to keep on trying and with lots of help from God, we’ll make it to heaven.

With the most peaceful death of my wife July 22, 2022, I was able to see firsthand the greatest reward of being Catholic. Having fallen and struck her head on the floor, she was on her deathbed instantly, unconscious within a few short hours. She received the last sacraments of the dying from a hospital priest and a short time later she received the apostolic blessing from our parish priest.

There are many more blessings and joys connected to the Catholic faith. There is the Blessed Virgin Mary as our heavenly mother, the body and blood of Jesus for our consumption, the communion of saints, the seven sacraments and true interpretation of Scripture.

Knowing that it is the Church founded by Christ himself and that it will stand until the end of time is a source of great comfort. It may be hard to be a Catholic sometimes, especially in our society and culture, but it’s worth every bit of sacrifice and it is full of rewards.

This has been written for anyone to read and as it is my own feelings, it has been done with careful thought and love for the truth.

With love, Grandpa Bill/Dad Price is retired after a career that included being director of public works for the city of West St. Paul and a civil engineering consultant.

From 1997 to 2013, Price traveled 49 times to help build Mount St. Alphonsus monastery just north of Acapulco, Mexico.

“Why I am Catholic” is an ongoing series in The Catholic Spirit. Want to share why you are Catholic? Submit your story in 300-500 words to CatholicSpirit@archspm.org with subject line “Why I am Catholic.”

OCTOBER 26, 2023 THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • 19

CALENDAR PARISH EVENTS

cards. Unlimited pop and popcorn. Prizes. guardianangels.org/event/22668910-2023-11-12-turkey-bingo/

Pumpkin Patch — Oct. 10-30: Our Lady of Peace, 12th Ave. S., Minneapolis. olpmn.org/pumpkin-patch Holy Childhood Rummage Sale — Oct. 26-27: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. at 1435 Midway Parkway, St. Paul.

Clothing, furniture, housewares, books, toys and games, jewelry, vintage items.

Death Swallowed Up in Victory: A Multimedia Concert — Oct. 28: 7 p.m. at Holy Cross, 1621 University Ave. NE, Minneapolis. An interdisciplinary seasonal concert that celebrates the victory of life over death. Features music, art and poetry. Free and open to the public, reception to follow. ourholycross.org A Place at the Table — Nov. 3: 5-9 p.m. at St. John Vianney, 840 19th Ave. N., South St. Paul. 45th annual Fundraising Dinner. Banquet-style dinner, silent and live auction, music and more. $70 per ticket. sjvssp.org Annual Craft and Bake Sale — Nov. 4: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at 707 89th Ave. NE, Blaine. St. Timothy CCW will host more than 40 vendors, selling a variety of crafts throughout the Parish Center building. churchofsttimothy.com/craft-and-bake-sale Richfield Council of Catholic Women (RCCW) Holiday Bazaar — Nov. 4: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Assumption, 305 E. 77th St., Richfield. Features crafts, home-baked goods, recycled holiday decor, used book sale, games and food, including Assumption’s famous caramel rolls. assumptionrichfield.org Mary, Mother of the Church Annual Craft Fair — Nov. 4-5: Saturday: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sunday: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at 3333 Cliff Road E., Burnsville. For information, email ssubler@mmotc.org or visit mmotc.org.

St. Catherine CCW Turkey Bingo — Nov. 5: 2 p.m. at 24425 Old Highway 13 Blvd., Jordan. Included are door prizes and a light supper with beverages.

Matt Birk: A Time of Reflection — Nov. 11: 8 a.m.–1 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. Matt Birk will speak on “Life and the Cost of Discipleship.” This is a fundraiser for the new chapel for the Carmelite Hermits in Lake Elmo. Father John Burns will also speak on the progress of the chapel. guardian-angels.org St. Odilia CCW Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale — Nov. 11-12: Saturday: noon-6:30 p.m. Sunday: 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at 3495 Victoria St. N., Shoreview. Sweet treats, kitchen items, toys for kids of all ages, handmade goods and Christmas items.

Fall Market — Nov. 11-12: 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. at St. Therese, 18323 Minnetonka Blvd., Deephaven. Stock up for the holidays with baked goods and gifts. Includes a bake sale, marketplace, silent auction, raffle, money bowl and books. st-therese.org Turkey Bingo — Nov. 12: 1-3 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. $10 per person for three

Holiday Sale: Quilters for a Cause — Nov. 18: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at St. Jerome, 380 E. Roselawn, Maplewood. Items for sale include kitchen items, table runners, pillowcases, baby items and more. Blankets made by Quilters for a Cause are donated to charities in the Maplewood area. Proceeds of this sale will be used to further the charitable work of the Quilters for a Cause. facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087945155707 Holiday Boutique and Pie Sale — Nov. 18: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at St. George, 133 N. Brown Road, Long Lake. An assortment of merchandise vendors, homemade pies and cookies. General store shopping with themed baskets, special baked goods, unique shopping finds, ornament tree. Raffle: $1. Lunch, along with caramel rolls, pie slices and coffee. stgeorgelonglake.org

Performances are at 7 p.m. with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 29. bsmschool.org/student-life/activities/drama

SPEAKERS+SEMINARS What is the Bible? — Oct. 26-Nov. 16: Thursdays, 7-8:30 p.m. at Guardian Angels, 8260 Fourth St. N., Oakdale. How to discern what God is trying to say, how to interpret the Bible, and who should be trusted in interpretation of Scripture. guardian-angels.org/ event/22105226-2023-10-26-vatican-ii-series-what-is-thebible/ The Resurrection of the Dead, and the Life of the World to Come — Nov. 2: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Emmaus Hall, St. John’s University, 2966 Saint John’s Road, Collegeville. Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead along with its implications for us now and in the hereafter. Free, registration required. csbsju.edu/sot/sem/ alumni-and-friends/attend-events/theology-day

WORSHIP+RETREATS Family Retreat Weekend — Oct. 27-29: 7:30 a.m.-noon 16385 Saint Francis Lane, Prior Lake. Step aside from the uncertainties of this time for a period of spiritual renewal. franciscanretreats.net/family-retreatfranciscan-retreats-and-spirituality-center

James: Pearls for Wise Living — Nov. 7, 14, 21, 28, Dec. 5, 12: 7-9 p.m. at Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road, Burnsville. A Catechetical Institute six-week lecture and small group course on the letter of James, taught by Jeff Cavins. saintpaulseminary.org/ci/ jeff-cavins-book-james-wise-living/

Shepherd Me, O God Men’s Silent Weekend Retreat — Oct. 27-29: 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at Christ the King Retreat Center, 621 First Ave. S., Buffalo. Jesus is the good shepherd who leads and guides through the dark places of life into the promised peace of the King. $50 deposit. kingshouse.com

Cathedral Art Lecture: “Our Michelangelo” — Nov. 13: 7-8 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. A 17-year-old sculptor from Florence, Italy, named Joseph Capecchi, arrived in 1906 when the Cathedral had no more than a foundation built. Three grandsons tell the story. tinyurl.com/ytun93yv

Living Out St. John Paul II’s Rule of Joy-Filled Marriages — Oct. 28-29: 7-9 p.m. Oct. 28, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 29. Holy Family, 5900 W. Lake St., St. Louis Park. A marriage retreat to strengthen couples to live more faithfully and deeply the mystery of marital love. Featured speakers: Theresa and Peter Martin, coauthors of the book “The Rule” and founders of the Wojtyla Community and Institute (WCI). hfcmn.org/ marriage-retreat-2023

Chastity Project Purified Event — Nov. 15: 6-8:30 p.m. at St. Wenceslaus, 215 Main St. E., New Prague.

Jason Evert presents at this family-based event. Prayer, adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation. tinyurl.com/486chndy

CALENDAR submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, 14 days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

We cannot guarantee a submitted event will appear in the calendar. Priority is given to events occurring before the issue date.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief no­tices of upcoming events hosted by Catholic parishes and organizations. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your submission.

Included in our listings are local events submitted by public sources that could be of interest to the larger Catholic community.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE: uTime and date of event uFull street address of event uDescription of event uContact information in case of questions TheCatholicSpirit.com/calendarsubmissions

Theology, the Climate Crisis, and a Call for Action — Nov. 17: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at St. Frances Cabrini, 1500 Franklin Ave. SE, Minneapolis. Free, registration required. csbsju.edu/sot/sem/alumni-and-friends/attendevents/theology-day

Special Mass for People with Memory Loss — Nov. 9: 1:30-3 p.m. at St. Odilia, 3495 Victoria St. N., Shoreview. All are welcome, especially anyone who ONGOING GROUPS may be experiencing memory loss and their caregivers.

Hospitality after Mass with community resource Restorative Support for Victims-Survivors — information available. Call 651-484-6681 for additional 11/9/23 Deadline: 11/1/23 Monthly: 6:30-8 p.m. via Zoom. Open to all victimsinformation. stodilia.org survivors. Victim-survivor support group for those abused by clergy as adults — first Mondays. Support group for MUSIC relatives or friends of victims of clergy sexual abuse — second Mondays. Victim-survivor support group — third Organ Recital — Oct. 29: 2 p.m. at Immaculate Mondays. Survivor Peace Circle — third Tuesdays.

Conception, 4030 Jackson St. NE, Columbia Heights.

Support group for men who have been sexually abused Organist Ray Bannon will perform works by J.S. Bach, by clergy/religious — fourth Wednesdays. Support François Couperin and Cesar Franck. Freewill offering. group for present and former employees of faith-based 763-788-9062. iccsonline.org institutions who have experienced abuse in any of its many forms — second Thursday. Visit archspm.org/ SCHOOLS healing or contact Paula Kaempffer, outreach coordinator Fall Musical: Into the Woods — Oct. 26-28: Benildefor restorative justice and abuse prevention, at St. Margaret’s, 2501 Highway 100 S., St. Louis Park. kaempfferp@archspm.org or 651-291-4429.

Q&A CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 air conditioning. In the summer and early fall, you’d hear these rumbles of thunder in the west, and they’d slowly build in intensity, and pretty soon you were in the thick of a storm, and then it would pass. I remember thinking how cool that was.

Today, several times a day you go online to check the weather, and it’s usually pretty accurate and I’m always disappointed to know. There was something magical before: “Ooh! We got a storm tonight!” It was a gift.

Now it’s like: “We have an 82 percent chance of storms tonight.” It sucks the joy out of it.

I try to avoid weather apps. Are we really in that bad of straits that we can’t just figure it out as we go?

Q What do you know for sure?

A Jesus Christ is proof that God loves us and that we have a duty and the honor of joyfully helping others know that. Some people complain about living in these times, but no — you were made for these times! This is your chance for holiness.

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20 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 26, 2023

THELASTWORD

The long arc of grace DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Tim McGuire talks with Mary Ellen Storms while on a visit at her West St. Paul home to give her Communion.

By Tim McGuire

S

Editor’s note: A member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Tim McGuire wrote this reflection, shared it with The Catholic Spirit and granted permission for publication. ome graces are a long time in the making. Until they fully materialize, we have no idea that they are in process but, as Isaiah says, “the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you” (Is 30:18).

I visit the elderly in their homes to bring them Communion. In the spring of this year, I was asked by my parish to see a 93-year-old woman named Mary Ellen Storms, a widow who lives alone. She had the same last name as that of my best friend in grade school, Paul, who lived three houses away where we grew up near Presentation of Mary in Maplewood. His family moved in the fourth grade. In 1960, 10-year-olds didn’t keep in touch with each other after a move. I was only to use the phone if I received a call from a disgruntled paper route customer, or from a fellow altar boy who needed a substitute. When I arrived at her home, I asked her if she had a relative named Paul. She replied, with surprise, “He’s my son!”

We both felt a sudden leap of joy from what we knew to be a grace that accompanied our coming together over the Eucharist. We connected immediately and quickly started sharing the memory books of our minds, starting with how much I missed Paul after their move. I was very glad to learn he was still alive and, like Mary Ellen, lived just a few miles from me. Mary Ellen said she and my mom were best friends, even soulmates. She regretted that they lost contact with each other, due primarily to each of them responding to the daily demands of family life.

In subsequent visits, with a trust born of faith in the one who brought us together, we shared some of the joys and griefs that our families went through. By exchanging photos and stories of our grandchildren and Mary Ellen’s great-

grandchildren, we found that we stepped into a real-time experience of, and understanding of, the grace proclaimed by Zephaniah: “He will take great delight in you” (Zep 3:17). God takes delight in our delight.

I mentioned to Mary Ellen how difficult it was for my parents that my youngest brother, Kevin, born when I was 8, was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. He was placed in a group home directly from the hospital; none of his eight brothers and sisters were allowed to meet him.

Mary Ellen said she remembered Kevin because on at least one occasion she drove my mother to the group home and went in with her for the visit. Kevin died from pneumonia at 18 months.

The first time his siblings saw him was in a casket at the funeral home. All my fifth-grade classmates attended his funeral Mass, it being a school day. As much as I told myself I would not cry in front of my classmates, I could not restrain the tears as our family left the pew and walked down the aisle with his casket. Sixty years later, I was talking with the woman who had visited him with my mother, and my tears started again. “... he waits on high to have compassion on you” (Is 30:18).

Mary Ellen, too, had her share of tragedy.

When she was 4, her 8- and 10-year-old brothers died when the cave they entered to dig for sand collapsed on them. As an adult, her husband died suddenly from a heart attack at age 46, driving to a work meeting. This devastated her and their six children. She still recalls one of her sons, then a freshman in high school, walking through the door full of the joy he was bursting to share with his dad about winning a tennis award at school that day.

I related to Mary Ellen how another brother of mine died at age 17 in a one-car crash that my father and I heard from the house. By God’s grace a priest was driving behind him, pulled over and, sensing the seriousness of my unconscious brother, administered the last sacraments.

We shared these memories, still infused with

the emotions of those long-ago first moments, and felt a present comfort. In my smile, Mary Ellen said she sees the smile of my mother. In her, I felt my mother’s unshakable faith, a faith which valued tolerance of others with less faith.

As we sat in a loving recall of the past, we both felt at home in the present. “The Lord longs to be gracious to you ... “ (Is 30:18).

Over the years, after these events, three other brothers of mine passed away, as well as my parents and my wife’s parents, and Mary Ellen lost a son to cancer. These were sad, difficult times for each of us and, as is often the case with the death of loved ones, the lingering impacts of those times return.

Despite those difficult events in each of our families, we both also experienced so much joy.

Sitting together after Eucharist, we felt the calm that comes from God’s presence; a communion within Communion.

Looking back on those years, Mary Ellen and I talked about the hard times, but little did we know back then that one day, through our being brought together, God was arranging for our paths to re-cross. Mary Ellen now refers to our time together as her “Tim time.”

At age 10, I lost a baby brother and a good friend but then the long arc of God’s grace began its journey like a slow-motion sunrise that took 60 years to reach daybreak. And what made it all even better was that Paul and I reconnected and resumed our friendship. Julian of Norwich’s well-known, and prescient observation was right: “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

McGuire, 72, and his wife, Diane Vandeberg, celebrated 50 years of marriage in June. They have three children and four granddaughters. McGuire serves in the parish ministry Eucharist to the Homebound. He also writes to three men in prison through the Knights of Malta pen pal program. An amateur pianist, he performs regularly at St. Therese senior living facility in Woodbury.