I am so grateful to many who did so much in the background to make this day happen. Today at 3 pm is the Mass of thanksgiving for 25 years of priesthood. It is the 16th Sunday Mass of Ordinary time but offered as a Jubilee Mass. I have received many notes of well wishes and prayers in the last number of days.
Looking back 25 years, it is prayers that I need because I see it is not me but God’s grace that has done so much in the vineyard to produce any fruit that can glorify God. I recall the heat of the day (90+ at 10 am) and all the excitement and anticipation as we waited to enter the Cathedral. Starting fresh at each assignment and entering each community with its joys and tears has been part of the journey and throughout the Blessings have been many.
For St. Casimir, this coming weekend will be the first wedding we will be able to celebrate this year. That is a wonderful thing and a moment of grace. So we ask that you keep Brett Burant and Alyssa Vanlanghen in your prayers as they begin their lives together as husband and wife.
Another celebration in the diocese is the Priests for Tomorrow event. On July 28th, Sunday afternoon in La Crosse will host this event that supports our seminarians and allows people from all over the diocese to spend time with the seminary students and our recently ordained priest, Fr. David Nowicki. It is always uplifting to see a roomful of people there united in prayer and purpose supporting future priestly vocations. It will be Bishop Battersby’s first time at this event. As our new Bishop there will be many firsts for him as he settles in as our shepherd. He too can use and benefit from your prayers and sacrifices as he comes to know our diocese and what it will need to bear fruit for the kingdom.
Having recently celebrated the feast of St. Benedict, it brings to mind a way of prayer that he encouraged his monks to do and has been greatly encouraged for all of us in the last decades. That is Lectio Divina or sacred reading. It is simply spending some time with Scripture. You take a passage of scripture and prayerfully read through it a couple of times, then pausing to spend time with the word, line or verse that touches your heart. Some have a journal they use to write down those thoughts to keep them focused or to refer back to over time to see what the Lord is saying to them in this time of prayer. The Scriptures are the living word of God and even when we read passages we are very familiar with, something new can come forward at that time. Considering the needs of the world, prayer is so necessary, so please take the time for it.