Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, How fitting that on this Memorial Day weekend we find ourselves standing up for our freedoms, especially our freedom to publicly practice our religious beliefs. The bishops of Minnesota, along with a number of other faith leaders, in a statement dated May 20th, have voiced our conviction that the life of faith is essential to our society and that our religious freedoms are fundamental to the health of our country. Within reasonable boundaries, they have developed a plan for us to return to worship in larger numbers. They write: “Given the well-researched protocols that we have proposed (and that they are being followed successfully elsewhere in o

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. Saint Peter knew that evangelization is hard work with little earthly reward. He knew that our desire to share our faith with others will often be met with open hostility. He knew that expressing and living out our faith in the world can be an

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, “And when they arrived, they called the Church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Then they spent no little time with the disciples.” We who minister in Jesus’ name need to get together regularly and build each other up. As priests and deacons, we gather for dinner and prayer once a week, usually Tuesday evenings, for fraternity and homily preparation. It is good for us who preach to hear other preachers, and the words spoken by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of a brother often inspire new insights in us. We need to share what God is doing in our hearts and minds. The Wor

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, The Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” From the very beginning, the Church has needed deacons. Deacons are specially configured to Christ as Servant. They remind us that, when we come in Jesus’ Name, we come to serve. It is no accident that before serving the Church as a priest or bishop each man must be ordained and serve as a deacon first. Deacons

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them: “Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” Jesus gave this example of humble service to his Apostles on purpose. He wanted those whom He was about to make leaders in the Church to embrace their responsibilities as service to the people of God, not as domination. Authority in the Church is responsibility to care for the needs of those entrusted to you by God. Jesus served them in humility, then gave them Himself in an act of even greater humility. The importanc

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, Our continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles brings us today to the first use of the term ‘Christian’ to describe the followers of Jesus. It is no accident that this happens in a Greek-speaking city, as Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, or “anointed one.” The Greeks had no direct knowledge of who the Messiah was uniquely in Judaism, but the general concept of one ‘chosen by the gods’ would have been familiar to them. As the followers of Jesus began to minister more broadly to people within Greek and Roman culture, they probably used the word Christ more frequently. The presence of non-Christian Jews in those sam

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, We dedicate the month of May to our Blessed Mother, Mary. She was privileged to receive first the gift of salvation in Christ, as St. Peter describes in our first reading: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” Mary is the model and Mother of the Church. She encourages us to repentance, welcomes us in, and rejoices with us when we receive the gift of her Divine Spouse, the Holy Spirit. Mary was present for many of the