Blessed Sacrament Church

It’s not every day you meet the daughter of a canonized saint. But 300 to 350 people were there to do so when Dr. Gianna Emanue- la Molla appeared at St. John the Evangelist Church in Duluth Oct. 30 to speak about her “saint Mom and holy Dad” and a project to preserve and restore the family home in Italy.

Dr. Molla is the daughter of Pietro and St. Gianna Beretta Molla. The saint, a physi- cian like her daughter, died in 1962 a week after giving birth to her namesake. During her pregnancy, St. Gianna was diagnosed with a tumor and given three possible courses of treatment. She chose the “riskiest solution” and insisted on putting her child’s life first, her daughter told the standing-room-only crowd at St. John’s.

Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St. Gianna Molla, embraces a member of the faithful who greeted her after a presentation at St. John the Evangelist in Duluth Oct. 30. (Photo courtesy of Mary Rasch)

“And my Dad respected Mom’s decision,” she said. “My life was saved, and Mom went on living another seven months before the delivery.”

There was a week of “agony” after the deliv- ery as complications arose, and as it became clear God was calling her to Paradise, St. Gi- anna decided she did not want to die at the hospital and returned to the family home, where she died at age 39.

“I would not be here with you this evening if I had not been loved so much,” Dr. Molla said.

She began her presentation, which followed an evening Mass, by reading from some of the beautiful letters her parents had written to each other both during their marriage and during their courtship. She said she had also come to learn more about her mother when she spent seven years caring for her father from the time he became ill at age 90 until he died at nearly 98 years of age.

During that time, St. Gianna was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II, and Pietro was able to attend. Dr. Molla said she was happy to see a statue of St. John Paul II, the pope who both beatified and canonized her mother, in the church.

She noted that her mother has been called a “saint of everyday life.”

She said she feels “very moved and touched” to hear about graces received through her mother’s intercession, and that the most common of these is babies. She hears from married couples who cannot have children or have had many miscarriages. “They pray to Mom, and they have a child.”

“I’m happy to take into my arms these babies,” she said.

Dr. Molla said both of her parents came from deeply Christian parents and big families with great faith and great devotion to the Virgin Mary, and who loved and served their neighbors. Both of her parents prayed for holy spouses and wrote in their letters to each other of their shared faith.

Dr. Molla said that in one of her letters to Pietro, St. Gianna wrote, “I was always told that the secret of happiness is to live moment by moment, and to thank the Lord for all that he, in his goodness, sends to us day after day.”

She also wrote that she wanted God to make their family a “little Cenacle,” referring to the Upper Room where Jesus and his disciples had the Last Supper, where Jesus appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, where the early church met and prayed together, and where the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at Pentecost.

“Mom and Dad truly lived the sacrament of marriage as a vocation and as a path towards holiness,” Dr. Molla said. “They always lived their life in the light of faith.”

She said she has learned several lessons from the holy lives of her parents. She said it’s important to “live a life of Christian witness.”

She also spoke of the Way of the Cross as being the right way to follow Jesus and also the way of joy. “Even walking along the Way of the Cross, we can live in joy,” she said.

Finally, she said that she has learned from her parents the sacredness of life — from the moment of conception, as her mother, a patron saint of the pro-life movement, teaches, to the moment of death, as her father’s long life teaches.

“I pray to the Lord and to the Virgin Mary to be as worthy as is possible for me of my ‘saint Mom’ and my ‘holy Dad,’” she said.

Dr. Molla also spoke of plans to restore the family home and nearby property, including a small church, as a holy site. Plans include a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament present, a place for a religious order, and the Saint Gianna Beretta Molla International Center, dedicated to life and family.

Father Richard Kunst, the pastor of St. John’s, who organized the visit and other appearances by Dr. Molla during a three-day stay in Duluth, urged donations. He said that the visit raised just over $56,000, most of it in a private dinner the night before her appearance in the parish.

After her talk, Dr. Molla greeted members of the faithful individually and posed for pictures, including one with several Giannas who were named for her “saint Mom.”

— By Deacon Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

Question: My family refuses to go to Mass because there are too many “extras” (like baptisms), too much singing, and too many announcements. Why can’t we have a “low Mass” without all of that stuff? Isn’t the church supposed to adapt and keep up with all the people?

Answer: There are a couple of elements in your question that I would like to address individually.

Father Michael Schmitz Ask Father Mike

If you are asking whether or not it is possible to celebrate a beautiful and reverent Mass without music, announcements, and other sacraments, then the answer is very straightforward: yes. A number of parishes I am familiar with offer a more “simple” Mass like you described. Sometimes this is the Saturday evening Mass or the early Sunday morning Mass.

Of course, not all parishes are able to offer this, since there are an increasing number of situations where a pastor is responsible for more than one parish. Because of this, there are sometimes fewer Masses offered on the weekend. In those cases, it would make sense that, due to the reduced number of liturgies, a parish would want to celebrate as full and as beautiful a Mass as possible for the Lord and for the people.

But the simple answer is: Yes, it is possible to have Mass without the elements you described.

If you are asking why we occasionally have baptisms as a part of Mass, I would say that it is because a human being becoming an adopted son or daughter of God is something worth celebrating! And not merely with that child’s family, but with the entire community. This is obvious, unless I don’t care about the other people who make up the Body of Christ or if I dislike the extra five minutes it takes to witness the miracle of a person becoming a child of God.

I truly understand liking less singing. I prefer less singing, as well. I will rarely use chant at Mass, because it doesn’t help me pray and because I think that there are other ways to pray the Mass that are just as beautiful. I can find it annoying or excessive.

Yet I wonder if the issue has less to do with the “extras” and more to do with something deeper. While I don’t know your family members, I would say that the issue has more to do with their minds or hearts than it does with singing or announcements.

As you briefly described it, the issue is one of two deficiencies. Either your family doesn’t care that much about God, or your family doesn’t understand what the Mass is. I write this tentatively, since I know neither the mind nor the heart of your family members. I have been to plenty of Masses where I was annoyed by the homily, the music (why do you insist on singing all of the verses, choirmaster?), or some other element that I found distracting or distasteful. I, too, have found it difficult to focus, to pray, or even to appreciate the efforts of those involved during those times. I think I know where you are coming from!

But here is the critical piece: That doesn’t lead me to refuse to go to Mass. If a person refuses to go to Mass because they don’t like the style, there is a serious problem. There is a difference between not liking the “extras” and refusing to go because of the “extras.” Your email did not describe the case of people who love God and desire to worship him at the Mass, but who wrestle with certain elements of the liturgy. You said that your family refuses to go to Mass.

If I know that God has commanded that we worship him in the Mass, but I refuse to do it because I don’t like singing, what other conclusion is there? Either I don’t love God much or I don’t understand what the Mass actually is.

I wonder where the idea that Mass should be “an hour or less” originated. If the Mass is truly divine worship, and if it truly is “heaven kissing earth,” why do people get antsy when it lasts longer than 60 minutes? As Saint Josemaria Escriva said, “You say the Mass is too long …. I say your love is too short.” He went on to say, “Isn’t it strange how many Christians, who take their time and have leisure enough in their social life (they are in no hurry), in following the sleepy rhythm of their professional affairs, in eating and recreation (no hurry here either), find themselves rushed and want to rush the Priest, in their anxiety to shorten the time devoted to the most holy Sacrifice of the Altar?”

We all need to be reminded at times that the Mass is not about us. It is worship. And worship must always be directed towards God. But how many times do we hear someone complain that they just “don’t get anything” out of Mass? Now, aside from the fact that we get the Word of God proclaimed to us, we get to receive the Jesus himself in the Eucharist, and we get the chance to worship God (which is no small privilege!), I always want to stop someone who makes this complaint to highlight the fact that that is literally the point! The point of worship isn’t to get anything; it is to give!

When there are added elements of the worship that Sunday by way of singing or baptisms that are annoying, you get to give God your annoyance and those extra five minutes as another sacrifice of love for the One who died and rose for you.

Father Michael 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.

If you are an outdoorsman, November is the most wonderful time of the year! Hunting is in the air, and although hunting is an interest of both sexes, I certainly see more wives alone at Mass during this time than I see husbands. Often, women will refer to themselves as hunter’s widows.

Though I was born and raised in northeastern Minnesota, I was never a big hunter. For several years, I would hunt pheasant on my family’s property, but I personally never got into big game like deer or bear. But I sure appreciate hunters, and I have to admit I am attracted to the idea of going hunting more often than I do. (Last time I went, I got a tick with Lyme Disease.)

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

Some of the more rural parishes in our diocese have special hunters’ Masses — Masses that are added or scheduled in such a way to make it easier for the hunters to make it to church. I like this idea. One of the parishes I used to be pastor of had such a practice, and we would pack the church every year with blaze orange. A lot of venison would come my way because of it!

Now, at this point in the column, I have a message to those readers who are hunters: Do not skip Mass to go hunting. It is a bad idea.

The story of the patron saint of hunters makes this perfectly clear. St. Hubert, whose feast day is fittingly in November (the 3rd) had his conversion due to a stern and miraculous warning from God after the future saint skipped church to hunt.

Because the story is ancient and legendary, there may be different versions, but the gist of it is as follows: Hubert (656-727 A.D.), when he was a young man, was very fond of hunting. One Good Friday, the most solemn day of the Christian calendar, he skipped church to go hunting. It is one thing to skip Sunday Mass frivolously, but to skip Good Friday was just plain dumb. As he was chasing a stag, they reached a clearing in the woods, and when the stag turned around to face its pursuer, Hubert was amazed to see a crucifix between the horns of its rack!

As if that weren’t enough, the crucifix started to speak! The voice from the crucifix said, “Unless you turn to the Lord, Hubert, you shall fall into hell.” What do you suppose the young Hubert did in response? He dropped to his knees and probably even wet himself! Then the future saint asked the crucifix what he should do, and the voice told him to go to the local bishop, named St. Lambert, who would guide him as a spiritual director.

Not long after this encounter, with the spiritual guidance of the holy bishop, Hubert divested himself of noble family honors, as well as giving his money to the poor. Eventually he became a priest. According to the legend, St. Lambert encouraged Father Hubert to go on pilgrimage to Rome, and during the time he was away, St. Lambert was killed. The legend states that at the time Lambert was killed, the pope had a vision of his death and was told by God to make Hubert his successor bishop.

As bishop St. Hubert became known for many miracles and his evangelization of the pagan population in his diocese. Soon after his death, he was considered a saint by the local population, but the story of the stag and his conversion experience made his popularity extend far beyond his native Netherlands.

St. Hubert’s popularity continues to grow all throughout the world. This otherwise obscure saint has had many new devotees as the popularity of hunting continues. It is fairly easy to find new holy cards and medals being produced of St. Hubert because of his being the patron saint of hunters. The emblem of this hunting saint is also found on bottles of the liqueur Jagermeister, which literally means “master hunter.”

So as you plan your hunting trips this month, make sure you do not repeat the mistake of the young Hubert, who thought it was a good idea to skip church in order to hunt. And while you are out on your deer stand, maybe say a little prayer for the hunting saint’s intercession. Who knows, you may end up bagging the legendary 30-point buck.

St. Hubert, pray for our hunters!

Father Richard Kunst is pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Duluth and St. Joseph in Gnesen. Reach him at rbkunst@gmail.com.

I can’t help but get excited when the secular world unwittingly reports beliefs imparted by the Catholic Church and does an exceptional job proving those teachings true.

This past month, two entirely different news stories were widely published, frequently discussed, and commented about on social media: the ongoing story of NFL players who have opted to kneel during the National Anthem and coverage of the death and legacy of Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy and a progressive in the area of what has been termed “sexual freedom.”

Betsy Kneepkens Faith and Family

These stories share common threads that reflect something the church has been saying since the beginning, but about which the world refuses to listen. Specifically, the church has taught what we do with our bodies speaks a language, and that language impacts others.

The first news story has to do with the reports surrounding NFL players kneeling or standing for the National Anthem. Whether a football player stands or kneels for the anthem is undoubtedly a social statement, but it is not a Catholic issue. However, the fact that the country seems to be obsessing over what these players do with their bodies indeed reflects a reality claimed consistently by the Catholic Church.

Many Americans want us to believe we can do whatever we wish with our bodies, and those activities are our own business. Our preoccupation with this anthem issue says that this is just not true. Our human form embodies our soul, or, put another way, our bodies share the message of our soul.

A significant part of this controversy is the perception that the body is showing disrespect. Our souls can undoubtedly be disrespectful, and the only way to reveal the message of our soul is through actions of our body. Similarly, our souls can be respectful, and that can be reflected in the body as well. The substantial connection between the body and the soul is shown by society’s outcry, which knows that these players’ souls are speaking.

This brings me to the second story in the news, which goes deeper into this subject, with the death and legacy of Hugh Hefner. According to reports, society saw Hugh Hefner as a significant force behind the sexual revolution, starting with his publication of Playboy Magazine. Hefner’s concept basically treats the body as separate from the soul and therefore suggests what we do with our bodies does not affect the soul. When reporters covered the life of Hugh Hefner, they celebrated his financial accomplishments and credited his industry with a litany of women he made famous. Hugh Hefner was a leader in making pornography mainstream.

Hefner’s pushing of the sentiment that bodies are tools for carnal pleasure opened the way to making it acceptable to use the body as an object for a profit, because without the matter of our soul, the actions of our body are inconsequential. Furthermore, this division that Hefner promoted allowed the intimate union between a man and woman to become “freed” from the sacredness that ultimately demands responsibility and obligation to another. Hefner typically appeared in the media as happy, surrounded by doting women, while displaying a sense of peace with all that he created.

In the many stories that covered his life, reporters listed numerous women who “got their start” by being centerfolds for his magazine. The stories of these women, like Marilyn Monroe and Anna Nicole Smith, I think better suggest that Hefner’s concept was wrong and even harmful. Hefner’s campaign for sexual freedom left a trail of centerfolds who had lifelong issues with alcoholism, addiction, multiple marriages, disease, abuse, premature deaths, and suicide. Many of these women had fruitful careers and had financial riches, but it appears the suffering of the soul was insurmountable, leading them to what most consider troubling lives.

Not surprisingly, several clippings which covered the last part of Hefner’s life told stories of his loneliness, isolation, and attachments to material items. You can only be left wondering if he too suffered. I can only surmise that since you cannot separate the body from the soul, when Hefner’s soul talked, his body may have been lying. Years of lying with your body undoubtedly wreaks ruin on your soul, and suffering will follow.

The NFL and Hugh Hefner never went out to teach concepts espoused by the Catholic Church. For some, it can be difficult to understand why the church teaches what she teaches, but using current events certainly makes these teachings more clear. The Catholic Church may be the last ray of hope insisting and proclaiming that the human body is a composite with our soul, no matter what an individual or an industry push.

As Catholic parents, we are surrounded by contemporary issues to be used to teach our children. Sometimes, reporting unknowing proves the Catholic Church gets it right again. Especially in these cases, we can show our children the importance of living chaste lives, where our bodies speak a language that tells the truth of our soul’s dignity.

Betsy Kneepkens is director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life for the Diocese of Duluth and a mother of six.

Bishop Paul Sirba will ordain four men, Kyle Eller, Daniel Goshey, Michael Marvin, and Steven Odegard, to the permanent diaconate at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 26, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth.

The ordination takes place on the Solemnity of Christ the King, as has been the custom of the Diocese of Duluth for many years.

Eller and his wife Sandy are from St. Benedict’s Church in Duluth. They have three children, Elisabeth, Anna (deceased), and Maria.

Goshey and wife Julie are from St. Joseph’s Church in Crosby. They have two children, Nellie and Joseph.

Marvin and his wife Carrie are from the Lakes Area Parishes, Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Pine River. They have four children, Anna, Christa, Lara and Joe.

Odegard and his wife Mary are from St. Patrick’s Church in Hinckley. They have five children, Jessica, Melissa, Joel, Kimberly, and Sarah.

All the Catholic faithful are invited to witness the sacrament and to celebrate.

— The Northern Cross

Correction: The headline has been corrected from the print edition of this story.

In November we get to celebrate arguably the greatest secular holiday on the American calendar: Thanksgiving.

What’s so great about it? It’s not the food, family, traditions, the time off of work, or even the football that we have in mind here, wonderful as those things might be. It’s certainly not shopping.

It’s the gratitude.

One of the easiest and most profound changes we can make in our lives to become better, happier people, and most of all to grow in our relationship with God, is becoming people who are grateful. Growing in gratitude can bring real healing and perspective and can help us to overcome bitterness, selfishness, pride, anxiety.

Even the secular world is rediscovering this truth. If you do an Internet search on the term “gratitude journal” — where people take time each day to write out what they’re grateful for — there are more than 3 million hits.

St. Paul said “in all things give thanks,” and it’s true that there is always something to be thankful for. The more we start to look and notice, the more things we will find to be grateful for. The more we thank God and the others in our lives who deserve our thanks, the more we will come to understand how blessed we are.

A priest once asked a simple question in a homily: If God only gave you tomorrow the things you thanked him for today, what would you have?

It’s a great question to reflect on. Thanksgiving is a great holiday because it reminds us that thanksgiving ought to be a major part of our prayer life and a major part of the whole way we see the world every day of the year.

I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob. I’m not the rude kind — if you offer me a cup of ordinary Folgers, chances are I will gratefully drink it. But left to my own devices? It will not be drip coffee — I use an Aeropress or a French press depending on my mood.

I know what temperature the water should be. I know just when to grind the beans and what grind I want for my chosen method. I will pour the water in a particular way. I will warm the mug and the brewing devices so the finished cup will still be nice and hot. I will likely be timing the steep.

Kyle Eller Mere Catholicism

There’s more, but you get the idea. I know how to make an excellent cup of joe. I’ve read about it, watched YouTube videos, experimented with different techniques, tweaked my routines. Walk in on me preparing a cup of coffee nowadays and it almost looks liturgical.

Now, if someone were to say to me I would have spent my time better praying or doing works of mercy, that’s a fair point, and I’ll come back to it. But I see it as a small, simple pleasure. For a fraction of what I would spend at a coffee shop, and with just a little extra work that I enjoy doing, I get this simple luxury and make the best out of this beautiful gift of the coffee bean.

And I have come to think there is something in that quest for the perfect cup — and in the other areas where people do similar things — that is more spiritual than it first appears.

There are countless examples of this pursuit. Sometimes I like to watch the America’s Test Kitchen shows on PBS. Behind the scenes, there’s an actual test kitchen, meaning that the cooks run countless variations on a recipe until they get it just perfect. The pumpkin pie recipe (or whatever) that we end up seeing on the show is the result of that detailed background work.

There are artists, writers, and musicians who find it hard to release new material because it never quite gets to the point where they feel it’s good enough. They want it to be perfect. Pope St. John Paul II captured the sense of it in his beautiful “Letter to Artists”: “All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative moment: what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit.”

Or take “audiophiles,” the people who are always pursuing the perfect sound reproduction when they listen to recorded music. They may spend thousands of dollars on equipment such as studio quality headphones, gold-plated cables, unusual audio formats, and more.

Audiophiles are often the butt of jokes, because in double-blind tests, while there are a few basic things that make a big difference, many of the things they do apparently cannot be discerned by the human ear.

Surely something similar is true with my coffee. Some of the things I do definitely make a difference in the taste, but would I be able to tell a difference between two cups just based on how the water was poured? Almost certainly not. After a certain point, the returns on our efforts toward perfection get smaller and smaller, and the wise person knows where to leave off.

But still, the pursuit of perfection points beyond itself. You don’t have to take my word for it. St. Thomas Aquinas listed the argument from gradations of perfection, that things are more and less perfect, as one of his arguments demonstrating the existence of God.

If we can discern what’s more or less perfect in a cup of coffee or, especially, in created things like rocks and plants and people, it points to a sense that there is a “best,” a “maximum” in everything that is good and perfect that is also the cause of all the good we find in created things.

What could that be, of course, but God? He is the unfathomable height of all perfections, and the source of every approximation of it in his creation.

Being made in his likeness and image, we should not be surprised at our yearning for perfection. I suspect it’s just one of those infinite longings God has placed in our hearts so that we will seek him.

And given that, we might also listen again to John Paul II, who points out our greatest work of art, saying that “all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”

So yes, pursuit of that masterpiece of a life is far more important than pursuing the perfect cup of coffee. (I still say coffee sometimes helps.)

Kyle Eller is editor of The Northern Cross. Reach him at keller@dioceseduluth.org.

As nature sheds her glory, and the daylight shades come earlier, what a beautiful fall we have had. We enter the month of November with hope and expectation: hope as members of the Communion of Saints on the road to glory, and expectation in the truth of our faith that we await the Master’s return with renewed joy and anticipation.

October brought numerous portents of the final consummation, with hurricanes, raging fires and earthquakes, civil unrest, and acts of terrorism. It also brought us powerful reminders of God’s faithfulness and our secure protection in Him. We celebrated that, in the end, “my Immaculate Heart will triumph,” as Our Lady of Fatima predicted, and concluded the 100th anniversary of the apparitions.

Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua

We are under no illusions as Christians of the challenges to be faced as followers of Jesus Christ. In the Liturgy of the Church, the month of November celebrates the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls and culminates with the Feast of Christ the King. The Sacred Scriptures for those Holy Days rouse us from our slumber, sear our consciences with reminders of our responsibilities as adopted sons and daughters of God, and motivate us to reach out to the poorest of the poor as we await the Master’s return in glory. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:31-46).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a description of what to expect in those last days (CCC 675- 677). Based on Sacred Scripture, the Catechism describes the last days as a period of final trial, deception, persecution, and the machinations of the Antichrist. What follows is a passage that describes the final consummation: “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world” (CCC 677).

How do we prepare for all of this? We live our days in joyful expectation. Like lovers anticipating the return of the beloved. In the face of impending disaster? Yes! Because the Lord, Jesus Christ, has won the victory. In Him we have nothing to fear. Jesus will save us. Believe in Jesus. Serve Jesus. Trust Jesus!

Though we do not know the moment of the final consummation of the earth and of man, nor the way in which our universe will be transformed, we believe the old order will pass away and give rise to a new heavens and a new earth. One no longer distorted by sin, stains of self-love, and pride, but rather healed of wounds and becoming a well-spring of happiness, peace and love. Christ the King will rule in a universe renewed. We will contemplate the Beatific Vision in the Paschal Feast of heaven, forever.

Please join me in praying for the four men who will be ordained to the Permanent Diaconate on the Feast of Christ the King: Michael Marvin, Kyle Eller, Daniel Goshey, Steven Odegard, their wives and families. Vivat Christo Rey!

Bishop Paul Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth.

I know that I have had more opportunities than most Catholics. My parents sacrificed to send my 12 siblings and me to Catholic schools, both grade school and high school, and nearly all of us attended Catholic colleges. My parents instilled the value of weekly Mass attendance, and while growing up our social life and faith community were essentially the same group of people. I worked at a Catholic college for almost 28 years, and now I have been blessed to work for the Diocese of Duluth in the Office of Marriage and Family Life.

God has graced me with a husband who is a practicing Catholic, and as a young, newly married couple, we serendipitously selected a neighborhood that includes other Catholic families, our church, and the parish school our children attended. And on any given weekend my family has at least a dozen different Mass times to choose from at nearby parishes when our schedule is complicated.

Betsy Kneepkens Faith and Family

Although I interact with the secular world in daily duties, my foundation is rooted in faith, and I am grateful. These conditions create an idyllic lifestyle so we can more readily focus our lives toward the good, the beautiful, and the holy. I know not everyone gets to experience that same abundance.

Moreover, I have been blessed with additional opportunities which I surmise are even more extraordinary than what the vast majority of Catholics experience in this country. For example, four years ago I attended my first Catholic pilgrimage. I agreed to go not even knowing what a pilgrimage is or what a religious “vacation” is all about. I was intrigued by the trip advertisement, so I signed up.

I quickly learned I was not on a trip or a vacation, I was experiencing something entirely different. I was on a spiritual pilgrimage. I have learned that a Catholic pilgrimage is a journey with a purpose, and that purpose is always the same: to honor God. The travels often take you to a sacred place, but more importantly, this journey is the time of prayer and reflection that calls you to stir your heart toward God.

This retreat, by yourself or with others, allows you to encounter Christ in ways you may never have before. Typically pilgrimages do not provide you the best accommodations or the best food. You might not see a beautiful landscape, and you might be downright uncomfortable during parts or even all of the trip. Nevertheless, I would rather go on pilgrimage anytime rather than a leisure trip. I would go as far as to say I have found vacations less satisfying ever since.

One of my favorite pilgrimages was to Portugal, where I was able to stay a few days at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. This sacred destination is at the site of one of the Catholic Church’s few approved Marian apparitions. Fatima is the site where Mary appeared to three young shepherd children, Francisco, Jacinto, and Lucia, for five months, on the 13th of each month, culminating on Oct. 13, 1917. This October, we celebrate the centennial of the apparition.

I have been to three of the Vatican’s officially approved apparition sites and found great attraction to Fatima. Part of the allure of the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima for me is that this Marian apparition happened while my grandparents were alive. Because this is sort of a contemporary event, technology was such that you can now find videos and pictures on YouTube and read secular archived newspapers which wrote headlines that covered the story. I was even able to look up how this situation was perceived in the U.S. by reading articles from the archived student newspaper at St. Scholastica.

Most impressive to me are the estimates that 70,000 people, believers and skeptics alike, gathered at Fatima 100 years ago this month. Some came to be affirmed and some to proclaim foul. Consequently, this large gathering indeed was able to view the “Miracle of the Sun,” which silenced most critics. This miracle was given as a promise by Mary to the shepherd children, who had to endure hostility, as proof of their vision and to encourage the masses to listen to the messages Mary gave to the shepherd children. This shrine built on the site of the apparitions has since been given to the world, so we remember these important events, most significantly to draw us closer to Christ.

When I went to Fatima, I was among the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who travel there each year. Although outside the shrine there was a bit of commercialization, within the shrine area, which seemed to cover well over a square mile, there was no hint of consumerism. You were not required to pay for anything. Masses were being said in various locations and languages, displaying a diverse harmony was exquisitely Catholic and which I had never seen before. I had the immense privilege of praying the rosary among tens of thousands of other Catholics in every imaginable language while we all processed in a candlelit vigil. Just imagine days of prayer, with others and yet still alone with Christ, all at the same time. Hours were like minutes, and days were like hours. A renewal occurs in your heart that seems to sustain you over time, and that happened to me at Fatima.

I do understand that I have been blessed in ways most of my Catholic brothers and sisters have not. My family and I have been exposed to what the church has to offer us and have tried to remain grateful and humbled by its availability. I also know that the pilgrimages I have taken each year since my first call out an obligation to share what I learn and experience with other faithful. The Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is truly a treasure in this church; the centennial draws us closer to Mary’s message at Fatima and her desire to bring us closer to Christ.

For those of us who have had the exceptional experience of going to Fatima and similar sacred destinations, we do have an obligation to share with others. If I meet you someday, don’t hesitate to ask, and if we do, you can learn more about Fatima at www.sacred-destinations.com/portugal/ fatima-shrine-of-our-lady-of-fatima. I know Oct. 13 this year will be a special day of prayer for me, and I hope it can be for you as well.

Betsy Kneepkens is director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life for the Diocese of Duluth and a mother of six.

When the day’s emcee Father Ryan Moravitz asked the crowd at Built Upon a Rock Fest Sept. 17 if they wanted to do it again next year, there was no mistaking the answer in the big cheer that followed.

The gorgeous late summer Catholic rock concert drew more than 900 people, including about 70 volunteers, to the grounds of the Holy Rosary campus of Stella Maris Academy, while across the street at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, people prayed in Eucharistic Adoration.

Against the backdrop of Lake Superior, eagles soared overhead, and a long line formed for the free food — as well as warm drinks like cider as day turned to night and temperatures dropped into the 50s.

A crowd that included Bishop Paul Sirba and numerous priests, deacons, and seminarians in addition to lay faithful from every corner of the diocese ranging from babies to grandparents listened and danced first to the local Aly Aleigha Band and then to headliners The Thirsting.

The whole thing was undoubtedly loud enough to be heard throughout the neighborhood.

When The Thirsting hit the stage and the volume went up, many of the crowd’s younger members made their way up close to the stage to rock out, as the band played its own hits and made Catholic or local riffs off of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home, Alabama” (“Sweet Home, Minnesota”), Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” and U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

The band’s high-energy frontman, Daniel Oberreuter, also tuned things down a notch in the middle of the band’s performance, doing a set of his acoustic songs. Throughout, he encouraged people in their devotion to the Eucharist and the rosary.

The event closed at the Cathedral, with confession and Benediction.

Marie Mullen, who had the original idea for the festival after encountering The Thirsting’s music, said it was amazing watching people enjoy the vision come to life. “I knew that the music would have a good impact on people,” she said.

But she was also in awe of the many people who had come together to make it happen, especially the sponsors who overwhelmed her with their generosity, making it possible to put on the event free for all in attendance, and the volunteers.

“I was in awe,” she said. “For me personally, the thing that I was most touched by was just the volunteers. They were all just serving so willingly and lovingly and humbly. I could see Christ in each one of them.”

“Everything was so efficient, and there was always someone to help do something,” she added.

She also relied on the help of her brother, who owns the staging company.

Mullen said they had planned for 1,000, nearly pegging the number who turned out. “We didn’t run out of anything.”

And she noted that the crowd didn’t really fill out that field — which includes Duluth’s most famous sledding hill — at all.

“In potential years to come, you could sit 3,000 in that field, easy,” she said.

And yes, she and the team of organizers, which also included David Walsh, Kevin Pilon, and Ben Foster, are already thinking about next year, and they even have bands in mind.

“We’ve got a lot of feedback,” Mullen said. “People are desiring it to be an annual event. We feel like that’s what God is desiring too.”

It’s still early and nothing has been arranged yet, but Mullen said if they are able to continue with the event, there may be some tweaks with logistics and timing, but the core of the event was what organizers were aiming at, with the simplicity of a Catholic concert that’s easy for busy people to do.

Through it all, Mullen says God was in charge and “blew her away” at every turn. “His hand was in it so much.”

— Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross