Blessed Sacrament Church

“We give thanks to God whose power is revealed in nature and whose providence is revealed in history”
— Liturgy of Hours, Sunday Week III, Evening Prayer II

Summer, in the 10 counties that make up the Diocese of Duluth, reveals the power and beauty of God. Even before God reveals himself to man in words of truth, God reveals “himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos — which both the child and the scientist discover” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2500).

Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua

God, of course, is more beautiful than the sun, the constellation of stars, and the fragrant rose. His majesty and power is greater than the wind, the waves on the lake, or the thunderstorm.

Beauty speaks its own language. A question was recently posed to me by a dear friend, “Where is beauty in your life?” It is a question I pose to you this summer: Where do you find beauty? I think our reflection on beauty could be fruitful meditation in our prayer. God’s beauty brings healing. It was attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, the Carmelite mystic, that she gave advice to a sister who was feeling the blues, to “go take a walk where the sky is big.” Not only can we be enriched by the beauty of the master artist, but because we have been created in the image of God, we can participate in its expression. Maybe we have little artistic ability, but what we have we can give back to God. We can also support the work of artists. “Man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works” (CCC 2501).

Sacred art, in particular, satisfies our longing for beauty. We can be extravagant with beauty in our church buildings and the celebration of the Divine Liturgy because it gives praise and glory to God, who is worthy of the best we have to offer.

The Magnificat monthly magazine is an example of easy accessible beauty. Not only does the Magnificat make the daily scriptures available to us, but also it is filled with writings from the saints, poetry, and beautiful artwork. I find the descriptions of the great works of art and lesser known ones a welcome read. It has become a place where I find beauty at my fingertips. My gratitude to the inspiration of Dominican Father Peter John Cameron and the staff for this publication.

Nature’s beauty is arresting. How blest we are to be able to live where we do! Do take a few minutes to savor the beauty of God’s creation, to respond to the challenge of Pope Francis to be good stewards of our environment, and to praise God for the gift of the beauty of creation.

Bishop Paul Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth.

Pope Francis is cracking down on a Belgian Brothers of Charity-run organization, giving the group until the end of August to stop offering euthanasia to patients in their psychiatric centers.

In addition, each of the religious brothers serving on the board of the Brothers of Charity Group, the organization that runs the centers, has been ordered to sign a joint letter to their general superior, Brother Rene Stockman, declaring their adherence to church teaching.

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, April 13, 2016. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA)

Brothers who refuse to sign the letter will face punitive action under canon law, while the group itself is expected to face legal action and could have its Catholic status revoked if it does not change its policy.

The Vatican order, sent at the beginning of August, follows several prior requests that the group drop the policy, which allows doctors to euthanize non-terminal mentally ill patients on its grounds.

In comments to CNA Aug. 10, Brother Stockman said he initially went to the Vatican for help in the spring, when the group, which is a state organization run by the order, decided to change its policy on euthanasia on the grounds that their stance was culturally abnormal.

Since the year 2000, the group has maintained a firm policy against euthanasia and how to cope with requests for it, he said, explaining that as a state organization, they take requests for euthanasia seriously, and try to help the patient regain their desire for life, “knowing of course that someone who is very depressive can have the tendency to ask for euthanasia.”

After doing everything possible to help alleviate any depression present in a patient, if the individual still requests euthanasia — which is legal in Belgium — the brothers would transfer them elsewhere.

“We don’t accept that euthanasia should be done inside our institutes,” Brother Stockman said, noting that this had been the organization’s firm policy until last year, when the group “started to deflect,” claiming that the Catholic position was “unique” in Belgium, where euthanasia is widely accepted, even for children.

The group argued that they had to “adapt,” and so developed a new vision that Brother Stockman said “we could not accept as a congregation.

Despite the fact that all board members are Catholic, and some have high political profiles, in Belgium “secularization is very, very high, very strong,” Brother Stockman said, “so you have to ask yourself what is Catholic still?”

In response to the group’s decision to change the policy, “we said very clearly first of all, for us respect of life must always be absolute,” the superior general said.

However, he said, the group responded that “respect of life is fundamental, but autonomy for the person is on the same level,” and once the two are placed on the same level, “then the autonomy of the patient becomes absolute, and not respect for life.”

Despite meeting resistance from Brother Stockman, the group insisted on implementing its new policy, which went into effect in June for each of the 15 psychiatric centers they run throughout Belgium.

As a response, the general superior went to the Belgian Catholic Bishops Conference and asked that they back him in the debate. When the organization continued to resist, despite pressure from the bishops conference, Brother Stockman took the issue to the Vatican.

He was eventually invited to present the issue before both the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, both of which became involved in investigating the issue.

The doctrinal congregation then promptly drafted a letter reiterating the church’s position on euthanasia and insisted that the group step back into line with doctrine. However, the letter was ignored.

Brother Stockman then received a specific mandate from the Congregation for Consecrated Life “to see that the organization can again be in line” with church teaching.

Part of his mandate is enforcing the ultimatum and gathering the group’s response by the end of August. Brother Stockman said he has not spoken with Pope Francis personally but that it is the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life who conceived the ultimatum and presented it to the pope, who gave it his full support.

Of the three brothers who are members of the organization’s board of trustees — the majority of board consists of laypeople — Brother Stockman said he is still waiting for their answers but is “quite positive about that, I can say that, I think the brothers will conform themselves.”

To ask the brothers to reaffirm their adherence to church teaching is “logical,” he said, because “when you are a religious, then you have to be in line with the church.”

“I know them and they are really under pressure from the whole mentality,” he said, but voiced confidence that they will send the letter without any problems.

As for the organization itself, the general superior said he has been in contact with the board members. “They said they received the letter and that they will discuss again in their board the situation,” he said, adding “I am waiting for the final answer.”

When asked if there was fear that even if the organization does change the policy back, they would be forced by the state to provide euthanasia, Brother Stockman said that thankfully, as of now, institutions can’t be forced, “so I think we also have to use this opening not to do it.”

“If the law changes and they say that institutions have to do euthanasia, then the situation becomes totally different. Then we have to ask ourselves, can we still continue as a Catholic hospital in a certain environment where we are forced to do euthanasia?”

“But until now we have the possibility to refuse euthanasia inside the walls of the institute,” he said.

— Catholic News Agency/EWTN News

The Caledonian chieftain Calgacus is supposed to have said of the attacking Roman Empire, with its unquenchable desire for conquest, “they make a desert and call it peace.”

The phrase comes to mind with the news that Belle Plaine here in Minnesota has had to withdraw a veterans memorial with a cross on it rather than allow Satanists to make a mockery of such memorials with a “contribution” of their own.

One memorial was created by a local veteran and donated by the Belle Plaine Vets Club and represents values that are a major part of Minnesota’s heritage. The other? It is the antithesis of that heritage and was obviously commissioned for the sole purpose of doing what it did — using a faux equality to render displaying the first memorial so utterly distasteful that it would be removed.

They made a desert and called it peace. No trace of religion, no matter how non-coercive and inoffensive, could be permitted to exist in the public square.

The notion that the ACLU-style account of separation of church and state coming out of the U.S. Supreme Court is inherent in America’s founding and the First Amendment is, to be blunt, a secularist fairy tale.

The idea that a city or state has to have absolute neutrality between religion and irreligion, between expressions on public property that reflect religious belief and expressions that mock it, was alien to U.S. law and practice until the Everson vs. Board of Education decision of 1947. In fact, in the early decades of the United States, there were full-fledged, established religions in some states, and it was perfectly constitutional, even if most people today would not deem it perfectly wise. (And on that score, it’s worth noting that England, for instance, has an established religion to this day, and it’s hardly a theocracy.)

We are often presented with the idea that what we have now represents neutrality, with the government refusing to choose between religious perspectives. This, too, is an increasingly obvious farce. As Archbishop Jose Gomez noted when we was appointed Archbishop of Los Angeles in 2010: “‘Practical atheism’ has become the de facto state religion in America.”

It is this de facto state religion that defines “health care” to mean killing unborn babies and the suffering, that defines the human reproductive system to have nothing to do with human reproduction, that defines “religious freedom” as forcing nuns to pay for other people’s contraception, and on and on. This de facto state religion is happy and eager to impose its norms and standards on anyone who disagrees.

There is no doubt we live in a rapidly secularizing society, one that is increasingly hostile to its own religious heritage. It’s entirely possible that a plurality of Americans want the state religion to be practical atheism.

But then let’s not kid ourselves that it’s all about live-and-let-live, all about freedom, or any of that other nonsense. What we are looking at is a form of conquest that has little room for dissent and every intention of acting as if another way of life never existed.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The United States and North Korea must return to the negotiating table and focus on improving the quality of life of their people rather than on the might of their advanced weaponry, said a former Vatican diplomat.

In an interview with Vatican Radio Aug. 9, Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, former Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, said that “instead of building walls and creating dissidence or admitting the possibility of recourse to violence,” both countries must have a constructive approach that benefits the people.

A view shows a Pyongyang city mass rally Aug. 10 in North Korea’s Kim Il Sung Square. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, an adviser to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, says dialogue is needed in the U.S.-North Korea crisis. (CNS photo/KCNA via Reuters)

“To arrive at this point, we need to change, in a lot of ways, the public culture and insist and educate that the way forward is not the way of having the latest military technology, but having an approach of inclusion and participation in building the common good of the global human family,” the archbishop said.

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions have led to further isolation and sanctioning by the international community, leading to a war of words with the United States.

President Donald Trump vowed that if North Korea continued to threaten the U.S., “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Angered by the threat, the North Korean government, led by dictator Kim Jong Un, said it is considering firing nuclear-armed missiles at Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific and home to two U.S. military bases.

The nuclear threat North Korea poses to the region “creates serious difficulties,” Archbishop Tomasi said. However, the U.S. and its allies in the region must continue the path toward an inclusive negotiated solution that places the common good first.

“As the Holy Father insists: The way forward is that of dialogue and of including everyone in negotiating — accommodating as far as possible — the participation of all the populations and their governments in the search of the common good and of ways of improving the quality of life of the people,” the archbishop told Vatican Radio.

The threat of nuclear war has also stoked concerns in South Korea, which has technically been at war with its northern neighbor since fighting ended in 1953.

In Seoul, South Korea, in a message to Catholics for the Aug. 15 feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung asked the faithful to pray for Mary’s intercession for peace in the Korean peninsula.

The Asian Catholic news agency ucanews.com reported Cardinal Yeom also called for an end to the north’s nuclear ambitions and a negotiated settlement. He also asked Catholics in the country to pray the rosary “for the conversion of sinners and for peace in the world.”

“For the safety and the future of all Koreans, North Korea should come to the discussion table and abandon their nuclear weapons,” he said.

— By Junno Arocho Esteves \ Catholic News Service

The “New Evangelization” calls us to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world with “new ardor,” “new methods,” and “new expression.” This means sharing the message of God’s love with ever greater enthusiasm and relevancy. It calls for finding ways to make the message heard in the midst of our fast-paced, technology-driven society. And it requires delivering the message in a way that addresses the challenges of today’s culture.

Many resources are available to help us do this. But there is one, in particular, that has proven to be of great benefit throughout our diocese. This online resource is accessible through any computer or digital device, and it provides unlimited access to hundreds of Catholic programs, movies, audios, and e-books. It is called FORMED and is found at www.formed.org.

New methods

Liz Hoefferle Handing on the Faith

The development of such a digital platform, which provides people throughout the world easy access to high-quality Catholic resources, is a great example of using “new methods” for evangelization.

A person sitting at home with a computer, a parent waiting at a child’s sports practice with an electronic tablet, a student away at college with a smart phone, or a family gathered around a smart TV are all able to access these great resources.

FORMED provides many opportunities for a person to grow in the Catholic faith, such as going “on location” with Bishop Robert Barron in his “Catholicism” series, where viewers can take in the beautiful Catholic churches and shrines in Europe, walk in the footsteps of our Lord in the Holy Land, or encounter Jesus in the face of the poor on the streets of Calcutta or New York City. The “Symbolon” series uses Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and personal testimony to help answer such questions as “Why do we need the church?” or “What happens when we die?” Weekly reflections in “Breaking Open the Word” help prepare for the Sunday Mass readings and provide ideas for applying the Word of God to our lives throughout the week.

Inspirational movies tell the stories of holy people, both past and present, whom the church holds up as role models and intercessors. Seeing how St. Augustine’s long search for happiness and meaning was finally fulfilled when he opened his ears to God’s voice and his heart to God’s grace or understanding how St. Maximilian Kolbe’s continual “yes” to God prepared him to make the ultimate sacrifice of his own life encourages us to live as more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

Digital audio recordings answer common questions about the Catholic faith on topics such as confession, purgatory, Mary, and the pope. Modern- day conversion stories include Father Donald Calloway’s amazing journey from convicted, drug-addicted gang member to Catholic priest and Dr. Allen Hunt’s 15-year journey from megachurch pastor to reception into full communion with the Catholic church.

Materials are available for all ages, including videos and books introducing children to the truths of the Catholic faith and the lives of the saints. Audios for young adults provide encouragement in chaste living, show the relevance of faith within a secular culture, and teach about the true meaning of love.

These and many more great resources can be used by individuals, in small study groups, or within parish programs and ministries, such as religious education, Catholic schools, adult faith formation, and marriage or baptism preparation.

A tool

An online platform such as FORMED is a tool that can be extremely helpful in communicating God’s truth, reflecting his beauty, and bearing witness to the workings of his grace. However, it is important to remember that a tool is not an end in itself but a means to help accomplish an end.

In the early years of Christianity, the Gospel was communicated by persons who traveled by foot or horseback visiting homes, synagogues, or other public places. With the invention of the printing press, the written word became more widely and consistently communicated. As technology continues to develop, the quality and accessibility of communication methods continues to improve. Today, we can bring some of the best Catholic presenters and teachers right into our own living rooms and classrooms.

However, two extremes should be avoided in an approach to technology. One extreme is to think that a video will do all of the work in converting a person to Jesus Christ, eliminating the need for human interaction. The other extreme is to reject technology simply because it is technology.

Effectively utilizing technology requires finding ways to use it in conjunction with the personal “accompaniment” called for by Pope Francis. My husband and I recently had a great experience of participating in the “33 Days to Morning Glory” — a preparation for consecration to Mary — with a small group of people in the home of a friend. The opportunity for discussion, along with the accountability of meeting as a group, really enhanced the excellent video segments of the program.

In addition to parish-wide programming, small groups of adults could gather for a study in a home. A person could accompany a friend by suggesting material to watch and then meet for discussion. Couples preparing for marriage can be asked to watch video segments and then discuss with their coordinator. The opportunities are endless.

How do I get FORMED?

Over half of the parishes in our diocese currently have a subscription to FORMED, which allows free access to all parishioners and persons living within its parish boundaries. You can call your parish office, check your bulletin, or go to your parish’s website to get your parish code, which is required the first time you sign in.

If your parish currently does not have a subscription to FORMED, you have the opportunity to check it out for free throughout the month of August. Our entire diocese has a free 30-day trial of FORMED. To access this, go to www.formed.org and log in using e-mail duluth@formed.org and password formed17.

In addition to a parish subscription, FORMED also offers individual subscriptions, which can be used by individuals or families within their homes.

Liz Hoefferle is director of religious education for the Diocese of Duluth.

According to my family, whom I am beginning to believe, I am a terrible cook. I can make cereal, anything out of a can, or warm restaurant leftovers.

It is not that I am burning or under- cooking everything, I just don’t understand which spices to put with which foods. I try to follow recipes, but I typically get bored halfway through and just guess at what I think the dish needs. I know this is a “recipe” for disaster, but I can’t seem to help myself. I mean well, and I eat almost everything I make, because it tastes fine to me.

Betsy Kneepkens Faith and Family

I will not claim complete hopelessness, because my children do say that I make good sloppy joes, french toast, dinner buns, and potato salad. The problem is you can’t serve these dishes for every meal, although I would if I could. Since I don’t follow a recipe, these dishes’ flavor seems to change a bit each time I make them. Apparently, the taste is similar enough that I get few complaints about these four dishes.

My lack of kitchen abilities does cause a little turmoil in our household. I often hear requests to go out to eat or proclamations that there is nothing in the house to eat (even though the fridge and pantry are full), and I frequently listen to litanies of other mothers that cook better than me. These conversations have been going on for years.

I know one of the most important activities a family can do is eat together at least a few times a week. My family tries to do that as often as possible. I have never heard any studies suggest that the food served must be tasty for the family to thrive and grow together. Even when the dinner meal is deficient, there are advantages to having this special family time. The benefit is not necessarily measurable, but unity happens within the family, and stability is established.

At our house, the food served might leave a lot to be desired, the table might be set wrong, and the decor and ambiance may be judged by some to be dull and unimpressive. However, I am confident that there is still great goodness that flows from the experience and time eating together.

I share this not just because I believe there is value in the family dinner experience despite the unappetizing food. Rather, these conditions help me better understand why I have taken a liking to other situations as well. What I mean is, for the past few years, my children’s activities have taken our family away from Duluth many weekends of spring and summer. Not being near our home parish, we have had to rely on churches in the Twin Cities. We often depend on masstimes.org to find a Mass that works in our schedule. However, we have been down to the Cities enough times that I have found a couple of parishes in which I now feel endeared.

I think my attachment to one particular St. Paul church has lots to do with why I don’t feel doomed due to my culinary inadequacy. There is a great beauty to imperfection, and my last visit to that parish eloquently illustrates why I now feel a particular attachment to it.

Simply, it was a 95-degree St. Paul Saturday in early July, and like many old buildings, the church has no air conditioning. To bring in the fresh air, the janitor opened the tiny windows at the bottom of the tall stained glass windows. As one could imagine, this airflow was not adequate, so instead of fans, the janitor placed several loud floor dryers strategically around the outside of the pews.

To make matters even more attractive, English was not the native tongue for this priest, and his Hispanic accent called for added attention. To help one remain even more focused, I believe Father chose not to use a mic during his homily, to create a feeling closeness to his congregation as he strolled the front part of the sanctuary. For all practical purposes, I spent most of the homily trying to hear and understand what the priest was saying and conveying that message to my daughter.

There were no instrumentals for the songs, and the cantor was a volunteer who sang sincerely but not necessarily in key. It seemed that each person participated in the songs, prayers, and responses. I truly sensed an attitude of engagement.

The parish confession time started an hour before the service, with the lines remaining throughout the Mass filing back to the vestibule most of the time. The two associate priests did not appear to rush through their confessions to reduce the backup, giving those coming to them the time they needed — and a slight distraction on the side of the church.

The church was filled with an array of people apparently from varying backgrounds and ethnicities. Everyone arrived on time and stayed to the end. The collection was not rushed, and the parishioners listened graciously to a missionary sister’s long talk about her work in Africa at the end of Mass.

This Mass was extremely imperfect, and I loved it. For me, the imperfection is what makes Mass at this parish so beautiful. The place was dripping with humanness, desire, and a deep love of our Lord. Attention was given by parishioners to the details that matter. I embrace imperfection because I am imperfect.

I do appreciate beautiful music, well-delivered homilies, and air conditioning, but not having these nuances available can more readily bring clarity to what is happening at all Masses I attend.

With that said, I know my family should have a mother who gets the whole meal right with tasty food, gorgeous place settings, and decor that enhances the eating experience. However, the fact is I don’t have those skills. My hope is that trying to be creative and use mealtime as a way to express my desire to bring our family together will be enough to help strengthen and encourage stability in our family.

Imperfection is humbling and can remind participants what is important. I know I experienced that in the St. Paul church. I only hope my children feel the same way about my kitchen someday.

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

Billy Menor, nSJ, has had an eventful couple of years since leaving the Diocese of Duluth to join the Jesuits.

During his two-year novitiate, which ends with his profession of first vows on Aug. 12 in St. Paul, he’s spent time teaching at St. Paschal Baylon elementary school in St. Paul. He’s done the 30-day silent retreat on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, which is central to Jesuit life and spirituality. He’s worked in a Jesuit infirmary outside of Detroit.

Billy Menor, nSJ, is approaching his first vows as a Jesuit. (Submitted photo)

For a pilgrimage, he got a one-way bus ticket and $35 in his pocket and couldn’t return home for 30 days. He spent it in San Francisco working with the homeless; in Pacifica, California, living and working at an AIDS hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity; traveling by Greyhound to attend Father Daniel Berrigan’s funeral in New York City, staying four nights at the original Catholic Worker communities; and finally visiting his first grade teacher, Sister Samuella, in Springfield, Illinois.

For Spanish immersion — fluency in the language is a requirement for American Jesuits, he says — he lived and worked with Jesuits in Peru for a month. He has worked for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the Office of Marriage and Family Life doing ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics. And for the past four months he’s worked at a Jesuit high school in Cleveland in the campus ministry and service departments. Menor, a graduate of Holy Rosary School and Duluth East, is the son of Patrice Critchley-Menor, who directs the Office of Social Apostolate for the Diocese of Duluth, and her husband Dan. He said that the vows are perpetual ones.

“The first vows … are a profession of perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience,” Menor said. “I will take them with the other Jesuits in my class, 15 of us total for the Midwest province.”

It will take place at a Mass at 9 a.m. Aug. 12 at St. Thomas More in St. Paul. Each novice will come before the Blessed Sacrament, held by the Jesuit provincial, and make his vows.

“These vows are a promise to remain in the Society of Jesus forever and to make final vows when invited to do so following ordination,” Menor said.

From there, he will begin three years of philosophy study, followed by a three-year period of ministry, followed by three years of theology studies culminating in ordination to the priesthood. An additional year of formation and final vows follow that.

Drawn to social justice

Menor says that all through school he felt drawn to social justice issues, as well as to evangelization, and credits his family and diocesan liturgies for fostering his vocation.

“My vocation and love for the church was kindled by the grand and beautiful diocesan liturgies my family always attended,” he said. “The ordinations and Chrism Masses were always a highlight of my year, with the Triduum liturgies as well.”

Because of this pull, Menor said he’s “always wanted to be a priest.” However, it was accompanied by a desire to do work other than parish work, such as social work, teaching, or community organizing, and to work “somewhat outside of the church” to bring its beauty to those who otherwise might not encounter it.

“So, while I was on the prayer team at Camp Survive, I sat in Eucharistic Adoration and prayed, ‘God, what am I supposed to do about these conflicting desires?’ The word ‘Jesuit’ came into my heart,” he said. “I wrote it down in my journal, reminding me to look it up on the Internet when I got home. This is the first time I can remember thinking of the Jesuits. After I looked them up, I never really stopped thinking about them.”

As for what his ministry will ultimately look like, Menor says that’s something he only has a limited idea about right now, “because the opportunities are so broad.”

“Ministry for a Jesuit priest could look like just about anything,” he said. “We have Jesuit priests who are astronomers, poets, physicists, doctors, community organizers, lawyers, theologians, philosophers, choreographers, writers, musicians … and the list goes on.”

However, he does have some ideas.

“For me personally, I am very passionate about the work of reconciliation within the Catholic Church,” he said. “I would hope to be doing some ministry to facilitate greater understanding and dialogue between Catholics. This could happen through writing or simply parish ministry. I would also love to work in some ministry that worked towards social justice, as a community organizer or lobbyist or something like that. And also, I am passionate about evangelization, and so any work that allows me to share the message of the gospel with people in new ways would be wonderful.”

He also shared his hopes for his life as a Jesuit, rooted in his own growing love and friendship with Jesus Christ and as reflected in Pope Benedict XVI’s first homily as pope, where he said that the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to people and that we “are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”

“I’ve always loved these words and go back to them so often,” Menor said. “People in our world need to hear these words preached with credibility! God and God’s church really does love everyone. Revealing God and God’s deep love to this world, in any and every way I can, is what I desire more than anything.”

Editor’s note: A date and time for the Mass below have been corrected from the print edition. The Northern Cross regrets the error.

 — By Kyle Eller / The Northern Cross

Next door to my parish is maybe Duluth’s closest thing to a megachurch. I have never been there, but from what I have been told, there is exciting contemporary music and an espresso bar.

This is quite a stark contrast to Catholic worship. Maybe it seems especially so given that my parish has become likely the most liturgically traditional parish in the Diocese of Duluth, complete with one Mass every Sunday almost entirely in Latin and chock full of Gregorian chant.

Kyle Eller Mere Catholicism

But even compared to a parish on the opposite end of the liturgical spectrum, there is still an unmistakable difference. And I know there are many people who find this a stumbling block. If it were just a popularity contest, we would probably be losing.

I have known Catholics who have decided they find Catholic worship boring and decided they enjoy the other thing more. They may like the easygoing feel or enjoy the music, or they may feel they are learning about the Bible or the preacher is really engaging.

On the other hand, I know there are people who have been drawn to the fullness of the Catholic faith but who, coming from another Christian tradition, find themselves unsure of what to make of Catholic worship.

In some ways, maybe I’m the wrong person to speak to this, because (perhaps apart from the espresso bar) my own personal sensibility goes so decidedly in the Catholic direction. I’m sociable and like talking to people, and on the right occasion I will even enjoy a noisy get-together, but at heart I have an introverted, introspective temperament.

And though I am a convert, I was raised in a strongly liturgical Lutheran tradition. Not only was the Catholic emphasis on liturgy never a problem for me, it is something I want to see universally cherished, recovered, deepened, and lived, in all its simple beauty and joyful sobriety.

I certainly mean no disrespect to our separated brethren in other Christian communities. We share so many good things, and some of those good things are reflected in their worship and in ours.

And I don’t take for granted that my personality might make approaching the liturgy easier for me; I respect and sympathize with those who find it more challenging. Having experienced liturgical practices in parishes countless times that I have had to “offer up,” I can relate very well, even if different things cause us suffering.

But for me, the question that has to come first is not what I prefer or what others prefer, it’s this: Does God have anything to say about how he wants to be worshiped?

The answer to that question is an emphatic “yes.”

Unpacking what he says and what it means for us even in a library full of books would fall infinitely short of reality. We behold it in heaven. But the essence of it can be stated in a single word: “Eucharist.”

Jesus, when he instituted it, handing over to his Apostles himself — his body, blood, soul, and divinity — at the Last Supper while establishing their priesthood, literally said, “Do this.”

The Old Testament is rife with foreshadowings of it; all four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and many other New Testament writings allude to it or speak of it explicitly; the earliest church fathers write unmistakably of it, for instance Justin Martyr, who gave a famously recognizable description of the basic parts of the Mass within living memory of the Apostles; the Second Vatican Council called the Eucharist the “source and summit of the Christian life.”

Once you see it, it’s everywhere. This is the worship God commands.

At every Mass, the “Paschal Mystery” — the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which is the hinge of human history and the means by which God reconciles fallen humanity into communion with himself — comes miraculously bursting through time and space into our here and now, into the midst of our joys and sorrows and triumphs and brokenness, with all his mercy and tender care.

What could possibly be more spectacular? And then we actually consume him, receive life from him into our very bodies. What could be more intimate, more personal?

But to our senses, it does not look spectacular at all. There are no fireworks, no angelic trumpets. It looks and tastes like bread and wine, in much the same way that God incarnate, dwelling among us, looked like any other baby or boy or man, and, when he reconciled the world to himself on Calvary, looked like a criminal being executed.

If the stupendous things that happen in every Mass were obvious to our senses, it might be easier for us in some ways. But we can take consolation and courage from the fact that God willed it to be this way, and he always wills such things for our good.

This tells us that he means for us to spend our lives learning with the eyes of the heart, with the eyes of faith, to participate “in spirit and in truth” more and more deeply in what he is doing in the liturgy that we have received from him.

Put another way, as my pastor likes to say, we’re meant to “practice our faith.” When my daughter received her first Communion this year, he told the children that their best Communion should be not their first but their last. That’s worthwhile advice even for the most devout daily communicant, isn’t it? Make tomorrow’s Communion better than today’s. Be more attentive to his presence, to what he is doing in the Mass, and more receptive to his grace, more willing to let him convert and heal our hearts.

All the other stuff, the music, the silence, good preaching, loving community, and especially reverent proclamation of the sacred Scriptures, is vitally important. But in the Mass, the whole point of those things is always the Eucharist. They are always at the service of that central act of worship — the one he explicitly commands.

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

I am an absolute certifiable news junkie, and I always have been. I do not watch a lot of TV, but when I do it is almost always the news, and from various outlets.

On rare occasions, a particular news story will really have an impact on me. With no warning at all, sometimes a news story will really stick with me and even affect me emotionally. This has happened recently with the Otto Warmbier story, the young college student.

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

You may recall that Warmbier was on a group trip to North Korea when he was arrested at the airport after having tampered with or stolen (it is not fully known) a pro-North Korean poster from the hotel where he was staying.

The image of Warmbier wearing his white blazer, begging and crying for help and forgiveness, is hard to get out of our collective mind. The young college student was put on trial for an hour and then sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in one of North Korea’s prisons. Then the excitement came in mid-June that the college student was being released by his North Korean captors, only for us to hear the very next day that he was in a coma due to the brutal treatment he received in prison, and that he had been in the state of coma for nearly the entire time he was being held.

Finally, on June 19, it took my breath away when it was reported that Otto had died from his brain injuries.

Otto Warmbier’s father had been an effective spokesman during this whole ordeal, often wearing the same white blazer his son wore while on trial. The elder Warmbier showed himself to be poised and articulate.

But now here is the point I want to make with this all-around terrible story: Suppose Otto’s father, after the death of his son, asked to have a candlelight service organized, not for his son, but for his son’s captors. Suppose Mr. Warmbier asked the public to gather at such a service to pray for the health and well-being of his captors and prison guards. Would anyone go to that service?

The likely response would be to think that the elder Warmbier had lost his sense of right thinking in the midst of his great grief, but such is the expectation of Jesus Christ! Many people think that Jesus was simply a loving and accepting person, and that it is the church that made up all the challenging and even “oppressive” rules and regulations.

Anyone who thinks that to be the case has never read the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus makes it clear that there is a big difference between “Minnesota Nice” and being a faithful Christian.

The very day after news broke of Warmbier’s death, Tuesday of the 11th week of Ordinary Time, the Gospel of the day had Jesus saying, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” It is important to note that Jesus did not say to pray for the conversion of those who hate and persecute you, he simply told us to pray for them. The implication is to pray for their happiness and well-being.

What would seem to be an unimaginable thing for the Warmbier family to do in organizing a candlelight vigil for the prison guards is not unimaginable, it’s Christian. It is what Jesus teaches and even expects.

How might this apply to us? We may not personally be persecuted, but we all have people who do not like us, and we all have people in our lives that we do not particularly like either. Jesus tells us to pray for those people. And not for their conversion — we might be the ones who are in need of conversion. Jesus wants us to pray for these people’s well-being.

“Jesus said to his disciples: You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:43).

Let us keep Otto Warmbier and his family in our prayers, but let us also keep the prison guards who tortured him in our prayers too. It may be tough to do that, but it is Christian to do that.

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

Question: I value authenticity and loathe hypocrisy, and I want to simply be true to myself. How can I do that if I constantly am told what to believe and how to behave by the church?

Answer: This is a very good question. The fact that you are asking it already puts you ahead of most people in our culture. For many, the very worst thing that they could be accused of is “being fake.” But I would like to make a distinction between being authentic and having integrity.

Father Michael Schmitz Ask Father Mike

Why is this distinction important? It could seem like I am just splitting hairs or ax-grinding by focusing on what might seem like an insignificant definition. But I maintain that a great deal depends on understanding the difference between being authentic and having integrity.

It wasn’t always this way. The original use of the term “authenticity” was more complete. It referred to something that did not deviate from the original. Because of this, one could speak of a dollar bill as “authentic” (versus a counterfeit) when it matched up with a standard outside of itself. But the term has suffered a certain corruption in our day. Now, when someone claims that they just “need to be authentic,” this often implies a reference to nothing more than an interior and subjective assessment of self.

If a person tried to live like this, then their actions would be informed or guided by nothing greater than the terrible advice given to Laertes by his father, Polonius: “To thine own self be true.” If being an excellent human merely means that I am someone who is “true to myself,” then the self has become the reference point and the measure of what is or is not true. That is a recipe for disaster, not greatness.

Please don’t get me wrong. There is something amiss when our actions do not match up with our convictions or beliefs. This is rightly called hypocrisy (or “being fake”). But there is nothing inherently wrong when our actions do not always match up with our feelings or desires.

This is a critical distinction. Until relatively recently (somewhere around the rise of Romanticism), desires and emotions were given their proper place, at least by those we consider to be great men and women. The people who have attained an incredible level of excellence and wisdom in life all have this in common: They are not compelled to be “authentic” to their feelings or desires. Personal greatness (as well as human flourishing and the common good) can only be attained by individuals and cultures that advocate something more than mere authenticity.

We need integrity. Authenticity is not bad! It is simply not enough. While there is great benefit from being “true to self” at times, the self is not and cannot be the measure of all things. There must also be an external standard that guides a person and which judges a person.

The term “integrity” refers to a certain wholeness. Authenticity can refer to this as well, but integrity includes an additional element: an external and objective standard. One could consider it in this way: There is a difference between being candid and being rude. Both candor and rudeness can be oriented around honesty. But there are different ways to express honesty or to live honestly.

Both the candid person and the rude person could claim, “But I’m only being honest!” And they might both be right. But candor is not about simply saying whatever thought comes to mind or expressing whatever emotion one might be experiencing. The candid person is completely honest with others based off a high regard for truth. Dr. Montague Brown notes, “Where truth is expected and at issue, we should always give our frank opinion.” Rudeness, on the other hand, “may or may not be an expression of what is true, but it always offends others unnecessarily.”

Dr. Brown further clarifies the distinction by noting, “[Candor] is an open exchange for the good of both parties; rudeness is bluntness designed to satisfy one party by offending the other.” I find this distinction to be profoundly helpful when thinking about authenticity and integrity as well. Rudeness is only concerned with the self and involves no consideration for something or someone outside the self. Authenticity, as it is currently understood, is also primarily concerned with self-expression and self-fulfillment with no reference to a higher standard than the self.

While no one wants to be “fake,” there is an ever greater call for each human person: for one’s life to conform to the true, the good, and the beautiful found outside oneself.

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.