Oh, how grateful I am!

Since my installation as your bishop a little more than six months ago, I’ve been able to visit more than 100 parishes. More visits are on the way, and if I haven’t been to your parish yet, rest assured the day is coming.

In every single parish I have visited — whether I was there for celebration or mourning — I caught the vitality of faith. It’s not a matter of finding out how many programs or activities are going on. It isn’t an issue of whether it is a big or a small parish, an urban parish with a long history, a fresh-faced suburban parish or a parish on a country road. It’s the depth of the faith I have encountered in every corner of the diocese and the excitement the parishioners have for their faith, which they share with me.

No one is being unrealistic or having their head in the clouds. Budgets are sometimes stretched. People know that at this point in the pilgrimage we don’t have an abundance of priests to serve in every possible ministry. And they know that not every building can be replaced, every project undertaken, every hope met.

But they do know that there is a Holy Spirit alive and with us and especially guiding us. They see grace at work every day, in their own lives and in the lives of those around them. They see babies baptized, young people confirmed, marriages celebrated. They see people not only living the faith, but willing to spread the faith. They see parishioners of every age growing in knowledge of the faith and, at the same time, taking that knowledge to heart and living their faith. They see a new dedication to a stewardship of prayer, sharing and service. And they see a true sense of vocation taking root all around them.

Alive in the Eucharist

Where is this New Pentecost coming from? We could point to a million things and think up all kinds of fancy reasons for it. But I think, in my heart, what we are seeing is the miracle of the Eucharist lived. That’s the universal challenge that I see in every parish. People today are trying to better live the Eucharist.

Take a look around you at Mass. Forget who is not there — for the moment at least — and take a look at who is there: it’s a cross-section of your sisters and brothers, and mine, too! They have come together from every political angle, every spectrum of opinion, every invaluable ethnic group.

Why are they there? You can’t argue in this day and age that it is social pressure — people there just because everybody else expects them to be. In a world with a million distractions, you can’t argue that they are there looking for something to do. You can’t even argue that they are looking for a few moments of serenity in their busy lives. They could find that elsewhere fast and easy.

What I see are people alive in the Eucharist. That is why they are at Mass. That is why they are returning to confession. That is why they raise their children in the faith and educate themselves in the faith. That is why they will be at eucharistic exposition and adoration starting in our parishes on June 29. That is why they are confident in their faith. That is why they are willing to find those people who should be at Mass and are not. That is why they are people of prayer and people of action.

Guided by the Spirit

Right after Peter’s speech at the first Pentecost, right after we are told that 3,000 were added to the Christian community on the first day, the Acts of the Apostles describes the new Christian community:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers … And day by day the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42, 47).

Oh, how grateful I am to be with you! To be back with you and now as your shepherd; to be with you at the Eucharist; to be with you being guided by the Holy Spirit; to be with you in this New Pentecost. That’s something to be excited about like nothing else in this world.