The Roadway to Damascus was St.Paul’s roadway to Christ. St. Paul, the persecutor became St. Paul the dynamic preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While on the roadway to Damascus St. Paul was totally transformed into the preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is that transformed St. Paul whom I hope to know better and follow more closely.  On this second week of the season of Lent we are called to the profound transformation that Jesus asks of all of us. The season of Lent might be thought of as an invitation that all of us might spiritually walk that roadway. We gain spiritual strength as together we walk down the roadway to Damascus.

In his personal transformation, St. Paul had to turn his life upside down. He had to abandon the role of persecutor. In that short walk on the road he had to be willing to abandon his direction in life and take another path.  Look what the result has been!  St. Paul was leader to the new life given to the people who believed in Jesus as Son of God.

St. Paul taught from the depth of his wisdom that his message was to bring Christ’s message to the whole world.  His is a blessed ministry that continues to transform the world wherever he went.

The message of these early days of  the season of Lent might well be that we are being called to allow God to transform our lives from the heaviness of that which is negative in our lives, and transform them into the life-giving mystery of the Gospel.

If the Lord could transform St. Paul to be what he now is, he certainly can transform our lives from the depth of our being.

Maybe all of us need to walk the road to Damascus.  Let the Lord touch what needs to be touched, and transform what needs to be transformed.

The threefold challenge of the Church as we begin the Season of Lent is these three:  Prayer, Fasting, and Works of Mercy.  Let these three mark the way to triumph over sin and death.

The message of the Lord touches each of us.  Let that message be our compass.  At the top of the prayer list is the Church’s most important prayer:  the celebration of the Eucharist.  Come and participate in the Eucharist and receive the Body and Blood of Christ.  If you cannot come to Mass, then reverently pray its prayers in a quiet place.  Let there be some special prayer that punctuates your life in turning to God in praise, thanksgiving, repentance and worship.  Let there be prayer in your Lenten life.

The Church also calls us to Fasting in this Season of Lent.  With Catholics throughout the world we abstain from eating meat on Fridays.    When we abstain from this nourishing food we are reminded that there is a more important spiritual food that is given to us in the Eucharist. We are privileged to eat the sacrament of the Body of Christ. The practice of fasting reminds us that this season of Lent is also an invitation for us to choose to abstain from something else in our lives.  Such a chosen practice is not for display, but to turn our lives to Christ even in small and humble things.

The third practice of Lent is to care for someone or some group as they try to deal with hardship in their lives.

Prayer, Fasting and Works of Mercy are the Church’s public call in this season of Lent.  I pray that we may all be open to how the Holy Spirit wants to lead and guide us in this sacred time.May the Spirit of God strengthen us in our serious effort to “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

For many years I worked with one of those who died: Msgr. Ellsworth Kneal who was a native of St. Louis, Missouri. His desire to be a priest led him to ask if he could join the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Not only was he welcomed here, but he was also asked to pursue Doctoral Studies in Church Law. While pursuing that Doctoral Degree he taught Church Law at the St. Paul Seminary.  As a seminarian I studied that Canon Law under his guidance.

In 1965 Archbishop Binz sent Msgr. Kneal to Rome to complete his study of Canon Law. At the same time the Archbishop sent me to study in Rome as well.  It was in that year that I learned to appreciate Msgr. Kneal.  He was a man of great curiosity.  He was always asking questions and trying to understand new things. His curiosity prompted him to try to understand every thing from Canon Law all the way to some complex mechanical device that needed fixing.  His curiosity touched his love for people and his curiosity of knowing everything about you in the amount of time you had to talk to him.  His curiosity in dealing with people was not just idle curiosity, but rather it was his way of providing a pastoral touch for anyone who passed his way.  He had no pretenses about himself.  He ultimately became responsible for the Church’s Tribunal in the Archdiocese. He held a deep conviction of the importance of treating people in the most pastoral way possible, seeking only the truth.

Msgr. Kneal never spoke critically of others, nor did he tolerate such talk.  As a priest he simply wanted to minister to whatever need they had.  In Msgr. Kneal our Archdiocese had someone who was a man of integrity, sense of humor and love for the Church.

Msgr. Kneal was studying in Rome during the last session of Vatican Council II.  I was there as well.  On the last day of the Council, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Paul VI and all the bishops of the world con-celebrated Mass on the steps outside the Basilica of St. Peter.  Together Msgr. Kneal and I tried to find a place near the altar.  Thanks to his great curiosity, Msgr. Kneal led me to a place right behind the Cisteen Choir where we celebrated the close of Vatican Council II.

I pray for Msgr. Kneal and I thank God.

I learned that Archbishop Ireland had published two books.  The volumes were made up of the “Lectures and Addresses” of the Archbishop.  From those volumes I not only learned things about Archbishop Ireland, but I also began to appreciate how he worked to be a deeply theological and Pastoral Archbishop.

Many of these lectures of the Archbishop were a challenge to the members of the Church in the United States.  At the turn of the nineteenth century he wrote some strong challenges to the people of that time.  In an Assembly of the Bishops and Archbishops of the United States, Archbishop Ireland had this to say (among other things):

“I bid you turn to the future.  It has special significance for us.  The past our fathers wrought; the future will be wrought by us.  The next century of the life of the church in America will be what we make it.  It will be our own, the fruit of our labors…as we will it, so shall the story be,  The duty of the moment is to understand our responsibility, and to do the full work that Heaven has allotted to us”

Our own Archbishop John Nienstedt, has great challenges to deal with today.  I pray that we will be blessed in doing today what is needed for this day.  Archbishop Ireland stands as a good example of dealing with the challenging tasks of this time.  May we all pray that the Lord bless our efforts.

Those words have echoed through generation after generation in the life of the Church.  We constantly pray that we may be one with Christ and with one another.  It is never easy to be one, even in the life of the Church.  It can be difficult to be one with our fellow Christians, and yet we strive to have a true unity one day.

On January 25^th we celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  He was given the task by the Lord to bring the Gospel to all nations.  He was called to help us all be one.  His life is one extraordinary story after another. On his missionary travels Paul always started his preaching by preaching to the Jewish community in that area, just as Christ Himself did. Often enough he experienced rejection in the Gentile communities. The people did not want to listen to this new message.  St. Paul had a double problem. He encountered some rejection by the communities of Jewish people on the one hand; while  on the other hand he experienced the Greeks and Romans as cold to the idea of embracing the message of Christ.

St. Paul had been given a very difficult ministry, but he remained faithful to the message and faithful to his call to preach it.  I can only imagine that St. Paul kept reminding himself of what he learned from the Apostles.  He was also faithful to those words of Jesus when he remembered that Jesus said he wanted us all to be one.

St. Paul provides an extraordinary example of what it means to be one with Christ – no matter how difficult it will be. Imagine what it would be like if we all truly became one in Christ.  As we celebrate the Feast of St. Paul this year I hope we can be another step closer to him in being close to Christ.

Sometimes it is tragedy that brings us together as one.  We have experienced that in a critical way as we hear the stories of the Haiti Earth Quake.  May you continue to be one in spirit with those people as they endure immense hardship and pain.  May the message of Jesus make us all one.

Our Archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, provided some food for thought about vocations in the December 31 edition.  The headline for that section already tells something of the story of the article.  “Priests enter cyberspace to expand ministry connections”.

The Catholic Spirit article invites those who are literate in technology to consider how their skills might be used in bringing the message of Christ to the people.  That effort is already taking place, but this is a time to encourage that more be done.  One of the priests who was interviewed for the article also had this to say about the creative use of technology for spreading the Gospel.  He said: “This is the way people are communicating today.  Whether we like it or not, it is a way to reach out to people and we shouldn’t reject it out of hand.”

The article gives a brief invitation to take advantage of the technology of our time.  That effort to spread the message of Christ through the technology of today also came up as a topic of discussion at a recent meeting of our Parish Council.  It generated great interest while reminding people of how important our initiative may be.

At the same time that we are opening doors to the Church’s use of technology, it also reminds us that the living example of those committed to Christ is foundational to our lives.  In order to encourage people to consider service in the Church, they must witness the love of the Church in their lives.

At some point, however, we need to invite people to service in the Church.  We have to ask if we hope to get some response.

Every day seems to bring still more advances in technology.  Those changes can be a burden or an opportunity.  I pray that it is an opportunity.

The RCIA is the Church’s pathway for interested people to learn what it means to be a Catholic.

As in the past, this year’s RCIA program began at the end of September.  It will be completed at the Easter Vigil on April 3, when the Church’s greatest celebration takes place in parishes throughout the world.

Every member of our parish is involved in the RCIA process.  In the days ahead, especially in the Season of Lent, we will pray over these candidates and the whole congregation will be asked to pray with the candidates.  Sponsors will assist these candidates as they follow the program.

A significant part of their preparation to become Catholics involves learning the church’s teachings.  On Monday evenings the candidates and their sponsors, as well as the church’s General Sponsors gather to review and study the teachings of the Catholic Church. The sessions are usually very lively and they open up the participants to ask questions that can open new understanding.  At each class there is usually one main topic that is discussed.  The participants use the book: United States Catholic Catechism for Adults.  It could be useful for any one of us. Sister Ellen directs this whole process for our parish.

I write these words as we begin a new calendar year.  I ask that we all help those who are preparing to enter the Church.  We have an opportunity in the next several months to pray for these candidates and also to be one with them in reflecting on the aspects of the Church that are being discussed in the Monday Evening sessions.

This week, for example the candidates will be studying the Sacred Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.  Pray for them and reflect with them on this profoundly important Sacrament in which Jesus gives himself to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  The Holy Eucharist will be food for those who enter the Church for all their lives long.  It will be their Bread of Life.

We are all part of this RCIA process that welcomes new members into the Church.  Pray for them and help them along the way.

I would like to look back with you on the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in 2009. The spiritual life of a parish is at the center of our interest and even our concern. Much of that life takes place in our church building. The restoration of our church has been moving forward in the last few years. The major work of that restoration was completed and we returned to using our accustomed space for worship.  Again and again people spoke to me about the beauty of the church and the joy they experienced while worshipping within its walls.  People of all ages and from many churches in our local metropolitan area visited.  They usually departed with gratitude and appreciation.

The Church is our spiritual dwelling place, and we strive to treat it with great reverence and care. That is accomplished by the efforts of all who worship here.

The people are the Church. At the end of another year we look back on those men, women, and children who have been that stable group of people who worship together in our church, week after week.

We baptized twenty-four new Catholics in the year just ended.  Seven of them were adults who participated in the “Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.”  Baptism is our welcome into the Church, and it is the foundation of the rest of our lives as followers of Jesus. Parents and Godparents were given the charge to help these new Catholics to live out their faith.

Seven of our teenage members received the sacrament of Confirmation at the Basilica of St. Mary this year. Bishop Schweitz from Alaska conferred the sacrament on these young members of the parish. They had been well-prepared to be open to receive the Holy Spirit in this sacrament and to take seriously their place as full members of the Church.

Holy Communion was received for the first time by fourteen of our members. Eleven of these were young children.  It was a joyful day for them and for the parish as they received Christ in the Eucharist for the first time.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church continues to be a church where many people want to have their marriage celebrated. Deacon Mike Wurdock has taken over the responsibility of making sure everything is properly in place for these weddings. He receives very many calls.  Our marriage policy continues as it has been in the past.  That is, At least one of the couple must be an active member of the Church and they must be in contact with us at least six months before the wedding is to take place.

Our hope is that we help these couple prepare spiritually for the celebration of the Sacrament of Marriage.  In 2009 eighteen marriages were celebrated at our parish.

Our journey of faith continues now into the new year.  May it be a blessed year for us all.