The Mission Begins

Alleluia, the mission begins for me in Minnesota!

It is now my second full day in MN and already I have participated in an Emmanuel Community Household gathering, which is a weekly time of faithsharing with brothers and sisters from the community, and the School of St. Paul, which is a weekly night school of evangelization for parishioners from St. Stephen's. I have also been snowed on and almost locked out of my car while the engine was running because the lock almost froze solid. So the experience of MN has already been exciting.

I'm really excited for the opportunity to help at St. Stephen's and to devote the next four months to the mission of the Church and to strengthening this community. Granted,we should always be working towards the mission of the Church, which is to proclaim the Good News and baptize all people in the name of the Trinity, but I am excited to focus the majority of my daily efforts on this goal. It has been a year and a half since I was last engaged in daily ministry work and boy, do I see how I have missed it! So I thank God for the opportunity to take a break halfway through my grad. program to put what I have learned into practice. Not only that, but I think there will be a lot of learning on my part that will happen from this practicum.

Just to give you a better idea of what I will be doing the next four months because I sure needed some clarification when I got here, sometime during this time there will be a parish mission at St. Stephen's. Missionaries will be out in the streets, knocking on doors, giving testimony at house gatherings, and doing whatever else we come up with as ways to evangelize the neighborhood. I will be coordinating all the details for the mission, like housing and transportation. There is a youth ministry that is getting started at the parish so I'm supposed to help brainstorm and guide that effort. I personally hope to get some young adult activities happening at the parish too. I'm supposed to help elevate the Sunday liturgies to a higher level through better coordinated music. I don't have much experience as a liturgist besides leading music with my guitar at The Pines Catholic Camp so I could definitely use your prayers in that area. Lastly, door-to-door evangelization team coordination. It's my least favorite form of direct evangelization because it's so uncomfortable, but it sure does make you trust in the Holy Spirit and be a fool for Christ. And as with all things charismatic, the implementation and timing of these different programs totally depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, come!