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August 1, 2013By the time our August issue of the Dakota Catholic Action arrives at your household, a great many blessings for our diocese and our state will have been given to us and celebrated by us in the last two months.
Let’s review these gifts and signs of God’s love and mercy to us all. In June alone, our entire state of North Dakota was blessed in abundance with the ordination to the sacred priesthood of two priests for the Diocese of Fargo (Fathers Sean Mulligan and Troy Simonsen on June 7) and six priests for the Diocese of Bismarck (Fathers Patrick Cunningham, Joseph Evinger, Thomas Grafsgaard, Jared Johnson, Corey Nelson and Robert Shea on June 13). In addition, on June 19 John T. Folda was ordained and installed as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Fargo. What a month of blessings!
However, there was more in June. On the solemnity of Corpus Christi (June 2) we were honored to welcome Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke to the diocese as the principal celebrant of the holy sacrifice of the Mass at 11:30 a.m. who then led us in our eucharistic procession and preached at our holy hour of eucharistic adoration and benediction later that afternoon. The priests of our diocese were then led on our annual retreat at Assumption Abbey by Cardinal Burke which was a wonderful week of spiritual renewal and fortification of all of us.
Our good God continued to bless our diocese as we celebrated the annual Town & Country Mass at the Richter farms in Menoken on June 30. With the very generous support of our Catholic people from St. Hildegard (Menoken) and Sacred Heart (Wilton), as well as many joining us from several surrounding parishes, we blessed the fields, animals and implements which are all visible signs of God’s care for His children. The highlight of the day was, of course, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which was offered in praise and thanks to almighty God for His goodness and as a pledge of our will to use His blessings for the good of others and as a means to save our souls.
July has continued to be a month in which we celebrate our Catholic faith by closing a second Fortnight 4 Freedom as we pray and work to defend and foster our human right to religious liberty. A joyful celebration by the Catholic people of St. Elizabeth parish in Lefor on Sunday, July 7 marked the completion of a most beautiful redecoration of the Church. It was a beautiful opportunity to thank God for His continued blessings and to recall the deep roots of the Catholic faith in that area as well as across our entire diocese.
The weekend of July 13 and 14 was a truly great time as we celebrated the canonization of the first female Native American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha as a part of our observance of the Year of Faith. Our Native American Catholic brothers and sisters came from across North Dakota and elsewhere to thank God for His gift to our Church of this lovely young woman.
Let us thank God daily for all of His blessings. Let us use them for His honor and glory and for the building up of our Holy Catholic Church!
For more, see the August 2013 Dakota Catholic Action.