Happy Easter!
As we continue journeying through the Easter season and towards the great Solemnity of Pentecost, I want to share with you my gratitude to the Lord for the abundance of gifts that he has showered and continues to shower down upon us.
In particular, I am grateful for the ways some of the faithful of east river South Dakota have responded to the Set Ablaze initiative. While the journey has not been without its difficulties, the clergy, religious and lay faithful of our diocese who have responded generously and courageously to this new way of life are greatly appreciated. And as we are now nearly three years into the new structure—parishes working together with other parishes, with one pastor and other clergy supporting him—and as we are approaching this great feast in which we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and others gathered in Jerusalem in the upper room, it seems to me to be a good time to reflect on the aims of our Set Ablaze initiative and how it will continue well into our future years.
As I shared in my pastoral letter, “Set Ablaze: Unleash the Fire of the Holy Spirit,” on Sept. 24, 2022, the fundamental purpose for which we undertook Set Ablaze is to revitalize the faithful, consecrated and clergy in our diocese so that we might more easily and fruitfully respond to the diocesan vision the Lord revealed to me in prayer nearly six years ago to build a culture of Lifelong Catholic Missionary Discipleship Through God’s Love in our beloved diocese.
The Lord continues to confirm in my prayer the primary aims of our Set Ablaze initiative. They are essential for renewal. Through the structural changes already made, the new approaches to parish, pastorate and diocesan planning need to continue to develop and be implemented so that we, the faithful of the diocese, might deepen our personal discipleship, our communal practice of our beloved faith and our loving service of God and others, and that we might more effectively invite others to do the same.
The other aims of Set Ablaze are all oriented towards that primary aim. They are: to maximize the complementarity of priestly gifts to best advance our diocesan vision; to scale resources so each parish, in its relationship with other parishes, may be appropriately staffed and equipped for this effort; and to promote the proper co-responsibility of the lay faithful in the Church’s mission.
As we approach Pentecost this month, I would like to invite each and every one of you to pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, not only on our diocese as a whole, but on each and every person who lives in eastern South Dakota, including yourself and me. Let us each beg our heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, to lavish us with the gifts of his Holy Spirit, that we might each be “set ablaze” with a deeper awareness of the Father’s love for us and a deeper desire to share that love with God and others.
Come, Holy Spirit!
