Dear Parishioners,

We are in the middle of a Eucharistic revival which is happening all across our nation. As you know, the Eucharist is Jesus himself coming to us under the guise of bread and wine. After the consecration at Mass, the bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood. So what looks like bread and wine are now changed. The technical terms are the accidents (what it looks like) remain, but the substance (what it is) is now different.

However, many Catholics no longer believe this. This is of great concern to the Bishops who are the shepherds of our church. This is a very important teaching, and one that we as Catholics believe and which protestants do not believe in the same way. So, it’s not surprising that many Catholics may be influenced by others when it comes to this teaching. This is why the Catholic Bishops of our nation have asked us to have a revival in our Eucharistic piety. That’s why there is a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July and a local Eucharistic Congress in Bemidji in May.

I want to just say a word on the Eucharistic Congress that is happening in Bemidji on the weekend of May 17th -19th . This is literally in our backyard, so even if you wanted to go just for a day you could catch part of the experience. This event is to kick off the Eucharistic pilgrimage down to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress which is happening July 17th -19th . The pilgrimage is one of 4 that will stretch across our whole country and converge in Indianapolis for the great National Eucharistic Congress. If you get the bulletin emailed to you, there will be a short promo video and a schedule of the Eucharistic Congress in Bemidji. I would invite anyone to go, even if its just for a day. There will also be some follow up events in our own diocese in the days following that event. If you can go for the whole weekend, great, if you can only make one day, then I would suggest Sat. May 18th . The day begins at 9 AM with a Mass and ends at 4:30 PM. It’s doable to drive up for the day. Note that that weekend is Pentecost, and many of the priests will be at the congress, so some of the local Masses will be cancelled in leu of the Congress in Bemidji.

We have just a few weeks before our St. Joseph Gala which will be at the Northern Pacific Center in Brainerd on May 10th beginning at 5:30 PM or 5 PM for the VIP event. It should be a great event. We are planning to share the news of where our project is at, and the direction we will be going.

Next weekend is commitment weekend for the Ministries Appeal. This is an opportunity to share with the diocesan office your gift, or help them understand what you intend to give. In the church world we depend on donations to make our budgets and our goals, but its not always easy to know what that will be. Giving a pledge for the Ministries Appeal would be super helpful to the pastoral center staff, because this is the first year it really will help them know how to plan with those gifts that are coming in. We’ll be putting out envelopes which you can grab at church if you need another envelope to send money to the diocesan office.

Thanks to all who are giving to help us meet our financial goals.

A word of apology, last week we misspelled some names in the bulletin of our first communicants, and we missed one too, but we are still very grateful for those who were able to make their first communion. We will include a corrected list this weekend. Congratulations to all who made their first communion, or their confirmation these last few weeks! I am very proud of you and grateful for you.

In Christ,
-Fr. Eli