“After hearing the weather report, I clicked off the radio this morning and said, ‘Dear Lord, please let the snow stop or they may not come,’” St. Cloud Mission Office director Elizabeth Neville said. “It’s so great to have you here.”
Despite the weather and icy road conditions, about 165 people from all seven deaneries of the diocese came to St. Louis Parish in Paynesville for the Mission Rally April 8.
The rally, sponsored by the Mission Office, is in its third year as an annual event, having been held every five years prior to 2014. The gathering is comprised primarily of members of parish mission groups, although other mission-minded individuals also participate.
They joined in fellowship and prayer in the morning, followed by two keynote presentations given by Crosier Fathers Jean-Marie Zawadi Kambale Sambya of The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yustinus Nana Sujana of Indonesia. The two priests are missioners to the U.S. Crosier Fathers and Brothers, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, although they also spend time at the Crosier priory in Onamia.
“I am living here in the United States like a snowbird,” Father Zawadi joked with those gathered. “When it is hot in Phoenix, I come to Onamia. When it is snowing here, I go to Phoenix.”
But the weather did not keep him from sharing his story of mission and hope with men and women at the rally.
“My father told me, ‘You have to work hard, to dream big, and to never stop trying.’ That sentence stayed with me in my life and also in my priesthood,” Father Zawadi said. “I use my priesthood to promote a culture of justice and peace. To serve the poor and end the cycle of poverty … I feel big energy inside of me when I see the poor; I can’t stop it.”
Likewise, Father Nana shared his passion for mission in Indonesia, where he served in the Diocese of Agats in Papua, before coming to the United States.
Indonesia is home to the largest province of Crosiers in the world and also the largest Muslim population in the world.
“So we have to be a bridge,” Father Nana told participants. “How can we [Crosiers] make a positive contribution to our society?” he asked, after sharing some of the challenges of ministering in an area that is less than 3 percent Catholic and includes religious diversity within his own family.
The answer is to encourage “students to become good examples of unity in diversity,” he said. “We are to form good human beings who are working for a decent human society, in the hope of eternal life.”
Missionary spirit is alive
Following Fathers Zawadi and Nana’s talks, which culminated in a song and dance from the Congo, rally participants celebrated Mass with Bishop Donald Kettler and Father Glen Krystosek, pastor of St. Louis Parish as well as St. Agnes Parish in Roscoe and St. Margaret Parish in Lake Henry.
Referring to the many displays of handmade quilts, baby quilts, dishtowels, knit items, cards, children’s clothing and rosaries exhibited throughout the parish hall that mission groups had been working on throughout the year, Bishop Kettler told the women,
“We are thankful for your mission projects, of course, but more importantly, for your example of missionary spirit. … It says to our parishes that this is an important part of the work of the church.”
The missionary spirit could be felt throughout the day, which concluded with a report from the Mission Office on the many ways that parish mission groups’ contributions of items, funds, prayers and activities have blessed the global outreach of the diocese throughout the past year.
“I am the fruit of mission,” Father Zawadi told rally participants. “The fruit of the many, many people like you, who believe in mission.”