November 15, 2026: The Church - You and I

The Church - You and I

Once upon a time there was a priest who came to a new assignment in the summer. There were some people who weren't giving him much slack. No matter what he did, it wasn't right or good enough. So he decided to be proactive and invited himself fishing with two of the biggest critics. Sure enough, he couldn't do anything right. He kept getting snagged on the bottom, his jokes weren't funny, and he even knocked over all the bait! Finally, he apologized and said, "I'll tell you what. I'll go back and get some more bait." So he stepped out of the boat and walked across the water to shore. One of the old cronies looked at him and said, "Well, he doesn’t know how to fish and he doesn’t know how to swim!" 

At the beginning of this month was Vocation Awareness week, not only for priests, but for deacons, and religious women and men. But let me focus on priests for a bit.  

A few years ago a survey was done of what people considered the “perfect priest.” It came up with:

-he’s 28 years old. He has been preaching for 30 years.

-he has a burning desire to work with youth, yet spend all his time with the senior citizens.  

-he must make daily calls on parish members and shut-ins, go to the hospital and nursing home, 

reach out the unchurched AND is always in the office when needed.  

Yikes, that’s rough. I need a volunteer [have a kid come up and I put a priest’s clerical collar on him/her and talk about him/her entering ministry]. As you all know there is a shortage of men and women going into ministry. This is not just the Catholic Church but with all main-line religions. But here in the St. Cloud Diocese that shortage has affected the number of parishes that we have. That is, we don’t have enough priests to keep parishes open. We have 54 active priests trying to serve 131 parishes. 

Bishop Patrick Neary has asked all the parishes in the Diocese to have a special focus for this weekend. He wrote, “I felt the Holy Spirit calling us as a Diocese to a genuine spiritual renewal and to a greater sense of oneness and unity as the people of God that transcends towns, cities, and even church buildings.” 

So the entire Diocese is going through an initiative to best serve Catholics and yet not burning out the priests. The initiative is called ALL THINGS NEW. It is not simply about the priest shortage. It's about something much bigger. Bishop Patrick wrote, “It about renewing our faith, strengthening our Church, and bringing us together as one family. 

This initiative doesn’t affect us at Christ Our Light, because we were the first parish in the Diocese to go through a restructuring back in 2010 when we closed the parishes of St Edward in Princeton and St Pius in Zimmerman and became Christ Our Light. And it was rough for many of us. Yet through it we have become stronger and united. 

St. Paul tells us in the second reading: "You are all one in Christ Jesus." Think about that for a moment. Here at Christ Our Light, we may come from different towns, eight different high schools and different backgrounds. We may have different traditions and memories. But we belong to one another because we belong to Christ. Being church is more than being a parish, it’s bigger. It’s the whole Catholic church and accepting what needs to happen to make us all one. 

We had New Member welcome a few weeks ago, and one of the main reasons that they joined Christ Our Light is that it was welcoming! That’s not me, not the staff . . . that’s you and how to treat people around you. You know that already. Being on a team is more than your stats, it’s playing together. Having a good neighborhood involves welcoming the new people and looking out for each other. A company thrives when it welcomes new people and has people look out for one another. Being in this country is more than your political party, it’s considering the needs of all. 

Jesus said in the gospel today, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be one IN us.”

And where do we find that “one-ness?” Right here, around the Lord's table. The Eucharist brings us together. We receive the same Jesus, and we become the Body of Christ together.

Currently, we have a young man from the parish looking at going into the priesthood, and we have two adult candidates for the Permanent Diaconate. Perhaps there's a young person you know who might have a calling to the priesthood or religious life. Maybe you could encourage them, ask them about it, or simply let them know you see something special in them. Sometimes a vocation begins because someone else recognizes God's gifts in us and gives us the encouragement to explore them. We are all in this together. 

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked, “What is the Church?” She said, “Church is not a building. It is you and I.”