After our evening Spanish Mass, I will be heading to Rapid City, South Dakota.  I will be returning on Tuesday Sept. 24 (in time for a 6:00pm Talk about Angels that I will be giving at the Rustic Brew in Hampton).

The reason I am going to South Dakota is because a priest of the Dubuque Archdiocese, Fr. Scott Bullock, will be ordained as their new bishop.  Fr. Scott Bullock was the Director of the College Seminary my first two years of Seminary.  Into my priesthood, he has continued to be a mentor and a friend.  While I am very sad to lose him from the Archdiocese, as he is a good man, priest, mentor, and friend, it gives me great hope and inspiration to know that men like him are called upon to be bishops.  He will be a very good and holy bishop, and will shepherd the Church in Rapid City, South Dakota in humility and holiness.

He chose for his Episcopal Motto Surgite eamus (Rise, let us be on our way).  At a farewell dinner, he shared with us why he chose this motto.  That these words are not just the general call to follow Christ, but Christ says these words to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Mt. 26:46); the call to follow Christ even into the greatest suffering of his earthly life: the betrayal, the Cross, the Crucifixion, and death.  It is the trust to follow Christ not just when it is easy, but to wherever he calls, even when it is difficult.  “Because,” Fr. Scott told us, “we trust that Christ will lead us even through suffering and death to life on the other side.”

On the Diocese of Rapid City website, he more formally explains about his motto: Christ is spurring onward His disciples into the fullness of life which is only and ever found through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  “Rise” is the same verb used in the gospels to refer to Jesus’ healings as well as His resurrection.  In this, Jesus definitively declares the divine will that we rise with Him, both through healings of body and soul in this life and in the resurrection in eternity…Divine love impels Jesus forward towards our salvation and we, if we are willing, are drawn along His way into new life and will want to draw others into this new life. Jesus sets Himself with determination (and his disciples with Him) on the way of self-sacrificial love to the fullness of life that He has already promised, “I have come that they might have life, and have it in abundance” (John 10:10).  Let us be on our Christian way of immersing ourselves with Jesus through Mary in the saving cross and resurrection of our salvation. Full life is at hand.  Surgite eamus.

Please pray for Fr. Scott Bullock, and his new ministry as the Bishop of the Diocese of Rapid City

Peace,

-Fr. Kevin