March 26 – Holy Spirit at work in the Archdiocese

A parish mission called “Holy Spirit: God’s Healing Fire” will be happening every evening starting tonight until March 28, in Bellevue, Ia. I am assisting with the events on Sunday and Tuesday; thus, there will be NO Mass Monday, March 27. However, we will have daily Masses the rest of the week.

In the past year or so a group of approximate six priests from our very own Archdiocese attended a retreat where they were prayed over and had an incredible experience of healing in the Holy Spirit. They were so moved by this powerful experience that they want to bring that to others, and therefore, have organized their own parish mission right here in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. This is the first one, but their hope is to continue at various parishes throughout our Archdiocese in the future.

On this parish, they detail and share testimony of their own encounter of healing and receiving gifts from the Holy Spirit. They talk about it and pray with others – through singing of praise and worship – and later, they take time to lay hands on and pray over people, asking for God’s Holy Spirit to heal, and to pour out gifts in a new way.

I am humbled and honored to have been asked to assist with this mission and be a part of it, as it seems to be a real movement of the Holy Spirit, which I think will bear much fruit in our own Archdiocese!

Sometimes news can be discouraging – including Church news – and sometimes it seems that the hopeful things we hear about the Church are far away in other parts of the country.

But for me, this Holy Spirit mission is exciting and encouraging news AND it’s happening right here in our own Archdiocese of Dubuque! That God’s Holy Spirit is really alive, moving and doing incredible things right here in our own little Archdiocese, in little ol’ Iowa!

Hopefully, in the future, this parish mission will occur throughout the year at various parishes across the Archdiocese, and perhaps even here in our own parishes!

Speaking of retreats, please pray for our Spanish parish retreat we will be having on Sunday, April 2 from 12:30–5:30 p.m. (concluding with Mass at 5:30 p.m.) here at St. Patrick’s in Hampton.

Thanks,

– Fr. Kevin