by Bishop Raymond A. Lucker
Diocese of New Ulm

Shortly after I return from my retreat I will meet with the pastoral leaders of the diocese for a retreat and training program to prepare them to organize the Renew process in their parishes. We will be guided in this by the International Renew Team. This will be one of our regularly scheduled Pastoral Leader Days held in Willmar from March 16 to 18, 1998. The retreat will focus on the model of Jesus, the "servant of all" who calls us to be servant leaders. We want priests and pastoral administrators to come away excited about calling their parishes to an ongoing renewal. We want to give them the means to reach out to young adults and parents. Priests and pastoral administrators will be given solid support to launch RENEW 2000 in their parishes.

Next year will be devoted to the training and formation of parish teams who will give leadership to the Renew process in their own parishes. Each parish team is encouraged to form three committees: one to prepare parish missions; a second to plan the special liturgies for the Renew season; and the third to recruit and train people to form small faith sharing groups. The small groups will meet in each other’s homes six times during each of the five seasons starting in the fall of 1999, followed by sessions in the spring and fall of 2000 and spring and fall of 2001. There will be liturgical and small group materials available for each season. We will be offered a concrete and improved method of follow through to help keep the small groups going after the Renew process is finished.

By the fall of 2001 I will be near the end of my ministry in New Ulm. Then I can say, "Now you can dismiss your servant, Oh Lord, in peace." Everywhere I go I run into people who want to have help in growing in their relationship with God. So many young people write to me at Confirmation time, "I want to be closer to God." I hope that Renew will be an opportunity for all of us, especially young people and young married couples, to find God as their friend and to really believe and experience that they are the beloved of God.

I expect all parishes to participate in this program. All diocesan staff will be involved in providing leadership and direction. I invite the institutions and organizations in the diocese to participate as well. For example; the nursing homes, retreat centers, Council of Catholic Women, Catholic Daughters, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Aid Councils, Catholic Order of Foresters. The celebration of the millennium is a special time which the Holy Father is calling all of us to conversion and to work for the transformation of the world.

Just the other day I was reminded of a talk given by Pope Pius XII way back in 1946. I remember how much I was touched by this statement when I was a young priest. Pope Pius XII said, "The faithful, more precisely the lay faithful, are on the front line of the Church’s life; they should be conscious not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the church."

I hope the celebration of the Great Jubilee will have that impact on each of us.

January, 1998