When St. Patrick in Shieldsville hosts the archdiocese’s annual Rural Life Sunday Mass June 27 at 10:30 a.m. in the church parking lot, it plans to roll out the welcome mat — and a hay wagon for the celebrant, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, as well as an organ on wheels.

St. Patrick started using the church parking lot and the wagon last Easter as the COVID-19 pandemic began so that its parochial administrator, Father Thomas Niehaus, could continue to say Mass in person for parishioners. Parishioner Dan Pumper’s family donated the hay wagon to serve as a movable, elevated platform, and parishioner Jake Simones built a canopy to protect Father Niehaus from the elements.

“I told Father Tom that he’d need to put up the first few bales of hay when we start haying,” joked Pumper, 44, a sixth-generation parishioner and parish trustee.

Outdoor Masses were held at St. Patrick through the first weekend in November last year, when cold weather set in and Mass moved indoors, with COVID-related precautions and livestreaming. The hay wagon, however, has returned for the summer, and Masses resumed outside June 6.

Shieldsville is about 10 miles northwest of Faribault. Father Niehaus said Rural Life Sunday is a chance to show the connection between rural families, the connection those families have to the land, and to the way of life in rural areas.

“There’s a theology of stewardship that connects what God has given and how we are entrusted, as rural families on the land, with this great gift,” he said, “and how we’re able in rural areas to really praise the Lord.”

Being stewards of the land is a gift, Father Niehaus said, not something to possess.

“God gave us a responsibility to share not only in the preservation of our natural resources,” he said, “but to communicate to others that this is part of our praising the Lord and giving thanks.”

Father Niehaus said the past eight years have been difficult for local farmers, including low prices for corn, soybeans and livestock, and that part of Catholic rural ministry has been one of “really accompanying people,” bringing encouragement and hope, counseling and listening.

The Church offers a consoling message, he said, a presence of solidarity that “we are with you,” that God will show a way to help get through tough times.

One of the blessings in rural areas is that families support one another, Father Niehaus said.

Pumper and a cousin operate an uncle’s farm where they grow corn and soybeans. He said working on a farm goes back in his family four or five generations.

Pumper estimates about half of the 240 registered parish families are farmers, and the number of parishioners is growing, as evidenced in increased baptisms and seeing more young children at Mass. He gives much of the credit to Father Niehaus, whom he said has been a breath of fresh air for parishioners.

Ordained in 2008 for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Father Niehaus ministered in southern Minnesota parishes prior to his appointment in the archdiocese in 2019. He was formally incardinated into the archdiocese last year. In his role today, he serves a parish cluster that includes the merged parishes of Most Holy Redeemer in Montgomery and St. Canice in Kilkenny.

In past years, the Rural Life Sunday Mass has typically been hosted at a farm of a parishioner of the hosting parish. Last year, the event was not held due to COVID-19.

This year, attendees won’t have a close-up view of farm life, but they will get a glimpse of rural parish life. Every parishioner has a niche, Pumper said, whether maintenance or bookkeeping or cleaning or organizing. He is amazed at how parishioners quietly take care of things when they see a need.

“You look at a tree and think to yourself, ‘That tree should be trimmed,’ and about a week later, all of a sudden somebody did it,” he said. “You don’t know who did it, but somebody did.”

In a small parish, he said, “things just get done.”

That’s true even of surprising needs. Simones, the husband of the parish music director, Alissa Simones, worked with his nephews and Pumper to build a cart to hold the church’s organ so that it can easily be wheeled outdoors. Alissa will be playing the organ during Rural Life Sunday Mass.

The Mass is open to people across the archdiocese. Guests can bring lawn chairs to sit in the church parking lot or in a grassy area during Mass, or stay in their cars and tune in to the Mass on their radio. Mass will be moved inside in case of inclement weather. Refreshments and a to-go snack will be served after Mass.

Father Niehaus said the parish is excited to host Archbishop Hebda and the June 23 event. He hopes that people from the area will participate “and join in the praise of God for all that the Lord has done and thank God for the life he has given us.”

“It would be fun to see a big or a different crowd,” Pumper said, “and get some people from the Cities down here to see what a small parish is like.”