Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, left, Bishop Richard Pates, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Crookston, and Bishop Andrew Cozzens stand together at the altar during a vespers service Dec. 5 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Crookston. This is a photo capture of the event, livestreamed by the Diocese of Crookston.

In his homily at a vespers service in Crookston the night before Bishop Andrew Cozzens was to be installed as the eighth bishop of that diocese, Archbishop Bernard Hebda recalled the time as priests in Rome he and Bishop Cozzens provided pastoral care for religious sisters with St. Teresa of Kolkata’s Missionaries of Charity.

“While the sisters liked me, they loved Father Cozzens,” he said Dec. 5 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, adding, “By God’s grace, both of us were shaped more by the Missionaries of Charity than they were by us.”

It’s no coincidence that Bishop Cozzens’ motto, which translates to “lend us your heart,” was a favorite quote and prayer of Mother Teresa, the archbishop said. “If you want to understand your new bishop, take some time to get to know Mother Teresa,” he said.

Bishop Cozzens asked Archbishop Hebda to deliver the homily, during which the archbishop noted that the world learned after Mother Teresa’s death about some of the dark spiritual struggles she faced for decades. But “she certainly understood a thing or two about joy,” the archbishop said.

In her way of looking at the world, joy is present in people who live a life of loving surrender and total trust, he said. And Mother Teresa told her sisters that joy can be the net that catches souls, the archbishop said.

“I’ve seen that at work myself in these last six years, as I have worked closely with your new bishop,” he said. “His joy is one of his great evangelistic tools.”

Bishop Cozzens is “a gifted and inspiring bishop who himself is filled with joy” that is foundational, not situational, a joy that comes from knowing what God has done for us, the archbishop said.

Pope Francis has said that Christian joy does not mean living laugh to laugh, but rather, peace that is deeply rooted, peace in the heart, the peace that only God can give, Archbishop Hebda said. For St. Augustine, a Christian should be an alleluia from head to toe, the archbishop said. “He is speaking of an existential joy, a joy that comes from knowing that we’re loved by God, chosen by God, sustained by God,” knowing that God is in control and has a plan.

Archbishop Hebda closed his remarks with a quote from a letter Mother Teresa wrote a few hours before her death in 1997: “We have much to thank God for, especially that he has given us Our Lady’s spirit to be the spirit of our society. Loving trust and total surrender made Our Lady say yes to the message of the angel, and cheerfulness or joy made her to run in haste to serve her cousin Elizabeth.

“Let us keep close to Our Lady, and she will make that same spirit grow in each one of us,” the archbishop said. “On this second Sunday of Advent, on this vigil of your installation, bishop, let us heed Mother Teresa’s advice. We join you, Bishop Cozzens, and the faithful of Crookston, in asking Our Lady to lend us her heart, her joyful heart, for the years ahead …”