Pentecost vigil Mass celebrates Holy Spirit’s presence in Church, Synod Assembly underway

During his homily at a Mass Saturday night celebrating the vigil of Pentecost at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that the Catholics who had spent the day at the Archdiocesan Synod Assembly building up the archdiocese can’t have the attitude of those building the Tower of Babel, interested in making a name for themselves.

Instead, they must assume the attitude of humble servants, disciples of the Lord Jesus and vessels of the Holy Spirit.

“It’s when we’re humble that the Lord, as on the day of Pentecost, (that) is going to help us understand one another, rather than separate us by diverse languages,” Archbishop Hebda said.

“It’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to converse, to say the things we need to say and to hear the things we need to hear, to accompany one another in even the most difficult of circumstances,” he said. “The Lord does that, not through the proud and the powerful, but through the lowly and the humble.”

With a congregation estimated at more than 2,000 and nearly filling all Cathedral pews, the faithful who gathered for Mass June 4 included many of the estimated 500 participants from the three-day Archdiocesan Synod, who traveled four miles by bus or car Saturday evening from the main Synod venue, Cretin-Derham in St. Paul, for the 7 p.m. Mass, followed by a Pentecost prayer gathering.

Synod delegate Mary Kennedy, a parishioner of Ascension in Minneapolis, attended the Mass, and estimated that about two-thirds of the Synod Assembly delegates participated in the 7 p.m. Mass “even though it was a long day and we were there from 8 this morning,” she said.

Asked what stood out during the first full day of the Synod, Kennedy said she sensed that the Holy Spirit was present.

“It was palpable,” she said. “You could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence in our work today. And such a positive outpouring of faith in the archdiocese,” Kennedy said. “It was really just exhilarating.”

Kennedy, 63, said the presence of the Holy Spirit was obvious on Saturday and she felt it at Mass, too. “It’s like we were all one big communal spirit and it’s so wonderful to celebrate on Pentecost weekend. It was a great day.”

Since it has been more than 80 years that the local archdiocese has hosted a Synod, Kennedy felt especially honored to be chosen as a representative from her parish. “And I work in the archdiocese,” she noted, at St. Olaf in Minneapolis.

“It’s wonderful to see the culmination of this process that we worked on so hard and then was delayed during COVID,” Kennedy said.

During the liturgy, the four Scripture readings were read in Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish and Hmong, which are among languages spoken by Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Archbishop Hebda said.

Synod delegate Dale Lieb, a parishioner of St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake, said the Holy Spirit “really worked … in the entire process.” Saturday’s Synod session was very special, he said, an experience he will always remember. Lieb said he was “absolutely thrilled” to be at the Mass and part of the historic Synod event.

“It was just a beautiful day,” Lieb said. “I learned so much. We were able to express the Holy Spirit’s thoughts, and I really felt that the Holy Spirit worked through and spoke for all of us. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced it quite that way, other than when I was confirmed. So it was a beautiful day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow to top it off.”

Lieb, 69, said the energy he experienced at Mass Saturday night was what he experienced during the Synod session earlier that day. He also noted the “wonderful constructive comments” people made during Saturday’s Synod session and the input provided was educational and inspiriting.

“I just knew it was the words of the Holy Spirit,” Lieb said.

Fellow delegate and parishioner of St. Mary of the Lake Maggi Morse, 64, recalled the eucharistic procession Friday night that set the mood of calling upon the Father, son and Holy Spirit “to be there with us” in the Synod process, she said.

Synod delegate Heather Triplett, 39, a member of the international Emmanuel Community, said Synod participants have been very respectful of others’ opinions, even when perspectives are very different.

For example, in the Emmanuel Community, evangelization is a key pillar, she said. “So I watch everything from the lens of evangelization and say we need to be missionary disciples, and we need to have missionary formation. And other people say we need to educate on the Mass.”

Triplett agrees that education about the Mass is important “because how can Catholics have the strength to go out and evangelize until they know what they’re bringing people to? So that was a different way to look than I was looking,” she said.

Near the end of his homily, Archbishop Hebda said that those involved with the Synod the past three years, “and especially today,” help set a bold trajectory for “our work ahead.”

“I look forward to conferring again with the Synod prayer team who have been so helpful in the past in helping me to discern priorities,” he said. “Prayerfully wading through all the hard data with an eye and ear on the Holy Spirit, I have great confidence in the work that you, the delegates have done today.”

Archbishop Hebda said the Holy Spirit “has blessed us” with a Church filled with diverse gifts. “It’s only when we engage all of those gifts that we can hope to move forward on all cylinders. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love.”

Dave Rinaldi, vice president of mission for NET Ministries, led a Pentecost prayer gathering following the 7 p.m. one hour, 45-minute Mass for the extended vigil of Pentecost. During the prayer gathering, Rinaldi invited people to come forward if they felt they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to share a word of knowledge for the assembly. Designated people in the front row of the church wrote the words in notebooks.

Young people to seniors took part in the prayer gathering, many lifting their hands in the air while a group played worship music on guitar and sang.

Father Jonathan Kelly, rector of St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul, participated in the prayer gathering and believed the recorded words likely would be shared with Archbishop Hebda “and the rest of the team.”

“We invite the Holy Spirit to want to speak to us in the same way we’ve been doing it throughout the Synod,” Father Kelly said. “But this is just an explicit time of prayer and praise where the Lord sometimes uses gifts that people have called ‘words of knowledge,’” he said.

“And those words of knowledge are for the Church,” Father Kelly said. “They’re not for that person; they’re for the body (of Christ).”