Bishop Robert Barron (ZENIT News – Word on Fire / Rochester, 06.17.2024).
- The first week of June was one of the most liturgically rich of my priesthood. As part of the National Eucharistic Revival, the Marian pilgrimage was making its way through my diocese en route ultimately to Indianapolis. We processed with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Rochester, Minnesota, and then I celebrated a grand, festive Mass in the city’s Civic Center.
A few days later, I said Mass in the town of La Crescent, which is just on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River, and then processed with the Eucharist, in the company of around three thousand people, to La Crosse, on the Wisconsin side. At the close of that procession, I handed the monstrance to my colleague, Gerard Battersby, the bishop of La Crosse, and then together we celebrated Mass for the gathered throng in the La Crosse Civic Center. All of these prayer services and Eucharistic liturgies were marked by song, bells, incense wafting from swinging thuribles, sumptuous vestments, and litanies galore.
The day following the La Crosse Mass, I had the privilege of ordaining three young men as priests for my diocese of Winona-Rochester. The ordination liturgy, one of the most beautiful in the Church’s repertoire, featured—along with everything just mentioned—the anointing of the hands of the newly ordained, a formal welcome from all of the priests present, and a ceremony of investiture. All of it was wonderful.
All .
