I’m planning to lead a Stations of the Cross hike at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in Inver Grove Heights on Palm Sunday (April 5), which is also the day that World Youth Day is celebrated in the local churches of the world.
I’ve chosen this location because a friend of mine, Mary Sandkamp, is buried here. Mary was a member of the Catholic young adult community in the Twin Cities and active in the local chapter of the Frassati Society. Mary died in March of 2016.
If you live in the Twin Cities and are able to attend, you are more than welcome to join me. All appropriate social distancing protocols will be observed. Here are the details:
WHEN: Sunday, April 5, 2020 – 2 pm
WHERE: Cemetery for the Church of Saint Patrick, 10499 Rich Valley Boulevard, Inver Grove Heights, MN (meet inside the entrance on the right side; Mary’s gravesite is adjacent to a series of shrubs in that section of the cemetery. A series of statues of Mary point the way to it.)
WHAT: Praying the Stations of the Cross. Click here to download/print the prayers. I will not be distributing paper copies of the prayers, so please either bring a mobile device or your own printed copy with you.
Before we begin the prayer walk, we’ll read a portion of the message that Pope Francis has written for World Youth Day 2020:
“Young man, I say to you, arise!” (Lk 7:14)
Today, we are often “connected” but not communicating. The indiscriminate use of electronic devices can keep us constantly glued to the screen. With this Message, I would like to join you, young people, in calling for a cultural change, based on Jesus’ command to “arise.” In a culture that makes young people isolated and withdrawn into virtual worlds, let us spread Jesus’ invitation: “Arise!” He calls us to embrace a reality that is so much more than virtual. This does not involve rejecting technology, but rather using it as a means and not as an end. “Arise!” is also an invitation to “dream,” to “take a risk,” to be “committed to changing the world,” to rekindle your hopes and aspirations, and to contemplate the heavens, the stars and the world around you. “Arise and become what you are!” If this is our message, many young people will stop looking bored and weary, and let their faces come alive and be more beautiful than any virtual reality.
If you give life, someone will be there to receive it. As a young woman once said: “Get off your couch when you see something beautiful, and try and do something similar.” Beauty awakes passion. And if a young person is passionate about something, or even better, about someone, he or she will arise and start to do great things. Young people will rise from the dead, become witnesses to Jesus and devote their lives to him.
Dear young people, what are your passions and dreams? Give them free rein and, through them, offer the world, the Church and other young people something beautiful, whether in the realm of the spirit, the arts or society.(source)
