By Fr. Bernard Lorenz
Western Diocesan Hispanic Ministry and Spiritual Advisor of the Lincoln Diocese Cursillo Movement,
in residence in McCook
The horses ran
Last December, 23 cowboys and girls rode their horses into Wellfleet to celebrate the feast of the Blessed Mother Mary, Our Virgin of Guadalupe (Dec. 12). This was the third year of this beautiful tradition of joy. It incorporates the blessing of the riders’ horses into the prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift of His mother Mary to all of us.
These men and women, almost all Mexicans, love their hard work and their horses and their Catholic faith. They love to love it all together in a sincere act of devotion. Many of the English-speaking parishioners attended with great joy. All are welcomed.
After the blessings of the men and women and their horses—who ran to love Jesus in the church with His Mother Mary—all enjoyed the Holy Mass and a great potluck meal afterward.
The immigrants ran
Each Wednesday evening, I celebrate a holy bilingual Mass at the McCook Work Ethic Camp Detention Center. About 20 men attend, mostly not from Mexico. All of them are very calm, peaceful, and many are very appreciative. Several are very devout—they know all the Mass responses and sing beautifully. Many who I have talked to since December, when I began celebrating this Mass, are dads of families, looking for a better life, employment and a peaceful place to raise their young children, far from the violence of their home states.
Some don’t interact with me, don’t participate in the prayer and even glare during our service. We pray for them all, and their families and countries of origin. We pray for a peaceful path to lead them to a virtuous life that leads them through the holy Catholic faith to Heaven. That is the best we can do, with Jesus and Mary. We pray that as they ran here, they will run with Jesus to eternal life now and forever.
I run
I run around a 20-parish area each month, attending to the faith of hundreds of people who are running also. Many run to work, run behind their children, run to their spouse, run to church and run to help their neighbor. So I run with them and Jesus.
In Benkelman, Wauneta, Hayes Center, Wallace, Wellfleet, Smithfield, Oxford, Arapahoe and McCook, I celebrate Holy Mass in Spanish or bilingual—because several non-Spanish speaking faithful attend also. Thanks to the delegation of Bishop James Conley, I have done nearly 100 Confirmations over the years. Thanks to the care of the local pastors in all these parishes, I have joyfully prayed countless baptisms and confessions, 3- and 15-year birthday celebrations, and many weddings; all with the Hispanic colorful cultural joy, enthusiasm and music. It has been a great run these 40 years of serving the Lord and His people as His priest.
I have made countless friends in Jesus Christ—including many through my accompaniment of the Cursillo Movement in our Diocese— and all over our country and hemisphere. I even ran to Mexico with the wonderful mission team from Cristo Rey Parish in Lincoln to offer several retreats to a thousand people the last two years. There is the Holy Spirit working powerfully in that mission community.
With the few years of running that I have left in me, I am looking forward to the run to the finish line. Shoulder to shoulder with Jesus and Mary, it promises to be a joy-filled and faith-filled run.
God ran
And all this running is because God ran to us (Luke 15:20), embraced and kissed us. He loves us, so we love Him and all His family, and even the prodigal children. God in His prophets (I Kings 18:46) and kings (II Samuel 6:14-16) ran before us to lead us to covenant faithfulness and salvation. God, in John the Baptist, ran in the desert to call us to repent and believe and prepare the way of the Way (Jn 14:6) that we must run daily.
And Jesus the Christ, true human and true God, ran to the embrace of his Mother and Father (Lk 3:51) and ran to the cross (Mk 8:31) where His saving blood ran over us and washed us (Revelation 7:14).
This saving Lamb (Jn:1:29) saves us if we are willing to run with Him the way of the cross and virtuous life. God is running to you, before you, with you and in you. He runs in you more than the blood in your veins run in you. Thank Him every day for teaching you how to run with Him and His family, both the faithful and the prodigal siblings on this earth. Run so as to win! (I Corinthians 9:24-27).
I pray that you will run with Mary Magdelen, Peter and John, (Lk 24:4-39) Cleopas and his wife Mary and St. Paul the Apostle. Run to Heaven with the Risen life of Jesus in your soul and every cell of your body. Plodders often times take the easy road (Mt 7:13-14). Jesus, our resurrection and our abundant life (Jn 10:10), is running the way we need to run. This spring, let us RUN in this risen Life of Jesus as He ran it for us!
