Jean Rowe, 59, a parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, shares several ties with Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, so she felt compelled to attend his Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral Nov. 28 as he prepares to be installed as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Crookston.

The bishop baptized her son, Jack, 22 years ago, and later confirmed him. Her family was present at his installation as auxiliary bishop. Rowe grew up in Colorado, as did Bishop Cozzens. Her husband, Kelly, worked with the bishop on Minnesota’s safe haven law for newborns, as Rowe’s sister in Colorado did with Bishop Cozzens’ mother, Judy, when the Cozzens family lived there.

Rowe knew the bishop when he was a seminarian and as then-Father Cozzens serving at the Cathedral. When Rowe’s father-in-law was dying in a hospital, she ran into then-Father Cozzens in the hospital hallway, and he anointed her husband’s father that day. Her husband also served with him on the board of trustees of St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights.

“He’s such a holy, wonderful man,” Rowe said. “He has a lot of intellectual firepower and a true passion for people and for Christ.”

Rowe was one example of about 1,600 people who attended the Mass and who have been touched in some way by the ministry of Bishop Cozzens, who has served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since being ordained a priest in 1997. He has been auxiliary bishop since 2013. He will be installed as bishop of Crookston Dec. 6.

During his homily, Bishop Cozzens encouraged the faithful to begin living their lives with the end of life in mind — and that the Lord “warns us” that death could come at any time.

“So, he invites us to this vigilance of heart,” Bishop Cozzens said, and the Church invites people to look at the true meaning of life. “And therefore, how should I live it today? So that I’ll be ready for the end.

“Most of us set our sights too low on what we’re really made for,” Bishop Cozzens said. “We were made for eternal joy, eternal peace, perfect love,” he said. The purpose of life is to get ready to enter into that perfect and eternal union with God, he said.

One great gift from the Lord is friendship, Bishop Cozzens said, which allows people to experience being known and loved. In preparing to leave for Crookston, he said, he will be leaving many friends behind “because friendship in this life isn’t permanent.”

“And those bonds of love that we share with each other are simple reflections of what eternity will be when we’ll get to always be with our friends, when there will be no tension, because there will be no sin, and we’ll get to taste what real friendship and communion is, first with Jesus, and then with everybody else in heaven.”

Human success is never lasting, Bishop Cozzens said. Despite best efforts, people fail and can’t please everyone. “The day when we stand before God is the real day that we want to be successful, because the only thing that can ultimately satisfy the desire in my heart for success is to hear the Lord say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’’’ That has been his goal in life, Bishop Cozzens said.

Bishop Cozzens recalled the Gospel message of behaving like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he knocks. People with vigilant hearts aren’t surprised when they experience the Lord desiring them to do something, he said, or when they recognize the Lord coming to them in a person, perhaps a difficult person, maybe a member of their family or in the poor, he said.

“You can see how much this requires that I be a person of prayer,” he said. “To have a vigilant heart, and be ready for the Lord to come today, I have to pray every day,” he said. “I have to spend some time dwelling in his word and listening to his words — that wakes my heart up from the drowsiness of this world.”

Bishop Cozzens said he was glad to say yes to his new position in Crookston even though he knew it would be difficult to go to a new place where he didn’t know people or the situation — and difficult to say goodbye “to people like you who have been so good to me here in the archdiocese, to leave my family and my friends. But I was ready for the Lord’s coming because I had practiced that vigilance of heart in prayer,” he said.

Katie Leahey, 26, a parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul, knows several members of the bishop’s family. “It was important for me to be here because of all the ways that Bishop Cozzens let the Holy Spirit work through him and just to give thanks to God for that, in all the ways he’s led parishioners and supported consecrated life and with the Handmaids (of the Lord) and the Missionaries of Charity, and family life and just the way he’s lived,” she said. “I’m really grateful for and inspired by that.”

Caileen and Jason Yost, parishioners of St. Agnes in St. Paul, came to the Mass because Bishop Cozzens witnessed their marriage and they wanted to say goodbye to him. Caileen said he was her spiritual adviser in college.

Mary Jane Miller, 81, drove to the Mass by herself from New Prague, where she is a member of St. Wenceslaus. Her son, Father Michael Miller, serves at two parishes near her home.

Bishop Cozzens was ordained one year after her son, Miller said, and she knows the bishop’s mother through a “mother of priests group.”

“So, I know him (Bishop Cozzens) very well,” she said. “And he gets a hug every time I see him because he’s like my boy.”

Joe Masek, 28, executive director of the Twin Cities-based Cana Family Institute and a member of the Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, attended with his wife, Krista, and their daughter, Madeline, 5, and son, Isaiah, 2. Baby number three was due any day, they said. Masek, who first knew of Bishop Cozzens through the bishop’s work with St. Paul’s Outreach in St. Paul. He is an incredible advocate for ministries on the front lines of evangelization and discipleship, Masek said.

“So, I came here to celebrate and give thanks to God for his leadership and for leading the charge in our diocese, both personally as well as in his advocacy of organizations like ours,” Masek said.