Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Joseph Williams lived out synodality — by praying, sharing a vision for the future and answering questions focused on the archbishop’s upcoming pastoral letter — with about 180 priests and deacons during their biannual Clergy Study Day.

“As we get closer to the publication of the pastoral letter, the Church is waiting,” Bishop Williams said Oct. 25 at St. Peter in Mendota. “We are in the Upper Room and we’re waiting for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But we’re waiting also for our marching orders. You might say the Magna Carta of evangelization for the next several years is going to come through that, through our archbishop’s pastoral letter.”

Archbishop Hebda is preparing the letter for release as the Church celebrates the Nov. 20 feast of Christ the King.

The letter will outline the archbishop’s priorities for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and its parishes in the coming half-decade, including a method for helping more people come to know the Good News of Jesus Christ. These priorities, the archbishop has said, were formulated through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the archdiocese’s three-year Synod process. Those years of listening, preparation and engagement included reaching thousands of parishioners, religious and clergy and helped shape a Synod Assembly in June that honed three major themes: 1) Forming parishes that are in the service of evangelization, 2) Forming missionary disciples who know Jesus’ love and respond to his call and 3) Forming youth and young adults in and for a Church that is always young.

The Clergy Study Day, titled “In the Footsteps of Christ the Builder,” included talks by Bishop Williams and Douglas Bushman, director of parish formation and mission at St. Joseph in West St. Paul. The speakers offered thoughts and outlined a path forward to support priests and deacons in the formation of missionary disciples in their parishes, people who can spread the love of Christ to the wider community. A similar, virtual town hall presentation for deacons was held the evening of Oct. 27 and drew about 65 clergy.

Priests and deacons at St. Peter also spent a holy hour in prayer together with Archbishop Hebda, a refreshing and delightful time, said Deacon Joe Michalak, director of the archdiocesan Office of Synod Evangelization. “I heard over and over from men that as good as everything else was, being in the presence of our merciful Lord in silent receptivity was the highlight of the day,” Deacon Michalak said.

The method for sharing the Good News includes inviting 12 people from each parish to act as Synod Evangelization Teams and preparing them for their roles in a seven-week School of Discipleship formation program early next year through the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute in St. Paul.

Those 12 will attract more missionary disciples, who will attract still more, much as Christ grew his Church in choosing 12 Apostles, Bishop Williams said. “Jesus, who’s always the way, now shows us the way of evangelization, the true apostolic path, and it’s going to be with brothers,” the bishop said.

Bishop Williams acknowledged the tumultuous time priests and deacons have faced the last several years, particularly with the archdiocese coming out of bankruptcy reorganization stemming from clergy sexual abuse claims and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering that, Jesus’ model of forming missionary disciples could bring great consolation to priests and deacons, even as it broadens and deepens the Church’s ability to share God’s love, the bishop said.

Jesus acknowledged his own limitations when he proclaimed at one point in his ministry that the “harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few,” the bishop said.

“His divine heart embraced each and every person in that crowd, but by his incarnation, he’s confined himself,” Bishop Williams said. “He’s now limited in his humanity. He can’t heal everyone through his sacred humanity. He realizes his limitations. And out of that comes the ‘harvest is abundant, but the labors are few. So, ask the Master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.’”

Bushman discussed the dignity God gives each person to be co-workers for his kingdom, and the need to prepare people well to do that. “We must take up the task of equipping the faithful for ministry,” Bushman said. “This must be a real priority at this point in the Church’s history.”

Vatican II and the new evangelization call for a new Pentecost, inviting the Holy Spirit through the baptismal priesthood of all the faithful to serve as witnesses to Christ’s love, by living good, beautiful and virtuous lives, and spreading the faith, Bushman said.

“God is the sovereign master of his plan, but to carry it out, he also makes use of his creatures in cooperation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God’s greatness,” Bushman said. “God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan.”

By inviting people to actively participate in God’s plan of salvation, priests, deacons and others are forming friends in the faith, encouraging each to maturity, much as a father and mother form their children, Bushman said.

“One way to describe the goal of fatherhood is to work yourself out of a job,” Bushman said. To be able to say, “I see so much of Christ in you. You are now a brother laboring in the vineyard with me, with your own unique set of gifts that bring you to the common task of the new evangelization.”