2024 Holy spirit healing Fire Parish Mission
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Join us this Easter Season!
St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center is embarking on a 3-evening parish mission on April 8, 9, and 10 during the 2024 Easter season. Join for this special opportunity to encounter the healing power and love of the Holy Spirit.
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Let us pray!
Please join in praying a nine-day Holy Spirit Novena prior to the STA Parish Mission. Please start the prayers on Easter Sunday, March 31 in order to finish on Monday, April 8, the day the Mission begins. The full Novena has expanded reflection questions and prayers.
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FAQs
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A parish mission is a special pastoral effort that extends over a number of days to bring the whole parish together to reflect upon a common theme. It is an opportunity to experience prayer and sacraments in a heightened way, while focusing on major themes of the Catholic faith. The upcoming mission coming to STA in April is an opportunity to set aside three evenings to specifically focus on the power and healing love of the Holy Spirit. Through teaching and testimony, prayer and sacraments, and praise and worship, the parish mission will be a time to grow in communion with God and one other. The talks and teaching will be led by a group of priests of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. More on that in the future!
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At his weekly general audience in February of 2023, Pope Francis called on the Church to invoke the Holy Spirit.
… we can have well-defined times and spaces, well-organized communities, institutes and movements, but without the Spirit, everything remains soulless. If the Church does not pray to and invoke the Spirit, it closes in on itself, in sterile and exhausting debates, in wearisome polarizations, while the flame of mission is extinguished.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us start, and start anew, as Church, from the Holy Spirit …
I leave you with this question: Do I pray to the Spirit? Do I let myself be guided by Him?The parish mission on April 8-10 is an opportunity to dive into those questions Pope Francis asks of us. While the power of the Holy Spirit is surprising and certainly unpredictable, if the Spirit does something in us, it will be for our good and the good of others. And when this happens, we'll never be the same!
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The Holy Spirit Healing Fire Parish Mission coming to STA on April 8-10 includes teaching and testimony presented by clergy of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The parish mission is a way the Dubuque presbyterate is collaborating to bring spiritually moving programs to parish faith communities throughout the Archdiocese.
Interested in learning more? Two of the priests involved with the mission, Fr. Michael McAndrew and Fr. Andy Upah, tell their stories and share experiences in a recent episode of the “Dubeucharistic Revival” podcast of how this healing ministry was created and continues to be formed. They both speak about the Lord’s desire for our complete healing – inside and out – which can then lead to greater evangelization within our parish.
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God’s Promised Healing
How do you need healing in your life? Jesus himself said plainly in the Gospel of John, "I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance" (John 10:10). Can we take him at his word? For this promise is not simply something that we await in its fullness in eternity. Rather, healing is offered to us now in this life. Furthermore, because of how we have been created, we need healing in our spirits as well as in our bodies.
When you discover your need for healing in body and spirit, where do you go? Regarding our bodies, we immediately think of the medical profession. Regarding our spirits, perhaps we think of the experts in counseling and psychology. While each of these resources are very fine and even essential, what about Jesus' promise that he himself wants to give us life in abundance? Jesus himself also commissioned his disciples to go forth and heal (Mark 16:15-18). Our parish mission intends to prayerfully call upon the Lord the Healer, that we might open ourselves and receive God's promised healing. On Monday, April 8, we will call upon the Holy Spirit to fill us with His Presence, His healing presence.
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Preach and Heal Like Jesus
On the second night, Tuesday, April 9, we will explore what Sacred Scripture and our faith have to say about God's healing will. Jesus never proclaimed the Gospel without demonstrating and confirming the message with accompanying words, works, and wonders – with physical healing being the most frequent demonstration of power. Tuesday's theme will include the promises of the Lord that, as he himself spent much of his ministry healing the sick, he also commissioned his followers to go forth and do the same. Before Jesus gave the Eucharist or even the Holy Spirit to his disciples, he called his disciples to preach the Gospel and expected them to heal the sick (Mt 10:7-8; Luke 10:9). At the same time, we will consider the powerful value of suffering to redeem and transform us.
Following the teaching, we will offer the opportunity for individuals to be prayed over by teams of faithful intercessors, who will simply ask God to bring healing into those places where it is needed.
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Go and Proclaim HIs WondersOn Wednesday, April 10, we will shift focus to the promised Holy Spirit to empower us to "Go and Proclaim His Wonders." Specifically, we will hear more teaching about how God desires to impart spiritual gifts upon his children and what these gifts are like. Since we are meant to be God's representatives in the world, this prayer will seek to open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit’s gifts. As with Monday and Tuesday, there will be time to receive prayer, specifically asking to be emboldened and empowered with God's love.
The experience of the team leading this mission is that God desires to be with us, to show us his love, to heal us, and to empower us with Spirit-filled gifts. While the power of the Holy Spirit is surprising and certainly unpredictable, if the Spirit does something in us, it will be for our good and the good of others. Our world, our community, and our hearts need healing! Let's gather together in April to call upon God's goodness and receive his saving, healing, empowering love. When God does this, we'll never be the same!
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Yes! ... (but registration is now closed)
Childcare is available for children whose parents are attending the parish mission on April 8, 9 and/or 10. Preregistration was required! Childcare hours are 5:40 to 8:30pm, located in the lower level classrooms at STA. Age appropriate activities and a movie may be shown each evening (movie titles will be shared with registered parents beforehand). Children will also be served a light meal.
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