Franciscan Day of Renewal brings people of diocese closer to St. Francis of Assisi

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
October 7, 2004

IDA GROVE - A group of about 150 people from the Diocese of Sioux City gathered to celebrate the life of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Father David Hemann, liaison to Charismatic Renewal, along with the Spiritual Renewal Pastoral Team sponsored a Franciscan Day of Renewal on Sept. 26 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ida Grove for pastors and spiritual life directors of the diocese.

The Spiritual Renewal Pastoral Team includes Kelly and Mary O'Brien, Deacon Jeff and Trudy Gallagher, Father John McGuirk and Margie Lancaster.

The day celebrated the call to be alive in the Holy Spirit, loving God and serving the church.

"These are people that have been involved in groups and prayer communities throughout the years. There were a lot of familiar faces from around the diocese and various parishes," said Father Hemann.

The day began with leaders and anyone interested in meeting to talk about things they would like to bring to the diocese and about the healing Mass.

At 1:30 p.m. a Mass of healing and evangelization was celebrated by Father McGuirk.

"It is a day of renewal in honor of St. Francis," said Father Hemann. "Father McGuirk provided a very good talk on St. Francis of Assisi and ways the Holy Spirit worked through him. He also brought out the point very strongly that we don't seek the gifts of God, we seek the God who gives us gifts."

Father Hemann gave a presentation on word gifts and prayer at 2:30 p.m.

"A word gift is basically a gift of God giving the gift of his word to his people," said Father Hemann. "There are various ways that word gifts are expressed through sacred Scripture, teaching, preaching, a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, prophesy, interpretation of tongues or images. It is a living word given to us by the living God who is in our presence."

Father Hemann also explained in his presentation that before people can be good at word gifts, they have to first be good listeners.

"If you are not a good listener, you aren't going to have any words from the Lord," said Father Hemann. "We need to be prayerful people. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given for the up-building of the church, but you don't necessarily have to be that holy to be a gifted person."

At 3:30 p.m. there was a prayer offered over the attendees for an increase in word gifts, a deeper gift of listening and a deepening of authentic prayer so that people can truly speak God's word to one another and build each other up.

The final event of the day was a time for fellowship and socializing at 4:30 p.m.

"It was a lot of fun getting together. It was a very successful day," said Father Hemann.

The Hispanic group from Sioux City that attended with Father Paul Kelly performed a concert at the end of the day.

"It was filled with life," said Father Hemann. "It brought so much joy to everyone. They are excellent."

From the day, Father Hemann hopes that people got "a deeper awareness of how God wants to speak through them and use them to be instruments of his peace. I want them to be better listeners to the Lord and better speakers of his word to help people."

Father Hemann and his team would like to continue offering days of renewal in the future.