Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
If you watched the Super Bowl yesterday, you might have seen the commercial that is part of the “He Gets Us” series. This year, the ad addressed the excessive noise and misleading expectations of our culture—more toys, more fun, more beautiful, more pleasure, more thrills, more wealth. I wasn’t sure where the commercial was leading until the last scene (a woman finding peace in the midst of nature) and the tag line “There’s more to life than more. What if Jesus helps us find it?”
I felt privileged to be watching the game and commercial at one of our seminaries, in the midst of inspiring young men who were choosing a different kind of “more.” I suspect that they could have all told me about St. Ignatius of Loyola’s concept of the “magis”— the “more” — that we encounter in his spiritual exercises. The fundamental idea for St. Ignatius is that we try to do the more, the better, the greater, for God—and not for ourselves.
For those of you who received my February video, you may recall that I ended with some encouragement for you: namely, to be bold in what you ask of our Lord, to be humble in accepting his will and to be generous in what you offer to him, trusting in his goodness. In my Weekly Words over the course of this month, I plan to take a moment each week to expand a bit on those themes, and especially on generosity. As our 2026 Catholic Services Appeal kicks off, I’m hoping that generosity might be on your mind as well.
I’ll always remember my first Christmas as a parish priest. I was following a pastor who loved both Jesus and Christmas. He had for years been encouraging the parishioners to excel in giving more to the Lord. At Christmas, that was interpreted to mean more evergreens, garlands and twinkle lights. By the time that I arrived, there were 140 Christmas trees in the church, a plethora of fuzzy deer and moving bunnies and skunks included in the nativity scene, and more lights than on any runway at MSP. I shudder to think of our carbon footprint that season. And yet it was difficult to argue with the central message that we should always be striving to be generous with the Lord. As Sr. Agnita reminded us in the 5th grade, “God is never outdone when it comes to generosity.”
In a way, even our most valiant attempts to be generous with the Lord can seem relatively minimal—after all, what can we offer to the Creator of the universe who is in need of nothing? I find comfort that our God welcomes even our most meager offerings and reminds us that what he wants most of all is our heart.
One of the most valuable gifts we can offer the Lord is our time in prayer. Sure, it’s something that I promised to do on the day of my ordination as a deacon…but it’s really a need for any disciple. We are blessed in this Archdiocese with an abundance of laity who are masters of prayer. I was particularly counting on their prayers, for example, as I was discerning the fruits of Synod 2025, and I’m counting on their prayers to help our community get through our current troubles.
I was inspired, moreover, when I heard of the great number of our faithful who in these days are participating in the “School of Prayer,” the 11-week course offered by the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute, striving to go even deeper in their prayer. I’m similarly grateful for all those who have participated in the Life in the Sprit seminars offered in this new year, or who are participating in parish-based prayer opportunities as well, especially our Latino brothers and sisters and their pastors who have found ways to pray virtually with those who in these days are homebound. Prayer has to be our bedrock. It’s like oxygen for a disciple…and it reflects our generosity. As we begin to set our sights on Lent this year, let’s consider how we are being called to give the Lord “more” of our heart, especially in our prayer. As St. Ignatius would say: All for the Greater Glory of God.
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