Star of the North Congress begins fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit

           
Through the fresh forests of Itasca State Park, Minn., an estimated 2,500 pilgrims processed approximately a mile with the Holy Eucharist to the headwaters of the Mississippi river to begin the Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. This concluded the Star of the North Congress held at the Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minn. May 17–19.

This Eucharistic pilgrimage was one of four in the United States that began the same day. The three other launching points began in San Francisco, Calif.; New Haven, Conn.; and Brownsville, Texas. After hundreds of stops in small towns and large cities on the way, the four Eucharistic pilgrimages will meet in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage July 17–21, the height of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival that began in 2022.
           
Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, Minn. and chair of the board of the National Eucharistic Congress, said he had this “crazy dream” to process with the Eucharist across the country. During the Mass before the Eucharistic pilgrimage, he asked rhetorically what would happen if the bishops of the United States called for a Eucharistic Revival and led pilgrimages across the country, praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our nation.

“What would happen?” he wondered. “We’re about to find out.”
The four pilgrimages began on the feast of Pentecost, sometimes referred to as “the birthday of the Church,” since it celebrates the decent of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the disciples’ mission to spread the Good News of the Gospel. It was the start of something new and transformative—something that quickly shook the foundations of the world. No government, no culture, no landscape could stop it.

After an ambitious initiative to bring the Eucharist across the four directions of the United States, after they encounter thousands and thousands of people along the way… what will happen next? How will the graces from the Holy Spirit affect our parishes and cities?
We’re about to find out.

Concelebrating the Mass were Bishop Donald E. DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Bishop Daniel J. Felton of Duluth, Minnesota; Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo, North Dakota; Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Izen of St. Paul and Minneapolis; retired Bishop Donald J. Kettler of St. Cloud, Minnesota; retired Bishop John M. LeVoir of New Ulm, Minnesota; retired Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa; and Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm.