Archbishop’s Weekly Word: There’s extra to life than extra

Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda

If you watched the Super Bowl yesterday, you might need seen the business that’s a part of the “He Gets Us” sequence. This yr, the advert addressed the extreme noise and deceptive expectations of our tradition—extra toys, extra enjoyable, extra stunning, extra pleasure, extra thrills, extra wealth. I wasn’t certain the place the business was main till the final scene (a girl discovering peace within 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 sport and business at certainly one of our seminaries, within the midst of inspiring younger males who had been selecting a unique type of “more.” I believe that they might have all informed me about St. Ignatius of Loyola’s idea of the “magis”— the “more” — that we encounter in his religious workouts. The elementary concept for St. Ignatius is that we attempt to do the extra, the higher, the higher, for God—and never for ourselves.

For these of you who obtained my February video, chances are you’ll recall that I ended with some encouragement for you: particularly, to be daring in what you ask of our Lord, to be humble in accepting his will and to be beneficiant in what you provide to him, trusting in his goodness. In my Weekly Words over the course of this month, I plan to take a second every week to broaden a bit on these themes, and particularly on generosity. As our 2026 Catholic Services Appeal kicks off, I’m hoping that generosity is perhaps in your thoughts as properly.

I’ll all the time bear in mind my first Christmas as a parish priest. I used to be following a pastor who liked each Jesus and Christmas. He had for years been encouraging the parishioners to excel in giving extra to the Lord. At Christmas, that was interpreted to imply extra evergreens, garlands and twinkle lights. By the time that I arrived, there have been 140 Christmas timber within the church, a plethora of fuzzy deer and shifting bunnies and skunks included within the nativity scene, and extra lights than on any runway at MSP. I shudder to consider our carbon footprint that season. And but it was troublesome to argue with the central message that we should always all the time be striving to be beneficiant with the Lord. As Sr. Agnita reminded us within the fifth grade, “God is never outdone when it comes to generosity.”

In a manner, even our most valiant makes an attempt to be beneficiant with the Lord can appear comparatively minimal—in spite of everything, what can we provide to the Creator of the universe who’s in want of nothing? I discover consolation that our God welcomes even our most meager choices and reminds us that what he desires most of all is our coronary heart.

One of probably the most worthwhile presents we are able to provide the Lord is our time in prayer. Sure, it’s one thing that I promised to do on the day of my ordination as a deacon…but it surely’s actually a necessity for any disciple. We are blessed on this Archdiocese with an abundance of laity who’re masters of prayer. I used to be notably relying on their prayers, for instance, as I used to be discerning the fruits of Synod 2025, and I’m relying on their prayers to assist our group get via our present troubles.

I used to be impressed, furthermore, once I heard of the nice variety of our trustworthy who in lately are taking part within the “School of Prayer,” the 11-week course provided by the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute, striving to go even deeper of their prayer. I’m equally grateful for all those that have participated within the Life within the Sprit seminars provided on this new yr, or who’re taking part in parish-based prayer alternatives as properly, particularly our Latino brothers and sisters and their pastors who’ve discovered methods to hope nearly with those that in lately are homebound. Prayer needs to be our bedrock. It’s like oxygen for a disciple…and it displays our generosity. As we start to set our sights on Lent this yr, let’s take into account how we’re being known as to provide the Lord “more” of our coronary heart, particularly in our prayer. As St. Ignatius would say: All for the Greater Glory of God.

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