Father Erik’s Message from The Bulletin

“Happy would I be if I could sacrifice to God what Custer threw away to the world.”
Abbot Martin Marty (cover), 1877

Bishop Martin Marty was personally appointed by US President Rutherford
B. Hayes to the care and education of the Dakota-Sioux Indians, just two
weeks after their victory known as “Custer’s Last Stand”. Where the full
might of the US military had met worldly failure, now stood a priest and
monk armed with nothing but the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, his Faith
in Jesus Christ and his love for Our Blessed Mother.

Before earning the title, “Apostle to the Sioux,” Abbot Marty had already established
two Benedictine monasteries in the US. In the last decade of his life, although his health
was in decline, the Pope asked him to lead two different dioceses and leave behind the
Native Americans who affectionately named him “Black Robe lean chief.”
On September 15, 1896, two priests flanked Bishop Marty to keep him from collapsing
during his last act of ministry, administering the Sacrament of Confirmation to 70 youth
of St. Wendelin of Luxemburg. He fainted immediately after the Mass, forcing him to
cancel his next commitment in a neighboring town, the dedication of a new church
named in honor of the Holy Cross. The town, just off the shores of Pearl Lake, would
later become Bishop Marty’s namesake.

The life of Bishop Marty is one that can help all of us to remember who we are called to
be as Catholic Christians. Even if our own personal journeys might seem less dramatic
than his, we are all offered the choice of embracing the sufferings of this life as part of
the Holy Cross. This means we do not lose our hope that God has a greater plan than
what we can see. This HOPE is at the heart of what is happening at Holy Cross in Marty
this weekend. We are celebrating a community of friends and families that existed here
before Martin Marty became the Bishop of St. Cloud; and we renew our Catholic Faith
in the transformative power of Jesus Christ by His sacrifice on the wood of the Cross.
In the spirit of hope that this weekend represents, I want to thank the Holy Cross Marty
Community Preservation Corporation for its leadership this year. In a time of sadness
and uncertainty, the HCMCPC is pioneering an approach to preserving the sacred while
prioritizing the Faith. I hope and believe their work will capture both the spirit of Bishop
Marty, and the spirituality of the Holy Cross; successfully avoiding a worldly and
hopeless “last stand” and, instead, making the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ and our
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith stand high for the world to see.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. Because by your Holy Cross, you have
redeemed the world!

Fr. Erik Lundgren