Bishop Mulvey: “Wherever we are love, life returns”

The Mass at Most Precious Blood was extraordinary, with more than 50 priests concelebrating and all gathering around the altar.
 
The daily reading on Bishop Mulvey’s 75^th birthday was not easy: the Prophet Ezekiel prophesied on the dry bones, and God brought his Spirit to fill them with life (see Ez 37:1-14). However, the Bishop did not want special readings for this Mass. In his homily, he explained why: “The dry bones have no connection and no communion.” But through the prophet's words and God’s Spirit, they came together. “When we come together; when we find communion in the Spirit, they we come to life… no one can live Christianity alone.”
 
The Holy Father also intended this when he started promoting synodality: " He helps us to come together in our dead world that has excluded God.” Synodality is a call to communion.
 
When Jesus came down to earth and became man, He didn’t give up being God. In the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal, even if they have different roles: “Love equalizes,” so the bishop. He recalled a song he had requested at his ordination with the lyrics dedicated to Mary, “Wherever you are, life returns, wherever you pass, the desert flowers.” He explained, “Wherever we are and love, letting go of our plans and ideas, life returns around us.”
 
He thanked his brother priests for bringing Jesus’ presence into their parishes and celebrating this milestone with him. On behalf of the priests, Vicar General Fr. Paul Hesse thanked him for being a true shepherd and a friend.
 
The bishop shared that at midnight, he had waited for an app that was counting down to his retirement. For midnight, he had expected something exciting—instead, it just turned to “today.” He understood this as God telling him, “You need to focus on today—living the present moment, today and the years to come.”