Always and Forever “Excellent!!!”

We all know that if we  “Love thy neighbor as they self,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and “what you do for the least of my breather you do unto me” is the formula, the road map, for living a good life and in finding happiness and contentment.  To strongly validate this wisdom God gave us the blessing of Father Bernard Reiser. 

In 1964, Fr. Reiser bought seventy acres of farmland on which to build the parish and the Church of the Epiphany.  Epiphany parish grew from 150 families in 1964 to 5,000 families. 

Along the way, Fr. Reiser added to the Epiphany campus.  He built an elementary school, a Perpetual Adoration chapel, a senior housing complex, an assisted living facility, a cemetery, and several outdoor shrines.  He also led the parish to construct a spacious sanctuary.  Epiphany is now one of the largest Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and in Minnesota. 

To circumvent any future boredom Reiser Relief Inc. was created.  Its mission is to help the impoverished people of the Caribbean country of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The mission statement “to help the impoverished people of Haiti with a focus on children and families – providing clean water, food, housing and education.”  Food and Clean water where in the greatest needs.  

His faith and love were remarkable but nothing was more extraordinary than the hope he unceasingly instilled in everyone he knew and met. 

On prayer he said; “God either says; ‘Yes, not now, or I have something better in mind for you.” He also reminded; “God always hears our prayers but He doesn’t always take our advice.” 

He also counseled: “God provides us with our talents.  He guides us, encourages us and gives us the means to secure the spiritual strength needed to endure.  But he will never do the work for us.  We must persevere in the development and use of those God given talents and must make sacrifices along the way to achieve the ultimate blessings from what He has provided.” 

His unparalleled kindness and compassion – his humanitarian efforts that alleviated suffering and provided additional and incredible levels of hope - his love and devotion to his parish and his parishioners - his remarkable energy - his incredible optimism and yes, even that handshake that reverberated through one’s entire body were special blessings.  

We would be extremely fortunate in life to find any one of these rare attributes in a single person.  Those of us who found our way to Epiphany Catholic Church discovered irrefutable evidence of Gods existence – of His Divine Love and Intervention – when we found all of these attributes in a single extraordinary man.  

At age 86, Father Reiser was asked by a loving parishioner about retirement - priests do retire.  He was asked if he ever wanted to idly spend his days fishing.  He said; “Oh I can do that if I want, but you can’t fish every day.  There is simply too much to be done.”  And that parishioner couldn’t help but think; and who will do it, if he doesn’t? 

If miracles were doable by mere mortals, Bernard Reiser would be at the top of my list.  He would be perfectly healthy and thirty years old.   There could be no better way to serve God and mankind.