South Dakota bishop 'riding wave of grace' in first year in Sioux Falls

By Maria Wiering, Catholic News Service


ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- In a faded baseball cap and gray short-sleeved shirt, Bishop Donald E. DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, waved to a cellphone filming him inside the cab of a combine, harvesting corn.

"Blessings everybody! I'm looking straight ahead because I'm picking corn, which I haven't done for a lot of years. I'm pretty rusty," he said over the hum of the combine's engine.

He explained that he had been thinking of the area's farmers while driving to Broom Tree Retreat and Conference Center near Yankton, South Dakota, the day before for a day of recollection, and he "had a hankering" to join the harvesting.

He connected with a farmer to ride along, and the farmer turned the wheel over to him.

In the video, he told farmers he was praying for them and for a safe harvest.

The video was posted on the Diocese of Sioux Falls Facebook page Oct. 22 and garnered considerable attention. "What a down to earth, literally, great bishop we are blessed with!!" one woman commented.

Bishop DeGrood has been Sioux Falls' shepherd for just over a year.

On Feb. 13, 2020, the self-described "farm boy," who grew up near Faribault, Minnesota, and was a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, was consecrated and installed in Sioux Falls.

This past February, while at the Broom Tree center for a regular day of contemplation, he reflected on his first year as bishop in an interview with Tom Halden, the archdiocese's director of communications, on the "Practicing Catholic" radio show.

Bishop DeGrood was pastor of St. John the Baptist in Savage, Minnesota, when Pope Francis appointed him to Sioux Falls Dec. 12, 2019. He was ordained a bishop just weeks before South Dakota identified its first confirmed case of COVID-19.

Summarizing the challenges of 2020 -- the pandemic, nationwide racial tension and civil unrest, and a contentious presidential election -- Halden asked Bishop DeGrood what his first year has been like.

Bishop DeGrood, 56, noted that in a rural, less populated diocese, the effects of the pandemic and the racial tensions were felt differently than in the Twin Cities. But how he handled the year's challenges "depends a lot on how focused I keep my eyes on the Lord."

He said he gained particular insight from a book by Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College who has written extensively on the spiritual life, that talks about "surfing the wave of grace."

"So, I like to think that is riding the wave of grace," the bishop told Halden Feb. 18. "I can't control the wind. I can't control the wave, but I can respond to the wave and the grace. So, the wind is the Holy Spirit.

"So, when that Holy Spirit comes to me, am I open? Am I free? Am I trusting God? And so, I'd say that there were times of greater interior peace and freedom, even in the midst of the craziness," he continued. "But it all depends on how much I was keeping my eyes on the Lord. And when I take my eyes off or look at the problems, of course, then I would crash into the water."

Beginning an episcopacy at the onset of a pandemic changed his expectations for the year, he acknowledged, but he has found peace in trusting in God's providence and goodness.

"We just need to be with the Lord," he said. "And yes, it might mean suffering. Yes, it's going to be trials and uncertainties. But if our trust is in God, we should have great peace."

Bishop DeGrood hasn't traveled to as many parishes or events as he might have without the pandemic because he didn't want to cause people to gather. Instead, he's focused on getting to know his diocese -- which covers the eastern half of South Dakota -- on an administrative level, he said.

As he learns what his role as bishop requires, "a really consistent prayer life is really helpful," he said.

"And a couple of the really big keys that helped me this last year were getting up earlier in the morning, taking some time of spiritual reading before I do my Office of Readings -- the commitments we make as clergy -- Mass, my time of meditation, my rosary," he said.

"In other words," he continued, "once I have that that well filled up and I've got my direction for the day and whatever resistance I have, whatever fears I have, if I can openly give those up to the Lord and just receive his grace and start surrendering my plan, I find the peace settles in. And as long as I stay in that, I'm good."

Last year, immediately after being asked to take the role of bishop, Bishop DeGrood went to the chapel at St. John the Baptist and prayed, and there he felt confidence that this was God's will.

Recalling that confidence, which he called "a game changer," has also been helpful to this year, he told Halden. He also has embraced advice to "be himself," which includes his rural upbringing.

Halden pointed to that combine ride with the farmer near Yankton as one example of the way the bishop's farm background makes him a good fit for his diocese.

"The gift of being a farm boy -- there's so much natural comfort for me in being with folks in the rural area," Bishop DeGrood said. "That's who I am. That's my background. So that's a natural confidence, a natural peace. (It's) easy to talk about. I love being outside."

At the end of the 15-minute interview, Bishop DeGrood asked for prayers that he would be a "healthy, happy and holy bishop.

"That's the key," he said. "So, if my eyes are on the Lord, all is going to be good. He'll provide for the good people of God, then they can be healthy, happy and holy."

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Wiering is editor of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.