Pastor's Corner, March 16, 2014

Dear Parishioners and Friends, 

“The parish is not an outdated institution,” says our Holy Father Pope Francis (Joy of the Gospel, 28). The parish is the presence of the local Church in people’s local community. It is the spiritual home for Catholics and the basic cell of evangelization and catechesis. It is the place of the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist and the organizational vehicle by which Catholic can exercise their faith in charity toward their neighbor. 

At the same time, the parish must continually work at the way we interact with each other and visitors to our Church. The Pope observes that if some baptized people lack a sense of belonging to the Church it may be due to the “unwelcoming atmosphere of some of our parishes and communities, or to a bureaucratic way of dealing with problems, be they simple or complex, in the lives of our people” (63). 

Lent is a time of conversion and intensifying our practice of the virtue of charity. Our dealing with others should be marked by Christ’s own charity. Our parish and all its many activities falls short of his purpose if others do not encounter Christ and are helped along the road to holiness. Our parish can indeed become a beacon of light in the local community if we all intensify our efforts, with divine grace, to deal with people in a more personal and loving way. 

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker