Our parish mission statement

Last fall, I asked all of you to write down some things that you want our parish, St. Mary, Cause of Our Joy, to become; the direction that we should take as a parish. (Not necessarily items or fixes that you wanted, but rather what we wanted to become, how we wanted be seen and known by others). After you filled out those blue cards, I compiled the answer and presented them to the parish pastoral council. After a few months of thinking, listening and discussing, at the January meeting, we came up with our parish mission statement.

The Parish of St. Mary, Cause of Our Joy, inspired by Mary’s “Yes” and led by the Holy Spirit, strives to be a faith-filled community, joyfully welcoming all to witness and to celebrate the Gospel.

This is a simple and humble statement, focusing on Mary, our model and the patroness of our parish. We “strive” to be a faith-filled community, because we are not perfect. That is why we need to be led by the Holy Spirit, in whom we place all of our trust and hope. We can’t do it on our own, nor are we there…yet. The merging of the three former parishes left many people feeling confused, disappointed, even angry or bitter. Now we want to get over those negative emotions and focus on the positive, the future, being joyful and upbeat about our community and all that God has blessed us with. In that way, our lives, our prayers, our celebrations help us witness to the love of God, and press us forward to be witnesses to the Gospel, to be joyful missionaries.

Fr. Ken