Thoughts on Being a Parish 

Jesus made us both individually and collectively His body, His presence in the world.  We share “the life and spirit of Jesus.”  As the Body of Christ we continue to do the work of Jesus:  He healed, He preached, He taught and reconciled.

The purpose of a parish is to gather a group of persons together, who have this life and Spirit within them, to make the presence and activity of God manifested through them.  To achieve this purpose we gather around the Word of God (the Bible) and are formed by the sacramental signs of God’s presence among us in and through the Tradition of the Church.

A pastor is sent to form community within this group and to enable all persons in a set geographical area to minister to each other in the tradition of Jesus.  It is the responsibility of the pastor to lead the people of God and to keep holy order among all the people so that no one will be overlooked or excluded—especially the poor, the alienated or the outcast.

As we organize ourselves, there are many aspects that make up our functioning together.  We are an institutional Church.  We hold ourselves accountable to and with authority that has been handed on to us and to the leaders of our Church from the apostles.  We pledge ourselves in obedience to the Pope, our local bishop and to the Church community.

We organize ourselves as a community.  Relationships to the person of Jesus and to other members of the community as the Body of Christ are essential.  Commitment and a faithful lifestyle based on gospel values are the criteria for discerning growth in the relationship.  Having committed and lived the gospel, members of the community are also expected to give witness to others of this life.

We organize ourselves as a sacramental community.  God’s presence is therefore seen and made manifest among us through signs and symbols.  The clearest sign is the Church itself.  We are the people of God.  We celebrate God’s presence among us through seven specific sacramental actions:  Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist through which we initiate persons into our community; Marriage and Ordained Ministry through which service is given; Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick through which healing and forgiveness are made manifest.

We also organize ourselves as a servant Church.  Concern for the poor and the needs of the people calls us to advocacy, education, and action on behalf of the poor and needy.  Justice is, therefore, a constitutive part of preaching the gospel.  Consciousness-rising is the first step in this process, and it is a step to which we have devoted considerable effort.

We also see ourselves as a herald Church.  We proclaim what we have seen and heard as we give witness to the Good news:  Jesus has died to set us free and has risen to bring us into the kingdom of God. Preaching and teaching take many forms:  we preach with our lives, with our business dealing, with our schools and with the pulpit, etc.  Our world needs hope.  We are the light.  We are the heralds of God’s Good News. 

We are finally an evangelizing Church.  As disciples of Jesus we want to bring others into a relationship with God and his community.  We look for opportunities to invite and sponsor other person’s growth in the life of Christ.  We are people on a mission.

Our Vision Statement

To be a vital and vibrant parish with a
family perspective in the tradition of Jesus.

Our Mission Statement

We, the people of St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, commit ourselves to
develop a parish community that will teach the message of Jesus, form a community, actively engage in prayer and worship, reach out in service, and encourage
moral formation.

 Clarifications

1. Teach the Message:  The message is both the gospel and the lived faith tradition that has been handed on to us from Jesus through the Roman Catholic Church.  This is what we teach and is the guide for who we are and what we do.

2. Community:  Community is a set of intentional relationships to Christ, to each other and to the world, which binds us together and holds us accountable for a lifestyle and mission.

3. Service:  Service is love and justice made visible through our decisions and actions by which we reach out to others and give of ourselves.

4. Prayer/Worship:  Communal worship and personal prayer make God present to us. As a community and individual persons we acknowledge God’s presence among us; through prayer and worship we are sent on mission to build God’s kingdom on earth.

5. Moral Formation:  A certain lifestyle and moral code are parts of the Catholic Tradition.  We intend to provide a formational process, which will help individuals to form and follow their consciences so as to give witness in their lives to God’s power working in them.