NEW TO CATHOLICISM?
We welcome everyone to join us in worshiping Almighty God, creator and savior of all people.
The Catholic Church is the fullness of the Christian faith. Catholicism is not a denomination, a branch of Christianity, but rather the original Church established by Jesus and the Apostles. We trace our history all the way to the ministry of Jesus who then empowered others to serve and to govern in his name, starting with Saint Peter, the chief of the Apostles and the first Pope. Our bishops are direct descendants of the Apostles, who were the first bishops.
It is the Catholic Church that wrote the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament), compiled them with the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), and thus gave the world the Bible. Saint Jerome (347-420 AD), a Catholic priest and prolific author, translated the Hebrew and Greek testaments into Latin, and so made the Bible more accessible. It was the Catholic monks who copied the biblical manuscripts by hand throughout the centuries until printing presses were invented. There is no institution on earth with as many resources dedicated to Biblical scholarship, archeology, and education than the Catholic Church.
Catholicism teaches that there are seven sacraments, that is, touch points where the divine meets the human. Two of the sacraments are explicitly seen in the Bible -- Baptism and Eucharist. The other five -- Confession, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick -- are implicitly expressed in Sacred Scripture and further defined by the teaching authority of the Church. Sacraments are "outward signs of an invisible reality," that is, where the power of God enters the human person to bring about a change in holiness. The sacraments are not symbolic rituals or gestures. Rather, they genuinely convey God's grace to the recipient as long as he or she is receptive to them.
The supreme form of Christian worship is the Mass celebrated in the Catholic Church. The Mass (from the Latin mittere, "sending") is composed of two major parts, the Liturgy of the Word, when we hear the proclamation of passages from the Bible, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when we follow Jesus's command to have a meal of bread and wine that become his Body and Blood. When we celebrate the Mass, we step out of our current time and space and enter into the eternal offering of Jesus to his Father in heaven, a mystical reality that is almost incomprehensible to us mere humans.
For Catholics, the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is "the source and summit" of all our beliefs. To receive the Eucharist at Mass is a public testimony that a person believes all that the Catholic Church teaches and professes. Others do not share all of our beliefs and so, sadly, cannot receive Holy Communion with us. Nonetheless, we welcome everyone to our worship and to explore the richness of our beliefs, traditions, and practices.
One out of every six people on the earth is Catholic. If you think you might like to be, or would like to learn more, please contact one of our priests, our deacon, or the parish office. We would love to share more of our story with you.
We welcome everyone to join us in worshiping Almighty God, creator and savior of all people.
The Catholic Church is the fullness of the Christian faith. Catholicism is not a denomination, a branch of Christianity, but rather the original Church established by Jesus and the Apostles. We trace our history all the way to the ministry of Jesus who then empowered others to serve and to govern in his name, starting with Saint Peter, the chief of the Apostles and the first Pope. Our bishops are direct descendants of the Apostles, who were the first bishops.
It is the Catholic Church that wrote the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament), compiled them with the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), and thus gave the world the Bible. Saint Jerome (347-420 AD), a Catholic priest and prolific author, translated the Hebrew and Greek testaments into Latin, and so made the Bible more accessible. It was the Catholic monks who copied the biblical manuscripts by hand throughout the centuries until printing presses were invented. There is no institution on earth with as many resources dedicated to Biblical scholarship, archeology, and education than the Catholic Church.
Catholicism teaches that there are seven sacraments, that is, touch points where the divine meets the human. Two of the sacraments are explicitly seen in the Bible -- Baptism and Eucharist. The other five -- Confession, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick -- are implicitly expressed in Sacred Scripture and further defined by the teaching authority of the Church. Sacraments are "outward signs of an invisible reality," that is, where the power of God enters the human person to bring about a change in holiness. The sacraments are not symbolic rituals or gestures. Rather, they genuinely convey God's grace to the recipient as long as he or she is receptive to them.
The supreme form of Christian worship is the Mass celebrated in the Catholic Church. The Mass (from the Latin mittere, "sending") is composed of two major parts, the Liturgy of the Word, when we hear the proclamation of passages from the Bible, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when we follow Jesus's command to have a meal of bread and wine that become his Body and Blood. When we celebrate the Mass, we step out of our current time and space and enter into the eternal offering of Jesus to his Father in heaven, a mystical reality that is almost incomprehensible to us mere humans.
For Catholics, the Eucharist (Holy Communion) is "the source and summit" of all our beliefs. To receive the Eucharist at Mass is a public testimony that a person believes all that the Catholic Church teaches and professes. Others do not share all of our beliefs and so, sadly, cannot receive Holy Communion with us. Nonetheless, we welcome everyone to our worship and to explore the richness of our beliefs, traditions, and practices.
One out of every six people on the earth is Catholic. If you think you might like to be, or would like to learn more, please contact one of our priests, our deacon, or the parish office. We would love to share more of our story with you.
(William Blake, The Last Supper, 1799. Public domain via National Gallery of Art.)
