Our Mission Statement

An expanded reflection on our mission statement is shown below. You may also read a series of reflections…

• to be a people committed to surrendering our lives completely to the Lord Jesus, knowing that “Christian living consists in following Christ,” we choose in all things to “say yes to Jesus Christ.”–Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae#5 & #20
• to be a people committed to yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit as “we are called anew by the ever ancient and ever new faith of the Church, to draw near to the Holy Sprit as the giver of life.”–Pope John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, #2
• to be a people committed to having our lives nourished and sustained by the Lord’s presence in the heart of His Church. We believe that “the purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God,” and we commit ourselves to participating in them, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the “source and summit of the Christian life.”–Vatican Council II, Sacrosanctum Concilium , #59 & Lumen Gentium, #11
• to be a people commited, under our local shepherd, the Bishop of Lansing, to living faithfully under the direction of the Pope and the Bishops in union with him, the Magisterium, believing “all that is contained in the Word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgement or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”–Pope Paul VI, Credo of the People of God, #20
• to be a people committed to knowing the Scriptures, heeding the Church as she “urges all the Christian faithful…to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the ‘excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 3:8). ‘For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’”–Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, #25
• to be a people committed to prayer, as “disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God…as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.”–Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, #10
• to be a people committed to a relationship with the Saints, especially Mary, the Mother of God, with the authentic devotion to her that “proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to know the excellence of the Mother of God, and we are moved to a filial love toward our mother and to the imitation of her virtues.”–Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, #67
• to be a people committed to the support and strenghtening of family life, mirroring “the many signs of Church’s love and concern for the family, a love and concern expressed from the very beginning of Christianity when the meaningful term domestic church was applied to the family.”–Pope John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, #3
• to be a people committed to the charismatic renewal of the Church, “directed and guided by the Holy Spirit, who lavishes diverse hierarchical and charismatic gifts on all the baptized, calling them to be, each in an individual way, active and co-responsible.”–Pope John Paul II, Christifidelis Laici, #21
• to be a people committed to evangelization and catechesis, realizing that we “who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it.”–Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, #13
• to be a people committed to service, responding to the call of the Lord Jesus to be those who “devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their Neighbor,” especially mindful of the works of mercy, as “it is the duty of all God’s people…to do all in their power to relieve the sufferings of our times.”–Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, #40 & #80
• to be a people committed to the Church’s vision for ecumenism, since, “the attainment of union is the concern of the whole Church, faithful and shepherds alike…This concern itself reveals already to some extent the bond of brotherhood between all Christians and it helps toward that full and perfect unity which God in His kindness wills.”–Vatican Council II, Unitatis Redintegratio, #5

Realizing that such a mission can only happen through the grace of God, we unite in asking for His grace and His blessing and we commend ourselves and our efforts to the care of the Mother of God and the protection of St. Michael the Archangel.