Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - January 21, 2007
What is a Parish?
It’s a multifaceted gem of community and devotion.
“You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.” — Eucharist in the parish that is “a testimony of St. John Chrysostom, cited in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”
The parish is a place of prayer in our daily lives, a house of worship, a home in a very real sense.
Parish life has defined Catholic life from the days of the apostles:
“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and passions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47).
Though Catholics may be registered members of a number of parishes in a lifetime, there are rich and deep personal ties that link the faithful to their parishes. Baptisms and funerals, first Communions and weddings — parishes are intimately associated with the important moments of their lives.
At the same time, parishes are vital points in Ordinary Time. The liturgical year is lived within the parish, and the faith is taught and applied to the world around us. The parish is a place of prayer in our daily lives, a house of worship, a home in a very real sense. “The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ’s saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love (CCC, 2179).” Most of all, the parish is where we receive the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist on Sundays and holy days of obligation. The Eucharist is the center of Catholic life and worship. It is in the parish that Catholics ordinarily participate in Sunday Mass and the Eucharist.
It is that participation in the celebration of the belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his church. The faithful give witness by this to their communion in faith and charity. Together, they testify to God’s holiness and their hope of salvation. They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 2182).
A Catholic parish is a stable and defined geographic community of the Christian faithful within a particular diocesan church. The care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor who serves and leads the parishioners under the authority of the diocesan bishop.
On the simplest level, the house of worship, the center of the parish, is a church. But “church” is also a word that reflects the whole community assembled at Mass.
A Catholic parish is a “church” in the sense that “church” reflects four different realities. On the simplest level, the house of worship, the center of the parish, is a church. But “church” is also a word that reflects the whole community assembled at Mass.
The “church” is also the local Catholic community — the diocese under the leadership of the bishop. And finally, the “church” is also the church universal with the leadership of the Holy Father, the servant of the servants of God.
No one element of this “church” exists independently. “Church” is there at a morning Mass during the week at your local parish when a few souls gather to celebrate the Eucharist.
That local community — that “church” and your parish – is part of the church universal, as intimately connected to a Mass celebrated in a Latin American hamlet as to the liturgy of Easter at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

A Pennsylvania Charitable Trust

115 Trinity Drive
Center Twp., Aliquippa, PA 15001 724-775-6363 Phone
724-775-3848 Fax

www.sfcabriniparish.org