Do most Catholics even expect to be loved in their parish? Do you? How would you answer these questions: Am I known in the parish? Is anyone praying for me? Is anyone responsible for me? American Catholics today move more often than a generation ago, have less stable relationships, experience less control over their lives and their families' lives and, in the midst of it all, have "the good life" and "the real thing" preached to them daily by a consumer society. The individual often counts for little and feels isolated and alone. In a technological world, it is very easy to live day by day, staying on the surface of experience, never questioning the basic assumptions of society. This transience of modern people has an enormous effect on the parish because a large part of the parish's population will change in just a few years. The fact is, today's suburban parish no longer has 50 years of stable neighborhood life as a base on which to build a sense of community and a value system centered on Jesus Christ. In the midst of this change and instability, we at St. Thomas Aquinas believe Small Faith Communities can make an important difference, and we invite you to join one. The Why of a Parish Underneath all the activities and mission statements, the parish is meant to foster two basic realities: an experience of love and an experience of faith. And the very first of these should be love. Love has to be specific. One has to be known as a person. Love is much more than the warm feeling at the Sunday liturgy where everyone may feel close for a while, or the friendliness at coffee and donuts afterwards. The liturgy may be moving and participatory, yet, does a Catholic feel loved and cared for simply by belonging to the church? An ordinary sense of care and responsibility for each other should pervade a parish. The bottom line that keeps a family together through many crises and disagreements is that members understand they are loved and they, in turn, love the others in the family. That is the bottom line for Church, too. Whatever else a Catholic knows, he or she must absolutely know that he or she is loved by the people of the Church. Christ himself sites love as a top priority for the church community: "This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another" (John 13:35). The second basic parish should provide is an experience of faith. God or Jesus become more real for us when we share our faith -- or lack of faith -- with one another, because sharing helps us notice God and take the Lord seriously. Somehow God has to be found in our everyday life. We all have faith, but often we don't trust the faith that is in us, or don't know how to recognize and describe our experience of faith. Most Catholics need help from others who care about them and know a little about their journey of faith before they learn to trust their own experiences. The way we come together as Church is the key. That is what teaches us -- not simply our programs. Faith and love are experiences. The more these experiences are shared -- and this can happen only in a small group -- the more people notice God and God's call to be church for one another. Being Who We Are Better In may ways the Second Vatican Council got us back to basics by underscoring who we are as Church. The Church is the whole people of God. Baptism and Confirmation really do give each one of us the calling and the power to be holy, to be responsible for the Church's inner live and to take responsibility for the mission of the Church in the world. The greatest unfinished work of the Council, however, is to translate this vision into the ordinary Catholic parishioner's daily consciousness, to make the Church "we" instead of "they" -- and every day, not only on Sunday. The plan developed at St. Thomas Aquinas for restructuring into Small Faith Communities (SFCs) allows us to affirm this sense of our identity as church. In the process we discover that what we are really doing is dusting off and polishing up the treasure we always had as the Catholic Christian community. Small Faith Communities have helped all of us to "be who we are better." Return to Ministries