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Whether you are a new member of our parish family or have been part of Holy Cross for a
number of years, we hope this web site will be helpful. You will find in these pages a
description of the many programs, activities, and services available to you at Holy Cross.
While we are blessed with a competent and dedicated staff at Holy Cross, involvement in
the mission of the parish is open to each and every parishioner. The staff’s role is
to facilitate your participation in those activities where you can share the gifts God has
given you. We discovered years ago that parishioners flourish in their service to Christ
when they are serving in the area of their gifts and in conjunction with their God-given
uniqueness. As you review the information presented here, ask God in prayer to aid you to
discover your gifts and where you might use them most effectively in our parish family.
May the grace of God be with you.
Our Mission
We are a believing community, professing its faith in God who is Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Through Baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are joined not only to Christ,
the Head of the Body which is His Church, but to all who believe in Him as Lord and
Savior. In communion with the Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome, and guided by the pastoral
care of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Wilmington, we are called and commissioned:
| 1. |
To be a community of faith living the love poured into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit; |
| 2. |
To proclaim the good news of salvation announced through Jesus Christ and
confided to the Church; |
| 3. |
To celebrate in liturgy, especially in Eucharist, the saving act of God in
Christ; |
| 4. |
To strengthen our allegiance to the Gospel and deepen our understanding of
it; and finally, |
| 5. |
To serve all our brothers and sisters as Jesus taught us. |
United by faith, worship, prayer and service, and grateful for God's many gifts, we
seek the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit. Continually we reaffirm the mission we have
received to announce and promote the presence of God's Kingdom which is already at work in
our midst.
The Church, founded by Jesus Christ and subsisting in Roman Catholic communities
throughout the world, united with the Bishop of Rome, continues for all time and in every
place to advance Jesus Christ's saving mission of leading all men and women back to the
Father.
Our Strategies
By proclaiming the Word of God
and
announcing His Kingdom already present in this world, the Church makes ever present the
wonderful deeds of God evident in history. Most especially, it proclaims God's gift of His
Divine Son, given to us so that the world may come to believe in Him and thus find
salvation. By its teaching and instruction, the Church invites all of its members to
strengthen their allegiance to and increase their understanding of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
By building community, the Church gathers
together those who believe into the one Body of Christ, the People of God of the New
Covenant, thus making God and His Incarnate Word present and visible in the world·
By celebrating the Eucharist and the other sacraments,
the Church brings her members into vital contact with Christ and with God's saving grace
enabling these members to respond to His invitation to be holy even as He is holy.
By serving its own members and the world,
the Church engages in concrete action to make all things new according to Christ s
liberating vision of an integral humanity. The Church, through its members, offers herself
as one of the principal means through which the human community is made aware of the
Gospel and may come to embrace the enduring values of the Good News: freedom, justice,
peace, charity, compassion and reconciliation.
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