A Catholic parish is a communion of God’s holy people – missionary disciples – who are fed, formed, and sent into the world to be a herald and instrument of God’s saving love and truth. St. Teresa of Avila said centuries ago that we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The parish is the beating heart of the Catholic Church – this is where women and men and young Catholics come to meet the living God. The parish is the place where we encounter God’s holy Word, one another, where we are fed by the Eucharist, and where we are transformed by the sacramental grace we receive.
