SERVICES
Ministries Organized in Three Services
Introduction
Theological Foundations: The Three Prerogatives of the Christian
We, Saints Peter and Paul catholic Church, are a community of lay faithful, priests and deacons working together to build a vibrant and missionary community, a community of missionary disciples.
The roots of our "being-together", "working-together" is our incorporation into Jesus Christ: Priest, Prophet and King. We are all Christians. We too, by our baptism, are all priests, prophets and kings. Ordained and lay ministers, we all belong to Jesus Christ.
We have the mission to continue his work, that is, to bring the Good News to all nations, to all realities, peripheries of our parish, our city of West Valley City, our state of Utah, our Local Church of Salt Lake City and our country the United States of America.
1. Prophetic Service
Evangelization, Formation, Fraternal Small Communities, Pastoral care of Youth and Young Adults, Pastoral Care of Family, Pastoral Care of Peace, Justice and Life, Liturgy Team.
2. Priestly Service
Prayer groups Jesus the Good Shepard, choirs, acolytes, ushers, Eucharistic ministry, healing ministry, Saint John the Baptiste - catechesis for parents.
3. Royal Service
Pastoral Care of Culture, Diocesan Development Driver (DDD), Religious Education (CCD), Interreligious Representation (West Valley City Interfaith), Parish Feasts, Finances, Maintenance, Community Service.
Conclusion
We give thanks to God for his presence in our parish of Saints Peter and Paul. We are all proud to be members of this welcoming, eucharistic, vibrant, missionary and connected community with our hometown of West Valley City.
We bless the Heavenly Father who was kind enough to offer us the Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ who is accompanying the spiritual and human journey of our parish community. Without the Holy Spirit who is the "Protagonist of the mission", as Saint John Paul II said in his missionary Encyclical Redemptoris Missio of 1990, we can do nothing. Moved by the Holy Spirit, may we live and work prioritizing “our missionary being” above all else than what we must do. In this regard, Saint John Paul II is precise:
“The ultimate purpose of mission is to enable people to share in the communion which exists between the Father and the Son. The disciples are to live in unity with one another, remaining in the Father and the Son, so that the world may know and believe (cf. Jn 17:21-23). This is a very important missionary text. It makes us understand that we are missionaries above all because of what we are as a Church whose innermost life is unity in love, even before we become missionaries in word or deed.”[1]
I am grateful to all of you dear brothers and sisters who serve the People of God in West Valley City. All the Catholics of our city are also grateful to you for all that you are and do with love. Let us continue to work in unity and communion. May the “Spirituality of communion” that Saint John Paul II entrusted to us at the beginning of this third millennium be our strength and the basis of all our pastoral and missionary action.
May the Virgin Mary, our Mother, "Morning Star" and "first missionary of Christ", accompany us in the mission of building here in West Valley a "Community of brothers and sisters who believe, celebrate and live together as missionary disciples”. This is our dream, the way we want to live together like the first communities were doing at the beginning of the Church (Act 2: 42).
In this way, we are building a truly missionary parish as Pope Francis invites us. The entire first chapter[2] of the “Joy of the Gospel” reminds us of this urgency of the “missionary transformation of the Catholic Church”, of all parish and diocesan communities.
[1] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio: On the permanent validity of the Church's missionary mandate, Vatican, 1990, n. 23 §3.
[2]
Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: On the Proclamation of the Gospel
in today’s World, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, nn. 20-49.
Bibliography
Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: On the proclamation of the gospel in today’s world, Vatican, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, nn. 20-49.
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio: On the permanent validity of the Church's missionary mandate, Vatican, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1990, n. 23 §3.
Paul VI, Apostolic Letter given Motu Proprio Ministeria Quaedam: On first tonsure, minor orders, and the subdiaconate, Roma, 1972, in Ministeria Quaedam | EWTN February 1, 2024.
Father Sebastien SASA, PhD, MPA
Pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church
Director of the Missionary Center Saints Peter and Paul
West Valley City, UT
