St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church

Steeped in a rich and vibrant history of service and growth, St. Francis of Assisi has been serving the needs of Catholics for almost 125 years and welcomes young and old from all walks of life into our faith and social community. St. Francis prides itself on being a family-friendly church. We believe that all members of our church community are important to the celebration of the Eucharist.

We invite you to learn more about the parish by exploring this website. Please visit the “Our Parish” section to learn more about the church and its rich traditions. You can also learn how to exercise your stewardship of time and talent in one of the wonderful parish ministries by visiting the “Parish Ministries” section. Some of the many ways that you can become involved include: being an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion or Lector, singing in our choir, serving the needy through the Ministry to the Poor, or by joining our Senior Associates group. For the youngest members of our parish family, opportunities to get involved include serving Mass as altar servers and Children's Ministry, a group which coordinates a variety of activities including weekly Children’s Liturgy of the Word, Christmas Nativity Program, and May Crowning.

We invite you to join our parish community by filling out the online registration form. Someone from our Newcomers Group will contact you shortly thereafter. As one family we come together to know, love, and serve the Lord as instruments of his peace.

Also,

Thanks for visiting and please check out our Facebook page or subscribe to our weekly
Parish E-bulletin.

Reverend Michael J. Schneller
Pastor

Uptown Canticle by Father Michael
June 13, 2021
 

Today, we continue our Archdiocesan series of reflections on the meaning of the various rites, scriptures and prayers that we celebrate in every Sunday Eucharist. We offer you this reflection of what it means to profess our faith in the Creed as a Catholic family.
 
Every family has a story. That story is made up of joys and sorrows, milestones and difficulties, happiness and pain. As we grow and mature, we come to learn our family story, discovering who we are.
 
We are the people of God – we are God’s family – and we have an incredibly important family story! Our story is told at length through the books of the Bible, and it continues today in the Church, the Body of Christ. Here, in our midst, Christ lives among us offering us his saving love.
 
Each Sunday at Mass and on certain holy days, we retell and enter into this story of God’s love for us when we say the Creed (or Profession of Faith, because in it we express the central truths of our faith) Our Creed briefly summarizes the entire story of salvation, declaring our belief in God and how He has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through creation, through the prophets, through Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, through the sending of the Holy Spirit, in the life of the Church, and in the promised Second Coming.
 
The term creed, comes from the Latin credo, meaning “I believe.” The first creed we professed was at baptism, through which we enter into Christ and into the family of God. In the baptism of children, after this profession (creed), the minister states: “This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
Our Mass creeds find their origin in baptismal professions of faith – this is very significant! The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest form our of baptismal faith which we recite at St. Francis of Assisi during the Easter Season. Most commonly on Sundays we pray the Nicene Creed, written mainly in the 4th century to clarify and articulate our beliefs.
 
After the Liturgy of the Word and the homily, we stand and profess the Creed. The Creed is our response in faith to God who has just spoken to us in the Readings – it is our joyful YES to God’s Word and our acceptance of his invitation to life with Him. In the Creed, we each recommit ourselves to God, to our beliefs, and to a life of discipleship.
 
The Creed flows from our belief in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then we profess faith in the Church. Our story is centered upon God, but certainly not just on past events, for we emphasize God’s saving presence among us now in Jesus through the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
Due to the relativistic culture which permeates much of our society, some find it difficult to state what they really and truly believe about God. But for us, this is our faith! Each Sunday we stand to profess boldly and with great confidence what we believe! At Mass, what we profess is what we celebrate.
 
I believe in one God. By God’s very definition, God is complete and perfect – God is not lacking in any way. Our God is a God of goodness and perfection!  God, the Father almighty – who created everything visible and invisible: the angels, all the stars and galaxies, the earth and its living creation, woman and man. He is Our Father – yours and mine. This is the origin of our story! This is the beginning of how our world began; we have a loving God who created the world for you and me to live in and be in relationship with Him!
 
This month’s Catholic Update addresses Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. We often think of spiritual as invisible. But who wants an invisible relationship with a loved one? The Eucharist brings us into a body-and-blood relationship with God in Christ. Click:  https://liguori.uberflip.com/i/1380221-real-presence-in-the-eucharist-c9609a/0 to read more about this issue of Catholic Update.
 
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God…consubstantial with the Father, the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15); He “came down from heaven” for our salvation. We profess the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming.
 
Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life has instilled the Divine Life at baptism in each of us, making us daughters and sons of our Heavenly Father, and in Confirmation, the fullness of the Spirit is received. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church continues the mission of Christ.
 
I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church: “one because God is one; holy because it is filled by the Holy Spirit; catholic because it stands open to all people; and apostolic because it rests on the foundation of the Apostles” (Josef Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, 467). Our profession of faith in the Trinity is what leads us to profession of faith in the Church, where the Divine Life of God is made available for the forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and eternal life!
 
The Creed is our family story, so let it be personal! It is the faith of the Apostles, of the martyrs, of the Church – of us! It is our response in faith to God who has revealed His saving love to us in Christ and never ceases to draw near to us. The Creed is our identity as disciples of Jesus – it is our Yes to God.