God is love! The good news is that God loves each of us infinitely and unconditionally. This love is part of God's eternal plan that begins here on earth and ends in eternal life and happiness in heaven.
Sin disrupts God's plan and leads to misery and death. Since the beginning, our sins have gotten in the way of God's loving plan. Sin damages or even breaks our relationship with God and others, leaving us empty, broken, and searching.
The good news is that God loved us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to rescue us and restore us to an intimate, life-giving relationship with God. He died to free us from sin and rose again to save us from death, opening the door to a new kind of life that lasts forever.
God has made the first move in saving us and bringing us to himself, but we have a part to play. We must respond by leaving sin behind, accepting and believing he gospel. This means reorienting our life, making Christ the new center of our lives, and entrusting our lives completely to him.
In the sacrament of Baptism, we are united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We die to sin and are born again as sons and daughters of God (see Romans 6:3-4). We receive the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to live our lives in conformity to God's saving plan.
In the Church, God has provided a place for us to learn, live, and celebrate his plan of sheer goodness. We do not serve God as individuals, but as a united, loving family that seeks to imitate God in our daily lives.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Church continues the work of God's saving plan which Christ inaugurated two millenia ago. By loving others as God loves us and sharing the Good news of God's saving plan, we build up the Kingdom of God as we welcome others into his family, the Church. This happens in our own families, among friends, and in the various encounters of our lives.
At St. Elizabeth Church, we've been living and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our Catholic faith, baptizing and forming disciples for 150 years.