The FAITH Alive! ministry at St. Nicholas parish is composed of men and women who wish to learn more about their faith and how to apply it to their daily lives. There are currently both English and Spanish groups. Groups meet at various times throughout the week. In addition to gathering for large group activities 3-4 times per year, the small faith sharing groups of 8-12 people generally meet weekly, usually taking turns in one another’s homes. We gather to pray, to open out hearts, minds and souls to a better understanding of the Sunday gospel, and to share this experience with each other.
We seek to accomplish this in an atmosphere of friendship in much the same manner that the early Christians did in Jerusalem, Antioch and Rome. This getting together in small groups was the norm for the first Christians. They usually met (often times in secret) in the home of a fellow Christian. This allowed them to get to know each other on a more personal basis; it facilitated personal growth; and it allowed them to share the moral and spiritual support they each needed to live as Christians.
It is for these same reasons that FAITH Alive! ministry was established at St. Nicholas parish to meet and get to know our fellow Catholics on a more personal basis; to learn how to apply the gospel to our daily lives; to give one another the moral and spiritual support we need to be living examples of our faith.
Love looks to the eternal. Love is indeed "ecstasy," not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an on-going exodus out of the closed inward-looking self toward its liberation through self-giving... toward authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God...
- Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 6
This ministry exists to energize the parish community through small group faith sharing by discovering new ways God is present in the world and each other – to seek, clarify, and strengthen our faith as Catholic Christians and help to express that faith in our day-to-day lives.
