IN SEARCH OF A MOTTO FOR OUR PARISH
Yesterday we discussed the decision made at a meeting a few months ago to forego a mission statement or "declaration of the fundamental objectives” for the parish. Our mission is not born from a formulated agreement created in a meeting, but from our status as Children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Catholic Church.
Our mission, like that of every Catholic, is the salvation of souls. Our mission is holiness. Our mission is to be reflections of the light that comes only from the Lord.
The reality is that a mission statement prepared in a meeting does not have much functionality. I wonder how many in our St. Anne community can recall from memory the previous “mission statement”? Who thought about that statement before making any apostolic decisions? I must confess that I did not learn the mission statement of the parish. I did not know it, and therefore, I could not ask anyone else to learn it. This is not a reason for honor, but rather for shame because I should have known it. I can remember individual words or phrases, like "multicultural community" or "listen to the Word", it seems to me but ... I can remember little else of that statement.
That is the second "Achilles heel" of a "mission statement" - they are not usually easy to memorize. They are forgotten because they are usually long and often complex. Precisely because of the difficulty of remembering a phrase or statement with too many words, the people who worked on the pastoral plan suggested that instead of a customary "mission statement", we have a “motto” like the ones of many religious congregations that would serve to give us an identity as a parish.
I spoke in agreement with this proposal, and in turn, I proposed that the motto for Saint Anne be very brief and that it be in Latin. Latin! Some will say, Latin again? What is this obsession with Latin? Why does Father Sergio insist so much on Latin?
I know that some of you think that Latin should be buried and never used again. Some people think that it is a remnant of another era, and it seems that those of us who like to use Latin are nostalgic for times past. Actually, it is not.
This is a very long and deep topic and I don’t want to go into it here, but I will give two reasons, certainly not even the most important reasons, to defend the use of Latin for the motto of our parish. The first reason is that using Latin words actually makes memorization easier. Why? When we use a language regularly and suddenly a phrase is inserted from another language, those words are retained more quickly. Precisely because we are not accustomed to using them in our daily lives, they impact us in a special way. I must say that we find this resource in the Gospels themselves. The texts that we keep are written in Greek, but from time to time, expressions appear in the original Aramaic and those words are so powerful that it is more difficult to forget them. I am referring to Biblical expressions or names that we all remember such as “Abba”, “ephphatha”, “Golgotha”, “talitha kuom”, or Jesus' words on the cross, “Elí, elí, lama sabactani.” to name a few.
The second reason for using Latin is that it is a culturally “neutral” language from which we are all at the same distance. Therefore, it is easier for people from different countries, cultures, languages, and sensibilities to feel united in a language that is everyone's equal. It is also the language of the Church and is still in use in 2020. The young people of our parish who attended the various World Youth Days are witnesses to this. They were able to pray with young people from countries all over the world, even in the same words, all using Latin.
So yes, Saint Anne will have a motto from now on. It will be brief, three words, taken from the Word of God, and in Latin. What will the motto be? Tomorrow I will make it known, but since they say that coffee is the eighth sacrament of the Church, I will give away a package of Catholic coffee, ”Mystic Monk” coffee, which is said to be “the best coffee this side of Heaven”, made by Carmelite monks in Wyoming, to the first person who can guess the motto - on Flocknote - before the noon Mass tomorrow. 😊
May God bless you all.
