The GPS of Our Parish
The GPS (Global Positioning System) is one of the great products of modern science and technology that people find super useful for navigating their way to their destinations. One dayduring summer last year, I set out from my house for a place I had not gone before. So, I reliedon the GPS to get to the place. I turned on the GPS on my phone and drove off. At a point, the GPS stopped working. I carefully pulled off the road to restore the GPS to function. After repeated trial without success, a message showed up that the phone was too hot and the GPS cannot be turned on. The air conditioner in my car was faulty and that was why the phone got so hot. I could not continue the journey, and I drove back to the house.
Being on a journey to a destination that one does not know the way at all or very well calls for a guide, and that is what GPS does for us in the present age. Some years ago it was MapQuest and I remember how I struggled with driving and reading the print out. Just as we need a GPS for our journeys in this world, so it is for our journey to eternity.
St Gregory the Great Parish community, our faith-family, is on a trip to heaven. We, as a community and its members, are pilgrims on earth on the way to an eternal home. Heaven is our destination. We have a GPS for guidance and orientation. We have a GPS to help us find our way through the confusing paths and cross-roads of life. We have a GPS to help us keep connected with our root and goal.
Our GPS is God, (His) People, and Service (GPS). This is the GPS that takes people to heaven. Focusing on God, People, and Service (GPS) will guide us as we travel through time to eternity. We have many attractions and distractions all around us, but by keeping our focus on this GPS, we are sure to reach our destination safely. If we continue as we have been doing to concentrate our time, energy, funds, intelligence, strength, wisdom and actions on this GPS, our community will continue to grow, flourish, and ultimately get to heaven.
God (the “G” in our GPS) is the primary focus of St Gregory the Great family. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we express our faith, hope, and love for him in adoration, worship, devotion, thanksgiving, and generosity. We live for him, and see and honor him in his people.
People (the “P” in our GPS) are our second point of concentration as a family. We already have and wish to continue having a people-oriented and people-centered community where everybody is accepted, respected, revered, and nobody is a stranger.
Service (the “S” in our GPS) is the third focus of our faith-community. Service is the purpose of our existence as a community. We exist to serve God in people, the Church, the nation, the world, and creation particularly in those who are in most need.
I present this GPS to us not as a totally new idea, but an expression in new terms what we already are at St Gregory’s. Guided by it, we hope to function more effectively and be able to measure with ease the degree, rate, and direction of our growth. It is reliable, and does not glitch.
St Gregory the Great….God, People, and Service!
-Fr. Bona