We are a community that is alive in the Spirit, actively engaged in celebrating, serious about spiritual growth, and intent on living the faith.
Vatican II tells us that it is the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, through which the work of our salvation is accomplished because it is in the communion of our church liturgy that
we express and demonstrate what Christ means for humankind.
At St. Vincent’s we take this responsibility, one of personal and ecclesial transformation into the mind of Jesus, very seriously. And we have found to our delight that the mind of Jesus is expansive, welcoming, warm, liberating, and affirming! Our liturgical celebrations reflect this discovery.
We have an active and engaged Liturgy Committee who brings creativity and spirit into our weekly liturgies and depth and meaning into the Church’s seasonal celebrations.
While we do provide opportunities for individual and group spiritual development in our
monthly Taizé servicesand Men’s Cursillo Group and the exploration of sacramental spirituality in our Married Couples’ Group, it is our community liturgical celebrations that attract people from over the metropolitan region.
We honor the Word of God. We have placed a specially-commissioned, leather bound set of the books of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, our Altar Bible, prominently on either side of the central tabernacle. Our lectors read directly from this bible and our liturgy planners work with the homilist to elicit scriptural themes to weave into our
Sunday Masses. We have homilies that break open the experience of the early communities who produced our scripture and challenge us to reflect on our own journey. We believe the Word needs to be heard and by all so we provide a separate, developmentally-appropriate Liturgy of the Word for Children (pre-K to Middle School) after the Opening Prayer at the Sunday 9:30 Mass. Children return after the homily.
We honor the Sacramental nature of our tradition. We conform to Vatican II’s directive that we come to the liturgy fully aware of what we are doing and actually 
engaged in it.. At our Sunday Mass, our elementary and middle school children call us to centering at the start as bell ringers, people from the congregation prepare the altar as altar dressers, and our celebrant is assisted by Eucharistic ministers. Infant baptisms occur during the Mass with full community affirmation. We conduct Reconciliation Services during Advent and Lent in conjunction with nearby parishes.
In all of this, we sing! We sing with heart 
and gusto – to praise the Lord and to pray. We unite our voices in song to lift our spirits and deepen our community prayer life. The rich musical accompaniment at St. Vincent is designed to support congregational singing. Parishioners volunteer their talents to express themselves in music in our Choir, Taizé Choir, or as musicians.
We celebrate special seasons. Our Liturgy Committee identifies Scripture-based themes for Advent, Lent, and the Easter seasons that are woven into coherent Calls to Worship and Homilies, then animated in special ritual, and supplemented by take-home material for further reflection. In Lent, Wednesdays alternate between liturgy (Ash Wednesday, 
Reconciliation, Stations, Tenebrae) and education (book discussion or lecture series). But we pull all stops out for Holy Week. Palm Sunday sees us processing around the block, Holy Thursday has the Jewish Seder preceding services, Good Friday has the holy office chanted throughout the day with evening services, and Holy Saturday ushers in an all-night vigil 
culminating in an exultant Easter morning closure, followed by breakfast for everyone and Easter Egg hunt for children. For the last decade we have set aside 4-6 weeks every summer to study the books of the Jewish scripture in depth during weekend Masses. This brings out all our community creativity in re-creating the many personalities one encounters in the Bible!
Liturgy for us is not a rote, dry, or deadening ‘ticket-punching’ exercise. For us, liturgy is a joyful sharing of the word of God, through action, sacrament, and example.
So if you want a community that is alive in the Spirit, actively engaged in celebrating, serious about spiritual growth, and intent on living the faith, join us!
