Mission statements define an organization or person. To read a mission statement, one finds out a lot about the person or organization. Many parishes and institutions have mission statements. They give direction to the work or ministry. What is your parish’s mission statement? What is the mission statement of our country? Is it the Constitution?
Our mission statement as a Benedictine community in Covington, Ky. reads:
We the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery
are vowed women who seek God in prayer, work and community.
We celebrate the presence of Jesus Christ and serve him in all God’s people,
the young and the old, the sick and the poor, the stranger and the guest.
I believe that Jesus also had a mission statement. We read his mission statement in Luke 4:14-19. It talks about bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and letting the oppressed go free. When we read the gospels, we see how Jesus fulfilled his mission statement.
Elsewhere in the gospels, we can see how our mission statements measure up. In Matthew 25:31-46 we read an important passage. Check it out. Could this be your personal mission statement?
