Fr. Bart Biography

Welcome to St. Andrew Catholic Community. Whether you are visiting us on the website, you have been to the parish, you will be with us in person this weekend or sometime in the future, I am glad that you have found us! Being found. Isn’t that often the case? Starting with Adam and Eve being found in the garden and God’s first action was to provide covering from their nakedness; Jesus seeking the lost sheep and leaving the others on the hillside; the widow finding the one lost coin. There is more rejoicing in heaven over person being found than over the 99 righteous (Luke 15). If we are honest, we all realize there have been times in our lives when we have been lost and other times in our lives we are thankful that we have been found!

In light of those times in our lives of being lost and being found, I welcome you to St. Andrew Catholic Community. It makes no difference whether you have been away from the church for a long time or for a short time; if you are Catholic or non-Catholic; if you think you belong or you think you are an outcast; if you are living on the margins of society; if you were imprisoned by bars or by the addictions of life’s circumstances or have always had a sense of freedom, your background your nationality, your belief system, your situation in life, who you love or who you do not love does not matter. In this place you are welcome to worship with us. Whatever you are and wherever you have been, regardless and in spite of what you have done or what has been done to you, you are welcome here at St. Andrew Catholic Community.

I want you to make St. Andrew your home!

Let this be a place and space for you, where God honors our differences and sees without distinctions, and the reckless love of God finds each and every one of us, to heal, to forgive, to build-up and to renew. It is the nature of Divine Love, totally free and unearned waiting to be invited and desired so it might rush in and we might be overwhelmed by this Oneness who is Christ.

Welcome home. All are welcome. All are welcome in this place!

Of course, what God does for us, we must do for ourselves and for one another: honor our differences and see one another without distinctions, heal and forgive, build-up and renew. Share what you have, give what is given to you. Only by downloading a new operating system, which is the contemplative mind, the mind of Christ, can we rise above ego, culture, society, and nationalism, so all may be one (John 17). It has always been God’s dream for us. Help me bring that dream to reality here at St. Andrew.

If I can be of any assistance to you do you, please contact me by phone or by email. Both are found on the contact page of this website.

Welcome to St. Andrew Catholic Community, I am glad you are here.

Always may God’s peace be yours.