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Our Mission:

“We, Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church, seek to have a living faith in Jesus Christ. Nourished by the Eucharist and guided by the Holy Spirit, we share the gospel, encourage our youth and embrace and welcome everyone in need.”

If you are new to the parish, please introduce yourself after Mass and arrange to register at the rectory office.

MASS SCHEDULE

Lord’s Day:
Saturday 4:00 p.m. (Vigil Mass)
Sunday 8:00 a.m. & 10:00 a.m.

Weekdays:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8:30 a.m.
Miraculous Medal Novena follows Tuesday Mass
St. Joseph Novena follows Wednesday Mass
St. Jude Novena follows Thursday Mass

PARISH OFFICE HOURS

Monday – Wednesday
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Thursday
9:00 a.m. to Noon
Friday
Closed
Hours subject to change
PO Box 1150, 224 Sheep Pasture Rd
Southwick, MA 01077

TELEPHONE

Rectory: 413-569-0161
Religious Ed: 413-569-0162

Question:

I’ve heard that faith is a theological virtue. What does that mean?

Answer:

To say a virtue is theological means that it comes as a gift from God. St. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican monk who crafted the famous arguments for the existence of God, wrote: “This alone is the true knowledge of God: to know that God is beyond knowing.” God is transcendent. This word comes from the Latin “transcendere,” meaning “to climb beyond.” When something is transcendent, it exists beyond our normal range of experience. Philosopher Peter Kreeft put it simply: “God is always more.”

While God created us in His image and likeness, too often we re-create Him in ours. We project our deepest hopes, our subliminal fears, and our hidden dreams, and conjure up our own image of what God could be. Yet, God can never be limited to our own perception of Him.

That’s where faith comes in. We read in the Catechism that “faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that He has said and revealed to us and all that the Holy Church proposes for our belief” (CCC 1814). We can know God through reason, to a point. As human beings, we want to know and understand the world around us, but God isn’t in the world around us. He’s beyond it. The best way to come to know God is not through our own clever mental maneuvering, but through trusting in God’s revelation of Himself. We might think we know who God is, but the only way we can have any idea is if we trust, through the virtue of faith, who He has revealed Himself to be.

Our Lady of the Lake Parish

Living Faith in Jesus Christ

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