Our Lady of the Visitation Parish was founded in the beginning of the second half of  the last century.  The growth of suburbia was in its infancy, but the parish families that first settled Paramus wanted to celebrate their faith and pass it on to their children in their own Church with their own pastor.  Thus they moved, in a little less than two years, from celebrating mass in the Spring Valley firehouse to the basement of the new but unfinished parish church on Christmas Eve, 1951. Over subsequent years, they created a parochial life that was centered on the Eucharist and the other sacraments of the Church.  They celebrated holy hours, made retreats, prayed at novena services and built panoply of devotions and activities that characterized parish life in the 50’s.  They formed their children in the faith.  They developed clubs and organizations to share the beliefs they held in common.  They finished their church and built a school; and later, a large extension to it and along the way created a vibrant and caring community.

  More recently, reflecting Vatican II’s vision of the Church as a community of God’s people, “OLV” has called forth and formed various lay leaders and ministers.  Liturgical, educational, social concerns and other ministries have flourished.  We have a vibrant Pastoral Council and Finance Council to assist in leading the community.  Parish leadership seeks to encourage everyone to take personal responsibility for the life of our parish.

 Today, as we enter the third year of the new millennium, the same Spirit that motivated Catholics of previous generations is moving Christians everywhere to face new challenges.  The bishops of our country have called for Stewardship as a way of life, responding to the Vatican Council Fathers’ plea for a renewal of Catholic faith, hope and love.  Pope John Paul II has characterized this renewal as “a transition from faith based on habit…to a faith based on personal choice, a choice that is enlightened, convinced and expressed in living witness.”

 Our Lady of the Visitation Parish accepts the challenge put before us by the Church, the new millennium and our own experience.  As expressed in our Parish Mission Statement, we understand our mission is “to become examples of Christ’s love in the world by caring for one another through our communal sharing and service.  To celebrate our joy of understanding and caring through sacraments and prayer.”  After much discussion on the part of our parish staff, Pastoral and Finance Councils, we have identified the central need of our community as the deepening of our communion.  Everyone knows that these are uniquely difficult times, but the people of Our Lady of the Visitation continue to embark in efforts to build a robust lay leadership to work collaboratively with the priests and parish staff, to continuously explore ways and means of growing in our awareness of our mission in the Church, and of prayerfully caring for the community of the parish and world.

Thus Our Lady of the Visitation Parish has initiated Stewardship as a way of deepening our individual Christian lives and communal growth.  We promote renewed appreciation of our scriptures to help us respond to the Spirit’s unifying work among us.  We look for the continued development of our new Youth Ministry and forthcoming programs for the spiritual development of our adult members.  We promote lay leadership development.  Our Pastoral Council has initiated an outreach to encourage and assist all each person and every group in our parish to continue to explore God’s call in Christ to mission.

 Our community is determined to help each other to be true disciples of the Lord through activities that nurture enlightened celebrations of the sacraments, a faithful understanding of the Scriptures and a convincing witness to the loving and welcoming Spirit of Jesus Christ; in new efforts on behalf of social justice, adult formation and community building.  Our stewardship and lay leadership initiatives are meant to engage everyone in this formation and mission.  It gives each of us an opportunity to commit our time, talent and treasure in mission as a concrete manifestation of our following the Lord in this millennium of faith.  We believe that this is our baptismal and communal responsibility.