Saint Thomas Aquinas Church
and Catholic Student Center

We, the people of St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames, Iowa, recognizing the rich diversity of our resident and student community, joined together by our common faith in salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, unite in the following mission:

• TO know God and reveal God's presence among us, striving to be a spiritual community of welcoming, growing, sharing, and witnessing Christians in the Catholic tradition.
• TO worship God -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- in both communal and private prayer, and to celebrate our faith in liturgy, encouraging all to active participation and spiritual growth.
• TO share the Gospel within the Church, with Iowa State University, and with the community at large, as we reflect personally on the Word, and thus proclaim, teach, and witness publicly to its power.
• TO be a reconciling community by embracing differences, forgiving offenses, seeking justice, overcoming oppression, and promoting peacemaking in our own hearts, homes, parish, workplace, and the world.
• TO lovingly serve the needs of others in the student, family, parish, local, and international communities through a variety of individual responses and group programs.
• TO be a sign of hope as we live out the paschal mystery in our own lives, nurturing and supporting one another as we journey together in faith to the fullness of God's reign.

We pledge ourselves to this mission so that, through God's unconditional love, we can transform ourselves and our world in the light of the Gospel.