St. Mary's Basilica
Phoenix, Arizona
Ministries
St. Mary’s Basilica continues the mission of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by him in the synagogue on the Sabbath day:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
The word Christ is a title the early Christians gave to Jesus. The word Christ means “anointed one.” Jesus’ followers came to realize that Jesus was not an ordinary religious leader. They came to see he was the chosen one of God, or the “anointed one.” Through the sacrament of Baptism and Confirmation we are anointed with Sacred Charism and become “Christians” (The word Christian comes from the Greek word Christos, which means “Anointed One.”) We become another Christ and are called to carry on the mission of Jesus.
