Welcome to the Parish Community of St Bridget of Ireland
We are God’s people; the family of Jesus crucified and risen, citizens of heaven brought together by our Lord, sharing in one faith and one baptism. Here at St. Bridget we pride ourselves to be the presence of Christ Jesus in the Northside. We strive to be the hands of Christ reaching out to the other, especially those on the margins of the society. We are his heart, his feet, his eyes. We aspire to function as the means by which Christ continues to transform the world. Through the celebration of the sacraments, the preaching of the Word of God, our community outreach, our open-table fellowship, our prayers and sustained commitments to the community we live, we continue to make the Lord Jesus present in the Northside. He alone is the object of our deepest longings.
Are you looking for a family-like church where you will be known personally? Join us at St. Bridget! Are you looking for a parish where members truly act as the living mystical body of Christ and are connected to each other in sincere love? Come to St. Bridget! At St. Bridget Church, we are connected to each other just the same way that organs in the body are connected to each other. Are you one of those Catholics who have not participated in the liturgy of the Church for a very long time, and you are looking for a parish that will help you get started again without judging you? Come to St. Bridget Church! Come to Mass! Come to the parish office and speak to a priest. Or give us a call. Do you want to be fed spiritually? Do you want to discover or rediscover your charism? Do you want to feel anew the boundless love of Jesus? Visit us at the Community of St. Bridget Catholic Church. In our parish family, we are fed and sustained by the sacraments, and gifted with a mission that we are meant to exercise for the transformation and transfiguration of the world. We have a passion for compassion. We have passion for the impossible.
I am Reverend Marcel Emeka Okwara and I am eternally grateful to be the parochial administrator of St. Bridget Church. I belong to a religious order founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori, known today as the Redemptorists. I was born and ordained in Nigeria. Immediately after my ordination on June 30, 2007, I was sent to the USA. Here are the places I have ministered:
- 2007-2011— Associate Pastor, Holy Names of Jesus & Mary Catholic Church, Memphis, Tennessee
- 2011-2015— Pastor, St. Gerard Majella Catholic Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- 2015-2019— Associate Pastor, St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Whittier, California
- 2019— Associate Pastor, St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota & Parochial Administrator, Community of St. Bridget Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am a very happy priest. I consider myself blessed and favored to be used by the almighty and powerful God to communicate his love. Nothing on earth could be greater than experiencing and expressing the love of God. At St. Bridget, I have a wonderful and brotherly working relationship with Fr. Paul Jarvis. He’s a wonderful man and priest. I work closely with the parish staff, parish council, finance council and the parish trustees. At the table, everyone has a voice. Decisions concerning the parish are made together. I am merely a servant of the parish and not its boss. The paraphrased words of St. Augustine of Hippo is my attitude to ministry, “For my parishioners, I am a priest, the parochial administrator (some simply call me their pastor) but with them, I am a Christian. I am a Catholic. I am a fellow sojourner to the indescribable city of God— heaven.”
God bless you!
Rev. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR
Servant of the servants of God
Parochial Administer
Community of St Bridget Catholic Church
3811 Emerson Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55412
Jesus said, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God…. in everybody!