Over their 48 years of marriage Pat and Jerie Coulter have lived in 33 different homes around the world --- which is what happens when one (like Pat) is a career Marine Corps officer.

But after Pat retired as a major in 1984, and he became a vice president with Raytheon, the Coulters arrived in Moorpark and Jerie said to Pat, "This is it. We're not moving anymore." Finding a spiritual home at Holy Cross Church made a difference, they say.

"We've belonged to many different parishes," Pat says, "but from the second we came to church here we felt we belonged. This is a parish where it's God's house and you feel very, very welcome."

The Coulters are one of six parish couples currently involved in diaconate formation at Holy Cross, where faith formation is the cornerstone of ministry. Approximately 165 parishioners serve as teachers, aides, group leaders, youth ministers, summer camp workers and RCIA leaders under the direction of Sue Jones, director of the parish Faith Formation Program for the past five years.

For Jones, whose daughter Erika is the elementary coordinator for religious education, the job is year-round and "womb to tomb," in the words of Msgr. Paul Albee, pastor.

"My parents," says Jones, "gave me the greatest example of faith and the ability to pass it on --- and I had to pass it on. To keep it only for myself would be to diminish it."

As challenging as her role is, there are numerous rewards, adds Jones: "It is the children who look at me the last day of class and say, 'I'm going to miss being here,' and the parents who thank a catechist for leading their child, and the look on a first communicant's face. And being greeted in a supermarket and called 'the church lady.'"

Msgr. Albee, pastor since 2005, says of his parish, "It's a paradise here --- a growing, middle class, family-oriented parish. As a priest, what inspires me the most is the faith life of the parishioners. I define faith life as how they live their faith in the context of their day-to-day living. They may have their challenges, but they're still here on Sunday, giving to the parish and the parish nourishes them. And that's the reason they get involved in faith formation, help in outreach and whatever else we do."

Says Pat Coulter: "You do what you can in whatever time God can give you to help others."