Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,

In celebration of our nation’s 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I would like to celebrate the things you love about our country! The virtue of loving our country is a species of virtue related to the 4th commandment to ‘honor your father and mother.’

To that end, and it has been 8 years since the first one, I announce the St. Mary’s second ever photo contest with the theme of celebrating how the Lord has blessed us: America the Beautiful Photo Contest!

Many of you may not know it, but I have a great love of photography. In fact, I probably love photography even more than I love orange!

The very first person I met from St Mary IC is a photographer I met on a photo sharing website called Flickr. Sadly, I haven’ uploaded any pictures to this website in 13 years, but if you want to see the pictures flickr.com/photos/paterjpm

But I never tire of looking at photos, and I’d love to see your creative photographic genius as a celebration of our Country!

• Pictures must be taken in the USA

• Please submit pictures in Full Resolution, by email

• Therefore submissions are digital, please don’t drop off physical pictures

• Photos can be of any subject of your choosing that speaksto the theme: Family, landscape, people or places that youvisited last year

• Prizes will be Gi cards from those available in our Scrip

program

• Grand/overall prizes & SubWinners for categories like (but not limited to): Young photographers, family pix, landscapes, sacred, patriotic…. etc

To submit pictures email:

• One picture per email

• Not more than 10 pictures per person

• frmosimann@stmaryfred.org

• Photographer’s name

• Photographers age ONLY IF you want to be eligible for the ‘young’ photographer (<18)

• Where and when the picture was taken

Deadline for submission is September 15, 2026

Let’s see how you can celebrate the blessings of the Lord in the life of our nation.

pax,

Father John Mosimann

The following is a statement from the Most Reverend Michael Burbidge, Bishop of Arlington, in honor our nation’s 250th Birthday:

On Independence Day this year we celebrate our freedom as a nation and the tremendous gift which is America’s 250th anniversary as “one nation under God,” as our Pledge of Allegiance declares.

We mark our national conception from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. Our Declaration of Independence famously acknowledges that all human persons are “endowed by their Creator” with natural and unalienable rights including “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” America’s founding generation sacrificed immensely, with “a firm reliance on Divine Providence,” so that “we the people” could continue to honor and worship God, that Christian faith could remain at the center of public life, and with the hope that, as a country and by God’s grace, America could forever be a place where self-rule, public morality, and personal virtue would rightly guide our enjoyment of freedom.

As citizens, we reflect on the blessings of our nation and our way of life, and we give thanks to God for his gifts of faith and freedom. Today, just as in our earliest days, the goodness and strength of our country and the right exercise of our freedom depend upon our willingness as people of faith to proclaim the Gospel and order our lives and our nation by the Lord’s saving message. As America commemorates this momentous 250th anniversary, may we continue to trust and rely upon God, and strive to live according to what is right and just as a nation and as brothers and sisters.

May God forever bless the United States of America.

 

The Parish Office will be closed on Friday July 3 in honor of Independence Day. The Baptism classes on July 4 are moved to July 11.

Dear Folks,

Here comes the summer! Our youth have been at Work Camp this week and will be returning the day these bulletins appear in the church! Thank you for your very generous support of the youth ‘big-board’ fundraiser! It is a great help in making possible our record setting group: 45 youth and 25 adult leaders/ contractors! It takes an amazing team led by our fabulous youth minister, Tatiana Beltran! God Bless you!

This Work Camp Team are the first parishioners to get to meet Fr. Lee, as you will see in the picture below!

Also check out the piece on Bill O’Connor! He teaches art at JP2, his children serve Mass, and he is painting the Divine Mercy Image for the adoration chapel! I was a little nervous in commissioning a piece from a parish artist (sorry Bill!), but this is because the relationship means it is harder to pick the best option for the chapel! But, Bill is doing an amazing job, and I am so happy to have a Fredericksburg touch to the artwork!

Thank you for your patience, in that it is taking much longer to get the Adoration Chapel open than hoped! I am trying to do the best job possible, even when that has meant waiting for solutions on artwork and design that have been through multiple iterations. there is a (admittedly nerdy saying) about video games, “A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever.” Hence the delays in really trying to get everything right for our chapel, that I hope will anchor our spiritual lives for generations!

FYI: 4th of July is this Saturday, and because I am loathe to cancel sacraments, yes: we will still have the normally scheduled Saturday confessions and Masses. I know crowds will be smaller, but Jesus always shows up!

pax,

Father John Mosimann