Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

A week ago Saturday I was walking from our usual 8am Confessions to celebrating a 9am Mass at our Sisters’ Convent. I was cutting through the Courtyard Meeting Room and I came upon this bunch of wrappin’ elves. I took a picture. It is group of women in the parish who are always quietly going about their business doing all kinds of things you probably will never know about. I am very grateful to them for all that they do.

They were wrapping books for children: children  the Thurman Brisben Homeless Shelter, children in the Migrant and Refugee Services program of Catholic Charities, and children at the Children’s Oncology Ward and Mary Washington Hospital. The books themselves—more than 100—were donated by our children at Saint Mary Preschool.

I was just filled with joy. (It was the basis of my homily for this past Sunday—see page 9 if you’re interested in hearing it.) Joy because I know God is SO pleased with the work that we do. We are building a culture of joy. And you inspire me.

Actually, that is what I love most about our community at Saint Mary. We just do these things because it is normal for us to do them. Without a lot of fanfare, without any expectation of being recognized. I am so grateful that you “get it.”

I recently did a summary of all the things we do for Catholic Charities: we are able to check every box in their survey which seeks to know how parishes are involved in outreach in the diocese. We are involved in emergency assistance for providing clothing (both collections and distribution), financial assistance and emergency food boxes for people who come to us. We have huge collections of food for the Food Bank and have several significant ministries who prepare food for people and deliver it. We support and collect furniture for our Refugee Services.

We are deeply involved in Micah Ecumenical Ministries as a principal source of volunteers as well as support in their amazingly successful rapid rehousing programs to end homelessness and care for our neighbors who are less fortunate. Our involvement with Mary’s Shelter, Birthright the cold night shelter, as well as community dinners, homeless lunches (Holy Cross) and summer meals for kids at Stafford Junction are an incredible blessing in the lives of so many.

Our sponsorship of the Family Counseling Center next door is one of the best things we have ever done as hundreds of people receive the care they need through Catholic Charities. Counseling and support groups for teens and families continue to be a vital outreach. This year we added a staff nurse to care for our physical health, as well.

We reach out to our parishioners in need with the senior luncheons, ministry visits to nine nursing homes and the hospital by staff, volunteers, religious education teams and Holy Cross Academy programs, and receptions at funerals. More than a dozen Christmas programs crown the year with your goodness. Thank you for being so generous with your time, your talents and your treasure for the good of all God’s good people. May our example continue to widen the circle of God’s love, especially now that his love is about to become visible among us. Merry Christmas. May your goodness return to you a hundred-fold.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

All of us have struggled with the reality of terrorism, particularly the randomness and the senselessness of acts of killing that are unthinkable to civilized people. All of us have imagined the pain of those who have been so broken by these criminals. It is natural to react in anger when confronted with our powerlessness
to do anything to prevent this violence.

But the anger that has boiled over largely has not been properly directed. In the absence of someone to blame, without a good explanation, it is often the case that people blame God. How could God allow this? Think. If he didn’t allow us to sin, nor could we freely choose to love. There would be no virtue in our human existence,
because we would not be free to act.

Or else we look around and see who else is to blame. I’m hearing this happen too often these days, even outside church after Mass! Extremists breed extreme reactions: this means they have accomplished their goal of instilling fear and violent response. What happened at the community meeting in Spotsylvania a few weeks
ago—we can call that exhibit A. Yet, I want to say that there are in our community so many more people who could have brought a balanced, rational dialogue to the front of the room had they attended. I only realized at the last minute there was a movement among some of our own parishioners to bring hate to the meeting. That
is why I attended. If needed, I was going to stare down Catholics and remind them who they are.

When Pope Francis was in Nairobi, though he didn’t specifically refer to the terrorism in Paris, he said that God must never be used to justify hatred and violence. This goes for both those who act in hate, and for those who respond in hate. The Pope warned the religious leaders that “young people are being radicalized in the name of religion to sow discord and fear, and to tear at the very fabric of our societies.” “How important it is that we be seen as prophets of peace, peacemakers
who invite others to live in peace, harmony and mutual respect,” he said. The Vatican has said the Paris attacks have heightened the Pope’s sense of urgency about the need for interreligious dialogue.

We must join in dialogue with our Muslim brothers and sisters, to learn that hatred and killing is not the core teaching of Islam, but rather an extremist interpretation of a faith that has been confused with and manipulated by political power from its earliest days. Fundamentalism, in every religion, in every country in the world, has long produced the tragic effect of violence, persecution and the downward spiral of hatred.

Unfortunately, we live in a world today corrupted by self-interest and ignorance, a culture that will believe any blog or sound-bite that seems to feed their fear and insecurity. Fundamentalism, by its nature, is the use of truth to serve the agenda of the individual. It is a twisting of something shared in common by all, whether in the form of scripture or tradition, to the exclusion of those who do not agree with the opinion of one person or sect. A sacred text, for example, may be read in different ways and interpreted in completely opposite, contradictory ways. This is true whether we consider the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, or the Qur’an. Personal opinion reigns.

Leaders of Muslim communities across the world have come together with a consistent cry that this radicalization of Islam does not represent them. These are crimes and the ones who do these unthinkable acts in the name of God are criminals. We may not condemn an entire people for the individuals among them who are criminals. Consider, for example, how the extremists are attracting, “radicalizing,” people from all countries and diverse backgrounds— not religious backgrounds, but more likely backgrounds of emotional and psychological sickness—who are “joining up” with the culture of hate and killing to feel powerful.

Let’s remember what makes us Christian. We do not return hate for hate, killing for killing. While doing what is necessary for security and justice, we must remain open to dialogue so as to end the cycle of misunderstanding and ignorance, the very reality that the extremists are manipulating right now to promote fear, control our lives, and escalate world tension. Finally, we must intentionally discover, engage and promote what is good in each other in order to build a society that is free and seeks the good of all, building friendship through the encounter that will allow us to confront the evil of our world together and uncover a mutual foundation of peace.

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Before I get started I just want to tell all of you how edified I am by your generosity, your visible kindness to one another and the way you go out of your way to do good for others during this season of preparation. Every moment, your kindnesses are giving glory to God as you donate food, wrap giving tree gifts, drop off blankets and coats. There sure is a lot of need in the world today; there are also your many generous hearts who give in ways that may never be accounted for. Thank you.

As Bugs Bunny used to say, “Tempus fugits.” We find ourselves going forward ever faster into the year. 18 weeks until Easter. I invite all of you to take this special time particularly and treat it like you might a course. Most courses run about 23 classes during the Church year: count each Sunday as an installment as we live again the unfolding of God’s mercy and love in the story of his revelation, the incarnation of his Word, Jesus, his gracious love in giving over the mission of Jesus to his Church, ultimately his institution of Eucharist, passion, death, and resurrection. Do your homework each week and read the next Sunday’s reading thoughtfully and prayerfully. If you can, join a small group to gather and share the reflection of the next Sunday’s Scriptures. Imagine yourself actively involved in the scene, as if listening to the words for the first time.
Ask yourself two questions:

1. Where does this Word have a particular message for me at this time in my life?
2. In what ways is God inviting me to draw closer to him in my life today?

Ultimately it is a matter of attention, I believe. As long as we are paying attention, the time will not fly quickly past in vain leaving us unchanged.

To help chart the days as they pass, you will be receiving our annual Parish Calendar in the mail soon, our gift to you. Please put it in a handy place, and keep track of all the feasts, celebrations and parish events in the upcoming year.

Of course, this coming year 2016 is the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy as proclaimed by Pope Francis, a time that we will concentrate on the depths of the love and mercy of God. Bishop Loverde’s letter about it is in today’s bulletin.

As with most of Pope Francis’ writings, this proclamation is based on a simple foundation of relationship. For mercy to matter, there must be one who is merciful, and there must be one who needs it. People who need mercy are aware of some wrong they have done that needs to be set right, it is never a need taken lightly because it is something we can’t do for themselves. For one who is truly merciful, he or she must be freely able to choose to give it, or not. It is a tension between one’s large-heartedness and another’s heartfelt remorse and helplessness. It is a sacred exchange. There is also an interdependence in the relationship: a truly merciful person must have persons who can receive their mercy in  order to know his or her own fulfillment, as well as the need for the seeker of mercy to be forgiven, delivered, redeemed.

What makes this most beautiful in the relationship between God and us is that God has no need of fulfillment in this way, yet he still freely chooses to pour out his mercy upon us.

The parable of the prodigal son in the Bible might better be described as the parable of the prodigal Father.

The result of this relationship is pure joy. Pope Francis sees this as one of the greatest needs in our world today—not only mercy, but the utter joy that is the product of its work. Real, authentic, abiding and unshakable joy. It is what lies at the heart of the Good News, a kind of news that the world is waiting to hear. We proclaim it by our actions, becoming people of mercy, as our heavenly Father is merciful. Having received it ourselves, we know how to share the gift of joy.

The Vatican has put together a really great website for the Jubilee of Mercy, check it out. Here is the prayer by Pope Francis for the Jubilee.

God bless you,

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Happy new year! It seems right that we end the last year with Thanksgiving, the moment that we come to consider what we have and are thankful for as we step into the new year through the lens of the Advent Season.

Thankfulness is the step in the spiritual life that has to take place before real growth begins. Sometimes people say they get “stuck” and don’t know why they can’t seem to move forward, a block can happen on any level of life, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally. It sometimes happens because a person feels they didn’t get what they wanted, or maybe are  angry because someone else got more. Anger is a big blocker. Learning to be grateful for whatever it is—a little or a lot—is often the key to renewal and a deep abiding peace that  everyone in the world is seeking.

We start with one light in the darkness as the metaphor of this path from darkness of a world without a Savior to a brilliant light in the presence of God-with-us at the birth of Jesus. A Way. From the dangerous darkness of ignorance to the clarity of Truth incarnate. From no hope to founded faith. A Truth. The light grows almost  mperceptibly at first, like a seed in the earth, a grace unrecognized that goes to work and brings us to discover that we are no longer alone. Here there is Love.

There is a remedy to the darkness, an answer to the ignorance and loneliness that can paralyze entire cultures. There is a relationship that changes lives and transforms our night into brightest day.

As I was thinking about this one Advent candle, I realized that I was comparing it to the one great candle that is for us the symbol of new life. We light that candle in that moment of fulfillment, the resurrection of Jesus at the Easter Vigil. At that moment the suffering and death which we have caused with our lives becomes a new reality, a chance for us to change with the silent grace of the Cross. As we venerate the Light of Christ, we realize that the path starts Today, God’s grace penetrates the darkness of our world and begins the process of transformation.

I have taken some of the words of the Easter Exsultet, the ancient proclamation which is chanted at the Vigil Mass in veneration of this Light, and made it a prayer for us at this beginning of time, the first Sunday of Advent:

Lord, This is our night, as when you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is our night as when your pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin.

This is our night when, even now, throughout the world, you set believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them to your holy ones.

This is our night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the grave. Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rises from the dead!

This is our night of which it is written: The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.

With your sanctifying power take our night: dispel wickedness, wash faults away, restore innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners, drive out hatred, foster concord, and bring down the mighty.

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, accept our candle, a sign of our solemn offering. Bring us your Peace.

We don’t know what to do with the darkness of our world but, like the growing light of the season of Advent, we start with only a spark of grace and God’s plan grows in us. God’s plan isn’t a concept or an idea for us to agree or disagree with. It is a real plan being revealed in history and put into action with the light of grace that has been placed in your our hearts, yours and mine. Our names are literally written into this plan to be a part of the dispelling of night to be transformed by the light of his day, brighter than the sun, a path that leads beyond the empty tomb. Let us begin.

God bless you,