Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

First, a great thank you to all of you who  responded to the Unbound Ministry priests who  visited two weekends ago while I was away. I’ve  heard from several people who had comments  about the homilies and presiders; never the  less it seems that they did their work and you did yours, too. I had mentioned at the few  Masses I had this past weekend that our parish responded with a record 100+ adoptions for any parish they had ever visited. Later I learned that  the real number was 205! I am very glad you  were so generous. Unbound is one of the few  (apparently) charitable “adoption” agencies with  an A++ rating, which means that nearly all of the  money they receive goes to the charity for which  they serve. So, again, thank you!

I hope you got a chance to see the photos which were printed in the bulletin last week of our visits to the Oblate Sisters’ missions in South Africa and Namibia. If not, you can always go to our website—and see the photos as they really are!— in the bulletin archives. At the Masses for which I presided here last weekend I spoke a bit more about how our parish is going to make sure every child has a pillow and a pillowcase as a starter for our relationship with the Mission of Saint Joseph School in Gabis (Karasburg), Namibia. Many of you have already responded hoping to participate in this project, as well as another project I hope to start, that of constructing bathrooms for the children. The boys’ bathroom (for 85 boys) has two commodes and they are not functioning well. I hope to investigate the possibility of building sustainable, waterless (as much as possible, as water is precious in the desert) bathrooms which will accommodate more children, larger bathrooms for both the girls and the boys. We will be sensitive to make sure that local people are employed and local businesses get the contracts as much as possible, and that we don’t upset the balance of these girls and boys in staying true to the simplicity of their lives, introducing a dissatisfaction for what they have. They have so little, and are so joyful because they don’t have the complications of our lives, and we don’t intend to introduce anything unnecessary for their well-being.

Already it is August, and we leave on our annual parish trip to Ireland tonight (Sunday). It seems like there has been too much travel this summer. We originally were going to have our Buddhist – Catholic Dialogue here in the States, but the Holy Father asked that we have our first meeting in Rome, so that was unexpected. Then the dedication in Pella was originally thought to be the week following Easter Sunday when the Sisters could be away without missing too much school, but it moved to this summer in getting the convent finished. So the one trip to Ireland, which has been planned for a year, is starting this week. We will pray for (and toast) all of you while we are visiting the other Holy Land.

As we have nearly completed all the materials for our Stewardship / Discipleship plan for the coming year, I thought I would include some excerpts from Pope Francis’ Misericordiae Vultus, the Bull of Indiction announcing the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, in this week’s bulletin.

Our theme for the coming year is “People of Thankfulness Sowing Seeds of Mercy,” and we have chosen this theme because it is for God’s mercy that we are most thankful. The life of faith can only grow in the soil of gratitude, when we realize what we have received from God and are filled with gratitude for his goodness. Then, and only then, are we able to be merciful to others as God is merciful to us, to be forgiven as we forgive, to love with the love that is familiar to us because God has loved us first.

I hope you enjoy this text. We will be studying  and praying about growing in gratitude throughout the coming year as our parish fine tunes our ability to respond to Jesus’ call as good disciples. Some major dates to keep in mind are:

• 13 September—Parish Ice Cream Social, cakewalk and Dance;
• 19-20 September—Parish Life Weekend with tents and ministry reps available after all Masses;
• 26-27 September—Commitment Sunday;
• 9-10 October—Called and Gifted Workshop: Join the 500+ parishioners who have dug deeper in the spiritual life discovering gifts received in Baptism and how to unlock them serving God. I ask all who have completed the Workshop to encourage several people to consider taking it and reserving the time in their calendars;

Before we know it, it will be Christmas!

God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

I wish I could perfectly represent the beautiful welcome and love that we have encountered at each of the Oblate missions in Pella and Matjieskloof, South Africa and Gabis, Namibia. I have a remarkably even greater respect and love for our Oblate Sisters and Priests, who have truly shaped the faith of southern Africa in many places. Every town where they are present the far majority of the population is  Catholic, and they are in some of the most remote and desolate places you can go. …And they went 100 years ago, before there were any comforts invented or cars to drive. They are inspiring.

The photo below is of all the students at Saint Joseph School in Gabis. It is by far the poorest of all the missions, and we toured their classrooms, their dormitories and refectory. The students sleep on bunk beds in rows, 60 to a room I would guess. They were so joyful and kind, it is a very special place. I hope this year that you will be willing to adopt this place in the desert and bind our parish to them in charity. They are so poor. But ask them to sing, they erupt in song and dance, singing about Jesus in parts with that beautiful African style. Such beautiful children.

While we were there I realized that only some of the 200 or so children had pillows—I asked one of the Sisters about it and she said that she just didn’t have time to sew them herself. Well, you know that collection we take up every year, “Pastor’s Choice”? We’re buying pillows and pillow cases for each child as soon as we can transfer money.

Our day in Pella was probably the most special. You will find some more photos on pages 8 and 9. The entire town of Pella turned out, several groups of students had prepared traditional dances, met us at the gate and led us to their beautiful cathedral. Several parish choirs from the region (one from Namibia) came and the singing was amazing. About 50 Oblate Sisters attended, including Mother General Francoise Bernadette and two Sisters from the Mother House in Troyes, France. Bishop Risi presided. Since its foundation, Oblate priests have served the mission both as bishop and pastors since 1875 until shortly after Bishop Risi came ten years ago.

After Mass the procession continued to the front of the new convent which we helped to build— we are included in all their thanks and prayers. Rooms are named after our parish, and a plaque on the front of the house thanks, especially, Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The house is nicely designed and built, with the Sisters’ little rooms situated around a small sunny courtyard. The singing continued, everyone was invited to tour the new house, and afterward the 300+ guests  were invited to stay for lunch, a lunch that the Sisters and helpers cooked over fire for three days.

We gathered the following day, just our group from the U.S. and the Sisters, to dedicate the chapel with Mass. Hopefully we can put together a presentation of photos and videos that you can enjoy after we return. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how important you are and how you have made a profound difference in the faraway land of South Africa.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

This has been a rich couple of days at our CADEIO (Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers) Institute for Ecumenical Formation in DC. One of the leaders of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity for 26 years in Rome is leading our Institute, and priests and lay leaders from across the U.S. have entered into a few days of continuing education. We leave for Africa tomorrow—I wish I could tell you about that already, but as usual, I’ll write about that next week and will be home already when you are reading about it! Please know that we will carry your intentions in our prayers and Masses throughout our mission pilgrimage to South Africa and Namibia.

Well, we were talking today at the Institute, and our conversation began to work around to the topic of unity (naturally). One of those attending our classes is a new bishop, and he has some incredible insight, very well-read in all that the Pope has written. He was telling us that Pope Francis said, in one of his presentations in Rome, that “The mystery of unity has already begun.” It seems sort of obvious, but we tend not to appreciate the reality that has already happened. The fact that some of us are even together studying and preparing how to work toward unity in our dioceses proves that the mystery is begun already. God begins the work we do with the desire in our hearts, then he gives us the strength to follow through. “As we are walking together toward Christ, we are coming closer together to each other.”

This image is a classic one of spiritual writers. Imagine a wagon wheel with many spokes. Christ is at the center, and each of us is at a point on the circumference of the wheel’s circle. As each of us comes to the center, like the spokes of the wheel, each of us also comes closer to each other. It is a fact in the spiritual life that all we need to do is seek him, and we will find each other.

But this bishop also said something that I found so powerful, perhaps because I think of it a lot, too. Pope Francis speaks of this a lot. He said that the one resulting thing, if we are seeking Christ, is that our closeness to Christ also demands that we pay attention to the relationships that result among us. These relationships come with the deal. They demand reverence, because their closeness to God makes them holy. Pope Francis, in his “Joy of the Gospel,” says that time is greater than space. Space is just here or there, but time allows us to make something out of that space. He likes to use the image of planting seeds. In fact, that was his simple message to us Buddhists and Catholics when we met him in Rome: “The world is a place of confusion of violence. I am thankful that you are here, planting seeds of peace. Yes,…planting seeds. …this is important.”

Time allows us to enter and grow by our relationships. We are always better people together than we are alone, we always grow more, learn more about ourselves, learn patience and gentleness, above all self-less-ness, when we are with other people. It is the purpose for community: we are defined by our love, and our love can’t have meaning if we are alone. Relationships are not plannable. They surprise us, and we must remain open to them. Above all, open to our relationship with God, but also all those whom he has placed in our lives.

“But at what point,” my friend the bishop asked, “does the individualism of today become selfdestructive?” You see it everywhere. People acting out all over the place out of self interest, by some inwardly-driven hatred or indifference to those around them? How many marriages do you know that have ended just out of selfishness? Family relationships, too. We were never placed here to serve only ourselves. We live in a time when this individualism has been enshrined as the ideal of life. It is a lie. It is a trap you can get lost in.

There are a few values we must rediscover, between individuals, between churches and nations. Willingness to change, in the sense of conversion of heart. I must change. We must pray together more as an integral part of our relationships. We must be willing to heal memories. The past, simply, is usually not pleasant but it can’t define this moment, now. We must intentionally live virtue, especially humility and charity. We must seek friendship that feeds our spirits, not our appetites, but our souls.

If we could but fix our relationships, maybe we’d have a better shot at changing the world.
God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

We finally got the schedule of our Holy Father’s visit to the United States, we have published it opposite. It will be a time of excitement for our country, and for our area, as it seems he will be
so close.

I have received many inquiries from parishioners to see if parishes will be issued tickets to the Mass on the steps of the Shrine in D.C. and if there would be a drawing for tickets as happened when Pope Benedict was here last. The reality is, as I understand it, that the general public is welcome. There will be seats in the parking lot and the green alongside the shrine and the altar will be set up on the steps facing Catholic University campus, to accommodate about 15,000 people. There are many invited guests who will have priority for seating and no additional tickets will be issued.

I would not discourage your going, but would say simply that it will be a challenge. I haven’t decided yet if I will try to go, or not. There may be a slim chance that I might attend the interreligious service at the World Trade Center site in New York on Friday, but that is uncertain. If you are considering going, plan to take Metro. There is little parking on a good day, and that area of town is congested. People will probably need to arrive early for security purposes and bring what they need to be outside for hours.

Some folks have been looking into going to Philadelphia. I think that may be even more of a longshot. Hotel rooms have been sold out for a year. The crowds will be intense, the distances from the altar may make watching it on TV at home more satisfying. I was speaking with a family in Bucks County who are hosting a family from Nebraska at their home…Bucks County is not near Philadelphia.

Apparently it is the intention of the Holy Father to keep Philadelphia and the synod on the family as the main event, and his meetings with world leaders and U.S. bishops, and the canonization Mass here in D.C. as his principal other activities.

I will tell you that it was exciting to meet him a couple of weeks ago. He had only a little to say, but it was simple and powerful. You can see the Vatican video about our audience at www.romereports.com/pg161925-pope-francis-meetswith-buddhist-leaders-oethese-small-gesturesare-seeds-of-peace-en. It is hard to believe now that I was even there, I try to imagine how he does it all and still remains so holy, so authentic. He is a very special man and that is why so many are so interested in seeing him. This is our chance, when he is here.

This week we will be going to South Africa to visit the missions of our Oblate Sisters of Saint Francis DeSales. My letter next week will come to you from there, hopefully. Say a prayer for us on the trip, if you will.

Next weekend while I’m out of the country we will welcome two priests who travel and promote missions in 21 countries for children and elderly people. Fr. Thomas Malloy (an Oblate of Saint Francis DeSales priest) and Fr.Jerry Hackenmueller will preach at all the Masses about the missions and an organization that supports them, “Unbound.” You will find a pullout page inside the front cover of the bulletin next week about their work, you can also find more about them at www.unbound.org.

God bless you.

Lago Albano from the town of Castel Gandolfo, where our Buddhist- Catholic Dialogue took place June 22-27.