Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,

This week at a ‘teaching Mass,’ one of the children asked about why statues are sometimes covered in purple. I was struck by the question being something she has ruminated on and attempted to explain it thus: It is done in the last approximately two weeks before Good Friday. This is because as we get closer and closer to our crosses, they can loom larger and larger. Our anxiety for proximate suffering can inhibit or block ability to see past the suffering to the new life that will come after. We cover the statues to remember that even though we can’t see the saints in heaven, they are still there interceding for us.

Another way to look at it is: How does anxiety build up when we have a dreaded test in school, or project/presentation at work, or when we are facing a crisis like divorce in our family? We can lose sight of the things that are most important to us. Trials and tests are not limited to Lent and Holy Week.

When we have such impending crosses looming over us, is a time when we MOST NEED Jesus and the sacraments! You are closest to Jesus when you are carrying any cross, and when you are uniting that to Him at the Holy Mass.

May we never despair of the darkness that comes with crosses and the confusion when we can’t see our prayers answered. Which inspires me to leave you with this quote from Fulton Sheen:

“You cannot always depend on prayers to be answered the way you want them answered but you can always depend on God. God, the loving Father often denies us those things which in the end would prove harmful to us. Every boy wants a revolver at age four, and no father yet has ever granted that request. Why should we think God is less wise? Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused.”

pax,
Fr.  John Mosimann

Dear Folks,

Congratulations on Parish Life Weekend! I take full credit for the beautiful weather last weekend! Just kidding… St. Scholastica is my personal intercessor for weather issues. Google how she prayed for rain so her brother, St. Benedict, would have to stay longer on his visit so that they could converse of the Lord!

Over 485 people signed up to serve in various ministries, groups, and projects and the numbers keep climbing as folks continue to reach out to ministry leaders directly. It’s not too late to sign-up to serve. See the “Gifts” page in the bulletin, fill it out and return it to the parish office and a member of our Stewardship Team will contact you to help guide you to a ministry that’s right for you. Or, you can contact the leader of a particular ministry directly. The Ministry Catalog is on our website and copies are available in the office too! Parish Life Weekend is a personal invitation to serve and we all need to take a step and continually strive to fight complacency! I know our lives are overwhelmingly busy, but the rewards of service are great when we step out in faith.

A special thank you to the Stewardship and Parish Life Committees for hosting the event as well as the members of TMIY, Fight Club and Youth Ministry for assisting in set-up and breakdown. The American Heritage Girls for serving refreshments and parish staff for their planning and support. These things don’t get pulled off without a lot of work and we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Because I am not mentioning the names of all of those who assisted, I will pray a Hail Mary before I finish typing this sentence, as a prayer of gratitude for your generosity. Done.

Additionally, last weekend saw our diocese closing out its 50th anniversary celebrations with Mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC! 2 bishops, 70+ priests, and a very full church of faithful from all over the diocese! It made me think, “We need to organize a parish pilgrimage.

Let’s find a time to make a pilgrimage to the newly renovated Cathedral and even maybe to the church I helped to build in Leesburg too!” Here is a picture of the Bishop incensing the altar!

Have a blessed week and enjoy the Columbus Day holiday on Monday!

Pax,

Father John Mosimann

Dear Folks,

Here we go!!!!!! Parish Life Weekend!!! Last weekend we celebrated our thank you Mass and dinner with the 2024 Volunteers of the Year award winners! The honorees were included in last week’s bulletin too! We tried a new way of rolling out our THANK YOU and acknowledgement of service with the announcement of honorees being made at the parish leadership dinner, and then this past weekend, thanking at Holy Mass and dinner! I was happy with how it worked this year, as it was nice to be able to personally spend a little more time with each award winner!

This weekend we are hosting Parish Life Weekend! And in the light of the opportunity to sign up for parish ministries, I would want to share one of my reflections that blossomed from the leadership dinner, discussing the theme “Built of Living Stones.”

In the fuller verse, St. Peter writes, “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5, NAB).

Remember that Peter’s name = Rock = Petros. Here is the Rock writing about being living stones, and in this verse he uses another word in Greek: Lithoi. The distinction is that Petra is a large rock, where Lithoi are smaller stones, which have been formed and shaped. They have been either shaped by stone mason, or wind, or water. In this context, Peter’s exhortation makes sense, “let yourselves be built!!” Our being built requires our saying ‘yes’ to the Lord forming, and shaping us into His body!

Every time you say ‘yes’ to serving the Lord in one of the 108 ministries in this parish, you are letting yourself be built into the spiritual house of the Lord. This is why sharing your talents is not a suggestion or an option. It is at the very heart of being a disciple of the Lord and required for all who love Him.

pax,

Father John Mosimann