Parish Newsletter April/May 2012
Message From Father Ron
Dear Parishioners: I want to wish you a Happy and Blessed Easter season as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The celebrations of Holy Week enabled us as a parish family to reflect on the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection and its meaning in our lives. It was a great joy to welcome our newly baptized and our newly received Catholics into the Church during the Easter Vigil. It has been so edifying to see the great attendance at the Lenten daily Masses, Stations of the Cross, The Light is On for You, and the liturgies of Holy Week. As we celebrate our Easter season, we look forward to the First Holy Communion of our young people in May. We, the priests, have been interviewing them over the last couple of weeks and are amazed at how much they know as they prepare for this great moment in their lives when they receive the precious gift of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Their parents and catechists have been doing
a wonderful job in preparing them for this special moment. It gives all of us an opportunity to reflect on the awesome gift of the Eucharist as Jesus gives us the gift of Himself as food for our journey, the importance of attending Mass each week, and the realization that Jesus fulfills His promise to us, “I am with you always until the end of time.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Having passed from this world to the Father, Christ gives us in the Eucharist the pledge of glory with him. Participation in the Holy Sacrifice identifies us with his Heart, sustains our strength along the pilgrimage of this life, makes us long for eternal life, and unites us even now to the Church in heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the saints.(1419)”
embraced the cross Jesus was asking her to carry. My brother, Don, along with our family, and I want to thank all of you for your many kindnesses on the death of our Mom. We have been overwhelmed by your prayers, Mass cards, notes, flowers, and especially those of you who came to the funeral home and were present for her Mass of Christian Burial. May the Lord bless you and your families for the kindnesses you have shown to us.
On a personal note, I want to thank all of you for your prayers during my Mom’s battle with lung cancer. She greatly appreciated the gift of those prayers as she
Father Ron
Thank you for all you do for our parish, especially those who made the liturgies of Holy Week so beautiful. Be assured of my daily prayers for you and your families as we continue to celebrate our Easter season. Peace,
Just ‘N Time
Adult Center attendees celebrated St.Patrick’s Day
By John Dluhy, M.D.
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enjoy having clear goals, and I need a way to reach them with sensible habitual steps. We can create our own useful habits and then keep repeating them for our own benefit, so recently I decided to apply the positive benefits of the habit loop. In order to develop the habit loop, we need to cue the habit, learn and execute a routine, and then reap a reward. I decided to apply this to a part of my prayer life. Its working like this: my cue occurs at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. At that time every week when I am in Washington, I go to Blessed Sacrament’s chapel or church. For the next 135 minutes my routine is to pray or talk to God, say a rosary, and/or read the Bible or some spiritual writing. I
Editor: Pat Watson Layout: Delphine Clegg Parish Logo Designs: Ellen Smyth
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Adult Center Celebration
vary this pattern using my intuition to guide the reading and my perceived emotional state to guide my personal conversation with God or a saint. My reward is feeling closer to God. I complete this Wednesday experience with Mass and the Eucharist. My habit experience feels good and is a taste of the ultimate reward: heaven and eternal life. This routine has become a habit, so the only work involved now is getting to the church on time: 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. The rest of the afternoon is easy and comforting, and the reward at the end feels somewhat bigger each time I repeat the habit. I think of this as a habit of love—loving myself and loving God.
with a special luncheon and activities. Our former pastor, Msgr. Thomas Duffy, was among the honored guests. If you missed this celebration, director Rita Killian promises there are more planned. The group, consisting of parishioners age 39 and holding, meets regularly Monday through Thursday in the Manning Center after the 11o’clock Mass. Each day there is a different program with a variety of activities and classes. For more information, contact Rita Killian, 202-363-5069.
Upcoming Parish Events April 15 through May 13 • Sunday mornings, “20th Century Catholic Authors,” a lecture series. Three Georgetown University professors, Kevin Doak, Rev. Stephen Fields, S.J., and Dr. John Pfordresher will share their wide range of knowledge with attendees. Professor Doak specializes in the study of nationalism and democratic thought and culture in modern Japan, as well as in the literary, cultural and philosophical expressions of public thought and values. Rev. Stephen Fields, S.J. is Associate Professor of Theology at Georgetown, conducts graduate seminars, and speaks five languages. John Pfordresher is a Professor of English at Georgetown University interested in the relationship of painting. All sessions of the series are free and will be held in the school auditorium from 9 to 10:15 (coffee and rolls served after the 7:30 Mass). April 24 • Father Ron and the Blessed Sacrament Commission leaders will welcome 100 new ministers into the Administration, Community Life, Formation, Outreach and Worship Commissions at 7 p.m. in the Blessed Sacrament School auditorium. Evening will include a blessing, a simple supper, laughter, and words of thanks to those coming forward to join a ministry. All parish members who missed the Commissions’ call for volunteers are welcome to join in this event to learn more about each Commission and to consider becoming a ministry member. RSVP to
[email protected]. May 5 • Your old running shoes are just fine for the fifth annual Blessed Sacrament Bulldog 5k race, which begins at 8 a.m. What better way to enjoy a beautiful day with family and re-connecting with friends while supporting our school? Questions? Contact Cindy Hart at cindyhart@ verizon.net. Web site: www.bsstoday.org/bulldograce.
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Blessed Sacrament Receives Ten New Candidates By Therese Recinella, Director of Religious Education Blessed Sacrament received ten people into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 7. Three adults were baptized: Kenneth O’Connor, Danielle Golka, and Elizabeth Bowman. Five candidates for full Communion also entered the Church: Amber Goulet, Erik Harrison, Heather Bock, David Rusthoven, and Andrea Vincent. Two candidates completed their sacraments of initiation: Aida Marino and Lidia Marino. We asked our Catholics candidates to share something about their own journey of becoming Catholic and how the process of RCIA and entering the Catholic Church has deepened their relationship with Christ.
Lidia Marino My name is Lidia Marino, and I prepared for Confirmation and First Communion at the Easter Vigil. I was baptized Catholic as a child, but I was not raised in the Church. I have always wanted to enter the Church and deepen my relationship with God. When my sister was deciding to go through the RCIA process before her wedding, I thought it would be the perfect time for me to do so as well. This process has truly opened my eyes and my heart to the love of God, and I am looking forward to deepening my relationship with God even further.
Aida Marino I have really enjoyed my time these past months learning more about Catholicism from the Church. Going through the RCIA process and ultimately joining the Church is something that I have thought about doing for several years now, and I am so happy to have been able to do it at Blessed Sacrament. Everyone here has been so welcoming and helpful; it has truly been a wonderful experience and warm journey. So I thank you. So many things about my life have changed since starting this journey to become Catholic. I think the biggest change I have noticed is the genuine happier feeling in my heart knowing that God has an overall plan for me. I have learned to have faith and hope, and the feeling of God’s love—all things that as I grow older, I look forward to gaining a deeper understanding of in my life and to ultimately bring me closer to God, as well.
David James Rusthoven At first my journey to Catholicism was an intellectual exercise. I read both Catholic and Protestant apologists and weighed the evidence in my mind. As I read, I was more and more convinced that the Catholic Church was, is, and will be God’s Church on earth. I had long thought many Protestant denominations had differing ideas and practices, and I began to realize this was because they did not reflect the totality of Holy Scripture or tradition. My head was won over by the truth, but this was only the beginning of the journey. The real transformation was in my heart. My fiance was an amazing model for me because God’s love shines so brightly through her every day. We read and prayed together, and she came with me to R.C.I.A. classes and to Mass. My life was enriched, and I took greater joy in living every day as we explored God’s plan for us and His unending graces. My fiance encouraged me without ceasing, witnessing how the Church and the Sacraments helped her so much in her life. Her support and love never wavered. My life has changed immeasurably for the better, and with her help, Jesus has become the Lord of my life. My greatest aspiration is to be guided by God’s will rather than my own, to truly be a man after God’s own heart. continued on next page...
April/May 2012
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Blessed Sacrament Receives Ten New Candidates continued from previous page
Heather Bock I have enjoyed a strong evangelical faith and have broadened my faith by learning more about Catholic traditions, worship and disciplines that help us keep Christ at the center of our lives. I think I have a greater appreciation for how the Mass, the discipline of confession, and the sacraments can all help us remain faithful. I realize sometimes our natural emotions don’t carry us forward in our faith, and the decision to go to Mass and worship is a good one even when we don’t feel like it. I think RCIA has given me a fresh perspective on the beauty of the gospel and the traditions of the Christian faith. This has deepened my faith by helping me see how many saints and believers have gone before me and used the same disciplines to keep their faith alive and fruitful.
Kenny O’Connor I think that becoming Catholic means becoming one of God’s children. It means acknowledging and seeking the truth, and wanting to learn to listen when He is speaking to me. On the whole, I think I have grown as a person. The greatest place that I have seen this is in my understanding and forgiveness of other people. I think this has deepened my faith and relationship with God, because it has given me a better appreciation for His infinite forgiveness and mercy for me when I screw up. I also think it has helped me deepen my relationships with other people and with Jesus Christ within them.
Amber Goulet Growing up in a Protestant family grounded me in my Christian faith. In adulthood, I found myself realizing that the Bible alone was not a sufficient path to faith and practice. Through friends and family I was introduced to the Catholic Church and soon found clarity, purpose, and an authority of the Church I feel necessary to follow. The unity and history within the Catholic Church helps Christianity and Jesus be more believable/realistic while retaining mystery, supernatural, and sacred. Even more deeply, I have learned the true meaning of unconditional love and forgiveness toward myself and for others.
Andrea Vincent My journey to become Catholic has deepened my ability to have God in my everyday life. This has helped me to prioritize the things that are truly important, count my blessings more often, and really appreciate the little things.
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Blessed Sacrament Receives Ten New Candidates continued from previous page
Erik Harrison I decided to join RCIA in the fall of 2010. Just after Thanksgiving of that year my wife was diagnosed with a major illness, and I was unable to complete the RCIA process that year. I did attend classes when I could, and I continued to go to Mass. Being involved with the Church and RCIA over the past 18 months has made a very difficult time easier. I don’t think it was a coincidence that I decided to join the Church when I did. Now 18 months later my wife is healthy, and I am looking forward to continuing to grow as a full member of the Catholic Church. Until I started RCIA I had not entered a church for the purposes of worship for over 30 years. This process has allowed me to begin a relationship with God where one did not exist before. Entering the church this Easter I feel like my life is more rich, and my focus has shifted away from pure material pursuits.
Danielle Golka I was born in Phoenix, Arizona on September, 1987 to cradle Catholic parents. Sadly, soon after, my parents divorced and my mother re-married someone outside of the Catholic faith; he belonged to Mormonism. Because of this my twin sister and I, of my mother’s first marriage, never received any of our sacraments. My mother and now stepfather came to common grounds that my twin sister and I would decide for ourselves which faith we would enter as we grew older. Despite their separate beliefs, I can remember, my mother bringing my twin sister and I to church. I have fond memories of dinner and bedtime prayers and Sunday school: the songs, the lessons, and the friends. I enjoyed the comfort of Mass, so much that I was often moved to tears. I felt the company of God. There was always something incredibly moving to me about the Catholic symbolisms and rituals. I knew God was everywhere. I’m forever grateful to my mom for taking us to church and teaching us about God, even in the dark seasons of her life The practice of attending Sunday Mass occasionally continued into my adult life. However, as I grew older, I developed relationships which exposed me to different faiths, and experimented with their teachings, but never found one more ‘at home’ than the Catholic faith. So, the Catholic Church, and the idea of formally joining, was never that far from my mind. While all my life I’ve considered myself Catholic, it wasn’t until more recently when I moved across the county for my career that among all these contemplations I decided what a better time to truly discover and deepen my faith in an entirely new beginning. My open arms and heart to fully receiving the Catholic faith has changed the way I live my life, right down to the way I view the world in its entire, how I handle myself, and how I treat others. It has satisfied my deepest spiritual needs which only tend to grown deeper as I continue to learn, study and pray more. The Spirit has not only taught me but has led me in ways that I could have never done as a non-Catholic. Editor’s Note: The priests, staff, and all parishioners extend a sincere and warm welcome to these new members of our faith community. May your faith journey be rich and joyful!
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Volunteers Spring In To Help Neighbors
Jaime Alonso and Jim Greenberg working on fencing.
By Lisa Greenberg
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e were fortunate indeed not to have rain on St. Patrick’s Day as volunteers gathered to prepare the community garden for a new growing-to-share year. Later this season, Pat Kavanaugh of the Social Concerns Office will distribute the fresh, organically grown and highly nutritious fresh greens and salad materials to those who knock at her door. She already had the last cuttings of the overwintered collards in hand on March 24, but the rest of our project lies in the future.
Photo by Carmella Mazzotta
Carmella Mazzotta takes planting kale seeds seriously.
However, the future depends on the past; in this instance, three years to test out the concept, build the beds, thanks to Damascus-Germantown Boy Scouts involved in an Eagle Scout’s project, and prepare the soil on St. Paddy’s Day, patron saint of Ireland, if not of potatoes. In addition to our stalwart Environmental Action Committee, we also had the assistance of two student volunteers, Joe Spaeth and Dave Flynn, in search of community service hours. These young men, 13 and 16 respectively, set to with pitchforks to turn over the soil in the five beds we have. Worms were wriggling, but clay was also rising. They had to slash the clay slabs into pieces and incorporate the leaf mulch and manure that had been left to overwinter since November/ December when our rather late growing season closed down. However, using natural aka organic growing techniques to build the soil has produced a vibrant underground life, including worms and microbes. Plants profit from worms, fertilizing the soil as well as aerating it (and don’t even need to get paid for their work). “Mature volunteers” took the brainier aka “easier” jobs and distributed seeds, stapled the
Joe Spaeth and Dave Flynn, student volunteers, get the tomato, pea, and radish bed ready.
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Father Ron takes a moment to chat with the volunteers at the community garden. As you can see, he loves gardening! Or else people or spring!
Photo by Carmella Mazzotta
net fencing to keep out our friendly rodents, such as chipmunks and squirrels, and our very non-friendly, in fact, totally indifferent, hooved creatures, the nemesis of local gardens, whitetailed deer, and planned a gate in the fence. So far, radish, kale, and pea seeds are up! Soon they will be producing. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant have been sown in home-style greenhouses made out of plastic containers from gallon plastic milk jugs to fresh baby lettuce boxes (see http://www.wintersown.org for easy ways to sow seeds successfully) and will transition to the garden when the soil warms. Beans will enter the garden later in the growing season. Father Ron stopped by to cheer us on, so maybe you also would like to take a look at the community garden, directly behind the rectory and next to the garage. We are always interested in more volunteers for one-time or sustained volunteerism, AND we highly encourage you, if you have four to eight hours of sunlight, to grow vegetables in your own garden. Just imagine, spinach is 49 percent protein/calorie (granted, it has very few calories…even better from my point of view) and one serving of collards, a humble Southern vegetable often uneaten even in metro DC which must be half Southern (people still occasionally say ma’am), supplies more than the U.S. RDA of
April/May 2012
vitamins A and C. If you eat collards regularly, say goodbye to those sniffy noses unless you have hayfever, PLUS collards have what your vitamin C pill does not have—iron, calcium, B vitamins, and some protein (20 percent per calorie). If you do have space, think seriously about planting more than you need and share your extra produce with our less wealthy neighbors. Pat Kavanaugh and Social Concerns will continue to have fresh vegetable contribution baskets available in the Church vestibules from June 1 (did I mention summer seems to be happening earlier?) through October 15. However, let me share a secret tip, if you have extra garden vegetables at any time, if you are overwhelmed with spinach, lettuce, or that garden nemesis zucchini, you can drop it off at Pat Kavanaugh’s office between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the work week. Why not share your abundance with your neighbor, even the ones you don’t know? Happy spring, and have a glorious summer…in your garden! For more information: Environmental Action Ministry Contact: Kevin Kelley
[email protected] 301.741.7752 Or, visit http://www.blessedsacramentdc.org/ environmental-action-ministry/. Blessed Sacrament Community Garden Contact: Lisa Greenberg
[email protected] Or, visit http://www.blessedsacramentdc.org/ community-garden/.
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3630 Quesada Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20015 202.966.6575 www.blessedsacramentdc.org
