Parish Newsletter November/December 2013
Message From Father Ron
Dear Parishioners:
As we begin our Advent season, we initiate a new liturgical year as we look forward to Christ’s second coming and the celebration of His birth. Jesus invites each one of us to deepen our relationship with Him so we may actively live our gift of faith by loving our spouses, children, family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers, especially the poor and vulnerable in our midst. This invitation entails setting time aside for prayer and quiet reflection; herein lies the great challenge as we balance the tension between the preparations for Christmas and the “quiet and reflective” character of the Advent season. As we listen to Jesus, we are able to fulfill our role as His instruments filled with love, compassion, goodness, mercy, and peace.
at our parish on December 8, 9,and 10 at 7:00 p.m. by Father R. Scott Hurd, who recently wrote “Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach.” The workshop is timely as we begin our new year of grace and in light of the message given by Pope Francis at a recent Wednesday audience on forgiveness. Pope Francis said, “The agent of the forgiveness of sins is the Holy Spirit, explaining that in His first appearance before the Apostles, the risen Christ performed the gesture of breathing on to them, saying: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Jesus, bodily transfigured, is now a new man, who offers the Paschal gifts, the fruit of His death and resurrection: peace, joy, forgiveness of sins, the mission, and above all the Holy Spirit that is the source of all this. The breath of Jesus . . . indicates the transmission of life, the new life regenerated by forgiveness. But before this gesture . . . Jesus shows the wounds on His hands and His side: these wounds represent the price of our salvation. The Holy Spirit brings God’s forgiveness, ‘passing through’ Jesus’ wounds.” Pope Francis concludes, “Let us not forget that God never tires of forgiving us; through the ministry of the priest, He holds us in a new embrace that regenerates us and enables us to get up again and continue anew on our path.”
I invite you to consider participating in The Forgiveness Workshop being offered
As a parish family we will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Ordination of
As we soon celebrate Thanksgiving Day, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all you do for our parish in so many ways by sharing your time, talent, and treasure. Your generosity as a parish enables us to serve not only the members of our own community, but also so many others throughout and beyond the Archdiocese. In particular, your care and concern for the poor and needy is so important at this time of the year, especially through your support of the Greg Gannon Canned Food Drive and participation in our Advent Giving Tree program.
Msgr. Thomas Duffy on Sunday, December 8, at the 12:30 p.m. Mass; Cardinal McCarrick will be the celebrant and homilist. Since Msgr. Duffy is living at the Jeanne Jugan Residence, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, his celebration will benefit the Sisters as they embark on a capital campaign to upgrade the needs of their residence as they serve the needs of the elderly poor. Again, thank you for all you do to serve so many. May Advent and Christmas be a time of renewal and deepening of your faith. Be assured of my daily prayers for you and your families. Peace, Father Ron
Artwork by Ciara Jacobs 6th Grade
One Family’s Tradition: Creating A Family Advent Wreath
Teen Corner
By Corinna Gilmore 6th Grade Student Blessed Sacrament School On The Pages Of This Issue
One Family’s Tradition: Creating An Advent Wreath
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Rx For Seasonal Grumps
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Teen Corner
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A Renaissance Man of God
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Father Duffy and the Parish Library
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Stories Not Found in the Parish Library
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Soup Kitchen Ministry Celebrates 35 Years
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Father Lucas to Attend Men’s Retreat Weekend
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Editor: Pat Watson Layout: Delphine Clegg Parish Logo Designs: Ellen Smyth Artwork: Blessed Sacrament School students under the guidance of their art teachers, Yves Clark and Judy Kearns Portrait of Msgr. Duffy on page 4 courtesy of the Little Sisters of the Poor
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or the past six years, ever since we joined Blessed Sacrament Parish, our family has helped with the Advent Wreath Workshop. It is always the first Sunday in Advent, so everyone can take their wreaths home that night and light the first candle. This year the workshop is on Sunday, December 1st, after the 10:30 Mass, in the school auditorium. The provided supplies to build the wreaths are beautiful pink and purple candles, fresh greens, and a wreath form so that the greens stay fresh. You can bring greens from your garden to make your wreath extra special, and clippers from home will help you work faster. Advent is the season of the church when we begin to prepare for the birth of Jesus, to get ready to celebrate on Christmas Day that Christ came into the world as a baby to save us all. Sometimes we get so busy with decorating and shopping that we forget to take time to remember why we are celebrating Christmas. Gathering as a family with other Blessed Sacrament families to make an Advent wreath is a special way to begin to prepare our hearts for Christmas. Our family and other families gather before the workshop to get all the supplies ready for the crowds who will be coming. We spread out the greens, soak the wreath forms and organize the rest of the supplies. The auditorium smells wonderful, and we’re all excited to get started. When everyone arrives to make their wreaths, there are families greeting old and new friends, children running around having fun, and everyone enjoying this time together. Afterwards, when all the wreaths have been made, we hear people promise to come back again next year. We are always looking for more people to help; we meet new families each year, so we hope you can volunteer to help. If you don’t have time to volunteer, we hope you will come to make a wreath. If you are out
By Molly Flores
of town, you can order a wreath kit and pick it up the next week. After everything is cleaned up, our family takes our wreath home and puts it on our kitchen table. Every night when we sit down to dinner we look at the beautiful wreath we built together, say a prayer, and light a candle. Because everyone in our family helped to make this wreath, we all are preparing together to welcome Baby Jesus into our home.
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(Check the parish Web site for information, including materials’ cost.)
Rx For Seasonal Grumps
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ave you ever noticed that the large star shining on the church bell tower during the Christmas season is really up there all year? It just isn’t lit! That’s because the star isn’t like one that is handily stored in the typical house attic; it was hung there with great difficulty several years back. But year round it gives witness to the many acts of kindness performed by the men, women, and children of Blessed Sacrament. In Advent, the star icon with its acts of kindness and charity multiplies many times over as parishioners participate in the Giving Tree, an annual, signature Blessed Sacrament activity. Matching a selected star with a gift and a child, parishioners live out the true meaning of Christmas. This year, the project has gone high-tech: a person doesn’t even need to physically pick up a star. Instead, one can simply go online and send a message to
[email protected], request a star, and capture the true joy of the season. Find us on Facebook
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Background artwork by Blessed Sacrament School students.
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A Renaissance Man Of God
Father Duffy—Blessed Sacrament Library Supporter By Ellen Roth Blessed Sacrament Librarian
The life and work of Monsignor Thomas M. Duffy had a powerful and lasting impact on Blessed Sacrament parish for more than a quarter of a century. During that time, four different popes served the Church, and both the Church and the secular world experienced many challenging events, but Father Duffy, the appellation he humbly prefers, remained a staunch spiritual and administrative leader. Many new priests received their parish training under the exceptional guidance of Father Duffy, who also encouraged the parish’s lay leadership and the development of many post-Vatican II ministries in the parish.
The new parish center, with a spacious library full of empty shelves, opened in 2002. That Labor Day weekend a large truck from a storage company pulled into the parish parking lot; it held one hundred and forty-four boxes of books. Enlisted as the new parish librarian by Father Duffy, my first task was to unpack the boxes, which luckily were carefully numbered and packed.
Mention Father Duffy’s name, and many, moving stories surface. Compassion mixed with challenge, moral integrity combined with a clever Irish wit, Father Duffy still counts as his friends both Cardinals and school children—now grown. His name is in the Blessed Sacrament record books thousands of times: baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Add to those entries Father’s love and concern for parishioners manifested in his visits to school and CCD classes, his visits bringing the Eucharist to the homebound and hospitalized sick, his thoughtful celebration of Masses, his insightful advice in confessions, his gentle comfort at wakes, his attendance at meetings, his wise counseling, and so on. All these accomplishments, done with dignity, grace, and kindness. Well read, Father wove into his homilies poignant thoughts from both current books and classical texts. Any visitor to the church offices would be astounded by the incredible multi-tasking done by all priests, especially a pastor, but Father Duffy found time for everything and everyone. Father’s Duffy’s leadership resulted in an impressive increase in parish enrollment, making Blessed Sacrament one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese., At the turn of this century, Father led a capital campaign that resulted in the expansion and improvement of the parish school and the building of the parish center which houses a chapel and space for the ever-increasing number of parish meetings, activities, and ministries. Appropriately, the parish named the building the Monsignor Thomas E. Duffy Parish Center, validating permanently Father’s impressive impact on the parish. Father has always balanced a deep spirituality with the practical side of ministry. A man of many interests, he was as comfortable role modeling prayer life and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as being a guest at parties or on the greens where he played an impressive round of golf. His youthful days as an athlete at the Merchant Marine Academy provided him stamina; his education in Rome cultivated his conversational linguistic abilities in Latin and Italian. Father now lives at the Jean Jugan Residence, a retirement residence near Catholic University operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, where many of the needs he fulfilled for others are now provided for him. We send him many thanks, wishes of congratulations, and hopes for many more happy and healthy years!
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“We are so blessed indeed to have Msgr. Duffy here with us at the Jeanne Jugan Residence. He is a man of great wisdom and deep faith and always has a kind word and a smile for all those whom he meets.” —Sr. Mary Michael, l.s.p., Mother Superior, Little Sisters of the Poor
As the weeks, months and years progressed, I learned about Father Duffy’s broad interest in literature of all kinds and the rich treasures of Catholic writers as well as his concern that the library, founded in 1954 by Msgr. Roach, should continue to support parish activities such as Sunday morning lectures, an exhibit and lecture about Mary Virginia Merrick, a symposium featuring parishioners who had fought in World War II, as well as many author signings. Father insisted the library should provide tapes of the Sunday morning lectures and an information file of pamphlets.
Father’s gifts to the library were many and continued even after his retirement. As well as many books on all subjects, the contributions included magazines such as the Catholic Historical Review, The Human Life Review, and the New York Times Book Review. Now that he has reached the 60th anniversary of his ordination, we who work in and use the library wish Father happy reading, listening, and viewing. The parish cherishes his support of St. Pius X library, appropriately housed in the Monsignor Thomas E. Duffy Center.
‘It isn’t like a public library’ Father Duffy said, when advising about which new books to order. Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo, and P.D. James were among the authors he always liked and with his encouragement a pre-school children’s collection of books and films took shape. At times Father’s questions would challenge us: finding an elusive quote from a book or an old newspaper article, such as the one about the dedication of the parish church in the Catholic Review of November, 1927.
Msgr. Duffy accepts a fare-well gift from the library committee in 2005.
Stories Not Found In The Parish Library From Dan Collopy, Parishioner
The Wedding Rehearsal At the rehearsal for my wedding in 1982, not too long after Father Duffy became pastor at Blessed Sacrament, one of my groomsmen, Daniel J. McVicar (an aspiring Hollywood actor who later starred as Clarke Garrison on “The Bold & the Beautiful” soap opera), arrived 20 minutes late, out of breath, and insisted that he needed a phone immediately to make an important call. Without missing a beat, Father Duffy walked up to Dan, reached behind his neck to put down his flared collar, and quietly stated, “This is a Church and not a train station. I’ll find you a phone once we finish with this rehearsal.” Dan, one of twelve and a former altar boy, quickly abandoned his demand for a phone and quietly got in line to practice processing.
Finding a Prayer in the News One of the first post round gatherings in the Chevy Chase Lounge following the Duffer’s Classic, Neil Cullen, serving as master of ceremonies, noticed Father Duffy entering the room and quickly invited him to say a few words. Gently kidding Father Duffy about his frequent references in his homilies to articles that he had read in the “Washington Post” and “New York Times,” Cullen intoned: “Father, could you please give us a short prayer or maybe just something that you read today in the Post or the Times.”
From John P. Sontag, Parishioner The Homilist I will always remember Monsignor Duffy as a wonderful man, learned and holy, whose homilies were carefully prepared and deeply searching. I particularly recall his homily at the funeral of Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, a thoughtful and profoundly moving tribute to a major figure in late twentieth century American religious and intellectual life.
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Blessed Sacrament Kitchen Ministry Celebrates Thirty-Five Years
Father Lucus To Attend Men’s Retreat Weekend February 28 - March 2, 2014
By Kathy Beal Thanks in large part to the generosity of parishioners contributing to the first-Sunday-of-the-month Outreach collection at the doors of the church, the Blessed Sacrament Soup Kitchen Ministry has been alive and well for almost 2000 Monday mornings since 1977. What follows is a brief history of the ministry (culled from Mary Joaquin’s remarks from the pulpit last year) and a “sad-happy” turn of events in recent months.
Artwork by Meghan Pfohl 4th Grade
Thirty-five years ago, parishioners Sheila Langevin and Ellen Ozga attended a Lenten Stone Soup supper where the speaker discussed a soup kitchen in a converted auto repair shop at “L” and 6th Streets, NW. Sheila and Ellen ventured downtown and discovered a ministry that was both chaotic and wonderful. What did these busy women and mothers do? Well, they rolled up their sleeves and served soup from two huge vats, along with sliced bread and iced tea. After their second Monday at the kitchen, the cook took another job and invited Sheila and Ellen to take over the Monday kitchen. The rest is history, as they say. Fast forward 36 years and 5 locations. The Blessed Sacrament Soup Kitchen Ministry now works under the auspices of Thrive DC at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Columbia Heights. Each Monday, a Blessed Sacrament group meets at Thrive’s kitchen to help the chef prepare the morning meal. Our
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Join Blessed Sacrament’s resident priest, Father Lucas Laborde, at the 2014 Blessed Sacrament Men’s Retreat, from dinner on Friday, February 28, through lunch on Sunday, March 2, at Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, MD. The retreat, a 56-year old parish tradition, is conducted in silence and led by the Jesuits at the retreat house, which is located in southern Maryland, 35 miles south of the Beltway, on a cliff with a majestic view of a 16 mile-wide expanse of the Potomac river. You’re guaranteed spectacular sunsets!
Artwork by Colin Madden Kindergarten
clients love our healthy salad and Pat O’Brien’s famous bread pudding. We try to waste nothing. We prepare donated produce, bread, and dessert for a 9:30 a.m. meal. After a brief prayer, we begin serving approximately 175 hungry people a hearty breakfast of omelets, sausage (or non- pork option omelets for Muslim guests), grits, OUR SALAD, fruit, breads, desserts and beverages. This is a hearty meal, indeed. We try to keep in mind that some patrons have not eaten much all weekend. After serving the meal, we regroup in the kitchen and chop more veggies and fruits for meals later in the week. Then we clean up and go home, a little stiff and tired from the four-hour job, but always glad we have been there. Sadly, we have lost three members of our soup kitchen team: Nora Dollymore,
Artwork by Nora Neil Kindergarten
Dott Varney and Diana Nicholson. All have died recently, having served the kitchen ministry faithfully while they were healthy. Their family members included the soup kitchen ministry in the obituary notices for their loved ones. As a result, we have been able to purchase several food related items: a commercial refrigerator (with lock!), steam table, dining tables, and thanks to Peter Nicholson’s donations in Diana’s memory, new steel carts for transporting heavy food from the parking lot to the kitchen. Thrive DC and all of us staffers at the kitchen are most grateful for these gifts. As Mary Joaquin says, “Three years at the kitchen makes me a relative rookie, since many of the volunteers have been working there for a decade, and some, for over 25 years. Not only have these friends taught me the best way to make a fabulous dessert out of bread heels and ripe fruit, but they have drawn me outside of my immediate neighborhood and helped me to see the face of Jesus in the men and women who come to the kitchen each week.”
How fitting it is for Father Lucas, to join us on the retreat, since he is a member of the Saint John Society (SSJ), a Society of Apostolic Life that has the New Evangelization as its goal. The Society’s main mission is to announce the message of Christ to those who, even among the baptized, know Jesus only through hearing of Him, but have never known Him through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. Also, how special and timely to have this opportunity to interact with Father Lucas, an Argentinian, when Pope Francis is a Jesuit from Argentina. Artwork by Meghan Pfohl 4th Grade
Opportunities to interact with Father Lucas include Masses on Saturday and Sunday, confession on Friday and Saturday, one-on-one personal consultations on Saturday morning and afternoon, and at the two non-silent meals—dinner on Friday and lunch on Sunday. The retreat weekend is open to all men ages ten and older; fathers and sons can spend quality time together. The retreat begins on Friday evening with an orientation at 6:45 p.m. Confessions will be available from 5:30-6:30 p.m., followed by a crab cake dinner (recipe appeared in Washington Post) at 7:00 p.m. The retreat concludes with lunch on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
Sign up online today: “. . . the
Blessed Sacrament Soup Kitchen Ministry has been alive and well for almost 2000 Monday mornings since 1977. “
www.blessedsacramentdc.org under Ministries/Worship Commission. Questions? Contact Loyola, 301.392.0819 or
[email protected]. If you need a ride, contact retreat caption, Dr. Jim Richeson:
[email protected].
The theme this year is “Rivers of Living Water” focusing on the image of water as a symbol of how God acts in and through our human life. Artwork by Maddie Wilson 8th Grade
Artwork by Hope Hillegass 5th Grade
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3630 Quesada Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20015 202.966.6575 www.blessedsacramentdc.org
