Parish Newsletter Winter 2017
Reflections on Advent
A
dvent is perhaps my favorite liturgical season. Vivid images race through my mind of running throughout my childhood house to turn off all the lights in preparation for lighting the candles of the Advent wreath. When I returned to the dark living room, the family would all be assembled; German Christmas carols would be playing softly, and my Father would designate the ones to light the proper candles for that week. We might pray for a brief moment or talk about our hopes for Christmas and the New Year. Then, inevitably, there would be a moment of profound silence before the clattering of dinner dishes would signal the end of prayer and the satisfaction of our hunger!
within us that enables the prayerful heart to welcome Emmanuel in all the various ways of his Epiphany!
Advent rekindles the longing of every age for peace – for a Savior. Familiar voices from of old help direct this yearning: Isaiah, John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph. It is the awareness of this very desire deep
Yours in Emmanuel,
Artwork by Akilah Taylor, Seventh Grade
Maria von Trapp (of Sound of Music fame) had the children in her care choose a saint with whom to become familiar throughout the new liturgical year. While our leaders are often found to be wanting in some key qualities, there are holy men and women whose ordinary lives provide real inspiration and guidance for the soul that longs for God. Advent is a brief, but special season. Each day is a special gift as the Christmas mystery unfolds over the course of several weeks. May this season be for us all one of real spiritual growth and joy!
Father Bill Foley
Artwork by Maggie Brach, Eighth Grade
Artwork by Ella Hayes, Seventh Grade
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament Christmas begins with the heart of God. It’s complete when it reaches the giving heart of man. Many year-long programs at Blessed Sacrament offer opportunities for giving to oneself spiritually and to others materially. The purpose of this newsletter’s descriptions of activities in which parishioners can participate is to provide options during Advent.
No one is expected to participate in all these ideas that are both global and local in scope, but we hope you will select those faith-in-action activities that touch your heart. When the decorations come down and the new year begins, may you find yourself enriched by your participation in these many opportunities for love.
Choose a Star From the Giving Tree
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
T
he Giving Tree is one of Blessed Sacrament’s great annual Christmas success stories. Sponsored by the Gym Mass Committee and the Social Concerns Office, this popular drive’s purpose is to collect gifts for more than 700 needy children. Church and gym Mass attendees have an opportunity to chose a large gold star on which there is descriptive information regarding the age and gender of a recipient and gift suggestion ideas.
Artwork by Bergin Russell, Eighth Grade
Stars will be available for selection after all Masses the weekend of November 25-26 at the front of the church as well as at the blacktop church entrance. Another source of star selection is:
[email protected]. Star holders shop for a gift, wrap it, and return it to the school auditorium December 9, from 4 - 7 p.m. or December 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Please check the parish website and bulletin for additional drop-off information. Gifts will be delivered on December 12 to children whose circumstances indicate that that might be the only Christmas gift they will receive. Volunteers are needed for the several phases of this program: disseminating stars, collecting gifts, and delivering gifts. To assist, contact Pat Kavanaugh: 202.449.3990;
[email protected]. This is a wonderful opportunity to make Christmas real for a child, so if you take a star, be sure to follow through. Get a star, shop for the gift, return the wrapped gift = Christmas!
2
Volunteer for the Canned Food Drive
ark your calendars for Saturday, December 2, for the pickup of your bag of grocery donations for the Greg Gannon Canned Food Drive. The day will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament with a blessing of the workers and a sending forth on their collection mission. Volunteers will tour the neighborhoods, collecting the grocery bags that had been disseminated to homes the week before. Blessed Sacrament School gets high involved in the work of the drive, holding pep rallies, conducting grade-level competitions and providing much of the workforce during the bag dissemination and collection process. Begun thirty years ago in memory of Greg Gannon, a former Blessed Sacrament parishioner, the Drive has expanded to ten additional parishes and their neighborhoods, who participate in the collection of thousands of food items that are distributed to those in need, regardless of religious denomination. For more information and/or to sign up: www.greggannoncfd.com.
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
M
Winter 2017
3
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
Create an Advent Wreath With Your Family
4
Artwork by Maggie DiMaio, Eighth Grade
O
n December 3, the first Sunday of Advent, Blessed Sacrament families will gather in the Blessed Sacrament School auditorium after the 10:30 a.m. Masses to create Advent wreaths for their households. Working in teams, often with several generations of family working together, each family group creates a circular form of evergreen branches, arranging the greens and pine cones around four candles: three purple and one pink. During the season of Advent, the family lights one candle on the wreath each week. The candles represent the spiritual preparation for the coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ. For a nominal fee, families receive a kit with all the supplies necessary to create the Advent wreath. The auditorium is set up with individual work stations, as a seasonal scent of juniper, holly, cedar and pine combine to create a special joy and excitement. This is a wonderful way to introduce Advent, to encourage creativity, and to realize family pride in an easy, do-it-yourself project. The lighting of an Advent wreath is a custom that began in 16th-century Germany and continues in Western Christianity. Advent begins this year on December 3, and continues through Christmas Eve, December 24. To sign up for a kit, see the Bulletin and/or the Blessed Sacrament website: www.blessedsacramentdc.org.
Attend the Parish Tree Lighting
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
Artwork by Shea Keating, Seventh Grade
Winter 2017
5
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
Consider Alternative Gift Options
E
veryone likes alternatives, especially during harried Christmas shopping. Instead of buying material items for loved ones, consider gifts of sharing that benefit others. The Alternative Gift Giving Catalog designates six organizations with special needs identified by the Social Concerns office at Blessed Sacrament. This catalog provides the opportunity to sponsor services, while reducing the commercialism of the Advent and Christmas Seasons. The catalog will be available on the parish website and main entrance to the church. Simply complete the order form on the last page of the catalog and return the completed form and a check made payable to Blessed Sacrament Church no later than December the 20th. Send the form and check to: Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Michele Bowe, 3630 Quesada Street, NW, Washington, DC 20015-2423. When you place an order from this catalog, you will receive a personalized card specifying the charitable service which you sponsored. Present the card as your gift. (Note: If your gift is a donation requiring no card, please indicate this on the form.) Gift cards for presentation will be mailed or available for pick up at the parish center. For more information, contact Michele Bowe, 301.951.6427 or
[email protected].
Artwork by Mary Grace Mastal, Seventh Grade
6
Gift Options to Help Support Families in the Holy Land
oly Family Hospital in Bethlehem has a mission to deliver life, peace and hope in the Holy Land. Located 500 yards from the birthplace of Christ, the hospital is a state-of-the-art maternity and neonatal critical care center serving the poor and atrisk women, infants, and children throughout the West Bank of Palestine. Regardless of religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay, no one is ever turned away. Its outreach clinics also serve impoverished families in surrounding desert villages and refugee camps. The hospital is Bethlehem’s second largest employer, providing 170 jobs for Palestinian families, uniting Palestinian Christians and Muslims who worked together daily to deliver more than 3,700 babies last year and provided neonatal intensive care for more than 400 infants, some born before 32 weeks gestation. The hospital’s staff includes highly-educated doctors, nurses, and midwives, and its programs include partnerships with Peres Peace Center and Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. This past September, Blessed Sacrament parishioners, Michele Bowe, Pat Kavanaugh, and Rita Killian traveled to Palestine and Israel on a pilgrimage during which they visited Holy Family Hospital, and each woman attests to the incredible work of the hospital delivering life, peace, and hope in the Holy Land. (See the Fall 2017 issue of the Parish Newsletter on the parish website.) Like, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, families today in Bethlehem are in need of hospitality and care. As a means of support, Holy Family Hospital sells Christmas cards online at: https://birthplaceofhope.org/christmascards/. Also, consider a Christmas donation/gift that can make an impact on world peace and individual lives: https://birthplaceofhope.org/donate/. If you can’t make a gift, please pray for Christians and all people in this region of conflict. For additional information about the work of the hospital: www.birthplaceofhope.org.
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
H
Photos courtesy of Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation
Winter 2017
7
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
Extend an Invitation
T
hey are out there: friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors who “used to” come to Church. Consider asking them to join you for Christmas Mass – OR some other Mass, to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. OR – invite them to join you in one of the activities listed in this newsletter. OR – invite them to see the outdoor creche in front of the church or the Nativity set on the altar, which is set up on Christmas eve.
The worst that can happen is that they decline. The best that can happen is that they return to practicing the Faith, and it is you who led them back. A small-group program specially designed to welcome back Catholics in a nonconfrontational, kind and confidential manner, Landings, will begin at Blessed Sacrament after the new year begins. Check the church bulletin and website for further information.
Artwork by Lily Sood, Eighth Grade
8
In My World, In His World A Contemplation on What Impact Each One of Us Can Be in Our World in Small Ways
Advent 2017 @ Blessed Sacrament
Not a selfish phrase, But in my small ways, I can be a witness For my Lord Jesus. I do not own this world, I only serve my Lord. I am but one person, Created by Him, for a reason. I must be a witness, For my Lord Jesus! So, it is not my world – It’s my voice living in His world. –Joe Bozik
Artwork by Megan Pfohl, Eighth Grade
Winter 2017
9
Service and Sweets By Nancy Ryan
I
t’s not just trick or treat at Blessed Sacrament School; we could almost call it Service and Sweets! The school was abuzz for the Halloween season and the start of Thanksgiving with our traditional annual Halloween parade combined with a dazzling number of service initiatives. The sixth grade organized donations to The Gabriel Project, which helps women in crisis pregnancies. All students are given a baby bottle to fill with spare change, and the entire student body collected over $6,000. A speaker from Gabriel Project spoke to the school about the assistance she had received. The seventh grade collected coats on November 1, and will collect coats again on December 1 during the carpool line. This is an Catholic Charities initiative called “Joseph’s Coats of Many Colors,” which collects and distributes coats to the needy all over the
metropolitan area. (If you have a coat to donate, there is a donation box in the lobby of the school.) The eighth grade Christ Care Corps group is managing donations to our annual Greg Gannon Canned Food Drive, and started wearing their Greg Gannon stickers on November 1 to publcize to all how many cans we want to collect this year to beat Holy Redeemer in a contest!!! Last year, we came in second, but that is so not happening again this year!!! The entire school will participate in a Thanksgiving drive to make baskets for needy families. Each grade is assigned a food item, and items are boxed together for donation. We don’t just do good works, though, we have lots of fun. The display of costumes was as clever as ever during the Halloween parade on October 31. Parents, grandparents, friends, and alums, some dressed in costume
also, watched as students in grades K-5 paraded around the blacktop. There were an array of princesses, ghouls, goblins, heroes, Star Wars people, as well as many other characters; some standouts included a deviled egg, a fried egg with a side of bacon, cops with a prisoner, the tooth fairy, Peter Pan, the Blues Brothers, and Betsy Ross and her brother Abe Lincoln. The teachers especially distinguished themselves with cleverness this year. The K teachers were colorful M&M’S®, the first grade teachers were Superwomen in full regalia, the second grade teachers were Hawaiian luau dancers, the third grade teachers dressed a lesson of Metamorphosis—a butterfly, a caterpillar, and an egg; fifth grade has a student teacher this year and she dressed as the seasons. All in all, fall is in full swing at Blessed Sacrament School, with the panopoly of Christmas activities to come!!
Photos courtesy of Grace Hamilton
10
Scenes from Sodality’s Bazaar November 11, 2017
Photos courtesy of Amanda Loveland
Yes, ‘Tis Christmas Day By Joe Bozik Just finished the chores, Walked slow to the house, Up same steps of porch, Spooked at right that mouse.
As I made my ways. Stopped at the kitchen, Pecked her on her cheek – Smells of baked chicken – Nods, “ready to eat”.
Reached for the screen door, Turned once more to barn – Things still look so poor, Best we’ll do - this farm.
Washed my hands and face, Wet towel dries them. Sat near warm fireplace – All seems so wooden. Artwork by Bea Chadwick, Seventh Grade
Opened latch with tugs, Rattles now towards me. Slammed moving ratty rugs – Noisy and dusty.
This routine of life Sometimes seems so trite, But through all the strife, Something seems so right.
Kicked off one mud boot, Pushed old rug away, Still sending up soot, Reflects in a sun ray.
We try this living, We raise a family, We preach forgiving, Praising Almighty.
Walked through all the kids, In small living space – No one paid no minds,
Each day most like the rest, Yet proudly want to say – Wishing you from blest, Yes, ‘tis Christmas Day!
Artwork by Krista Adusei, Eighth Grade
Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Pat Kavanaugh for her assistance in researching the Advent activities. Editor: Pat Watson Layout: Delphine Clegg
Parish Logo Design: Ellen Smyth Artwork: Blessed Sacrament School students under the guidance of their art teacher, Yves Clark
Winter 2017
11
3630 Quesada Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20015 202.966.6575 www.blessedsacramentdc.org
