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Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 5th Sunday of Easter-April 28

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

First, this week, I want to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who gave so much of themselves to put on the parish and school event of the year, our Gala and Auction, and who supported it so generously when the auctions finally went live and it was time to support our children.

We owe a special debt of gratitude to Jean Corday and Rick Caporali on our parish staff who organized and realized the many moving parts of the event, with the dedicated help of our school PTO and faculty and staff volunteers who made all those moving parts happen. Dr. Burgess lists the Committee Members in her note opposite, so I won’t list you all again.

The last live auction we hosted was in 2018 and a lot has happened since then! I could not help but notice the different spirit in the room. In 2018, we had a wonderful dinner and auction, “The Music Man,” to honor our much-beloved band director, Barry Ward. It was groundbreaking, as has been our unified Parish Picnic in the fall, as parish and school become one community. After the auction in 2018, I heard a lot of parishioners say, “We didn’t think we would be asked.” And a lot of school parents said, “We didn’t think they would come.” There had been a pretty serious division between church and school and everybody pretty much left each other alone.

Last Saturday, this was clearly not the case. The team that put the event together included parish staff, faculty and school staff, members of the parish, parents in the school, most of whom are also parishioners! It was a real community gathering. I was especially grateful to see this, what I hope is a good new “normal.”

I’ve had some conversations about why we even need an auction. Well, it wouldn’t have to be an auction – but we have to do something. The need is definitely there. Our parish provides about $800 per child to fill the gap between tuition revenues and the cost of educating each student – 10% of tuition received. We try to set the cost of tuition at the average cost of all the parish schools surrounding us so parishioners don’t feel bad about having to seek a less expensive alternative, thereby alienating them from a situation that isn’t of their doing. I do not believe that Catholic education should be a luxury item that some people cannot afford. So, on top of this, we offer financial aid to families who really struggle to provide a Catholic education for their kids. Between a contribution received from the Diocese from parish subsidies and the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal, the annual car raffle, our monthly Tuition Assistance second collections at Mass and other help from the parish, we are able to distribute about $200,000 in tuition assistance.

We also are trying to pay our good teach-ers a salary that is deserved. We will never be competitive with the public school system, but we try to do what we can to support the excellent and dedicated faculty at Saint Bernadette.

One family asked me why we just don’t ask families who can pay more to do so, or families who can’t to substitute monetary gifts with service? Ah, I said. That is what this Gala and Live Auction is: Those who can give more can use the auction as a way to give more, and those who can’t give as much are able to serve the community with their contribution of time and talent, or offer what they might have for auction.

Imagine if everyone “got it,” how great our events and community gatherings could be, coming together to the same table regardless of our financial situations.

And finally on top of this, we have so many families in the parish whose children have benefitted from the solid foundation they received at Saint Bernadette: these parishioners who appreciate this legacy continue to provide much needed support for an education that costs a lot more than in years past.

I hope our auction can grow along these lines more each year, always welcoming and welcoming back more, allowing our parish to grow in our common ministry of forming the hearts and minds of the next generation to be our moral and spiritual community leaders.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 28 April - 5th Sunday of Easter

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

We are almost to goal – 96% for our parish participation in the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. If you have not yet contributed, please try to finish this week. You may make a gift at: www.arlingtondiocese.org/BLA

Bishop Burbidge invites you to the Diocesan Jubilee Fest at Warren County Fairgrounds in Front Royal on June 8th. Join thousands of faithful from across northern Virginia to celebrate the diocese's 50th anniversary. This is a free event for all ages, but registration is required to receive a complimentary meal. Visit the Arlington Diocese website to RSVP.

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 21 April 4th Sunday of Easter

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Our online Silent Auction is still LIVE! This is your last chance to bid before it closes on Saturday at 8pm. Click here to start bidding NOW!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 21 April 4th Sunday of Easter

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Happy feast day this past week! We celebrated the Feast of Saint Bernadette on April 16, on her actual day this year.

Since Easter was so early this year, on March 31, we were able to complete the Octave of Easter before April 16. This happens rarely. Usually, April 16 is found somewhere during Holy Week or the following Octave, during which time no other feasts may be celebrated. If a feast of great solemnity coincides with Holy Week or the Octave of Easter, as happened this year with the Feast of the Annunciation of Mary, it always moves to the next available date, the second Monday of the Easter Season.

Next year Easter is about as late as it can be - April 20! - so our parish feast day will be pushed back all the way to May 5!

When I came to Saint Bernadette, I wasn’t well-informed about our patron saint and must say I wasn’t too excited about her. She was one of those many (many) French saints who seemingly were called forward by God during the 19th century to strengthen the Church following the French Revolution and to face the challenges posed by the rise of the Enlightenment. People were confused by all the -isms which seemed to threaten the life of faith. Discoveries in science were seen as opposed to faith, rather than proofs of how God continues to work in creation. There was a lot of confusion between philosophers and theologians who disputed the nature of God and his Son, Jesus Christ, and the role of Mary. Into this mix came the debate over whether or not Mary was, herself, conceived without original sin in order to be a pure vessel to receive the Son of God in his Incarnation.

This is the beauty of how God works. In Bernadette, he chose a young girl, the most powerless person in society, born into the poorest of the poor families in the middle of nowhere. To this girl, Mary appeared (although Bernadette, throughout the time of Mary’s appearances to her, only referred to her as “the Lady”). Little Bernadette and her family suffered insults, ridicule, and persecution at the hands of church leaders and even the police. At times Bernadette herself was thrown in jail.

Finally, one day, the bishop asked Bernadette to ask the Lady who she was. The Lady replied, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette reported back and the bishop asked her if she knew what that meant. She had no idea, she was just repeating what the Lady told her.

It became a Church dogma within a few years in 1854.

The great thing about Bernadette is that clearly we could judge her as lowly and poor, a person of no consequence. She would be easy to simply pass by. But even though she didn’t have the kinds of gifts that the world values as desirable or even necessary, God gave Bernadette just as much as she needed to accomplish his great plan in her. God knows who we are better than we know ourselves, and sometimes it might seem like we didn’t get the kind of life or gifts that we wanted. God knows what we need to accomplish his work in us. Have faith!

Too many people today are convinced that they need to be different than they are, that somehow being different would be better? God made all of us, and he made us in love, and he makes everything perfectly. He is God, there are no mistakes. Sometimes when we doubt, we should reconsider, and look for God’s plan, not ours. Ask Saint Bernadette to help us see the miracle that we are, and the potential that we have to do great things.

The Lord be with you,

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 14 April 3rd Sunday of Easter

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

A study in the community.

Although we didn’t see the “totality” (a word we’ve heard a lot lately) of the eclipse, our school and parish staff who were still on the property assembled outside and watched the greatest show off earth that we have seen, perhaps in our lives. All with the proper eyewear, of course.

After all the build up and the hype, the random likelihood of clouds (if not even rain), and reports of travel crunches involving even hundreds of thousands of people, I must admit I was expecting to be underwhelmed. What I discovered was wonder, for a phenomenon that is unlike any other. It was emotional, even at our 85% reality. Watching also as the eclipse went across the country in different cities, I had the sense that we were witnessing something incredibly special.

Earlier that day I was listening to a scientist who kept referring to the eclipse as a remarkable cosmic mistake. What are the chances, she asked, that our moon is 1/400th of the size of the sun, and the distance between us and the moon is exactly 1/400th the distance from us and the sun? What are the chances that this is just how things happen to be? Stop and think: the chances of this being a random mistake are none.

God made this, and he made this to do this, so that we can see how totally “other” he is as our creator, and how he made this possible for our delight. God makes marvels. His miracles unfold every day. We discover something new about his creation, and at the same time we grow in our knowledge of him. We not only share his creation, we share being part of his miraculous creation.

Many people referred to this as a religious experience. No wonder. Like God, we feel so small and insignificant in comparison. Humility is good.

One psychologist on a news bit said that experiences like this are what we need more than anything right now. Think of all the social ills that we suffer from today.

Communal experiences form community. Look at the effects of a good football team on a city (or even a bad football team). Shared projects like our new parish hall or our new ministry of Mary’s Comfort shape us as a community through our common experiences. Some of those experiences, like the pandemic, for example, brought out the best and the worst in us as we suffered together, and triumphed together in service. Most of all, we encounter God together in the Mass.

This psychologist said that this is the perfect time for an eclipse. For one thing, there is no way you can spin this politically. It doesn’t have potential for division at all. We are looking at a miracle, for crying out loud. It is something so other than ourselves that it takes us outside of ourselves, together, where we need to be. Too much time inside your head and alone is not a good place to be.

Finally, she said, the two major illnesses of our culture are denied. Depression is a disordered relationship with the past, and anxiety is a disordered relationship with the future. An eclipse doesn’t have a past or future at all; it causes everyone to be present in the present moment. It automatically unifies here and now.

Lynn Jones, our Director of Religious Education, took this photo at our maximum (see our bulletin).

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 14 April 3rd Sunday of Easter

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Third Sunday of Easter

We are almost to goal – 94% for our parish participation in the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. If you have not yet contributed, please try to finish this week. You may make a gift at: www.arlingtondiocese.org/BLA

Celebrate the Feast of St. Bernadette with a special Mass on Tuesday, April 16, at 7 pm.

Join us for our monthly Taize Prayer Service on Monday at 8 pm. Come for a peaceful moment of simple song and silence and pray for Christian Unity.T

All 6th - 8th graders are invited to join us for games and snacks in the gym on Wednesday, April 17th, from 6:45-8pm! See the bulletin for more details.

Our online Silent Auction is live! Bidding will close on April 20. This is your last week to bid or purchase a ticket to attend our Gala and Live Auction next Saturday, April 20th. Please visit our website to start bidding. The entire Saint Bernadette Community makes our gala and live auction possible. Thank you for your support and generosity!

All-Saints Car Raffle is on April 27^th. Four Vehicles will be raffled along with a $20,000 cash prize and other cash drawings. There are lots of chances to win. Your purchase provides additional financial support for our church and school, and you could win a prize, too. Please return your sold and unsold tickets to All Saints by April 23^rd.

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 7 April Divine Mercy Sunday

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday

THANKS! If you haven’t already, please complete your commitment to the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. As of March 3, we are at 73% of our goal with 10% of households participating. Take a pledge envelope from the church or go online to make a gift or pledge. The funds from the BLA provide a way for leaders of all ministries, volunteers and people from all walks of life to grow as a community, enrich parish life, teach the faith, and help those in need. You may make a gift at: www.arlingtondiocese.org/BLA

Join us in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet on Sunday, April 7 at 3 pm in the church.

Celebrate the Feast of St. Bernadette with a special Mass on Tuesday, April 16, at 7 pm.

Have you purchased your ticket to the 23rd Gala and Live Auction on April 20, 2024. ? Our Biennial Auction is generously supported by our entire Saint Bernadette Community. Buy a Gala Ticket TODAY!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 7 April Divine Mercy Sunday

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Happy Easter to you! Did you know that today is still Easter Sunday? Actually, all Sundays are celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection, but this Mystery of Christ is so big that it cannot be contained in a Sunday, even with the Vigil Mass included. It is an octave, and all eight days are considered Easter Sunday. What Sunday is to the week, Easter Sunday is to the year.

Every year it seems like Easter is over so fast. The eggs are eaten, the chocolate is gone, the liturgies – so carefully prepared and beautifully celebrated – are events in the past. The season of Lent sometimes feels like it will never end, and we come to that most important moment when we renew the promises of our Baptism – for many of us promises that were made for us by our godparents – and live in that new light and water of Easter. “Now that our Lenten observances have come to a close...” we find ourselves on the other side of Jesus’ resurrection and, if I can speak for myself, beginning an Easter season that seems even longer. Fifty days to Pentecost, trying to sustain preaching about the same thing for fifty days.

This year, however, I hope to approach the Easter season from a different perspective. Not so much about the resurrection itself, but what that means to us as baptized persons. We tend to be a people who come to the moments, check the box, and then look for what’s next. Maybe it is our experience in the educational system. I remember in college developing an attitude that it was sufficient to study enough to pass the exam, without considering what was beyond. If I can just get the good grade, I won’t have to remember all of this anymore, and I will move on to the next thing.

It cannot be so with Baptism! I’m sure you have heard me preach about this before, but it was one of the observations of Saint Pope John Paul II that we tend to do just what we have to do to win the reward. To get baptized, we jump through hoops to earn this package, this beautifully wrapped gift, and then we put it on a shelf and maybe admire it because it is so beautiful. But too many people never open up the gift to know what is inside! For so many, Baptism remains a concept, or a requirement to get what we want, not something that is actually given to us to be opened so it can transform our life.

David Mathers, our music director, said this: “One of the greatest fruits of Vatican II was a return to Baptism and the consideration of the other sacraments, particularly Eucharist and Holy Orders, from the perspective of Baptism. Saint Pope Paul VI understood this and, as a result, personally created the Renewal of Baptismal Promises for Easter Sunday.”

People often comment about the exuberance of the sprinkling rite at the Easter Masses and how much fun it looks like the priests are having. The fun – the true joy – of the moment isn’t because we get to soak everybody! It is because this is the water that has saved us! This is the water into which Jesus descended in the Jordan River so as to leave his cloak of divinity in the water so that when we enter it, we literally put on Christ. “Awake, O sleeper! Arise from death and Christ will fill you with life!” (from an ancient Easter homily). It is the water blessed at the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil, sourced from the blessed primordial fire of creation. All of creation awaits this moment of rebirth. Let it rain.

We now look back on that sprinkling with water which was the moment of fulfilment of all our Lenten preparation. Easter isn’t just so that we can more faithfully and more beautifully remember the saving event of Jesus (which is, of course of utmost importance), but far greater it is for the reality to sink into our hearts that all of this is for me, for you, and only means something if we live the reality of baptismal life as humble, thankful servants following Jesus. Liturgy is not a pretty gift we put on a shelf – regardless of what kind of wrapping it has. Our liturgy is our life.

It only works if you unwrap the beautiful package. We can no longer be people who simply come to hear the readings and receive Communion and then go about our lives as if nothing really happened. It is the process of casting off the old self, and celebrating a new life in God.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 31 March Easter Sunday

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for Holy Thursday

Worship Aid Good Friday Passion Liturgy

Worship Aid for Easter Vigil

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Palm Sunday, March 24

Vigil Mass on Saturday, March 23 at 5pm
7am, 9am, 11am, and 5:30pm Mass in English
1pm Mass in Spanish

Holy Thursday, March 28

Office of Readings and Morning Prayer at 8am
Mass of the Lord's Supper (bilingual) at 7:30pm, followed by a procession to the Altar of Repose
Night Prayer at 11:45pm

Good Friday, March 29

Office of Readings & Morning Prayer at 8am
"Tre Ore" -The 7 Last Words of Jesus in mediation & song, 12-3pm (Limited confessions will be available)
Stations of the Cross in English at 3pm
Via Crucis en Español a las 4pm
La Pasión y Veneración de la Santa Cruz en Español a las 5pm
The Passion & Veneration of the Holy Cross in English at 7:30pm

Holy Saturday, March 30

Office of Readings and Morning Prayer at 8am
Easter Foods Blessing at 10am
The Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord (bilingual) at 8:30pm

EASTER SUNDAY, March 31

7am, 9am, and 11am in Englsih. There is NO 5:30pm Mass.
1pm en Español

CONFESSION Opportunities

Friday, March 29, 12-3pm (limited confessions available)
No confession on Saturday, March 30

Please return your Rice Bowls. We would appreciate it if you could change the coins and bills into a check, but we will accept coins.

The ECHO Yard Sale returns to the school gym on Saturday, April 6, starting at 8 am.

The Knights of Springfield are sponsoring a shred event open to the public on Saturday, April 6, between 10am-Noon in the parking lot.

Have you purchased your ticket to the 23rd Gala and Live Auction on April 20, 2024. ? Our Biennial Auction is generously supported by our entire Saint Bernadette Community. Buy a Gala Ticket TODAY!

Parish Offices will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 31 March Easter Sunday

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Happy Easter to you! and all that means as we continue to run together on that road from Emmaus back to the apostles in the upper room, as we claim together, “We have seen the Lord.” Coming from places of doubt and discouragement, having learned from Jesus himself what all of this has to do with him and how great is the call that he has come to bring us back, let us focus our eyes on him now, and allow all the attention that we give to ourselves turn to him.

During this Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday I have intended to give the same homily through the different lenses of Jesus’ Passion on Palm Sunday, his self-gift at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, is offering of love, the same self-gift, now given to the Father on Good Friday, and the joy we know that he did all this so that we might put on Christ as we watch the miracle of baptism continue to live in those we welcome into the Church this Easter Vigil. That was us, once, even though most of us were not old enough to make that commitment for ourselves.

I’m writing my five points here, again.

He made us so that we can be here, right now. There are no accidents. Each moment is an opportunity for mercy and forgiveness and unconditional love. It is assured with God, if we tune our hearts to the melody of his creation. His love reaches out to all he has made to gather it back to himself.

This is how God saves what is lost. He himself comes looking, sending his only begotten to become one of us. He becomes human so that we can become divine, nothing less. We become him. Saint Augustine said, “Let us rejoice and give thanks that we have become not only Christian, but Christ.”

All of this is for you. The plan of God before time began, the forming of covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and now Jesus -- all of this is for you. Can you feel it? Theologians say that if you were the only person on this earth, the Son of God would still come and die for you. The Gospel we hear: the angry mob, the torture, the blood, the ignominious death. All of this, for you, so you don’t have to endure it. What wondrous love is this?

Even in Jesus’ humanity we see the tension between love and obedience. “Father, take this cup from me...” if that is your will. But your will be done. He was resolved, not resigned to this. Committed, not compliant. He could have shut down the whole thing at any minute if that was his preference.

God is love, and he has no other desire that you thrive. Here’s how, he shows us, in Jesus his Word. It’s the cross. From the world’s perspective it doesn’t make sense if you don’t see the resulting beauty and joy.

You are the Body of Christ. Born in the cold world, exiled, persecuted, dismissed, rejected, judged, scourged, crucified. It is the story of centuries of martyrs, and not just the ones whose stories are public. You are is passion and death.

We do this at Mass every time we gather, don’t we? We join him on that cross, we offer our self-gift to the Father in love. “Do this in memory of me.” Saint Augustine says that the true measure of time is our inner memory. You decide that the saving act of Jesus is not in the past, or something to hope for. It is now. So, we remember. Like the thief on the cross, “Jesus, remember me...” This day, Jesus says.

There is no other place we are to be at this time that at the Mass. The instrument of the gift that saves the world. Is there a more important role anywhere in the world?

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