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Announcements ~ October 15, 2017
You are invited to our Saint Bernadette Parish Picnic and Fall Festival Family Day THIS weekend, October 15. The afternoon Mass schedules will be adjusted to accommodate our family celebration of all the diversity in the parish. The 1pm Mass and 11am Masses will be combined at 11am for a cultural diversity celebration Mass, and the 5pm Mass will be moved to 7pm. See page 7 for details. Ministry Fair Weekend is October 15 Take advantage of our time to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries before and after the 5pm Vigil, 7:30am, 9am and 11am Masses — and choose one for your commitment this year. Remember to bring your commitment card to Masses the following weekend, October 22.
All are invited to the Lord of the Miracles (El Senor De Los Milagros) celebration. on Saturday, October 21 at 10:30am. The Lord of the Miracles is a mural painted of Jesus Christ that is venerated in the country of Peru and throughout the world by Peruvians. The mural became famous after it withstood the many violent earthquakes that shook the City of Lima and for this reason it became known also as “The Lord of Earthquakes,” a divine sign that recognizes the Lord God as all powerful. There were many who swore the image was responsible for miracles that happened in their lives. The image became known as the “Lord of Miracles” and now is the Patron Saint of Peru.
World’s Finest Chocolates! The St. Bernadette School Chocolate Sale will run October 10 – November 9. Candy bars will be available for sale after Masses on the following weekends: October 21/22, October 28/29, and November 4/5. The school receives 50% of the funds raised and will use the funds to support our school’s arts, academic, technology, and sports programs, as well as other events during the school year. Thank you for supporting our school!Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ October 15, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Friday this week marked the centenary of the final apparition of our Lady of Fatima to the three children and the miracle of the sun. Here is a brief account by Lucia of what happened.
Throughout the night of 12-13 October it had rained, soaking the ground and the pilgrims who made their way to Fátima from all directions by the thousands. By foot, by cart and even by car they came, entering the Cova from the Fátima-Leiria road, which today still passes in front of the large square of the Basilica. From there they made their way down the gentle slope to the place where a trestle had been erected over the little holm oak of the apparitions. Today on the site is the modern glass and steel Capelhina (little chapel), enclosing the first chapel built there and the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima where the holm oak had stood.
The children made their way to the Cova amid the adulation and skepticism which had followed them since May. When they arrived they found critics who questioned their veracity and the punctuality of the Lady, who had promised to arrive at noon. It was well past noon by the clock; however, when the sun arrived at its zenith the Lady appeared as she had said she would.
Lucia:“What do you want of me?”
Mary: “I want a chapel built here in my honor. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. The war will end soon (World War I), and the soldiers will return to their homes.
Lucia: “Yes. Yes. Will you tell me your name?”
Mary: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
Lucia: “I have many petitions from many people. Will you grant them?”
Mary: “Some I shall grant, and others I must deny. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended!
Lucia: “And is that all you have to ask?”
Mary: “There is nothing more.”
Mary: “I want a chapel built here in my honor. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. The war will end soon (World War I), and the soldiers will return to their homes.
Lucia: “Yes. Yes. Will you tell me your name?”
Mary: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”
Lucia: “I have many petitions from many people. Will you grant them?”
Mary: “Some I shall grant, and others I must deny. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended!
Lucia: “And is that all you have to ask?”
Mary: “There is nothing more.”
As the Lady of the Rosary rises toward the east she turns the palms of her hands toward the dark sky. While the rain had stopped, dark clouds continued to obscure the sun, which suddenly bursts through them and is seen to be a soft spinning disk of silver.
“Look at the sun!” From this point two distinct apparitions were seen, that of the phenomenon of the sun seen by the 70,000 or so spectators and that beheld by the children alone. Lucia describes the latter in her memoirs. [Scores of eyewitness accounts attest to the movement, the “dancing” of the sun that day. It seemed to come toward the earth, and the ground was instantly dry.]
After our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world, for they traced the sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw our Lord and our Lady; it seemed to me to that it was Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolors). Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner St. Joseph had done.
As time passes, we lose the memory of these marvels that God has brought to pass in our time. The only way we keep the memory of these things, as well as the important messages they contain about constant conversion, is to tell our children. This could be a great family project: discover these events and read accounts of them together. So much of faith is what we can’t find in a book, but what we share.
_____________
Please visit with ministry representatives this weekend before and after Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses under the tents outside of church to see where you might get involved: prayerfully consider your responses in filling out the Commitment Card and offer it to God on Commitment Sunday next weekend. It is time for us to take responsibility for the faith, hope and love that we have been given and respond in action — time for God, service for his people, and support for his Church.
And don’t forget to join us on Sunday afternoon for the Fall Festival and Parish Picnic. We’ve never tried this before, so let’s get together and help it to happen. Please bring food according to the first initial of your name. AND PLEASE carpool, we can’t predict what the parking situation will be. If the lots are full, we will have four shuttle buses circulating from the commuter parking spaces along the street going into Daventry across Old Keene Mill Rd. Join us on the Lord’s day for a big family reunion!
God bless you.
Announcements ~ October 8, 2017
World’s Finest Chocolates! The St. Bernadette School Chocolate Sale will run October 10 – November 9. Candy bars will be available for sale after Masses on the following weekends: October 21/22, October 28/29, and November 4/5. The school receives 50% of the funds raised and will use the funds to support our school’s arts, academic, technology, and sports programs, as well as other events during the school year. Thank you for supporting our school! Our 7th Grade Confirmation Meeting will be held on Thursday evening October 12 at 7:30pm in the Church. Parents and Candidates are encouraged to attend. You are invited to our Saint Bernadette Parish Picnic and Fall Festival Family Day next weekend, October 15. The afternoon Mass schedules will be adjusted to accommodate our family celebration of all the diversity in the parish. The 1pm Mass and 11am Masses will be combined at 11am for a cultural diversity celebration Mass, and the 5pm Mass will be moved to 7pm. See page 7 for details. Ministry Fair Weekend is October 15. Take advantage of our time to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries before and after the 5pm Vigil, 7:30am, 9am and 11am Masses — and choose one for your commitment this year. Remember to bring your commitment card to Masses the following weekend, October 22. All are invited to the Lord of the Miracles (El Senor De Los Milagros) celebration. on Saturday, October 21 at 10:30am. The Lord of the Miracles is a mural painted of Jesus Christ that is venerated in the country of Peru and throughout the world by Peruvians. The mural became famous after it withstood the many violent earthquakes that shook the City of Lima and for this reason it became known also as “The Lord of Earthquakes,” a divine sign that recognizes the Lord God as all powerful. There were many who swore the image was responsible for miracles that happened in their lives. The image became known as the “Lord of Miracles” and now is the Patron Saint of Peru.Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ October 8, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Hopefully by the time you are reading this letter you will have received our Saint Bernadette Renewal Handbook, Ministry Catalog and Annual Report for 2017-18. I hope it can give a shape and structure to your knowledge about our parish. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that we aren’t only a Sunday Mass place, but are involved in so many and varied ways in serving the Lord and others. And I hope it inspires you to get involved in the life of Saint Bernadette, and in your discovery of service that you discover more about us as individuals as well as a community.
Next weekend you will have an opportunity before and after Masses to speak with representatives/coordinators of the ministries that are listed in this catalog, to discern how you plan to get involved. Read leisurely, and see if something here sounds interesting to you, a place where you could make a difference. Please be sure to hold onto your Commitment Card which came with this Catalog, and consider ways in which you plan to increase your time in prayer, in service, and how you intend to support the church financially.
The last two weeks I wrote about the real value of time as a way to grow with God, and the gifts which we have received that aren’t intended for us alone, but to be shared and advance the work of God’s Kingdom. This week I make a sincere request that you consider how you are currently supporting the parish, and how you might increase your generosity over the coming year.
This is not a pledge campaign, and we don’t check up on you throughout the year, but we are asking you to make a concrete commitment to giving. When I was a kid my dad put $20 in the basket each week, often when we didn’t really have $20 to give. It taught us kids that giving is an important part of living. Imagine what that $20 would relate to today, 50 years later. Often, people just throw whatever might be in their pockets into the basket; I’m asking you to be intentional about your gift.
Really, the point is simple. Each year, our “overhead:” utilities, cost of living, supplies, maintenance, and scheduled improvements become more costly. Also, our salaries continue to grow each year with a standard cost of living increase plus what we may consider needed to constitute a “living wage” for our parish employees. We have done a lot of restructuring with personnel and increased the experience and expertise in our staff, both in the parish and in the school. These things all cost money. And, as you may have seen in the financial section of the recently received Catalog and Annual Report, we need to spend about $1 million on adding a second preschool, and expanding badly-needed spaces in both the school and parish administrative offices.
Though it is important to apply parish savings to the mission of the Church locally, there is also needed a robust, ongoing giving base to pay for new expenses out of both the storehouses of the old and the new, savings as well as new donations from the parish.
Saint Bernadette has not been called upon for giving, other than the Bishops’ Lenten Appeal (to which you have been most generous, nearly 25% of our total of parish collections!) for many years, since some 15 years ago with the Campaign, “Rooted in Faith, Forward in Hope.”Still, the diocese asks parishes to conduct an offertory development campaign each year, to help the Church stay current with rising costs and still plan for needed bills and improvements.
There is an interesting snapshot of Saint Bernadette in the Parish Financial Summary section, page 47 of the Catalog. For the past five years, the collection total has not increased or decreased more than 2%. Since 2013, our average weekly offertory increase for three of the four years was $132, $726, and $188. This year we ended $203 dollars less than the year before, in 2014 we decreased a little more, but still negligible. The parish has grown by 9-10%, but the offertory is basically flat.
At Bishop Burbidge’s request, I ask that you consider what you might do more this year. For those coming from other countries, please remember that parishes receive no subsidy from the Church or the government to cover expenses: everything depends on you. Our potential is completely dependent upon the opportunities you provide through your generosity.
God bless you.
Announcements ~ October 1, 2017
This Sunday at 10am, we begin Bishop Barron’s 6-week series with Fr. Don on The Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why He Matters. The Study Guide for the program costs $10. Please let us know if you are coming for planning purposes. RSVP by September 29: call the office or email rcaporali@stbernpar.org and let us know if you will be joining us.. TODAY’s Events and Deadlines - October 1- Religious Education Registration continues. Please contact the Parish Office
- LIFE CHAIN - a public witness to the sanctity of human life! We will form a chain along Franconia Road from 2:30-3:30pm. Our parish is assigned to gather in front of Key Middle School. Signs will be provided: come for a peaceful, prayerful, silent demonstration. Contact Fr. Vu.
- 8th Grade Confirmation Meeting ~ Parents and Candidates, in the Church, 7:30pm
Please join us for “A Civil Conversation”, Monday evening, October 2 at 7:30pm in the church for an evening centered on the real issues that started the 500-year old Reformation, the real difference among various Christian traditions, and our real hope for finding common ground in a world of division. Don’t forget the Saint Francis Feast Day Animal Blessing next Saturday, October 7 at 10am, in the parking lot between the Rectory and St. Bernadette School. You are invited to our Saint Bernadette Parish Picnic and Fall Festival Family Day, October 15. The afternoon Mass schedules will be adjusted to accommodate our family celebration of all the diversity in the parish. See page 7 for details. Ministry Fair Weekend is October 15 Take advantage of our time to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries after the 5pm Vigil Mass, and the 7am, 9am and 11am Masses — and choose one for your commitment this year. Remember to bring your commitment card to Masses the following weekend, October 22.
Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ October 1, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Last weekend my letter was about the gift of time and how God gives it to us as something which can transform us, as long as we use it for him.
As I write this letter in Radicofani, Tuscany (you will find a priceless ceramic altarpiece on the cover of today’s bulletin which is found in one of the neighborhood churches here), I will be home for Masses this weekend, but want to tell you about the place where I celebrated Mass last weekend.
I have often been to Assisi, so many have a great and abiding love for Saint Francis and his spirituality. But I have never been before to the Franciscan monastery in La Verna, the northeast corner of Tuscany up in the mountains. This monastery was built in his time, and was the place where he spent much of his later life. It is recounted that at this point in his life, after he had given his life for service to God and the most lowly of God’s creation, particularly the poor and those who suffer, that he wished to give up even these attachments of his life and completely empty himself of self, and be filled with only God..
It was one of these moments in prayer that, when he was praying in a cave on the mountainside in La Verna, God gave him the stigmata, the gift of the real wounds of Jesus from the cross, the nail wounds in his hands and feet, and the spear wound in his side.
Saint Francis was so much more fierce than the guy that everybody thinks about, who loved animals and talked to birds. (By the way, his feast is October 4 and we will have the traditional blessing of animals on Saturday, October 7 at 10am behind the rectory.) He challenged a Pope to reform the corrupt Church, and the Pope listened to him. He also spoke with many people of other faiths, sometimes fearsome enemies, in order to seek peace in the name of Jesus Christ. His service became so complete that it was literally Jesus whom he manifested in his body.
Anyway, last weekend I was in La Selva on a day pilgrimage to this place where Saint Francis received the living wounds of Christ. We were so warmly welcomed by the Sisters there, who allowed me to celebrate Mass in the chapel of Saint Bonaventure, just to one side of the Chapel of the Stigmata, where Saint Francis’ miracle occurred. Here is another Andrea della Robbia ceramic, the entire wall of the chapel behind the altar.
I’m sharing all of this with you because, as time was our topic last week, talent is our topic this week. But I don’t speak only about what you enjoy or may have a natural tendency to do. Rather, there are gifts you have that God has locked inside you for you to discover and use to bring his Church to a fullness that it wouldn’t have without you and your gifts. Saint Francis, in his radical gifts of poverty and service, transformed a universal Church with a new idea of what is really and only important about life: serving God and others in the wonders of everyday, simple life.
You can do this, too.
On October 14-15 representatives of all parish ministries will be present before and after Masses (before the picnic begins) to talk with you about what you might like to do, about what God might be calling you to do. Take advantage of this time, and plan how you will serve this year in the parish and wider community. There may be a new ministry that God is calling you to begin! Fill out your commitment card, including the areas of ministry that you would like to serve in the coming year and drop it in the second collection at Masses on the weekend of October 21-22.
Just serve. God bless you.
Announcements ~ September 24, 2017
This weekend our Second collection is for The Victims of Hurricane Irma. Thank you for your generosity! All our choirs are eagerly seeking new members. In addition to our three choirs for adults, we are re-launching our Children’s Choir, (grades 1-6) and Youth Choir (grades 7-12). For details, visit the music ministry page at stbernpar.org/praying/music-ministry or contact music director David Mathers at 703-451-8576 x112 or dmathers@stbernpar.org. Join us Monday night for our monthly Taize Prayer Service, September 25 at 8:00pm. Come pray for Christian unity in our community and in the world. All Christians are warmly invited; invite your friends!This weekend Fr. Rick LaBrecque is with us to celebrate some Masses and preach all weekend about the work of Unbound, a lay Catholic sponsorship ministry. The ministry helps children and elderly in 21 developing countries. To learn more, call (800) 875-6564 or visit unbound.org
Next Sunday, October 1 at 10am, we begin Bishop Barron’s 6-week series with Fr. Don on The Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why He Matters. The Study Guide for the program costs $10. Please let us know if you are coming for planning purposes. RSVP by September 29: call the office or email rcaporali@stbernpar.org and let us know if you will be joining us. You are invited to our Saint Bernadette Parish Picnic and Fall Festival Family Day, October 15. The afternoon Mass schedules will be adjusted to accommodate our family celebration of all the diversity in the parish. See page 7 for details. Upcoming Events and Deadlines - October 1- Religious Education Registration deadline extended. Contact the Parish Office
- 8th Grade Confirmation Meeting ~ Parents and Candidates, in the Church
- Life Chain, Franconia Road -see page 9
Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ September 24, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
As I write this bulletin article it is Monday night and we have just arrived this afternoon at our home for two weeks in Tuscany. Below is a panoramic shot I took of the view from our patio. It is a beautiful place, it brings with it a lot of peace. It feels like a retreat—even though our canonical priests’ retreat is in October I am finding that stillness a little early.
Don’t worry about what your spiritual life looks like: you are on track according to God’s plan, that is, as long as you are giving God the time necessary for his work to come to fulfillment in you. He knows what we need, we know what he asks. We know down deep when we are not giving him enough time to accomplish his plan in us. Any other worry comes from your invention, not God’s. This time we give to God is something that is of great importance and a topic of our parish attention for the upcoming Family Weekend and Commitment Weekend when we will be making commitments of our time, as well as our will and energy to serve, and our financial resources that are needed as much for God’s work to be done.
This time which we must invest in God’s plan, this time required of him, is very simple. It is simply being attentive to his voice, faithfully waiting on him. The witness of the saints has revealed that God doesn’t require anything that would seem to make us earn is love; we can’t. His love is unconditionally—literally, it comes with no strings attached. And yet we can cut that connection, cut that string if we are indifferent or do not acknowledge the power of the relationship that God is seeking with you. Waiting on God is what we call prayer: I know, so often prayer seems to become this “doing deals” with God. “God, I’ll do this for you if only you would . . . . . for me.” Do you see how we place God on the same level as ourselves? And still we know that God is so great, so awe-some, that we dare not look at him. He is almighty, ever-living, sustaining life from age to age. All we can do is be attentive, there is nothing that we can do to earn, or deserve, or expect this love. This is the reality that we must take to meditation: Not that God is beyond our abilities even to perceive him, which is totally true, but that God, even so, has chosen to have a relationship with us as a people, as well as with each of us, something unthinkable that reveals even more perfectly how his love is unconditional. Unlike any other deity invented by man, the God who invented man has chosen the unworthy invention to be the tabernacle of his love. Incredible.
In the presence of such a God you can only rest, be silent and wait upon his next unthinkable mercy. For me, a change of place helps with this meditation, away from what is familiar, thrown into a new and startling setting (it is helpful if the place is inspiring) where I can hear the voice of God in a new context. This is why people go on retreats. It is why men and women join religious life. It is a beautiful thing that our present culture is rapidly forgetting. It is the gift of time—like talents and financial support—which I must give back to God so that the saving work of Jesus can continue.
Come away to this place where God is, where God speaks. It doesn’t have to be Italy, for crying out loud. It can be the ordinary moments of every day.
Just pray. God bless you.
Announcements ~ September 17, 2017
This weekend is our Religious Education second collection. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. All our choirs are eagerly seeking new members. In addition to our three choirs for adults, we are re-launching our Children’s Choir, (grades 1-6) and Youth Choir (grades 7-12). For details, visit the music ministry page at stbernpar.org/praying/music-ministry or contact music director David Mathers at 703-451-8576 x112 or dmathers@stbernpar.org. Join us next week for the Taize Prayer Service Service in September, Monday, September 25 at 8:00pm. Come pray for Christian unity in our community and in the world. All Christians are warmly invited; invite your friends! Next weekend, please welcome Fr. Rick LaBrecque who will be with us to celebrate some Masses and preach all weekend about the work of Unbound, a lay Catholic sponsorship ministry that helps children and elderly in 21 developing countries. To learn more, call (800) 875-6564 or visit Unbound online at www.unbound.org. On Sunday, October 1, we begin Bishop Barron’s 6-week series with Fr. Don on The Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why He Matters.The Study Guide for the program costs $10. Fr. Don needs to know if you are coming for planning purposes. RSVP by September 29: call the office or email rcaporali@stbernpar.org and let us know if you will be joining us. You are invited to our Saint Bernadette Parish Picnic and Fall Festival Family Day, October 15. The afternoon Mass schedules will be adjusted to accommodate our family celebration of all the diversity in the parish. See Fr. Don’s letter for details. Upcoming Events and Deadlines - October 1- Religious Education Registration Deadline extended. Contact the Parish Office
- 8th Grade Confirmation Meeting ~ Parents and Candidates, in the Church
- Life Chain
Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ September 17, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
This Sunday I’m going on vacation. I seldom take a trip just for vacation, there are so many conferences each year that I feel guilty being away. But this is my favorite place in the world, Italy, and we have been working nonstop over the summer and the start of the school year. It is time for a break! I won’t be here next weekend.
Hopefully I’ll get to tell the Holy Father that we are all praying for him!
Today’s letter is really important, as we have a couple of things that we would like to share, so I may run this next week again as a bulletin article.
First, in the interest of one parish family, we are going to have a kind of “family day” on Sunday, October 15, which we are calling our Parish Picnic and Fall Festival, from 2 to 6pm on the parish campus. That Sunday we will also host a Parish Ministry Fair under tents around the church. Representatives from parish ministries will be present to visit with you before and after each Mass, to speak about ways you might want to be involved in Parish Life: All are invited, encouraged to get involved! Hopefully you will soon receive a Parish Ministry Catalog in the mail and you can browse opportunities.
In order to accommodate what we hope to be good attendance at the Picnic and Fall Festival, we are changing the Mass schedule that weekend to open up the property in the afternoon. The 1pm and 5pm Masses on October 15 will change. The 1pm Mass in Spanish will be combined as a great celebration of all our diversity in the parish, largely bilingual, at 11am. We are working on many different expressions of music for this special Mass. The 5pm Mass will move to 7pm, hopefully all those who are working for the event can attend Mass after we are done cleaning up. It is going to be a wonderful day together.
A long tradition in the parish, the Fall Festival has been a favorite day for our school families, and it won’t change. Well, that is, except that there will be no cost of admission or for food. We want to have a nice day together. In addition to all the games and inflatable things (thanks, PTO), we will have activities inside the gym and outside, tents and tables and chairs, The Knights of Columbus are going to provide and grill up hamburgers and hotdogs (thank you, Knights) and you (those attending) will provide sides, and desserts:
- last names: ending in A - L: side dishes like potato salad, salads, chips, etc.
- last names: ending in M - S: desserts, cookies, etc.
- last names: ending in T - Z: non-perishable snacks
Also, we’ve asked one of my favorite bands, the Blue Tips Rhythm Revue, to play live music. We have also contracted with a local bus company to run four 25-person shuttles back and forth all afternoon to the commuter parking along Hunter Village Drive across the street in Daventry.
Plan to come out, all the family, and spend some time with our big family on the Lord’s Day.
Also, since I will be away for nearly two weeks, I need to tell you about a class that I will be teaching starting October 1. This is an experiment and we will see how this works. On six Sunday mornings between the 9am and 11am Masses in the Bradican Room, I will be leading a class using Bishop Robert Barron’s “The Mystery of God: Who He Is and Why He Matters.” It is a very incisive study of philosophy, our intellectual heritage and modern expression about how we can think about and tell others about God. He seeks to answer the question, “How should Christians respond when faced with the so-called New Atheism?”
If you plan to come, you must register by Friday, September 29, because a book is involved. This time, since I am on vacation, please do not email me directly, but send your attendance confirmation to rcaporali@stbernpar.org. ; Rick will make sure we have the materials ordered while I’m away.
The study guides are $25 each, I would like to ask you who are coming to the class to pay $10 toward expenses. Couples who would like to share can do so easily. Please bring your money to the first class on October 1. We will skip Sunday, October 15, for obvious reasons!
May God bless you.
