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Streaming Masses and Weekly Announcements for the week of 7 August 2022

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have changed our parish office hours to the summer schedule. We will not be open weekday evenings or on Sundays until after Labor Day.

We are pleased to invite you all to be part of our Chicken Dinner event known as “ La Pollada Bailable,” Sept.17, 12 to 5pm. Volunteers are needed to assist with ticket sales after all Masses and the day of the event. Please see page 6 of today's bulletin for more information. All proceeds support the parish Capital Campaign.

Please consider our Catholic School. We invite you to visit our website, stbernpar.org/parishschool, if you would like to see what we can do for your child. You are welcome to call our Saint Bernadette School office at 703-451-8696 to learn more, or to arrange for a tour. Registration is still open for all classes, we hope to see you soon.

Think about RCIA. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults begins September 12 and we welcome all who are interested in becoming Catholic.

Monday, August 15^th is the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although not a Holy Day of Obligation this year, we will celebrate additional Masses a noon and a Bilingual Mass at 7:30pm

+Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!

Parish Life Weekend – September 17-18
La Gran Pollada (Parish Super Peruvian Chicken Dinner) – Saturday afternoon, September 17
Anniversary Mass for the Dedication of our church, Friday, October 14
El Senor de los Milagros/Lord of the Miracles Mass and Procession – Saturday, October 15
Parish Family Picnic, Saturday, October 22
ECHO Yard Sale, Saturday, October 29

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 7 August 2022

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This is the fifth of a series of letters to draw your attention to the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis, titled Desiderio desideravi.

He continues: "How do we continue to let ourselves be amazed at what happens in the celebration before our very eyes?" He then talks about that moment of Pentecost when the church became "the initial cell of the new humanity." Those first men and women were reconciled because they were pardoned, alive because he is alive, true because the Spirit of truth dwells in them – only they could break out of the cramped space of spiritual individualism. They could now break the Bread in the certain knowledge that the Lord is alive, risen from the dead, present with his word, with his gestures, with the offering of his Body and his Blood. The celebration is now the priveleged place of encounter with him. As he quotes Romano Guardini, "We must learn anew how to relate as fully human beings."

He asks us to consider the regular rhythm of our assemblies in which we come together to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord's Day. Ordained ministers carry out a pastoral action of the first importance when they take the baptized faithful by the hand to lead them into the Paschal Mystery. It is not only the priest, but the entire Church, the Body of Christ, that realizes this and includes everyone: "A celebration that does not evangelize is not authentic, just as a proclamation that does not lead to an encounter with the risen Lord in the celebration is not authentic." This is because the nature of the Liturgy does not consist of a mental assimilation of some idea but in real existential engagement with his person. Liturgy is about praise, about rendering thanks for the Passover of the Son whose power reaches our lives. We literally become him.

Consistent with the method of Incarnation, this existential engagement happens in a sacramental way, not with spiritual abstractions: we use bread, wine, oil, water, fragrance, fire, ashes, rock, fabrics, colors, body, words, sounds, silences, gestures, space, movement, action, order, time, light. This whole of creation is a manifestation of the love of God and is holy. The whole of creation is assumed, to be placed at the service of the encounter with the Word: incarnate, crucified, dead, risen, ascended to the Father, all fruit of the earth and work of human hands.

We can't add anything to the beauty of the inaccessible light where God dwells, Pope Francis says, nor can we add to the perfection of the angelic song which resounds eternally. The Liturgy gives glory to God because it allows us – here, on earth – to see God in the celebration of the mysteries, and in seeing him to draw life from his Passover. We, who were dead through our sins and have been made alive again with Christ – we are the glory of God.

Guardini writes: "Here then is outlined the first task of the work of liturgical formation: man must become once again capable of symbols." Our openness to the transcendent, to God, is constitutive of us. Not recognizing this leads us not only to not knowing God, but being incapable of knowing ourselves.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Weekly Announcements for the week of 31 July 2022

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have changed our parish office hours to the summer schedule. We will not be open weekday evenings or on Sundays until after Labor Day.

Please join us for First Friday Adoration this Friday, August 5th in the Church. Take a moment and spend some quiet time with our Lord. Holy Hour begins at 7pm.

Religious Education registration for parish children continues. Please register now! Classes start August 28-29.

Please consider our Catholic School. We invite you to visit our website, org/parishschool, if you would like to see what we can do for your child. Call the School office to learn more, or to arrange for a tour. We have openings in grades 1,4,6 and 7, we hope to see you soon

The Saint Bernadette Summer Theater Program presents the biblical tale of Joseph and his "coat of many colors," retold in musical technicolor! July 28, 29 & 30 @ 7:30pm. Performances at Bishop Ireton High School. Discount tickets are on sale after all Masses this weekend.

+Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 31 July 2022

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This is the fourth of a series of letters to draw your attention to the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis, titled Desiderio desideravi.

He speaks about an authentic wonder as we participate in the Mass and realize that God is entering our human time and space with incarnate signs (water, bread, wine, oil, memory, Word) under which is the reality of the presence of his life, his Body and Blood, his Holy Spirit. Otherwise, he says, we can render ourselves unavailable to the ocean of grace that is offered to us in the Liturgy. He contrasts this incarnational human spirituality with a generalized, conceptual, disembodied spiritualism for which most people settle today, missing the point of our participation in the Mass.

He contrasts this necessary wonder to the "sense of mystery" which some people claim to have been lost in the liturgical reforms of Vatican II. So much Tradition, so little time. I understand this feeling completely and wanted to share with you an experience I had in college.

There was a time that I was studying voice, perhaps with a career in opera in mind (if I was lucky? until I finally admitted I really didn't enjoy opera much). We studied various operas, and worked on various arias as a part of our course of vocal training. We learned how to sing them without actually understanding the foreign languages in which they were written. The exalted, glorious sounds of opera which had stood for centuries were a stable standard, the combination of sounds of beautiful music and voices, whatever it meant.

Then one summer we did a vacation program for children, and performed exerpts from "The Marriage of Figaro." I really struggled: we sang the musical selections not in Italian, but in English. You might even say my struggle was sort of a crisis. Could it be possible that this music just uses everyday words that we would use in normal conversation? Doesn't it have to be more precious than just words? In my mind I had made the art superhuman. It somehow had to be more.

This was a profound experience for me, and I can imagine it translates into the same experience people had when the Mass came to be offered in English. I remember the struggle my parents described. For me, as a child, I remember the joy of understanding it for the first time.

It is in this understanding that the difference lies. Vatican II made full, active, conscious participation of the assembly a priority. It wasn't enough to just show up, even if that experience might, if you were lucky, be somewhat entertaining. Mass is not our entertainment, it is our action. That action is only meaningful if you know what you are doing.

Pope Francis calls for authentic liturgical formation to teach all of us why we do what we do. Only then do we own the sacred action rather than watch someone else do it.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of 24 July 2022

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have changed our parish office hours to the summer schedule. We will not be open weekday evenings or on Sundays until after Labor Day.

Next weekend's second collection is for Parish and Facilities Maintenance.

Religious Education registration for parish children continues. Please register now! Classes start August 28-29.

The Saint Bernadette Summer Theater Program presents the biblical tale of Joseph and his "coat of many colors," retold in musical technicolor! July 28, 29 & 30 @ 7:30pm, Matinee July 20 @ 1pm.
Performances at Bishop Ireton High School. Discount tickets are on sale after all Masses this weekend.

+Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 24 July 2022

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This is the third of a series of letters to draw your attention to the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis, titled Desiderio desideravi (“I have earnestly desired...”). Time will tell, but I believe this will be considered one of his most significant teachings. It is about the Mass, the sacraments, and our place in the Liturgy. Please give it the time required for an attentive reading. You can just google it, or click here for a direct link.

Pope Francis speaks of Liturgy as a living encounter with the Risen Christ, not just a memory or recounting, but a reality which is the culmination of salvation history at the Last Supper. Jesus, in his Mysteries, the Christ-church, continues the work of salvation here and now and for all time. The Greek word for liturgy literally means "work;" it is our job. We literally continue his offering of love to the Father.

In the next sections of his letter, Pope Francis reflects on the nature of this encounter, which can run the risk of being an isolated, private devotion keeping one "imprisoned in his or her own thoughts or feelings." A kind of subjectivism can creep in that makes it all about me. No wonder many have fallen away from the practice of Liturgy, saying, "I just don't get anything out of it."

Or, he says, Liturgy can become a rote ritual that results in style without substance. It is a door to grace, not something to be inspected and verified. It is not something we have earned or somehow merited, or determine. We encounter it, already given, as an action received, a gift. Salvation cannot be earned through our own merits: it is "the liturgical celebration [that] purifies us, proclaiming the gratuity of the gift of salvation received in faith. Participating in the Eucharistic sacrifice is not our own achievement, as if because of it we could boast... Certainly, we are not worthy to enter his house; we need a word of his to be saved. The Liturgy has nothing to do with an ascetical moralism. It is the gift of the Paschal Mystery of the Lord which, received with docility, makes our life new" (20).

The continual rediscovery of the beauty of the Liturgy is not the search for a ritual aesthetic or the satisfaction of a scrupulous observance of the rubrics. To be sure, Pope Francis reminds us, we must carefully tend to every aspect of the celebration (space, time, gestures, words, objects, song) and every rubric must be observed, or we might rob the assembly of what is owed to it – nothing less than the fullness of the Paschal Mystery as it is set down by the Church.

What is still required for the encounter is full participation.

He talks about an ocean of grace that floods every celebration which we can prevent from washing over us if we lack the astonishment that God has made the Paschal Mystery present to us in the concreteness of sacramental signs. It is this astonishment that we seek together not as an "I," but as a "we," through the senses of our humanity that has been made new in the One who became Man that we might know the life of God.

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Announcements for the week of July 2022

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have changed our parish office hours to the summer schedule. We will not be open weekday evenings or on Sundays until after Labor Day.

Join us for our monthly Taize ecumenical prayer service Monday of this week at 8pm in the church. A beautiful, peaceful way to pray for unity in the Church and end the day.

The deadline for Religious Education registration for parish children approaches - August 15! Classes start August 28-29. Please register now.

+Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 17 July 2022

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This is the second of a series of letters I would like to write to draw your attention to a new apostolic letter from Pope Francis, titled Desiderio desideravi (“I have earnestly desired...”). Time will tell, but I believe this will be considered one of his most significant teachings. It is about the Mass, the sacraments, and our place in the liturgy. Please give it the time required for an attentive reading. You can just google it, or click here for a direct link.

Pope Francis writes, in paragraph 16 of his letter, "With this letter I simply want to invite the whole Church to rediscover, to safeguard, and to live the truth and power of the Christian celebration," and not let it "be spoiled by a superficial and foreshortened understanding of its value or, worse yet, by its being exploited in service of some ideological vision, no matter what the hue."

The literal, real encounter with Christ of which the Holy Father spoke (see my letter last week) is guaranteed by the Liturgy. We don't just need a reminder of the Last Supper, we need to be present there. We hear his voice, we receive his Body and Blood. We need him. "The salvific power of the sacrifice of Jesus, his every word, his every gesture, glance, and feeling reaches us through the celebration of the sacraments. I am Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the man possessed by demons, the paralytic in the house of Peter, the sinful woman pardoned, the daughter of Jairus... The Lord Jesus who dies no more, who lives forever with the signs of his Passion continues to pardon us, to heal us, to save us... It is the concrete way, by means of his Incarnation, that he loves us. It is the way in which he satisfies his own thirst for us that he had declared from the cross."

Our first encounter, Baptism, is the event that marks our life, not just as mental connection to his thought or agreeing to a code of conduct. We are plunged into his passion, death and resurrection. It is not magic, it is the real presence of Incarnation. The Church, his bride, is born from his side on the cross, just as Eve was brought forth by God at creation from the side of Adam.

Without this real incorporation there is no possibility of living the fullness of the worship of God. The only act of worship is the obedience of the Son on the cross. In the Liturgy we participate in his offering and become "sons [and daughters] in the Son." The one who acts in the Liturgy is always and only "Christ-Church, the mystical Body of Christ."

We owe the Second Vatican Council—and to the liturgical movement that preceded it—the rediscovery of a theological understanding of the Liturgy and its importance in the Church's life. The general priciples spelled out are fundamental to reform (Sacrosanctum concilium, 11, 14): we, the faithful, derive the "true Christian spirit" only through the full, conscious, active and fruitful celebration of the Liturgy, the Mass.

"The priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper that all may be one (Jn.,17-21), judges every one of our divisions: around the Bread broken, around the sacrament of mercy, the sign of unity, the bond of charity."

The Lord be with you,

Streaming Masses and Weekly Announcements for the week of 10 July 2022

STREAMING SUNDAY AND WEEKDAY MASSES

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have changed our parish office hours to the summer schedule. We will not be open weekday evenings or on Sundays until after Labor Day.

Please make a note on your calendars: There will be no 7am daily Mass for two weeks, from July 4-15. Please join us daily at 9am.

+Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates!

Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ 10 July 2022

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Today I would like to draw your attention to a new apostolic letter from Pope Francis, titled Desiderio desideravi (“I have earnestly desired...”), the words of Jesus at the beginning of the account of the Last Supper on the night before he was crucified. Time will tell, but I believe this will be considered one of his most significant teachings. It is about the Mass, the sacraments, and our place in the liturgy. Please give it the time required for an attentive reading. You can just google it, or click here for a direct link.

All creation was a preparation for the moment of the Last Supper. Imagine the significance of this as we gather to participate in this Supper, doing it in remembrance of Jesus. Something so immensely great done despite our smallness. No one earned a place at that Supper / earns a place at this Supper: we are drawn to participate because of God's burning desire for us. It is not we who choose God, it is God who has called every person in his creation, in all time, to unity.

Without the ritual anticipation at the Last Supper of his death on Calvary, we would never be able to grasp the full meaning of his self-sacrifice as “perfect worship, the only true liturgy,” Pope Francis says. What else could “body offered,” “blood poured out” refer to? And even though the Apostles were soon back out fishing for fish instead of fishing for believers, it is Jesus who continues to show up and they recognize him in the breaking of the bread. This is how he brings them back together. They turn back on the road to Emmaus. We are rendered “capable of 'seeing' the Risen One, of believing in the Resurrection.”

Now, 2,000 years later, though we haven't walked with or directly listened to Jesus of Nazareth, we desire to meet him and have no other possibility than seeking out his disciples, to hear his words and see his gestures passed directly to them, more alive than ever. We find him in the community that celebrates. But it is not a matter of re-presentation, like some kind of drama played over and over:

10 “Here lies all the powerful beauty of the liturgy. If the Resurrection were for us a concept, an idea, a thought; if the Risen One were for us the recollection of the recollection of others, however authoritative, as, for example, of the Apostles; if there were not given also to us the possibility of a true encounter with him, that would be to declare the newness of the Word made flesh to have been all used up. Instead, the Incarnation, in addition to being the only always new event that history knows, is also the very method that the Holy Trinity has chosen to open to us the way of communion. Christian faith is either an encounter with him alive, or it does not exist.”

The Liturgy guarantees for us the possibility of such an encounter.

These are only a summary of the first ten paragraphs. I will write more in bulletins this summer.

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