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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.
Important Update for our Religious Education Program!
Dear Families registered in our Religious Education Program,
I'm very happy to announce this weekend that we have hired a new Director of Faith Formation at Saint Bernadette! We welcome Martha Drennan, whose gifts and energy will be a wonderful addition to our parish staff and our program of religious formation for our children.
She starts with us on 15 September, but will be with us NEXT WEDNESDAY, 13 September at 7:30pm in the church, so that everyone may get to know her, and hear her ideas about the coming year and beyond. You are very much encouraged to attend this important meeting.
Because we experienced this unexpected transition at the beginning of the school year, we have decided to postpone the beginning of the RE year at Saint Bernadette. CLASSES WILL START ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 instead. For those who may be concerned about losing four classes, this year we will offer classes on four unscheduled weeks - the two Fairfax County Public School free days, Presidents' Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
We will still have parents' Confirmation meetings on October 1 and 12. The October 1 meeting is for current 8th grade Confirmation students and thier parents only. The October 12 meeting is for current 7th grade students and thier parents only. At both meetings we will review important dates, requirements and details for the upcoming year. The 7th grade meeting however will provide an overview of the new two year program for Confirmation that begins in the 7th grade. All 7th grade families will receive a Confirmation packet prior to the October 12 meeting.
There are two other changes which we have made. Due to virtual lack of interest (only 6 students in K-6) we have canceled K-6 classes for the second session on Monday evenings. We will still have the 7th and 8th grade classes.
Also, it has come to my attention that it is impossible for many children to get off the bus and get to the church in time for the 4:45 sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we have decided to change our START TIME FOR THESE SESSIONS TO 5PM. 5 to 6:15pm. I hope this is helpful.
Since these changes might make our program more user-friendly to many families, and since we are still in great need of catechists, we are EXTENDING REGISTRATION FOR RE CLASSES TO OCTOBER 1. Perhaps after you come and hear Martha on Wednesday, you can tell your friends to consider coming home to Saint Bernadette. The doors are open and you are welcome.
Thanks, and God bless you,
Father Don
Announcements ~ September 10, 2017
This weekend, we will be taking up a Special Collection for Hurricane Harvey Relief due to the grave need being experienced in Texas. Our previously scheduled Religious Education Collection has been moved to September 16 and 17. Donations can be made directly and immediately through our Diocesan website: arlingtondiocese.org. Thank you for your support of these efforts on behalf of our brothers and sisters who are in need. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. All are invited to come and meet our new Director of Faith Formation (Religious Education K-8 and more), Martha Drennan, on Wednesday evening, September 13 at 7:30 in the church. Details of our postponement of the start of the class year are in Father’s article; be sure to see Martha’s biography and reflections in today’s bulletin. Catechists: this will replace our scheduled Catechist formation evening. All our choirs are eagerly seeking new members. In addition to our three choirs for adults, we are re-launching our Angel Choir (grades 1 and 2), Children’s Choir (grades 3-6) and Youth Choir (grades 7-12). If you like to sing, or play an appropriate instrument (Youth and Contemporary Choir), learn and have fun, all while making some new friends, come be a part of our music ministry! 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.Fr. Don's Weekly Letter ~ September 10, 2017
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Some of you may have heard me speak of it last weekend, but it’s official—we have found a new Director of Faith Formation for our parish, Martha Drennan. You can find her article in this bulletin on pages 8 and 9.
We are grateful to David Wallace for his ten years here at Saint Bernadette. I can’t imagine him commuting from Front Royal for ten years, with his large family and commitments at Christendom College. Now he can literally walk to his home parish to go to work in the morning.
But I will admit, as much as I preach about trusting in God and how he has a plan, I was a little panicked. Right at the beginning of a program year, we are at last call registering students and begging for catechists uncertain about how all this was going to even happen. I’ve never run a school before, or figured out how to schedule all of this. And then Martha appeared, just like Linda our new Business Manager appeared, just like our wonderful Youth Ministry Staff appeared, just like Barbara Dalmut appeared to bring such great talents to principal for our school community. I give testimony at this moment: not only does God have a plan, he must have one amazing plan for our parish community at Saint Bernadette. Keep praying, it is working.
First, you all are invited to come and meet Martha on Wednesday evening, the 13th of September at 7:30 in the church. I’m hoping many people will be inspired by her to use their gifts of teaching and join a team of catechists who will be well-formed by her many gifts. I also hope many families might just consider coming back to Saint Bernadette for their religious education. I know many go elsewhere.
What makes Martha so rare is that she is intensely interested in forming families. This is, truly, the missing link we have had in faith formation for children all along. We have allowed parents to just drop their kids off and hope for the best. The witness of history shows that this clearly doesn’t work. Parents are the first teachers of their children...parents have a grave obligation to see to the formation of their children in the faith. But... we say that but don’t help parents with how. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and know well that you can’t give what you don’t have. Lack of formation is itself a legacy, and doesn’t change unless someone inserts the formation now, before the day is over. You are never too old. I believe that Martha can, and will, do this. But it will take a little more time than we have now.
We were planning to start on September 17 with classes, but this isn’t realistic. We still have only 1/3 the catechists we need, and Martha wants to spend some time with them and build a teaching team. Also, I believe that our registrations, though similar to last year, do not begin to meet the real need. We need to get the word out that Saint Bernadette is going to do everything she can to meet the needs of her own parishioners.
For this reason, it will be more realistic to begin classes on Sunday, October 22. We will provide the option to make up the four postponed classes.
I have also learned recently that the 4:45pm start time on Mondays and Tuesdays is an impossibility for children who don’t get off the bus commonly until 4:30. I propose that the start times on Monday and Tuesday be 5pm. Also, it should be noted that there were only six students who registered for seven elementary grades in the later classes on Monday evening, so we have cancelled those grades. We will still have the 7th and 8th grade classes on Monday evenings.
We will hold onto the dates for 7th and 8th grade Confirmation parents’ meetings on the 1st and 12th of October, simply because we have asked you to hold those dates in your calendars and we honor your time. That program will be ready to start.
I know change is hard for some people, it seems especially hard here at Saint Bernadette, but I’m going to just ask you to trust. Not even in me, though that would be nice. Trust in the One who apparently holds Saint Bernadette close to the heart of his Son. We’re all in this together and this is amazing.
May God bless you.
Announcements ~ September 3, 2017
Enroll in RCIA. The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults begins September 5 and we welcome all who have never been baptized or fully initiated in the Church through Confirmation and Eucharist. If you or someone you know are seeking the fullness of life or considering joining the Church, call and register in the parish office. Classes will be offered in both English and Spanish. Calling all Catechists! Please respond to the call to share your faith with our children and the youth of the parish, Catechist Meetings are beginning, so please sign up now. All our choirs are eagerly seeking new members. In addition to our three choirs for adults, we are re-launching our Angel Choir (grades 1 and 2), Children’s Choir (grades 3-6) and Youth Choir (grades 7-12). If you like to sing, or play an appropriate instrument (Youth and Contemporary Choir), learn and have fun, all while making some new friends, come be a part of our music ministry! 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. This weekend is the National Collection for The Catholic University of America. We appreciate your generosity. You can learn more at: collection.cua.edu. Next weekend there will be a Special Second collection for those in Texas experiencing the devastaing effects of Hurricane Harvey. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
