Latest Announcements
Worship Aid for 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Join us for Taizé Prayer Service on Monday 18 November, at 8pm. Come pray for unity in our community and the world. All are invited.
Do you want to create Heaven in Your Home? Join us for a free dinner, family formation, and activities for the kids after the 5pm Mass on Saturday, November 23. See this week's bulletin and the poster in the vestibule for more information. Registration is recommended so that we have enough pizza for everyone!
Start the Christmas Season making a beautiful Family Advent Wreath! Join the Women’s Group on Sunday November 24 following the 9 and 11 AM Masses in the Bradican Room. Supplies will be provided.
There will be only one Mass at 10 am on Thanksgiving Day. To thank God for the many blessings in our lives, please help those experiencing food insecurity by bringing non-perishable food items to Mass, to be brought up to the altar at the offertory procession. All donations will benefit the Catholic Charities St. Lucy Food Project.
All 6th-8th graders are invited to Middle School Youth Ministry every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Join us this Wednesday, November 20th, from 6:45-8 pm in the Gym.
Keep Christ in Christmas! The Knights of Columbus will be selling Christmas Cards in the vestibule of the church after all Masses the weekends of November 16-17 and November 23-24. You may contact Mike Candalor at mcandalor@cox.net to get more information or arrange another opportunity to view/purchase cards.
All women are invited to attend an Advent Night of Reflection with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope." Join Walking With Purpose women's Bible study for a night of finger food, fellowship, and prayer with a special reflection by Fr. Andrew Clark. Saturday, December 7 from 7:00-9:00 pm in the St. Bernadette School Gym. All women are welcome, so please invite a friend. See bulletin for more details.
Remember there will be no religious education classes for the next two weeks. Classes will resume on December 3rd.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
This week I had the luxury of most of a day spent with three retired Lutheran pastor friends, and we talked about the 20 years we worked together as ecumenists in the work of Christian Unity. All three of them were pastors in the northern Virginia area, and all were involved in our several local and state dialogues as we were able with our own parish duties. At times we recalled some of the really funny moments of our work together, but the truth is it has always been a struggle to keep the movement alive. Now it seems we are hitting an all-time low.
Not just the Catholics, ecumenism isn’t really a priority for leadership in any of the Christian churches. Many reasons have been given for this: tightening budgets, concern over diminishing congregation sizes, maybe even a sense that we have gone about as far as we can go with this work.
I said that, after my 20+ years in this work, I am realizing that the movement has been more outcome-oriented. What is measurable that we are to get out of a dialogue that we can publish? What new discoveries might we make about each other that could change the context of a conversation that might have taken place (or not) 25 years ago. Have we learned anything in the meantime?
These kinds of outcomes don’t come out easily -- sometimes not at all, but it is the process of dialogue that keeps the relationship alive. As long as we are talking with and listening to each other, and open to the idea of discovering something new, there is hope. Where hope is not, there is just silence.
My pastors and I admitted that it is getting quieter and quieter.
One of the reasons could be that bishops have so many worries today that Ecumenism doesn’t land high enough on the priority list to get attention or promotion. We have always gathered around our bishops in solidarity and optimism because of their encouragement. That doesn’t happen any more, generally speaking, in any Christian church. Also, there are a few of us who have kept this alive for a number of years, appearing to be vibrant, where that may not have been the honest truth. And we are not getting younger!
Two initiatives which we had celebrated annually with great success had been the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the State LARCUM (Lutheran Anglican Catholic United Methodist) Committee’s annual conference when we would invite a speaker and gather for prayer and formation in Christian unity. We were struggling with numbers and bringing our leaders together before the pandemic, but it seems that we have lost most of our steam post-pandemic.
I asked my friends: do you think these could become more grassroots efforts, something springing up from the community itself, reestablishing these relationships and planning prayer services and conferences? We decided yes, this might just be the way to win the bishops’ attention once again when they see what is possible. As I wrote to a friend of mine working on initiatives in Palestine, sometimes it is easier to get people to join a movement rather than create it.
This week I would like to place a challenge before you, and I am going to forward it to the members of our diocesan ecumenical commission and every Christian pastor I know. I challenge us to become the context of open dialogue and friendship with our Christian neighbors and start that groundswell of a grassroots movement that seeks unity where all we can see right now is division. It would do our own Church some good, too, if we focused more on our agreements.
A good place to start is our Burke/Springfield Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Service on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It won’t be only a Christian gathering, we have friends coming from Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and many other religions as well. But perhaps over the course of the evening you might meet a pastor or a member of another church and ask the question: Is this something we can do together? Does unity begin with us? Then you can begin to dream what that might look like not only in spiritual relationship but also shared responsibilities in caring for our poor and people without homes, the neighbors in need we share. One neighborhood, one voice. And we will find that that voice is the voice of Jesus himself as we listen to each other.
Congratulations to our Confirmation kids this week, let us pray for them.
The Lord be with you.
Worship Aid for 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Join us for Taizé Prayer Service on Monday 18 November, at 8pm. Come pray for unity in our community and the world. All are invited.
There will be only one Mass at 10 am on Thanksgiving Day. To thank God for the many blessings in our lives, please help those experiencing food insecurity by bringing non-perishable food items to Mass, to be brought up to the altar at the offertory procession. All donations will benefit the Catholic Charities St. Lucy Food Project.
Keep Christ in Christmas! The Knights of Columbus will be selling Christmas Cards in the vestibule of the church after all Masses the weekends of November 16-17 and November 23-24. You may contact Mike Candalor at mcandalor@cox.net to get more information or arrange another opportunity to view/purchase cards.
Concerts at Saint Bernadette presents pianist, Vania Pimentel, Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm. Come here piece by renowned Brazilian composers, highlighting iconic Brazilian styles from folk tunes to tangos and dances. The concert is free, please plan to join us.
All women are invited to an Advent Evening of Reflection on December 7, from 7-9 pm in the school Gym. This event is free, and registrations are not required, but greatly appreciated. Watch the bulletin for more information.
This weekend Nov 9/10 a display of beautiful olivewood handmade carvings from the Holy Land in our church. These carvings are made by the Christians of Bethlehem who use them as their main source of income. YOU can support them by purchasing some of these beautiful carvings after Mass. For more information, please contact us at 202-302-5889 or visit www.BethlehemCarvings.org. Thank you in advance for all your help and support! .
The parish offices will be closed on Monday, 11 November in observance of Veteran's Day.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Not even 12 hours back from pilgrimage last weekend, I celebrated Mass for the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts at a campground in Haymarket. I talked about this at the 11am Mass. During the Mass I had images in my mind of the many cathedrals and shrines where we had just celebrated Mass across France. I was struck by the different but consistent beauty of the place. The sun was just rising, and all the autumn leaves had the remarkable quality of warm tones of stained glass that just caught the light in the moment. The trees were columns like any architect could only dream of reproducing (with the possible exception of Antonio Gaudi and Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona). The leaves overhead joined and formed a ceiling vault that soared above us. I suddenly realized that the pilgrimage continues, not to be frustrated by an airline boarding pass and the distance of place. Time continues. I include a photo here of the stained glass leaves as we celebrated Mass in our own sacred space.
At our final Mass in Annecy, France at the Basilica of the Visitation where the tombs of Saints Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal are located, I challenged the pilgrims on the journey to consider that the pilgrimage continues, and that we should expect to be changed by it every day. It is good to be jolted by a total change of context and daily rhythm to help us be more attentive to whom and what surrounds us all the time, but the finer awareness of paying attention to details of daily life is the goal. The unexpected experience of beauty conditions us to find beauty everywhere. Likewise, the encounter with holy places tunes your consciousness to recognize holiness when you encounter it every day. But you don’t have to travel four thousand miles to learn this.
There is no trip that illustrates this idea more effectively than a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We returned from our last pilgrimage to the Holy Land two weeks before the COVID lockdown in March of 2019. Up until then, I led a group there every other year. It wasn’t because I needed to revisit all those places (although I love doing it), but because I love to see the light go on in peoples’ heads when they realize that all that we have learned and heard and read in Scriptures -- ultimately, about Jesus -- has a real place where the saving Good News of salvation took place. This is where he was born. This is where he walked and performed miracles. This is the place where he died and rose again. Little by little you begin to see that Jesus is still doing all those things wherever you are... but the insight begins with the actual experience. Once known, it dwells in you. We discovered that France works just fine, too, as we spent our days in the company of their many saints.
The Church has a rich tradition of seeing herself as a people on pilgrimage, on the move through this life to the life of heaven. One of my favorite liturgical songs is “Servant Song,” which has these verses:
We are pilgrims on a journey, we are travellers on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
I will weep when you are weeping. When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you. I will share your joy and sorrow till we’ve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
The Lord be with you.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
Seems like a couple of weeks since I wrote to all of you in the bulletin. We have traveled from one city to another, each time getting acquainted with the saints who lived there, who are recognized by the Church for their heroic virtue, completing the mission and outcome God had planned for them. In most cases they were not strong people, but rather limited, uneducated, unwise of the ways of the world and, actually, often uneducated in their faith.
It gives all of us hope that God chooses us, the weak, and accomplishes so much of his plan visibly through us. We don’t have to rely on ourselves; we just have keep showing up!
There was an unusually intense period in history in the late 1700s and the first half of the 1800s when Jesus or the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to people here in France to give hope, especially in times of great persecution following the French Revolution. The Church was nearly destroyed. It is in this context that God chose the most unlikely people to speak.
He established some of the most active religious orders we know today to meet the needs of the poor and people at risk. He was able to proclaim the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception Church through St. Bernadette, provide a simple spirituality that sustained common people through St. Therese, establish devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Saint Margaret Mary, and the beautiful spirituality which began the modern tradition of personal devotion and faith in the teachings of St. Francis de Sales in response to the Reformation.
It has been a remarkable opportunity to consider the lives, the places and the spirituality of all of them on this pilgrimage. And every day we bring you and your intentions with us to these places.
This evening I am writing to you on the bus as we make our way to the hotel after a bonus pilgrimage site; the Cathedral in Vezelay on the way to Ars, and the shrine of St. John Vianney. Tradition says that after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Lazarus and his daughters Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene and the two other Marys, and little Zacchaeus’ lives were in danger — Lazarus was living proof of Jesus’ miracles, after all — and they fled to France. Mary Magdalene’s, it is said, are the relics we visited in the crypt church, verified by Pope Philip IX in the early 1100s. The cathedral had already become one of the first great pilgrimage sites in France in the 300s.
These cathedrals in the Middle Ages were the homes of relics of saints which would attract people on pilgrimage to come and pray for the saints’ intercession, and would be the economic security for towns, relying on the markets for the tourist trade. On this trip so far we have also visited the incorrupt bodies of saints Therese of Lisieux, Catherine Laboure, Vincent de Paul, John Vianney, and the veil worn by Mary at Jesus’ birth which is the principal relic of Chartres cathedral.
Of course, we will be back already as you read this, but it is good to give a report from the pilgrimage bus on the highway. We continue to pray for you and our parish family as we continue on our way.
The Lord be with you.
Worship Aid for 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
- Members of the Knights of Columbus distributed shoe-box sized cartons to parishioners following all Masses last weekend and parishioners were invited to take home a box and fill it with itmes for boy and girls ranging from 2 to 15. Completed boxes are being collected next weekend before all Masses. Support to cover international shipping costs is much appreciated. Please see today's bulletin for details.
- This weekend’s 2nd collection will be for Hurricane Relief.
- After all Masses next weekend there will be a display of beautiful olivewood handmade carvings from the Hoy Land. Thee crvings are made by the Christians of Bethlehem who use them as thier main source of income. Please see today's bulletin for more information on how we can support our brothers and sisters in Christ who are enduring hardships due to the volatile situation in their home country.
- Keep Christ in Christmas! The Knights of Columbus will be selling Christmas Cards in the vestibule of the church after all Masses the weekends of November 16-17 and November 23-24. You may cintact Mike Candalor at mcandalor@cox.net to get more information or arrange another opportunity to view/puchase cards.
- Concerts at Saint Bernadette presents pianist, Vania Pimentel, Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm. Come here piece by renowned Brazilian composers, highlighting iconic Brazilian styles from folk tunes to tangos and dances. The concert is free, please plan to join us.
- Women are still welcome to join the Walking with Purpose Bible Study. All are also invited to the Women's Advent Day of Reflection on 7 December. Watch the bulletin for more information.
- All 6th-8th graders are invited to Middle School Youth Ministry every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Join us this Wednesday, November 6, from 6:45-8pm in the gym.
- The parish offices will be closed on Monday, 11 November in observance of Veteran's Day.
Worship Aid for 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
- ECHO’s yard sale is this Saturday, October 26th, from 8 am to noon in the school gym. Proceeds will help local people experiencing an emergency and those with long-term low-income needs.
- Friday, November 1st, is All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation. Vigil Mass is Thursday, October 31st, at 7:30 pm, and Mass on Friday at 7 and 9 am, noon, and bilingual at 7:30 pm.
- Remember loved ones in the All Souls Day Novena of Masses. All Masses November 2nd-10th will be offered for those included in the novena. Remembrance envelopes are available in the church vestibule. Please return the completed envelopes to the parish office before November 1st.
- The Knights of Columbus, in conjunction with Cross Catholic Outreach, are asking for your support in filling a Box of Joy with presents like small toys, toiletries, and more—perfect for children in need. You are also encouraged to mail a $9 check separately for each box to cover international shipping costs. Boxes will be distributed after Mass this weekend and collected for delivery on November 9/10.
- This week’s 2nd collection will be for Porto Charities.
- High Schoolers are invited to the Diocesan RALLY on Sunday, October 27th. Join hundreds of other High Schoolers for rides, talks, Mass with the Bishop, and more. The cost is $25. Contact Grace Rihl, our Director of Youth Ministry, to register.
- Women are still welcome to join the Walking with Purpose Bible Study. See the bulletin for more information.
- The Bishop has announced that the Diocese will take up a second collection for disaster relief for those affected by Hurricane Helene. Please see the bulletin this weekend for information on how to donate online. Our second collection will occur on November 3rd, but the need is now. These financial resources will be utilized to respond to immediate emergency needs for necessities like water, food, shelter, and medical care and aid in long-term building and recovery efforts. Your generosity is appreciated.
- Concerts at Saint Bernadette. Free concert: pianist Vania Pimentel, “Sounds of Brazil.” Pieces by renowned Brazilian composers, highlighting iconic Brazilian styles from folk tunes to tangos and dances. Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm. dmathers@stbernpar.org or 703-451-8576 x 112
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
It was my intention this week to prepare a bulletin article on Tuesday night about our first experience at the shrine of our lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette. As often is the case lately, travel arrangements go haywire, and we found ourselves before departure, knowing that we would not make our connecting flight in Paris to go to Lourdes, and we were already rescheduled for a flight to on Wednesday morning, essentially losing a full day of our pilgrimage.
Our travel agent was very proactive, and after speaking with him, we were able to reassign all of our Pilgrims to two evening flights on Tuesday, tonight. So on the 23rd 28 our pilgrims were able to go on a 4:40pm flight to Lourdes, and 10 of us were left to take a 9pm flight to Lourdes arriving after midnight to the hotel. I was one of the 10 in the second group, and so I was unable to go to the candle procession and rosary, to be with people, to take pictures, and to give you an impression of what our experience might be. Ultimately, my group of 10 arrived at the hotel after midnight, and we have nothing to report to you. For this I am sorry. As I write this it is after 2pm.
Of course, this is the kind of thing that always happens on pilgrimage, and I always tell our participants on pilgrimage that this is not a vacation, that this is a pilgrimage, and we are constantly asked to offer things up to God when things aren’t perfect.
Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to report you tonight about Lourdes, but will do so in future bulletins.
We will go to the shrine tomorrow morning, and will celebrate a Mass with the entire English community who are present . It won’t be a Mass just for ourselves, but we will find ourselves celebrating Mass with whoever is here speaking English. Then we will tour the town and learn all about Saint Bernadette.
But this experience has left me with a common reflection as I travel lately. Traveling is rarely a pleasure these days, and I think of how we know we have somewhere we must be, regardless of the personal cost. I think of migrants and refugees, the millions of people who are desperate to find what they need for a good life for themselves and their families. This is truly pro-life. Travel conditions are abysmal, but we must power on. And we have an obligation as ourselves an immigrant people, ourselves, not to demonize them but to treat them as human persons like our own families who were - and are - looking for something — better.
Pilgrimage is such a powerful opportunity to put ourselves into the shoes of the poor and forgotten who are just searching for a place where they have dignity. Is this not a powerful gospel message, as poignant as we know from the time of the exiles of the Hebrew people up to today?
When my ancestors were exiled from Northern Ireland because the were Catholic, they became know as “the travelers,” or “tinkers,” because they were made homeless by those who took their homes. Look at Palestine today and see the same reality. Should we not listen to the desperate pleas of those who have given up home and livelihood and often, for a time, even family to provide for them?
The Lord be with you,
Worship Aid for 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Join us for our monthly Taizé Prayer Service on Monday at 8 pm. Come for a peaceful moment of simple song and prayer for unity.
ECHO’s yard sale is next Saturday, October 26th, from 8 am to noon in the school gym. Proceeds will help local people experiencing an emergency and those with long-term low-income needs.
Friday, November 1st, is All Saints Day, a Holy Day of Obligation. Vigil Mass is Thursday, October 31st, at 7:30 pm, and Mass on Friday at 7 and 9 am, noon, and bilingual at 7:30 pm.
Remember loved ones in the All Souls Day Novena of Masses. All Masses November 2nd-10th will be offered for those included in the novena. Remembrance envelopes are available in the church vestibule. Please return the completed envelopes to the parish office before November 1st.
The Knights of Columbus, in conjunction with Cross Catholic Outreach, are asking for your support in filling a Box of Joy with presents like small toys, toiletries, and more—perfect for children in need. You are also encouraged to mail a $9 check separately for each box to cover international shipping costs. Boxes will be distributed after Mass next weekend and collected for delivery on November 9/10.
Next week’s 2nd collection will be for Porto Charities.
High Schoolers are invited to the Diocesan RALLY on Sunday, October 27th. Join hundreds of other High Schoolers for rides, talks, Mass with the Bishop, and more. The cost is $25. Contact Grace Rihl, our Director of Youth Ministry, to register.
Women are still welcome to join the Walking with Purpose Bible Study. See the bulletin for more information.
The Bishop has announced that the Diocese will take up a second collection for disaster relief for those affected by Hurricane Helene. Please see the bulletin this weekend for information on how to donate online. Our second collection will occur on November 3rd, but the need is now. These financial resources will be utilized to respond to immediate emergency needs for necessities like water, food, shelter, and medical care and aid in long-term building and recovery efforts. Your generosity is appreciated.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
As you might know, the week before last, I participated in an ecumenical forum for a group now 20 years in existence, Christian Churches Together. At the CCT Forum, 40 different denominations were present, and the topic was the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit is saying to the churches. How do we authentically share what we hear from the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit does not deny himself to anyone who asks.
Here are the three statements and leading actions that concluded our week together:
1. The Holy Spirit anoints each individual, not for their own sake, but toward communion. The charisms of each must be identified and acknowledged to build up the Body of Christ to full stature, each and every person equally. To deny this Spirit in the other is the cause of division: you are somehow less than I. This is the systemic problem of racism, genocide, discrimination and colonialism. Action: We must trust that the Holy Spirit can do/is doing / will accomplish this work of perfecting us toward the transformation into divine nature, or theosis, of all people. This positive anthropology needs to be introduced as a light into the darkness of our world.
2. We must hold each other accountable to this sacred trust. “Who but the Church can help us understand history as the People of God?” asked a bishop of the Church of God in Christ at Mason Temple in Nashville. If we aren’t writing our own stories they will be rewritten by others. We must preserve this truth/history for our youth who desire to know it and connect more deeply in community. Action: We must witness to, and record the truth which forms the narrative of our history, and our identity in faith.
3. We must affirm the process of receptive ecumenism which we have experienced together this week. (Receptive ecumenism is a dialogue for the sole purpose of listening intently to, and receiving the truth spoken by others about themselves so that we may grow together. It is basically what the Church calls the synodal process.) This week, we have focused on the Spirit, we have listened better and trusted more than any forum before. It is an effective method of dialogue and we have used the model more effectively and grown into, and with each other. Action: Commit to bringing this method of dialogue to our own community and between communities after we return home.
So let’s start with ourselves. I propose this question for your dialogue in your homes and gatherings: Why is the number of Christians (Catholics) declining? Why are so many of our children losing heart and leaving? Why have so many people simply given up? (This is a question that people of all religions are asking.)
I was having a conversation with a colleague just recently. He said that he has been wondering about the reason so many people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion, who claim to be “spiritual” but not “religious.”
He said to me, “I wonder sometimes if I am ‘religious’ but not ‘spiritual’?” The silence that followed was itself a dialogue, so much to say and not really knowing how to say it.
What if we have not given an example to others of the Spirit that must necessarily form the foundation of our religious practice? Religious rites aren’t rites of passage or gestures that define us in some sort of cultural way. But isn’t that how they often define the life of the Church, really, in our practice?
An onlooker who might be uncatechized, or poorly catechized, who is watching us might interpret an empty observance of rites and laws without the exchange of love responding to God’s outpouring of love as nothing more than hypocrisy. Not attractive, the shell of religion might seem to most to be an empty, superfluous (even dishonest) waste of time – especially for a person who is seeking a living relationship with the Divine who they might glimpse is seeking them.
I’ve talked about this before: is the Church – is our community – based on compliance? Or commitment? Going through the motions, frankly, just gets old. Some people may have superpowers of slogging through it for years, but that isn’t what Jesus is asking of us. He wants our hearts, he wants us to have life, his life, to the full. He wants to turn our discipline into discipleship so that the truth, beauty and goodness we have found in him goes out to all the world.
He wants us to listen intently to and receive the truth he is speaking to our hearts so that we may grow together, first with him, then with one another. Commit first to bringing this method of dialogue into your own life of faith. Maybe we will discover together that our being in God together is the most precious part of life.
The Lord be with you,
