I love to walk in our neighborhood. It is good to relax, enjoy the beauty of nature, reflect in silence, pray, or sometimes engage in a con- versation with a neighbor, but always pre- pared to be "surprised" ...like a child. Earlier this week, I passed by a large number of young children (six or seven) playing in the street. I had never seen them before, probably new neighbors. I simply said "Hello". One of the boys responded:...

BISHOP DORSONVILLE is coming to our parish in two weeks: Sunday October 9. You are all invited to join! Come to the FEAST! Come to the FIESTA! We are celebrating the 11th Anniversary of our Hispanic Community. Happy Birthday! God has blessed us with one of the most diverse communities in the Washington area. As a mid-size parish, we remain a family of families, welcoming everyone. Welcoming everyone has been part of our parish culture from the very beginning 42 years ago! We are grateful to our "pioneers". We welcome...

"In five hours I will see Jesus! May the will of God be done in all things! I have confidence in the love of Jesus. I know that He will order his angels to bear me in their hands." These are the amazing words JACQUES FESCH wrote five hours before his death. Unlike all of us, Jacques knew the specific hour and day of his death. His lawyer had told him that his public execution (beheading by the guillotine) would take place at 4 am the next day. Jacques had...

Do we believe that "FOR GOD EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE”? Do we believe that GOD CAN TRANSFORM US? Can we see the LOVE OF GOD in our own life? GOD THE FATHER HAS SENT US HIS SON so that we can all have LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD. HE IS LOVE. HE IS MERCIFUL LOVE. The Gospels show us the POWER OF GOD through the life of OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: HIS POWER, HIS GRACE, HIS MERCIFUL LOVE. JESUS IS ALWAYS WITH US. WE CAN ASK AND WE WILL RECEIVE. We just need to DESIRE. We just need TO RECEIVE HIS GRACE. HE will then transform us. Earlier this week...

As we are ENTERING THE YEAR OF SAINT JOHN BOSCO on our 42nd anniversary next Sunday, September 11th (our parish birthday is September 15), I invite you to reflect on the JOY OF BEING CHRISTIAN! To be a Christian is to ENCOUNTER CHRIST and to PUT HIM FIRST IN OUR LIFE. It all begins at BAPTISM. Baptism, as the sacrament of faith, is the basis of the whole Christian life. In Baptism we die and rise with CHRIST. We are reborn as adopted children of God through WATER and the HOLY SPIRIT. We become members of Christ's Body, the Church. We become a Temple of the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1262-1271). Once BAPTIZED, nobody can...

Do you remember last week's Gospel or the one before? Have you read this week's Gospel before coming to Mass? When was the last time you opened your Bible and meditated on a Psalm, Proverb, or one of Jesus' parables? In a more and more secular world, a key question for us Christians is: how can we strengthen our personal relationship with God? How can we love GOD? For Jesus Christ, the first and greatest commandment is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:36-37). How can we...

About 20 years ago, I was working in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. We were helping some former communist countries associated with the Soviet Union to join the European Union by making recommendations on new economic policies. This gave me the opportunity to visit Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. On my first visit to Bulgaria, the Government officials invited us to a working dinner in a Russian restaurant. It was very dark. Practically no lights. Only a few candles on each table. The food was good. The discussion was intense...

At every Mass we pray as a community together with all the Saints in Heaven, who are an integral part of the Church. Every Sunday Mass, we can remember two special Saints whose first-class relics are sealed within our new altar dedicated by Cardinal Wilton Gregory last January: Saint John Bosco and Saint Maria Mazzarello, both Italians who lived in the 19th century and are both closely related to the devotion to Our Lady Help of Christians. Every daily Mass in our Chapel, we can remember two other Saints, two early martyrs (second and third centuries) whose bones -first-class relics - are sealed within the altar of our Chapel:...

"SEEK WHAT IS ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. THINK OF WHAT IS ABOVE, NOT OF WHAT IS ON EARTH" says St Paul in his letter to the Colossians (beginning of Chapter 3). This is a powerful message given 2,000 years ago. How does it apply to our current world in 2022? When I was a child, my brother and I loved to spend time watching the thousands of stars in the sky. We were also looking for the sudden apparition of "etoiles filantes " or "shooting stars" in English. On a special night, we even saw...

Today Jesus teaches us HOW TO PRAY: " FATHER, Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. GIVE US EACH DAY OUR DAILY BREAD AND FORGIVE US OUR SINS for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the test." (Luke 11:1-13). This is a continuation of last week's Gospel when Jesus visited Mary and Martha. Jesus had left Bethany and had gone PRAYING, and when he had finished one of his disciples asked him: " LORD! TEACH US HOW TO PRAY". We are so familiar with the "OUR FATHER PRAYER" that at times we pray it without thinking about the meaning of the beautiful words that Jesus has given us. Luke gives us words somewhat different from...

What is God's promise to us individually? What do we expect from God? Is our HOPE in God or in the world? We were invited last week to reflect on the amazing encounter between Abraham and God (first reading, Genesis 18: 1-10) "The LORD appears to Abraham as he sat under a tree at the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot. Looking up Abraham saw THREE MEN standing nearby ". Abraham bows to the ground in AWE of GOD! He then provides great hospitality to the three men representing GOD: "he waits on them under the tree while they ate." Then God gives a promise: one of the three men says...

Many of you were touched by the POWERFUL PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN last week. We hear this Gospel only once every three years in the YEAR OF LUKE (YEAR C, Luke 10:25-37). It is one of Jesus' most famous parables. It is Jesus' answer to the Jewish scholar's question: "WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?" (see my column of last week). It teaches us how to live a Christian Life and to be saved! It is all about CHRISTIAN LOVE! GOD IS LOVE! LOVE IS GOD! Our secular world uses the expression...

Reminding us of the two greatest commandments of LOVE: "LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART ...AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF", Jesus invites us today to reflect on a key question: WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? Jesus is teaching us a major lesson through the powerful PARABLE of the GOOD SAMARITAN. A scholar of the law is testing Jesus: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" This encounter leads Jesus to tell the story of a man falling victim to robbers as he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho: they stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest, then a Levite when seeing him passed on the opposite side of the road. A third person, a Samaritan traveler was moved with compassion and took care of the victim pouring" oil and wine" over his wounds. He then took him to an inn and cared for him... Jesus gives the major lesson of this parable by asking...

Blessed Carlo Acutis liked to repeat those seven words: "THE EUCHARIST IS MY HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN". From an early age, Blessed Carlo put the Eucharist at the center of his life. Since his First Communion at the age of seven, he went to Mass every day to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. This was his rich, daily spiritual nourishment. As he died at the young age of 15, Blessed Carlo has had a great influence on the youth of our times. He has been called the first Saint of the "Millennium" Generation (1991-2006). It was fitting that following our "little" Eucharistic Miracle (April 2021) our parish would hold an exhibit of Blessed Carlo "Miracles of the Eucharist" (a display of 140 miracles throughout the entire world and put together on the Internet by young Carlo). I did not know what to expect. I had little...

“Alain, I want to have pictures of your Corpus Christi Eucharistic Procession in the Catholic Standard!" Our Cardinal addresses all the priests of the Archdiocese by their first name. As we are over 200, I am always surprised that he remembers all our names. My surprise last Saturday was the Cardinal’s last-minute simple but unusual request to me as he was leaving the Sacristy of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the joyful morning he had just ordained 10 new young priests. We had only a few hours before our Corpus Christi Procession. My first reaction was...

Have you ever walked with Jesus outside the walls of our church? COME AND JOIN BISHOP DORSONVILLE THIS SUNDAY JUNE 19. He will lead our outdoor Eucharistic Procession at 12:30 PM right after celebrating with us the 11:30 AM Mass. You may wonder why a Bishop is coming to Waldorf: we are celebrating the completion of our First Year of EUCHARISTIC RENEWAL on the Day of CORPUS CHRISTI, the SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST. This all began with our " Little" Eucharistic Miracle a year ago. Do you remember the abandoned Consecrated Host at the foot of our statue of Our Lady of Fatima...

Can you brighten the day of your former pastor, Father Eamon Dignan? He is awaiting your visit. I assure you that meeting him will also bring you MUCH JOY: "you will receive more than you give". You may recall that about one year ago, I wrote an entire column about " VISITING FATHER DIGNAN" (bulletin of June 17, 2021). We had strict Covid restrictions and I could meet him only outdoors. A few days ago, I found the time to re-visit him. The good news is that his health has improved. He is no longer in a wheelchair and his "memory" is coming back: this time, we could have a conversation about his long 17 years as our pastor at OLHOC (1987-2002). We prayed together. He gave me a priestly blessing. As I was leaving, he...

"THE LOVE OF GOD HAS BEEN POURED OUT INTO OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING IN US! ALLELUIA" (Romans 5:5). THE GIFT OF THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE HOLY SPIRIT. We are in a time of great expectation. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS COMING. We just celebrated the ASCENCION OF THE LORD. At the very end of Luke's Gospel (Luke 24: 50-53), Jesus blesses his disciples as he is being lifted up to heaven, then "his disciples returned to Jerusalem with GREAT JOY, and they were continually in the temple praising God". Like Jesus' first disciples, we are also anticipating...

Did you look up when you entered church last Sunday? What did you see? Anything new? SEVEN WORDS: MAY WE ALL BE ONE IN CHRIST! These seven words became a theme for the celebration of our Parish Feast Day. Whenever you enter our church, remember to look up...You are entering the HOUSE OF GOD! This is where HEAVEN AND EARTH MEET. Do not keep your eyes down worrying about the daily challenges and tribulations you face. Enter the House of God with your hearts open and at PEACE. God will provide. God the Father, God the Son, and God the HOLY SPIRIT will provide. JESUS LOVES YOU. THE RISEN LORD will never abandon you. As he says to his disciples, to all of us:...

Our parish celebrates its Feast Day on the Sunday preceding May 24, the exact date for the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. You are all invited to join our children and youth at 11 am for the crowning of Mary (outdoor statue) and to attend the 11:30 am outdoor Mass organized by our Youth. We are blessed to have such a large number of children and youth at OLHOC. Let us all celebrate with them with great joy on our Parish Feast Day! Since the dedication of our new altar..