
Stewardship: “The start of Sacred Heart being a Stewardship Parish is for each one of us to be good Stewards in our own lives.” The movement towards stewardship as a community began in earnest a year ago, after listening sessions with parishioners. As a result, we announced “Vision: True North”, a vision by which we continue to live our gospel-centered mission, even as we build our future. A vision that continues our center of worship in our downtown church but provides us the ability to seek space and opportunity that will serve us during the new wave of growth in the downtown core and nearby neighborhoods; a growth we are already experiencing. This vision set our sights on fully engaging the North Campus, a 9.8-acre facility we already own and operate, as our designated Center of Ministry and Family Life. Continue reading
The Office of Vocations invites you to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life during National Vocation Awareness Week, November 3-8, 2019.
This coming Sunday marks our journey in Ordinary Time, the
Today marks the
In our gospel story, the tax collector went home justified. Sure, he has been extorting people, shaking them down for the Roman overlords and some profit for himself. Sure, he is considered a traitor and an outcast from Jewish life – someone whose life is “breaking bad.” But he has reached a moment of conversion, right? He is about to get right with God; get justified. Here is the one moment, a moment when all the trappings of life are torn away, he finally sees himself in humble relationship to God: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” And the tax collector went home justified.
Back in the day when I was a parishioner at a small country parish in Northern Virginia, once a year the chairperson of the parish council would speak during the Masses about parish finances. There were several handouts about assets, cash flow, expenses and revenues. All true and necessary things. Even though a parish is meant to be a center of worship, ministry, faith, and life – there are still budgets to make, bills to pay and plans to make.
This week the first readings for Mass are taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He lays out stark choices for us and does not hesitate to reference our condition to one of slavery. It paints the picture of an individual facing a world a world of pernicious and pervasive temptation. St Paul spent a lot of time in Corinth, which like any “navy town” is not short on all manner of opportunities to make bad choices. I think that he just observed people, the choices they made, the habits that became ingrained in their lives, and simply wrote: “For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity” (Romans 6:19) from
From the
“Quid pro quo” – it has certainly made the news lately. I suspect (or at least hope most people know it is Latin). It is just one of the many expressions and word rooted in Latin that are part of the lexicon of modern English. Here’s a modest guide to some of the major Latin words and expressions, with special attention to those that are sometimes most misunderstood or misused by modern American speakers.
This coming Sunday marks our journey in Ordinary Time, the