Welcome to Week 7: Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul. We present HERS and HIS perspectives of the weekly Mass and dinner out.
HERS:
This week's Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul kept us close to the homefront once again and instead of snow, we were getting rain. We began with the 5:00 Saturday Vigil Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, MD. St. John Neumann is relatively new - becoming a parish in 1978 with groundbreaking for the church building beginning in 1982.
The church itself is relatively unremarkable except for a wall sculpture to the right of the altar. Some research on their website reveals that this bas relief sculpture was used as the liturgical screen behind the altar at the mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II on the Washington Mall in 1979. It was created by artist Miles Stafford Rolph and called "Christ Among the Nations".
To be quite honest, although I like the origins of this piece, I am not a fan of this artwork. Perhaps it is the image of Jesus - he appears angry. Everyone appears emaciated - was this showing their hunger for the Word of God?
I did like that a light was shining upon the tabernacle (that is the structure that holds the Body of Christ). Hmm... now that I am looking at the picture, I think I may have been tricked; this may not be light, but rather paint to appear as light. I may never know the truth...
What I am realizing as we "roam" is that there is a comfort within the Catholic Church. It doesn't matter where we go, I know what to expect. There may be slight variations - the people may be different, the building may be different, but there is comfort in the consistency. It doesn't matter what transpired during the course of the week, the mass will be consistent. In these sometimes uncertain times, this offers me comfort.
The gospel was from Mark Chapter 9:
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
The priest, Fr. Joseph Rogers, perfectly tied his homily to the gospel reading and he did something that I really like - he left the pulpit and gave his homily from the steps to the altar sans notes. I like when priests do this - it makes them appear more approachable and their words more relevant. He spoke of our calling to "follow Jesus up the mountain". He went on the explain that we need to be brave enough to put God first in our lives. Everything else will be second best and let us down. He also talked about the need to prepare. He said that athletes prepare for their sport and we too need to prepare. He asked what we did to prepare for mass. Very interesting. Did we pray to be open to the Word of God? Are we prepared for communion with a pure heart? Are we preparing for Easter Sunday? This made me think of the church parking lot. When coming into mass we were stuck behind a person who was parking their car for what appeared to be the first time. Was my response to this incident preparing me for what was to come inside the church?
There is one other thing that I appreciated at the beginning of mass. So far during our roamin', at the part of mass when the priest says, "let us call to mind our sins", there is never a pause to actually call to mind your sins. Fr. Joseph gave pause. He gave me time to actually call to mind my sins. I think I pay attention to this because at some point in time, the pause to actually call to mind our sins went away. I'm glad he brought it back.
Unfortunately "unremarkable" continued with feeding our bodies. We went to Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Gaithersburg. The food was mediocre at best and overpriced, however, I loved the company and our waiter was very good.
The best thing about the restaurant itself, was this wall of wine...
Thanks for reading, have a great week, and don't forget to prepare!
HERS:
This week's Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul kept us close to the homefront once again and instead of snow, we were getting rain. We began with the 5:00 Saturday Vigil Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, MD. St. John Neumann is relatively new - becoming a parish in 1978 with groundbreaking for the church building beginning in 1982.
The church itself is relatively unremarkable except for a wall sculpture to the right of the altar. Some research on their website reveals that this bas relief sculpture was used as the liturgical screen behind the altar at the mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II on the Washington Mall in 1979. It was created by artist Miles Stafford Rolph and called "Christ Among the Nations".
To be quite honest, although I like the origins of this piece, I am not a fan of this artwork. Perhaps it is the image of Jesus - he appears angry. Everyone appears emaciated - was this showing their hunger for the Word of God?
I did like that a light was shining upon the tabernacle (that is the structure that holds the Body of Christ). Hmm... now that I am looking at the picture, I think I may have been tricked; this may not be light, but rather paint to appear as light. I may never know the truth...
Some more pictures of the sanctuary and altar...
What I am realizing as we "roam" is that there is a comfort within the Catholic Church. It doesn't matter where we go, I know what to expect. There may be slight variations - the people may be different, the building may be different, but there is comfort in the consistency. It doesn't matter what transpired during the course of the week, the mass will be consistent. In these sometimes uncertain times, this offers me comfort.
The gospel was from Mark Chapter 9:
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
The priest, Fr. Joseph Rogers, perfectly tied his homily to the gospel reading and he did something that I really like - he left the pulpit and gave his homily from the steps to the altar sans notes. I like when priests do this - it makes them appear more approachable and their words more relevant. He spoke of our calling to "follow Jesus up the mountain". He went on the explain that we need to be brave enough to put God first in our lives. Everything else will be second best and let us down. He also talked about the need to prepare. He said that athletes prepare for their sport and we too need to prepare. He asked what we did to prepare for mass. Very interesting. Did we pray to be open to the Word of God? Are we prepared for communion with a pure heart? Are we preparing for Easter Sunday? This made me think of the church parking lot. When coming into mass we were stuck behind a person who was parking their car for what appeared to be the first time. Was my response to this incident preparing me for what was to come inside the church?
There is one other thing that I appreciated at the beginning of mass. So far during our roamin', at the part of mass when the priest says, "let us call to mind our sins", there is never a pause to actually call to mind your sins. Fr. Joseph gave pause. He gave me time to actually call to mind my sins. I think I pay attention to this because at some point in time, the pause to actually call to mind our sins went away. I'm glad he brought it back.
Unfortunately "unremarkable" continued with feeding our bodies. We went to Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Gaithersburg. The food was mediocre at best and overpriced, however, I loved the company and our waiter was very good.
The best thing about the restaurant itself, was this wall of wine...
HIS:
We must climb the mountain. That is the message
delivered during the second week of Lent. This week our year long journey
through the world that is the Roman Catholic church brought us to St John
Neumann (SJN) in Montgomery Village, MD. This continues our swing through
Gaithersburg area parishes. SJN originally began as a mission of St
Martin’s parish (visited last week) in 1978. The first mass in the
current church building wasn’t celebrated until late 1984. While
the building was designed and built in the modern style, seemingly preferred
during that time of church construction, it does contain some noted pieces of
history. The Archdiocese of Washington distributed items used during the
October, 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II to recently formed parishes.
These items included the Ambo, the celebrant’s (Pope JP II) chair, and an item
Mary wont allow me to mention cuz she mentioned it her narrative. The
Ambo is essentially the lectern used by the celebrant to deliver their
homily. The celebrant’s chair is the chair used by the celebrant to
sit….
Whenever I think about Lent and what it means to me I always
come away with the conclusion that it is a period of reflection.
Reflection on our journey in life as well as what Christ means to us. The
Pastor, Father Joe, told us all that as Catholics we must reflect and be
prepared before meeting Christ during every mass. We must “climb the
mountain.” Father Joe’s reference to climbing the mountain is
taken from this week’s readings. Abraham was instructed in the first
reading to, “go to a height that I will point out.” This was
a test for Abraham to show God his faith and obedience. Thank God we have
a new testament! (For those unfamiliar, the first reading is typically
derived from the old testament and the second reading comes from the new
testament) Abraham was instructed to go to the Land of Moriah (not the land of
Mariah Carey THANKFULLY – I imagine, truly a scary place filled with divas
throwing tantrums) and slaughter his son. God stopped Abraham before he
did the deed, satisfied that Abraham proved himself to the Lord. Abraham
gained great favor by proving his obedience. The Gospel, Mark
9:2-10 tells us of the three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Jesus
took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain and Jesus was
transfigured before them in dazzling white clothing. Elijah and Moses
appeared and spoke with Jesus which frightened P. J and J. Peter, James
and John were all instructed not to speak of this until Jesus was Risen.
Transfigure means to change and the transfiguration of the Lord is celebrated
In August each year.
Dinner this week was at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill or some
name or other like that. This place was wholly unremarkable. I told
Mary as we left that places like these are cookie cutter and you could script
your experience before walking in. While our server was very attentive,
friendly and helpful, the entire experience fell somewhat flat. We both
agreed that we wont be going here again anytime soon. The dining room was
fairly large and was full the entire time we were there. A sign that this
is popular with a lot of people. A scan of the room revealed that this
was a place to go for large parties or multiple couples celebrating a
significant event. I saw more than a couple of slices of cake with
candles coming out of the kitchen. My look around the room also hinted at
a location popular with the AARP set, if you know what I’m sayin. A
couple of dining choices presented themselves this week and we choice this
joint because it was a place we had never been in an area that has recently been
developed. So far Firebirds is toward the bottom of the list for the
nourishing the body part of Roamin’ Catholics, feeding Body and Soul.
We conclude with our Soulfie:
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