Roamin' Catholics: Body and Soul

HERS: When you give someone a hug, do you have one less hug left to give? When you laugh with someone, does your storage of laughs become smaller? Are the number of times you can say "I love you" finite? These were some of the questions rolling through my head during and after the Saturday 5:30pm mass at Our Lady of the Presentation Catholic Church in Poolesville, MD. First, a little about the church. I won't get into the history, because I save that for Lou... it's his thing. This church is one of the newest ones we have attended, with the church building's completion taking place in 2001. The 5:30 mass was not well attended, hopefully due to vacations this time of year. Mass was celebrated by Fr. Justin Huber along with Deacon Bill Stevens. Fr. Justin is the one and only priest in the parish. The theme that rolled along throughout the mass was that of feeding the masses with little food. The gospel of the loaves and fishes is probably one of t...

HERS: We took an inadvertent break last week from Roamin’ Catholics… Lou was travelling and I had a friend in from out of town, so we got back to it this week. I travelled to Erie this weekend, but got back in time to attend the 5:00 pm Sunday mass at the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, MD. This vibrant parish began in 1956 and the 1,200 seat church was completed in 1971. Mass was said by Father Angel Gabriel, the new Parochial Vicar of the parish. Nope, you can’t make up a name like that. A parochial vicar is a priest assigned to a parish in addition to, and in collaboration, with the parish priest or rector. This mass was all about sheep and shepherds. The first reading, responsorial psalm, gospel and homily all touched on the theme of sheep and shepherds. This prompted me to do a little post-mass research on Shepherds and Sheep. Everything I read was pretty straightforward… the job of the shepherd is to protect the safety and welfare of his sheep. This week’s gospel r...

HIS: We are imperfect and that is good!  Boy, if it were so easy.  This is a little piece of wisdom that could avoid a whole lot of angst if we could all just adopt this concept.  That said, I believe this could be one of the keys to a more tranquil, serene life.  Let me say it again, we are imperfect and that is good!  This week’s mass was at St. Mary’s Church and Shrine of our Lady of Fatima in Barnesville, MD.  Barnesville is a tiny (and by tiny, I mean don’t blink as you drive through or you will miss it) little hamlet in northwestern Montgomery County, Md.  As we go through our journey, it amazes me that there are so many Catholic churches within a 15 mile radius of our home.  Just when I think we are running our of nearby churches, I find another. St. Mary’s roots go way back to the 18 th century in the area in which they are located.  The original church building was destroyed by fire in July 118 years ago.  The parish ...

HERS: This week's Catholic adventure and the halfway point of our Roamin' journey brought us to our regular home parish, Mother Seton Catholic Church in Germantown, MD. We attended the 5:00 pm mass on Saturday evening. One thing we always joke about with this church is that it has many last minute and late arrivals to the mass, and Saturday night was no exception. Mother Seton was established in 1974 and has the look and feel of a contemporary church. It's most notable features are the large round vessel of holy water when you first enter the church and a large stone wall behind the altar. I want to jump right into the gospel reading for this week. In Mark's account of the gospel, Jesus performs two miracles. The first is the healing of a woman who had been hemorrhaging for years and could not find anyone who could help make her well. The second was Jesus bringing back to life of a young girl who had just died. In the first account, the hemorrhaging woman belived ...