Current Mass Times

Saturday: 5 p.m.

Sunday: 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m. (español), 5 p.m.

Monday-Friday: 9 a.m.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday: 12:10 p.m.

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Confession

Saturday: 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m. (English)

Sunday: 3 p.m.- 4 p.m. (español)

Dear Friends,

Throughout the month of November, in a special way, the Church remembers those who have gone before us. We lift them up in prayer and thanksgiving, remember their lives here on earth, and most importantly, honor their eternal life with God. We begin the month by celebrating All Saints Day on November 1, when we commemorate the role of all our canonized saints in the Church. It is also an occasion to recall that we are all called to be saints by striving to live out our baptismal call of holiness. On November 2, we celebrate All Souls Day, solemnly calling to mind in prayer all who have gone before us.

One of my favorite traditions here at our parish is the invitation to display pictures of our deceased loved ones in the bell tower throughout the month of November. Every time I pass this memorial, it seems that I cannot help but stop and gaze upon a photo. Sometimes it is a parishioner I remember, but often it is someone whom I never met. Either way, I am drawn to reflect on the fact that this individual’s life impacted others and is a reminder of God’s love for the Church and all humanity.

A personal ritual I have been doing for several years during November is to set up my own memorial of loved ones in my room. Most are of deceased family members, but some are also of close friends who have died. I try to take a few minutes each morning and evening to reflect on one of the loved ones and how they influenced my life, especially impacting my faith. At the end of my prayer, I cannot help but be thankful to the source of all life, our God and creator.

Over the last several years, I have begun to realize that in embracing this small practice, the observance of Thanksgiving, celebrated later in November, has an even greater significance to me. My prayer for all of us is that we use this month of remembering as an opportunity to strengthen our own faith life, continuing to always be forming a grateful and loving heart that finds its ultimate source in God, our Creator.

Blessings to all in this month of November and Live Jesus,

Fr. Joe



A Synodal Church in Mission

Synthesis Report

The Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops met in Vatican City from October 4-October 29. The theme of the Assembly was "For a Synodal Church, Communion, Participation, Mission." In conclusion, the 41-page Synthesis Report was published in Italian and has been translated to English, which you can read here: A Synodal Church in Mission Synthesis Report.

The second General Assembly is scheduled for October 2024.



“Praise the Lord, I just knew the bus would get me here on time!” We turned to find a smiling woman with two backpacks hurrying up to the van as we were packing away the remnants of the hot meal distribution near Fairfax Circle. We had just handed out about 200 individually packed hot meals to those experiencing homelessness. Luckily, we had a few meals of hot, hearty pasta left and were thrilled to give them to her. Her infectious laugh and faith remained with us while everything else was put back in the van at the end of another hot meal delivery trip.

Typically, the month of November brings to mind gratefulness and food. In case you are not aware, at SJN there are six meal ministries that prepare and deliver food to a variety of our brothers and sisters in need. Typically, each ministry provides food once a month, and we are part of a community-wide effort with many other groups filling out the calendar.

A peek at what goes on behind the scenes

A parent and child shopping together and praying over the ingredients before preparing a casserole. “Lord, bless these ingredients and bless our hands as we prepare this meal. May it bring enjoyment and nourishment for the guests. We thank you for this opportunity to serve you.” They are likely making an extra casserole for their own dinner and when enjoying it, the guests at a local shelter, who will be eating the same meal, will come to mind.

Friends gathering at a parishioner’s home to make a dozen casseroles bound for another shelter. Can you hear the music, the laughter, the conversations in that kitchen?

A parishioner rising early to scramble eggs and heat up potato cakes before driving along the empty Northern Virginian roads at sunrise to arrive in time for a prayer with the staff at the shelter.

An excited group of Scouts, who are learning how to bake cookies in an industrial kitchen, and then packing each cookie into individual paper pouches to be offered as a sweet treat at the end of a welcome meal for someone experiencing food insecurity.

A bustling parish kitchen with K of C members using every burner and shelf in the oven to cook pasta, sauce, and vegetables. While a crew washes all the pots and pans, another crew of parishioners is in an assembly line packaging each of the 200 meals into separate foil pans and handing them over to be packed in an insulated container to keep them hot for imminent delivery.

Nourishment for body and soul

Whether preparing in the quiet and calm or in a noisy and bustling environment, each of the parishioners is part of a meal ministry that brings nourishment to body and soul for our brothers and sisters. The surprise, of course, is the tender recognition that Christ is working in our hearts, too – softening them to recognize Christ in the two-way interaction of giving and receiving. The countless responses of "thank you!" and "God bless you!" we receive are not only for the food but for the unspoken cheer of being noticed, being smiled at, being acknowledged.

As St. Theresa of Calcutta famously said, "To be able to love the poor and know the poor we must be poor ourselves. In our poverty, we allow Christ to make up what is lacking in generosity." We thank those in need of corporal mercy for allowing us to bring Christ to them and for finding Christ on the streets, in the shelter, in community. We return to our homes with a lighter heart as we realize that it was Christ working through our hands. Were not our hearts burning?

Who is being served?

The people we serve come from a variety of circumstances. Some are parishioners who are recovering from a medical procedure and welcome a few meals during the early recovery days. Some are families who are able to stay together in a shelter as they are provided resources, training and guidance to find more stable lodging. Others are those who live in tents in a park and form a line at 6 p.m. each night in the parking lot, knowing they will receive a hot meal. Some have jobs and homes but not enough available in their budget to cover food. Regardless of who they are, stomachs and hearts are nourished. 

How you can help

The umbrella ministry, headed by Jo-Ann Duggan, SJN's Director of Outreach, is called Loaves and Fishes and you can find information about each of the six ministries responding to the call of the poor here. Contacts for each ministry are listed. Feel free to reach out to them to be added to their distribution list so you can help when your schedule allows time to serve.

If you would like to support the program with a financial donation, you can contribute directly using SJN’s online program here. Donations will be used to cover some of the grocery bills for the hot meal program.

May your November be filled with gratitude, good meals and uplifting company. Praise the Lord!



In 247 years of U.S. History, we have yet to canonize a Black American saint, but there is reason to hope that we will see that change, and we have a cause worthy of all Catholics’ attention. Currently there are six Black American Saints in the canonization process: Mother Mary Lange, Fr. Augustus Tolton, Mother Henriette DeLille, Pierre Toussaint, Julia Greeley, and Sr. Thea Bowman. Our parish’s patron saint, John Neumann, has a special connection to one of these holy men and women: Mother Mary Lange.

Born Elisabeth Clarissa Lange on the island of San Domingo (Hispaniola) sometime between 1787 and 1794, her family fled to a French-speaking colony in Santiago de Cuba, where she was raised. Her family was wealthy, giving her access to education in a time that it was uncommon for any woman to be allowed this right. Due to racial discrimination, her family immigrated to the United States in 1813, settling in Baltimore. Finding herself a free woman in a slave state, she could have been discouraged, even distraught, to only find more prejudice in this new land, but that was not in her character.

In Baltimore, Elisabeth Lange found a free public education system that was only accessible to white children. With three friends, using her own resources and in her own home, she started a free school for Black children. Feeling the call to serve as a religious sister, Elisabeth again found herself denied the same opportunities as white Americans—as a Black woman, she was not welcome to join a religious community. True to her tendency to make her own door when one was closed to her, with the backing of Sulpician Father James Hector Joubert, she, again with her three friends, founded the first Black religious community in the United States. Fr. Joubert, encouraged by the Archbishop of Baltimore, James Whitfield, solicited financial support and provided direction to Elisabeth and the other three women as their co-founder. On July 2, 1829, the four women professed their religious vows and established the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Elisabeth became the first superior general and assumed the name Mother Mary.

The Oblates Sisters of Providence continued their commitment to educating the Black community. Under Mother Mary’s direction, they continued their school establishing it as the Oblate School for Colored Girls with twenty students and the four religious sisters. Today, this school is called St. Frances Academy, and it is the oldest continuously operating predominantly Black Catholic high school in the United States. In 2021, in honor of her dedication to education, the first Catholic school to be built in Baltimore in over sixty years was opened and christened Mother Mary Lange Catholic School.

The Oblates Sisters of Providence’s work flowed into all areas of the community in Baltimore. Under Mother Mary Lange’s direction, the sisters evangelized to the community in their tireless works of mercy and dedication to betterment. They nursed the sick and dying through the cholera epidemic of 1832, they continued to educate children as well as women; they sheltered the elderly and after the Civil War, they were called to care for the orphans and widows left in its wake.

Fr. Joubert passed away in 1843, and Mother Mary faced many challenges to continue her community’s mission, but she was buoyed both by the motto of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, “Providence will Provide” and by our parish’s patron, St. John Neumann. In 1847, the Bishop of Baltimore, Samuel Eccleston, sought to disband the religious community of Black women. St. John Neumann, Bishop of Philadelphia at the time, intervened to protect the Oblate Sisters of Providence just as the dissolution seemed imminent. St. John Neumann appointed a new spiritual advisor to the Oblate Sisters, who supported their mission of free education for Black children.

Mother Mary Lange had many obstacles throughout her long and turbulent life, but she overcame, not by force, but by love. Her life in Baltimore was not easy; she served the marginalized while being marginalized. Though she dedicated her work to those in need, she did not possess any privilege herself in this time and place in our American history. She had every reason to be discouraged and feel hopeless, but she was not.

Mother Mary Lange had nothing but faith to pave her way. When societal injustices could have easily extinguished her light, her fire was ignited by holiness. Mother Mary was a woman of action; she saw the needs in her community and sought paths to betterment, never ceasing despite the many barriers she faced as a Black woman in the 1800s. Mother Mary Lange died in Baltimore on February 3, 1882, but her spirit still burns today through the mission of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The sisters remain steadfast to their founder’s legacy ministering to the education of Black children in schools and churches throughout the United States and overseas.

In 1991, Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore opened the cause for her sainthood, granting her the title “Servant of God” as part of the canonization process. On May 28, 2013, her remains were exhumed and examined before being reinterred in the Oblate Sisters Chapel in Baltimore. On June 22, 2023, Pope Francis advanced her cause from Servant of God to Venerable. The next step for her to be beautified is for the Church to approve a miracle attributed to her intercession.

The canonization process is arduous, requiring not just considerable resources, but support from the faithful. As members of St. John Neumann parish, we have a special link to Mother Mary Lange’s cause. Simple ways we can provide support are by regularly praying for her canonization, including her cause as an intention in our Prayers of the Faithful, sharing her life and legacy of the Oblate Sisters of Providence with others, or joining the Mother Lange Guild. To learn more, visit the Guild’s official website for her canonization cause or read more here.

Together, Mother Mary Lange’s cause is one of hope that we will see a Black American canonized in our foreseeable future. 

To watch a short video by Catholic Relief Services on Mother Mary Lange, click here.



Not everyone feels led to adopt or has a personal connection to adoption, but everyone can pray for those involved in adoption, especially during this month. The adoption process requires courage for everyone involved— adoptees, potential adoptive parents, and birth parents. May God embrace each of them on this difficult journey; may each of them experience love, acceptance, and peace.

Heavenly Father,

Bless all expectant mothers who are placing their children for adoption and who may also be young and afraid. They love their children so much that they are willing to place them with a loving family. Bless, too, all the women who already have shown the sacrificial nature of a mother’s love in making adoption plans for their children. Give them all your courage and your peace, through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Heavenly Father,

We are all your adopted children, not by flesh or by desire, but through the power of the incarnation of your most beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Bless those children who have been adopted into new families, that they may experience the love that you have shown us which surpasses even the love of a mother for her child. In the difficult transitions and hardships that might beset them in their struggle for belonging, give every adopted child the grace to embrace their new family and trust in your paternal care for them, which lasts forever. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Lord Jesus,

You saw in the innocence of children, the attributes which make us worthy of heaven - trust, joy, humility, obedience, and faithfulness. Bless all children who are awaiting adoption. They seek love - may they find it in loving parents. They seek stability - may they find a home rooted in faith. They seek acceptance - may their gifts be recognized and nurtured. And may they always know your steadfast love for them, and the true joy of loving you.

Amen.

Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops