Women’s Bible Study
Summer Sessions Now Available!
TWO SESSIONS AVAILABLE
SKD Mission Office
4100 Mill Creek Drive
(Zoom will be available to join the meetings.)
Wednesday Evenings, 6:15 – 7:45
Session 1:
April 21 – May 26, 2021
Session 2:
June 23 – July 28, 2021
Please save the date as we plan to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Ordination to the Sacred Priesthood of Father Christopher D. Murphy at Saint Stephen the Martyr Church. The celebration will take place after all Masses the weekend of May 22-23, 2021. Blessings to Fr. Murphy in his priesthood.
Good Shepherd Sunday
Over the past year, there have been calls from leaders of nations and various global activists to let the social changes of the pandemic be a means of changing society to accommodate various agendas. If you have not yet noticed, we have been reset.
Our Lord admonishes us to live a life motivated and guided by faith, not in things temporal. “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (Jn 6:27a) This is sound advice. If you get onboard an airplane, you have to know the destination. We all hope to spend eternity in heaven. We have to aim for it in order to end up there. Our Lord’s advice isn’t only about the afterlife, it touches on practical things too, hence we believers throughout history run into difficulty with the worldly. We seek the food that satiates our hungry bodies, but we don’t stop there. The more abstract and other worldly goal of heaven colors, motivates and g gives proper perspective to the here and now.
If you missed the Easter Vigil, you missed the most solemn important and perhaps most beautiful Mass of the year. We had a good turnout from all three communities of the parish: SKD and SSM English & Spanish speakers. In fact, we had a great turnout from those same groups for Holy Thursday. It was a real treat for me to see so many of you that I serve in different places and languages in one place for these solemn events united in prayer.
It is with great joy that we wish to congratulate and welcome the following who have been newly Baptized and Confirmed this Easter season:
See page five of the April 4, 2021 bulletin for a special Easter message from Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge.
Easter Message – Bishop Burbidge
To vax, or not to vax? That is the question that I’m getting from some of you. I’ve not weighed in on the issue because I don’t feel that I’m expert in moral theology, medicine or in the art of prophecy. Nevertheless, here is my frank, non-professional assessment of the issue. I guess the word for that is pastoral.
Sacraments for the 2020-2021 year have been scheduled! We are still finalizing some information with the Diocese and therefore do not have all the details set. All Sacraments for both Saint Katharine Drexel and Saint Stephen will take place at Saint Stephen the Marytr. Once more details are finalized we will be sending information on how to register for specific times via email & Google Classroom to families enrolled in these classes.
I have the feeling that we like to force the hand of good things. There are bars with St. Patrick’s decorations up as soon as March begins, in the attempt to expand the good times of this day long feast. We get the start on celebrating Christmas earlier than ever, to the point that we have no desire to even finish out the Christmas Season. Now that our evenings are basking in the glow of Daylight Savings Time, it seems like we decided Spring would start last week. Regardless, of what our clocks say, Spring has finally arrived. The sun crosses the equator today. On this Vernal Equinox we enjoy a little over 12 hours of sunlight.
We’ve reached the midpoint of Lent and that is reason to rejoice. Not to diminish this joyful occurrence, but that does leave only three more weeks to make a good confession before Easter Sunday. Our faith teaches that to receive Holy Communion worthily in the Easter Season is so important that it is part of our identity. Participating in the Paschal mysteries of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is a defining quality of being Christian. From the earliest times of the primitive Church, it was seen as most fitting for the catechumens (converts) to join our ranks at the Easter Vigil.
