The Catholic Church of

St. Mary the Virgin

   Today is the first day of our Religious Education program for the year, and we are so excited to begin a new year with all of our parish children and teens. We have record enrollment (again) this year, at almost 170 students! That is more than double what we have had in years past, and we are doing our best to adapt our space and our volunteer team to meet the needs of our flourishing classes.
   We have an exciting year ahead of us, as we reopen our Level 2 Atrium to continue in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and as we continue our transition into fully implementing the Restored Order of the Sacraments. As many of you remember, last summer Bishop Lopes initiated the use of the restored order in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in his pastoral letter Come, Holy Ghost, becoming the 14th US Bishop to do so. Following the inspiration of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in Sacramentum Caritatis, Bishop Lopes restored the Sacraments of Initiation to the order they held from the Acts of the Apostles until 1910, and which they still hold for adult Catechumens and in Byzantine and other Catholic rites: first Baptism, then Confirmation, then First Eucharist. Here at St. Mary the Virgin, we celebrate that order by conferring Confirmation in the same Mass at which children later receive their First Holy Communion. Every child of the age of reason -- seven years or more -- is eligible to receive these greatest gifts of our faith. It is our privilege in the Religious Education program to assist parents in preparing their hearts and minds to receive these gifts of grace, and this year again we will have almost 60 new soldiers in Christ this spring: around 40 receiving Confirmation alone, and nearly 20 receiving First Confession, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion in the restored order. We are so thankful for the outpouring of grace of the Holy Spirit on our parish, sealing our young people in the freshness of their faith, and fulfilling their joy in the Eucharist!
   In all ways, God has blessed our parish with an abundance this year, and we have a wonderful, large group of students with which to journey more deeply in their faith. In Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 1, Mrs. Carol-Ivette Granados, Mrs. Michelle Weissenstein, Mrs. Amy Horan, and Mrs. Christina Tu will introduce students aged 3-6 to the parables, the life of Christ, and the sacraments and liturgy of the Church through hands-on, Montessori-based works. In Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 2, with Mrs. Nece Zipper and Mrs. Jen Dreisbach, students aged 6-9 continue their concrete exploration of the words of Scripture and the liturgy of Tradition with a more complex understanding of salvation history and the moral life. With Mrs. Kate Husted, 4th-5th Grade students will delve into the tenants and meaning of our faith using the Faith and Life text, Credo: I Believe. Grades 6-7 will pursue Scripture Studies with Mr. Joe Morris and undertake a close exploration of the Biblical texts. Grades 8-9 will study Beginning Apologetics with Mr. Dylan McBryde, delving into the faith by learning how to defend it from common, real-world objections, using the Beginning Apologetics series. Mrs. Lisa Irlbeck will continue her course on Christian Moral Life with Grades 10-12 with a study of the Papal encyclicals Casti Conubii and Humanae Vitae, as well as Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love by Edward Sri. Confirmation Sacrament Preparation for “older” students (all those between 9 and 16 years old) will be undertaken in two age groups by Ms. Brinta Horan, Mr. Adam and Mrs. Annie Muller using a program they designed from the Didache textbook, Confirmation.
   In addition, this year, we will have an Adult Prayer and Reading Course led by Michele and Kevin Vina and Teresa and Mike Pratt! They will begin the following Sunday with a small-group study of prayer and lectio divina using the book Into the Deep by Dan Burke. Look for them in the parish hall during catechesis, from 9:15-10:15 on Sundays!
   We will also soon be starting up our Carlo Acutis Youth Group, beginning with First Friday Adoration and Fellowship nights! Teens will meet at the parish for the last hour of Eucharist Adoration, Benediction, and then will share a meal together in the parish hall. Teen Dances, of course, will continue to be a part of this ministry, and Service Saturdays are in the works!
   All in all, I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing team of parishioners and parents who are giving their time every Sunday to guide our parish children in the Faith. I am looking forward to a year full of blessings for our parish, and I ask each of you to join me in praying for each teacher and child we have, parents and children catechising at home, our devoted priests, and everyone involved in passing on the faith to our youth. Come, Holy Ghost, and fill the hearts of Thy faithful. 
In His Peace,
Amy Horan, Director of Religious Education
The Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin

As Monday is Labor Day in the United States, I thought it seemed “meet and right" to reflect on some teachings about human labor from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).
   Human labor precedes Original Sin and hence is not an imposition due to sin but rather part of our original dignity.
   God places [Man] in the garden. There he lives “to till it and keep it.” Work is not yet a burden, but rather the collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible creation (CCC #378).
   Human work is a duty and prolongs the work of creation.
   Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: “If anyone will not work, let him not eat” [2 Thess 3:10]. Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him (CCC #2427).
   Work can be sanctifying and redemptive.
   [Work] can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ (CCC #2427).
   In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments consequent upon sin, “pain in childbearing” and toil “in the sweat of your brow,” also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin (CCC # 1609).
   Work is an acceptable sacrifice to God.
   [The] laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if patiently borne—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord (CCC # 901).
   To work is to participate in the common good.
   Participation [in the common good] is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society (CCC # 1914).
   The key word then seems to be “dignity.” Human work proceeds from our dignity in cooperation with God’s will in perfecting and completing the work of creation. Everyone who can work should do so in the ways possible for him or her to do so, not merely out of a sense of duty, but also because as the Church teaches, it is the essence of dignity. Let us give thanks this Labor Day for the dignity of work, and also for all who work. The office will be closed tomorrow, but we will have our regular mass at Noon.
 Faithfully,
Your friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook

Last Friday we celebrated the Feast of St, Monica. On Saturday (yesterday) we celebrated the Feast of
 her (more famous) son, St. Augustine.  St. Augustine took his mother Monica for granted for most of her life. He certainly underestimated her intelligence. As a young scholar, he thought that her Catholic faith was fine for simpletons but not for him. After he embraced that very faith, he records being surprised by his mother’s intelligence as she spoke in a small study group of intellectuals, which her son had organized. By the time of her death, Augustine had come to realize what he had in his mother: a source of unconditional love, a powerful intellect and a channel of mystical grace. On her deathbed she said, “Lay this body anywhere, and take no trouble over it. One thing only do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” What did Monica mean by asking that she be remembered by her sons “at the altar of the Lord, wherever you may be?”
   Certainly, she was referring to the Holy Eucharist, which does not vary in meaning or significance from one church to another. Praying for the dead is in evidence at every stage of the church’s development, so Monica was clearly asking that prayers be offered on her behalf at the celebration of the Eucharist. There is also a second reading: Monica was also directing her sons to look for her in the Eucharist, telling them that they would know a deeper communion with her within it than by any visit to a grave site. We tend to think of the Eucharist as a celebration that stretches back in time to the night in which it was first established by Our Blessed Lord, Jesus. Yet on that very night, Christ Himself gave His meal an eschatological orientation. It stretches into the future. The Lord indicated that this meal of His also lies ahead of us, when we will be gathered by Him into it. So, just as the Mass stretches back through the centuries to Christ it also extends forward through the ages to the Kingdom of Heaven, where Christ will gather all His Saints to Himself in this Sacrifice. One might say that every Eucharist defies time. It unites the distant past with the future, although we are more accustomed to thinking of the Mass as carrying us back in time rather than forward. Let us recall this week, both the prayerful entreaties of St. Monica, and the dutiful response of her son, Augustine, that all our family members may embrace the Catholic Faith and, once aboard the Barque of Peter, continue to grow in holiness via the sacramental channels of Divine Grace. 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook

The hackers are at it again! We just had another instance of a parishioner receiving a text from a person purporting to be Fr. Stainbrook requesting he purchase 3 $100 iTunes gift cards.
REMEMBER - NEITHER FR. STAINBROOK NOR FR. KENNEDY WILL EVER REQUEST ANYTHING LIKE THAT FROM A PARISHIONER.
Should you get a text or email asking for something, PLEASE IGNORE IT!  

It’s important for people to know that the SMV system is NOT being hacked.
These people who are impersonating Fr. Stainbrook are phishing (phishing the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable people or companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.)  They are not using his email address or telephone number, just one that looks legitimate but is not.