July 04

OUR PARISHIONERS Octavia Blake, James & Tom Brandes, Catherine & Theresa Cooney, Lori Costello, Mary Lou Estok, Marie Gaffney, Elizabeth Hartnett, Minnie Holley, Micki & Russ Ideo, Rosemarie Jamison, Barbara Joy, Joseph McElroy, Janet Nti, Eva Poiani, Keri Price, Theresa Proctor, Ethel Smith, Mafalda Stanzione, Marie Surowicz, Kitty Vaughan, Grace Vicino, George Vincent

OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS: Nicholas Barrett, Gary & Lucy Blankenship, Blanche Brown, Edward Butler, Bill Dagilis, Americo DiCamillo, Kelly Dixon, Malik Ellis, Rachel Gould, Juan Graves, Greg Hawkins, Barry Hobart, Jerry Jenkins, Michael Robert Johnson, Willem Keyser, Claire Kieckhefer, Frank LaMacchia, Fr. Vito Lopardo, Ginny Magyar, Robert Maurer, Jennifer McCann, Walter McGugan, Jane Millar, James Mutchler, Michael Mutchler, Mary Nelson, Kathleen O’Boyle, Emmie Prettyman, Lois Shreve, Sandy Smith, Jennifer Sobajian, Deacon Tom Spalding, Mary Tartaglino, Andréa Rose Wallace

The next Baptism class will be July 25, 2010 immediately following 11:30am Mass. It’s a class for first-time parents or new parishioners who now have a child to baptize. If you are expecting a child, you may attend the

ATTN: ALTAR SERVERS, READERS AND EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION

TEAM B: is scheduled to serve next weekend, July 10/11. Schedules are posted in the working sacristy and on our website. If you cannot serve when you are scheduled, please make arrangements for a substitute. If you do not have access to the website and would like to have the schedule sent to you, please contact the office.

National’s Baseball Sports packages are on sale. $300 worth of coupons sells for $40. Proceeds from each fundraiser will go toward our building fund. Packages may be purchased at the rectory office during the week.

We are always looking for altar servers. If your child would like to be an altar server, please contact the parish office or sign up on our website volunteer page.

GLUTEN-FREE HOLY COMMUNION The celebrant at Sunday Mass has a pyx with gluten-free Eucharist for communicants in his line. Request it upon receiving if you have gluten allergies. Option 2: arrange with priest to receive from the cup.

As you travel on vacation this summer, remember to visit www.masstimes.org for Mass times and locations around the country.

Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist bring Communion to the sick and shut-ins after Mass every Sunday. Call the Rectory Office at (301) 249-9199 to arrange this service. TV MASS FOR SHUT-INS Channel CW50 Sundays at 10:30 AM; Daily TV Mass on EWTN Cable Network too; Sunday Radio Mass at WBAL-AM 1090 at 9:30am or www.radiomass.org.

We have monthly Mass at Pin Oak, Larkin Chase, Woodward Estates; Evergreen/Willows Senior Residences on Thursdays.

While Fr. Barry is away on vacation (July 1-10), we will offer Communion Services on Tuesday and Thursday evenings only. Those wishing to go to daily Mass are encouraged to attend Ascension – 9am morning Mass; Sacred Heart – 6:30am and 8am; St. Pius X – Tues – Fri. 9am. (Call the parishes to verify the Mass).

When we think of blessings of the United States of America, we could think of food as being one of our bigger blessings from God. We have all sorts of food, and a good deal of it, in this vast country of ours. Plus, good persons in this nation have recognized our quality and abundance and have been interested in sharing it with our poor and others in the world of who are hungry. That’s a very good thing.

Our parish has an ongoing interest in feeding the hungry, as we have sandwich making and a pantry ministry to offer the needy some help. This effort covers a local scope.

In the larger metropolitan scope, we help the hungry through efforts through our Church extensions in the Archbishop’s Appeal and Catholic Charities. On the global scale, we turn to some other organizations to assist our charity to faraway neighbors. Food for the Poor is such an organization. You heard about it today with our guest priest, Fr. Scott Steinkerchner, O.P. Now, as you go home today, you can ponder if it is something that you make as a charitable offering. If your charity money is committed, then perhaps you could use a fasting exercise to find a few funds to help this time. We pass on a meal or two, so that others might eat.

Today is not the day, though, for such self-denial. This day is a holiday. July the Fourth is a day for a little feasting. A hamburger/hot dog cook-out has been a popular choice in many backyards on this occasion. I wish you a happy holiday, whatever you choose to feast on--- a juicy hamburger or red, white and blue cupcake or some crabs a knockin’. It’s the taste of freedom.

P.S. I will be away today and for the week. Fr. Scott is filling in for me all weekend.

Prayer for Our Military Personnel

“Lord, hold our troops in Your loving hands. Bless them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Lt. Col. Michael J. Sierco, US Air Force

Lance Corporal Greg Mason, US Marine Corp

PFC Stephanie Mason, US Army

PFC David Unekis, US Army

Lt. Lauren Lawson, US Navy

Lt. Sean Lawson, US Navy

Sgt. Kenneth Mutchler, US Army

Sgt. Matthew Beckman, US Marine Corp

Ensign Dawn Weaver, US Navy

Major Timothy Mangum, US Army

Sgt. Michael Allen, US Air Force

Specialist Andrew Creveling, US Army

Staff Sgt. Robert Diaz, US Air Force

Lt. Col. Ross Vincent, US Air Force

Corporal Michael J. Dover, US Marine Corps

Last week’s Offertory collection amounted to $7115.10. The 191 identifiable contributors (24% of the parish) gave $6411.49 (90% of the total collection). The unidentifiable loose collection was $703.61. Additionally $125.00 was collected for the new building fund, $821.00 for Archdiocesan collections and $15.00 for holydays.

This summer let us remember all those persons who surround our lives, family, friends, co-workers, campmates, and neighbors. Whatever may be planned for the next three months, whether it is going down to the shore, seeing an O’s game, or watching fireworks after a Baysox game, remember the people around you. This summer find those acts of kindness that make you a Christ-like person.

1. Remember your P’s and Q’s. This goes a long way, even with your own family members.

2. Help your child write someone a letter from them. An old-fashioned letter in the mail to a grandma or older sibling would be a welcome sight. Or call a friend or family member you have not talked to in awhile.

3. Tip the college student working at the ice cream stand; you remember your own summer job in college.

4. Go to a daily Mass to pray; invite someone along with you and to a light meal afterwards.

5. Take your headphones off, put your blackberry away and have a conversation with the person standing or sitting next to you on the train, bus, or airplane.

6. While sitting in traffic to cross the Bay Bridge, or somewhere else in slowed movement, wave to a person in your line.

7. Cut your neighbors grass or do a little weeding for them. It really does not take long and one day you may need their help. Offer to baby sit for a busy family or to wash someone’s car.

10. Go walk around Allen Pond and pray a rosary for someone and let them know you did so.

The College Park Council invites you to join our Co-ed ten-pin bowling league at the College Park AMF Lanes beginning Wed, Sept. 8^th at 6pm. You do not have to be a member of the K of C to join. An organizational meeting will be held on Wed, Aug. 18^th at 7pm at the AMF Lanes, Rte 1 College Park. For more info call John Cleary at 202-439-3644.

It is not usually the case that our Independence Day falls on a Sunday. It is nice because it will gather many of us together in church for the holiday. Normally, only a few Catholic persons go to church on such holidays as these, yet today we will have the nice combo of parish worship/Sunday prayer and the feeling of patriotism. We can thank God for the Eucharist and His Church for us, while thanking God that we are in the United States of America where this free worship is possible and that freedom is a cherished thing. We can gather today in good numbers in the a.m. hours (or vigil) for prayers, and have the cook-outs and fireworks in the p.m. hours of The Fourth.

For Church history buffs, you know that Maryland’s Catholics were quite involved in the colonial war for independence from the English, and that they had a motive: the English had mistreated Catholic persons for two centuries. We wanted our religious freedom—the very right that had led the founding of a Maryland colony. Lord Baltimore was a Catholic Calvert that wanted a colony that freely fostered the Catholic religion. He founded Mary’s Land as a place away from England where his Catholic faith could continue freely. (Calvert had been chancellor in England.) From 1634 to the mid-1700s, Catholics in Maryland still experienced oppression and intolerance from the English influence. After the Independence was won here, the Catholic Church began its great growth and its official presence. By the first decade of the 1800’s, Baltimore had been named the head diocese (and only one for awhile) of an American branch of The Catholic Church; no longer were we of a “missions territory” status.

That early period still was one of great testing on our new nation. The place of Baltimore’s first cathedral, which they started building in 1806 on Calvert Street, was close-enough to the harbor that the bombs bursting in air at Fort McHenry in 1814 from British warships would have been clearly heard in new Archbishop John Carroll’s rectory.

Yet, the fort prevailed in the attack. The British would fall short of gaining back control on this country, and we went on to become our own free nation. The famous penned words of the Catholic Marylander Francis Scott Key lay witness to what occurred at that event in Baltimore harbor. Most people know the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner. Do you know he wrote more to the song? Here are the words to the fourth verse—they are in the next column —something to ponder on this holiday. In four years from now, the song (now our national anthem) will be at its bicentennial.

America needs our prayers via the Rosary for America – and every second Saturday of the month the rosary is recited here at St. Edward’s at 4:45pm. This month it will be on July 10^th. Come and join us!

Adults: Does the peace of Christ reign in my home and place of work? Is there anything that I can do to bring it about?

Children: How do I try to bring peace and stop fight among my friends and classmates?

If we never make the time or take the time to be with the Lord, nothing spiritual can happen in our lives.

If history teaches us anything at all, its best lesson is that we cannot take our freedom for granted. Liberty requires active participation in our community and our nation to advance the cause of freedom of thought, speech, assembly and worship. We must be part of the process, voicing our opinion, influencing the political process and electing worthy candidates to office. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can remain free. In their memory, and to their honor, we must jealously guard the treasure which is found in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Fr. Barry and the staff of St. Edward’s wish each of you a safe and happy 4^th of July. For those of you traveling, we hope you have a safe trip. To those of you who stay home, stay cool!