This months Calendar

Come Celebrate With Us

Sunday Mass  & Service Schedule 

What is Mass and why do Catholics

do those things click here

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This weeks Bulletin 

Sunday 11:00 am     

Tuesday 12:00 noon  

• Phillips Letter

  • Daily Readings written http://usccb.org/bible/readings

  • Daily Readings audio http://usccb.org/bible/readings-audio.cfm

  • Video Reflection http://usccb.org/bible/reflections/index.cfm
    The usccb.org site will also give you tutorials on

  • how to pray the Rosary, the Divine Chaplet, and other prayers and devotions.

  • Daily Reflection from The Word Among Us can be accessed at https://wau.org/meditations/

  • EWTN Catholic Radio Daily Schedule https://www.ewtn.com/radio/schedule

  • Access The Magnificat free online at https://www.osvnews.com

  • Liturgical Press is providing free access to a digital file for Give Us This Day, which includes the daily Mass texts: https://giveusthisday.org/Digital

  • National Catholic Register has Catholic news, stories, blogs, etc. at ncregister.com

  • Discover a saint special to you at Catholic News Service’s Patron Saints page: https://www.catholicnews.com/patron-saints.cfm

  • Catholic enrichment site for children: Catholicsprouts.com

  • For teens and twenty-somethings: lifeteen.com

  • For Catholic headline news: catholicnewsagency.com

  • Daily Living with Fr. Chapin: mydailyliving.com

What is Mass

Our Lady Of Grace  Mission Statement

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If you don't see the information you are looking for, always  check the Church Bulletin  click here

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Deacon Larry has offered to take communion to anyone who is still unable to attend Mass.  If you know someone who doesn’t get emails please contact them and ask if they would like Deacon Larry to bring communion to them.  You, or they, can contact the office (304) 822-5561 or call Deacon Larry 703-421-5815.

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Books Published by Parishioners

Church Announcements 

The Children’s Home Society presented Our Lady of Grace with the plaque pictured to the left in appreciation of our support for them last year.  Thank you to everyone who donated.  The Children’s Home is extremely grateful for your generosity.

For our Advent project we were able to collect over 300 items to donate to the Children’s Home Society in Romney, for the children in their care.  We also presented them with a check for $555.00 which was also collected during Advent.

Catholic Charities collects and distributes personal care items to the needy.  This month they need disposable razors, ladies deodorant, q-tips, and toothpaste.

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Dear fellow parishioner,

For better or worse, you will find either a physical or scanned copy of “Thoughts and Reflections”

included in the weekly bulletin.  Since I have not been able to contribute to the common liturgical or

ministerial good during this plague, I asked Fr. Thomas if I could perhaps contribute such weekly

offerings instead.

These reflections were written in an ad hoc basis during my years of active ministry in these Potomac Highlands.  They were, for the most part, cobbled together on those Saturdays when I had the

weekend homily in hand by the time I left for the 5:00 P.M. Mass at Epiphany.  They have been

excavated from my physical files (I suspect that there are many more if I opened one of the many thumb-drives I’ve ignored since I retired.)  They are passed on to you in their original state with all the errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and typos, of that which is written in haste.  Such is the

laziness of this retiree.

These have no pretense of being anything more than what they are -  a backward glance upon the scatterings of grace which a generous God has strewn upon the surface of my daily life.  If you find any merit in them; if you find them helpful in recognizing the touch of grace in the simplicity of your own lives, them I am pleased and grateful.

Prayer to Saint Thomas the Apostle

Dear Saint Thomas,

You were once slow in believing that Christ had gloriously risen; but later, because you had seen him, you exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!"

According to an ancient story, you rendered most powerful assistance for constructing a church in a place where pagan priests opposed it.

Please bless architects, builds and carpenters that through them the Lord may be honored.

Contact the office...      Tuesday or Wednesday

                          -  304-822-5561

      If you would like to register as a parishioner.

If your address, phone number or email address has changed.

      If you or a family member is hospitalized so that Fr. Thomas can visit.

      If you become homebound so that a Eucharistic Minister can visit and bring you Holy Communion.

Congratulations, we have $10,125.00 pledged, with 35 gifts; that is 112% of our goal.  If you haven’t donated, it’s not too late.  All of the money donated will still come back to Our Lady of Grace.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed.  Envelopes are available on the table in the vestibule. 

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Baby bottles are available in the foyer to collect your loose change between now and Christmas.  The money will support the Knights of Columbus Pro-life ministry.  Please take a bottle home, and when filled, place it in the basket at Our Lady’s feet in the sanctuary.

Thank you to the Knights of Columbus for the new flag for our flagpole.  The other one was worn and tattered.  Thank you also to Dan & Bob for all the work they do around the church and grounds.  Your hard work is greatly appreciated.                                                                               

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A book of redemptive suffering by parishioner Tom Eades

Donation $10.00  and this is tax deductible Proceeds go to

Hope in the Darkness Project 

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Harley Carriger has written an autobiography.  It recounts his growing up experiences and early life.  He has donated a copy to our library.  If you would like to read Harley’s book please use the sign up sheet in the vestibule.  We will circulate the book through the list and then put it in the church library.

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Phil Gallery’s newest book is

“Saint Francis and the Animals.” 

Books will be available for sale for $18.00.

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Below is a prayer for Bishop Brennan that the Lord will strengthen him in his new role as shepherd of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. 

Lord, our God, You have chosen Bishop Brennan as a successor to the Apostles, to be a shepherd to Your flock in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston; grant him, we pray, a spirit of counsel and fortitude, a spirit of knowledge and piety, so that by faithfully governing the people entrusted to him, he may help build Your Church as a sign of salvation for the world. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

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If you did not sign up to get your house blessed but would like to have it blessed, Fr. Thomas will continue to do blessings on Tuesdays.  Contact Margaret or the office if you would like your house blessed.

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There are copies of “Letter to a Suffering Church” on the bookshelf at the back of the church.  This book is by Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

From the Author’s Preface:

 Why Stay Catholic with So Much Scandal?

“This book is a cry from the heart.  I am a lifelong Catholic, and I’ve been a priest for thirty-three years and a bishop for four years.  I have dedicated my life to the Church.  The sexual abuse scandal has been for me, for millions of other Catholics, and especially for the victim-survivors, lacerating. 

I have written this book for my fellow Catholics who feel, understandably, demoralized, scandalized, angry beyond words, and ready to quit.

What I finally urge my brothers and sisters in the Church to do is to stay and fight-and to do so on behalf of themselves and their families, but especially on behalf of those who have suffered so grievously at the hands of wicked men.”

You may take a copy home to read.  Please return it when you are done so someone else can read it also.

A Message from

Fr. Thomas Anatharackal CST

Our Lady of Grace

Administrator

1/3/2021

The Epiphany of the Lord

Jesus was born in obscurity. Only the lowly shepherds recognized him at his birth. Some wise men (Magi) also found their way to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn King of Israel. These men were not Israelites, but foreigners. They likely had read and discussed the Messianic prophecies and were anxious to see when this Messianic King would appear. God led them by means of an extraordinary star across the desert to the little town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. In their thirst for knowledge of God, the wise men from the East willingly left everything, their home and country, in pursuit of that quest. In their diligent search they were led to the source of true knowledge - to Jesus Christ, the Light and Wisdom of God. When they found the newborn King, they humbly worshiped him and gave him gifts fit for a king.

To know and to encounter Jesus Christ is to know God personally. In the encounter of the wise men with Jesus, we see the plan of God to give his only Son as King and Savior, not just for the Jewish people but for all the nations as well. The Lord Jesus came that both Jew and Gentile might find true and lasting peace with God.  It is God’s desire that Jew and Gentile alike will find the Lord and Savior on their journey of life. Do we bring the light of Jesus Christ to those we meet through the witness of our life and testimony? Let us pray today: Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for bringing salvation to all the nations. May the gospel of salvation be proclaimed to every nation today and to every person on the face of the earth.  Help me to be a good witness of the joy and peace of the gospel to all I meet.

Have a Blessed and Joyful  Week

Did You Know?

If you  make a donation to the church in memory of a loved one it is exempt from the 9% assessed by the Diocese on regular donations.