Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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      • Parish Administration & Communication
    • News and Bulletins
    • Just a Thought...or two...
    • Learning Alley
    • Gallery
    • Register with OLQP
    • Contact Us
  • Worship
    • Mass Times and Schedule
    • Live-stream Schedule & Special Mass Programs
    • Liturgical Ministries
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  • Our Faith
    • Faith Formation >
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      • Sacraments
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    • Formacion en la Fe 2023-2024 >
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      • Haiti Ministry
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April 23, 2023

4/21/2023

 
The Gospels walk us along a journey with Jesus that ultimately leads to Jerusalem to his torture, crucifixion and death…but ultimately, to the glory of his resurrection.

Today’s Gospel begins with two disciples leaving Jerusalem, their hopes dashed and their hearts broken. They sadly say, “we had hoped”. They encounter a stranger with whom they share their story and their own doubt at the testimony of the women who had encountered an angel with glad tidings of the resurrection and all the ensuing confusion amongst their group. Their faith seems gone; their hope vanquished. But Jesus will not allow them to continue in their despair. He goes after them in an attempt to turn them around, to restore their hope and their faith -- ultimately giving them a new purpose in life: the proclamation of the Good News of the resurrection!

As they walk along the road their hearts are set afire and burn within them. Their hope and faith in Jesus Christ is rekindled. Jesus reveals himself to them in the breaking of the bread…they dared not even speak the question of who this stranger might be, because they knew! And even though he vanished from their midst, he remained with them in their trembling hands that held the bread that had been broken and blessed; he remained in their burning hearts.

In his absence they felt his real presence and they were forever changed. Regardless of how many times we may turn away and walk down a different road, Jesus comes after us. He seeks us out and sets our hearts afire once again. Each time we gather to bless, to break and to share the bread, Christ is present and invites us to share of his very self. And in this sharing, we are more and more transformed into the Risen Body of Christ -- not for ourselves, but for the sake of the life of the world!

We are sent -- just like the original disciples -- to carry forth “The Presence” into a broken world so desperately in need of healing. We are called to be the stranger who walks with those whose hearts are breaking, whose hopes are dashed. We are called to be bread broken and shared for the sake of the world.

Like the breaking of the bread moment was for the two disciples, what moments have I had when I felt the presence of the Risen Christ in my life? How did it affect me? How can I be “the Presence” to others in my life? Who has been the least likely “Presence” to me?… What did I learn from the encounter?

May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you always,
Fr. Tim

April 16, 2023

4/14/2023

 
Doubt is a perennial reality of the human experience and therefore a part of the Christian life. And in today’s Gospel we see that doubt has been part of the discipleship experience since the very beginning. I believe that when we experience doubt it may well mean that we are really engaging in and wrestling with the deepest realities of the Christian mystery.

I think that Thomas gets a bit of a bad rap, remembered down through the centuries as “doubting Thomas”. I say “a bad rap” because we forget that Thomas is one of the very first human beings to ever hear of the resurrection of Christ! How would you have responded to the very first stories of those who claimed to have seen Jesus, alive...Risen from the dead?!

Imagine what it must have been like for the first disciples. They had pinned all of their hopes and dreams for a new and different future on this one called Jesus, and then they saw him executed by the Romans, dead and laid to rest in a tomb. All their hopes hung on that cross and seemed to die with him.

Then, in the midst of their sorrow, fear and trembling, Jesus appears to them and imparts to them “his peace.” The peace of the Risen Christ! This deep and abiding peace was to calm and fill the space of their fear and trembling. And then he breaths on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift was to embolden them as he sent them out into the world to proclaim the Good News that death had been defeated, our sins will be forgiven, and even though our bodies die, we will live forever!

The peace of Christ is an integral part of Christian life and of the Easter story. This peace is like no other peace. It is Christ’s peace. It is a transformative peace that flows forth from the Risen Christ...directly from God to us.

In this Easter season let us open our hearts and minds to the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling with in us. This Spirit is calling us and emboldening us to proclaim the peace of the Risen Christ to all the world.

Have I accepted Christ’s peace in my own life? How can I show forth Christ’s peace in my daily life? How can I share it with the world around me?
​

May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you always,
Fr. Tim 

April 9, 2023

4/7/2023

 
On that first day of the week, while it was still dark... Mary went to the tomb only to discover it empty....then she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple.” She was in a hurry to share what she had found; and by her sharing, a small community took up the search for Jesus...only to eventually discover “The Christ”... “The Risen One”.

Though we know well the Easter story, do we ever fully grasp its meaning? The stone has been rolled away...the tomb is empty for resurrected life cannot be contained!

Like the first believers, we so often must continue to live even with our dashed hopes, our suffering and our misunderstanding of God’s mysterious power.

Like the first believers, sometimes we come to the tomb and expect to find death, but instead we find signs of a new life that we cannot even begin to comprehend.

Like the first believers, we do not always realize that all of history has been broken open and is now filled with the resurrected presence of the Risen One!

Even in the midst of war and famine, even in the midst of suffering and loss, the presence of the Risen One is with us, with in us, and never leaves us, even if our pain and suffering causes us to be blind to that Risen Presence. It is this Divine indwelling that gives us the strength to carry on and speak truth to power, to stand up for the poor and the marginalized and fight against evil in all its ugly forms, that we know so well.

Christ has Risen...this is the day the Lord has made...let us rejoice and be glad!!!

Like Mary Magdalene and the other disciples let us actively seek the risen One in our midst...in the ordinary of our daily lives...for as surely as Christ appeared to the disciples, Christ now appears to us in our lives! Let us keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the presence of the Risen One in all of our sisters and brothers. Let us, like Mary, run forth to share the good new of Jesus Christ with all the world!
​

A blessed Easter to you all!
Fr. Tim 
​


    Author

    Fr. Tim Hickey, C.S.Sp.

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Our Lady Queen of Peace
2700 South 19th Street
Arlington, Virginia, 22204, USA
703-979-5580 Office
703-979-5590 Fax
[email protected]
Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm (closed on federal holidays)
  • ​Inclement Weather Policy
Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday: Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm
Sunday: 8 am, 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1 pm (Spanish),
​6 pm (young adult)

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