Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our History
    • Staff >
      • 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
    • Sacraments
    • Music Ministry
  • Our Faith
    • Faith Formation >
      • Foundations & Family Circles
      • Children's Liturgy of the Word
      • Sacraments
      • Youth & Young Adult
    • Formacion en la Fe 2023-2024 >
      • Circulos Familiares y Fundamentos 2023-2024
      • Preparacion Sacramental 2022-2023
      • Liturgia para ninos y grupo juvenil 2022-2023
      • Inscripciones
    • Adult Faith Groups
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Resources/Recursos
  • Get Involved
    • Matthew 25
    • Food Pantry
    • ISIDORE’S GARDEN
    • Gabriel Project
    • Social Justice and Outreach >
      • Haiti Ministry
      • Integrity of Creation
    • Pastoral Care/Hospitality >
      • Stephen Ministry
  • Donate
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November 28, 2021

11/24/2021

 
Happy New Year! ...no, I’ve not lost it...today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent...the beginning of the church’s liturgical year.

Advent is truly a “wonder-filled” season. We look to the deep blue night sky...shimmering with a billion stars, each one a reminder of the dawn of creation...of the promise of the long awaited savior.

There is something about staring up at the night sky...something awe inspiring and spiritual in nature, it calls us to look beyond ourselves.

Advent is a time to “make time”...in the midst of all the commercialism, in the midst of all of the chaos that we call “the holiday rush”, we are called to slow down, to stand back and to reflect...to take time to allow the wonder of the Great Christmas Event to settle into our souls.

It is a time meant to shake us loose from the ordinariness of our daily lives and to allow ourselves to be wrapped up in the awe and wonder of the Incarnation -- the fact that our God so deeply loves us and that God’s very self became human to prove that love to us.

That love is for you...just as you are! This amazing love is for all of God’s creation, for all peoples and for the earth itself!

This Advent we find ourselves in the midst of one the largest humanitarian crises in recent memory, as we struggle through this pandemic that has claimed the lives of over five million people worldwide. And, in the midst of this horrible pandemic, our sisters and brothers flee war, violence and terror; they wander the earth in search of a home.

As we reflect on the wonder and awe of God’s amazing love for the earth and all humanity let us raise our voices and our hands to make sure that these refugees, and all who wander the earth in search of finding “home”, be taken in. Let us not allow fear to rule our lives, but rather the love of Christ!

Just as the Holy Family was made refugees by the tyrant Herod, so too these sisters and brothers of ours flee violence and war, let us work to make sure they find a “home” too! Let us not allow the immensity of the crisis to paralyze us and convince us we can do nothing -- for in Christ we can do all things. What can I do this Advent to help in the midst of these humanitarian crises?

As I open my heart to the love of God this Advent season can I also open it to refugees and migrants and speak up on their behalf? How can I make sure my voice is heard amidst all the vitriolic anti racial justice hate speech?

This year let our Advent gift to the world be a promise to work for and pray for peace and justice. What could be of greater value for a world plagued by religious and political divisions and torn apart by terrorism and war...through prayer and action we “prepare the way of the Lord”!
​

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim 

November 21, 2021

11/19/2021

 
Since 1969, by decree of St Paul VI, the end of the liturgical year is punctuated by the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (previously known as “the Feast of Christ the King”). The raising of its status to a “Solemnity” and the expansion of the title points to a deepening of the understanding of the cosmic nature of the “Christ Event” and its impact in not only human history but of its impact on all created reality!

Perhaps “Sovereign of the Universe” would be a less patriarchal title and convey the same reality. Today throughout the church we focus not just on Christ’s sovereignty over all creation but on Christ’s love for each of us and indeed God’s love for all creation.

The second reading helps to hone the true image of “this Sovereign”...the glory is to be given to the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his very life. And if we listen closely, we can hear the echo of the Good Shepherd in Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel...“everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to my voice.” And so we listen to Christ’s voice in our lives and make Christ the sovereign of our lives. Not as one who lords it over us but as the One who came that we might have eternal life....the One who remains in us and we in Christ...who was, who is, and who is yet to come!

This understanding of Christ as Sovereign of the Universe holds the power to draw us into the enormity of the mystery of the Divine act of creation itself, a holy and selfless act of Love...and we are the progeny of this ever expanding, creating Love.

In a world with far too many despots and tyrants who rule by force and fear, we are called to build up the Reign of God, that all creation might flourish and blossom. For this is a Reign built on love and mercy.

So in the midst of reflecting on the sovereignty of Christ in our lives let us pray for and work towards solutions that help to end war and violence and famine, to fight for an end to systemic racism and all bigotry, to stand up against systemic misogyny and open our hearts and homes to immigrants, migrants and refugees and fight for their human rights...thus building up the Reign of God. Let us not be ruled by fear or violence or self-interest but rather let us be ruled by the “Sovereign of the Universe”, ruled by Love, itself!
​

Blessings,
Fr Tim 


November 14, 2021

11/12/2021

 
One day the world will end...Christ will return...but when? Some Christians routinely (and wrongly) announce the return of Christ...they seem to forget that Jesus clearly said that no one, not even “He” knew when the world would end, only His Father! And yet they continue to claim to know the date and time.

Remember the “Jesus is coming on May 21st” billboards that dotted the highways some years ago? Today’s Gospel is not about “knowing” when Christ will come... but rather about being ready when Christ does come! Am I ready?

At the center of the readings this weekend is a message of total reliance upon the mercy and love of God. It is about keeping our hearts and minds open to God’s presence in our daily lives and in the world around us! As I said last week...God’s love for us as individuals is both lavish and passionate, it knows no bounds and it is the very reason for the incarnation of our God in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus was the manifestation of God’s magnanimous love for us and through Him, God’s love and forgiveness was, and continues to be, freely poured forth upon each of us and indeed upon the entire world.

The psalmist reminds us that God is our portion and cup, our inherence and therefore our hearts are glad and our souls rejoice...for we are God’s beloved!

By keeping God at the center of our daily lives we indeed will be ready if the world were to end in our times. Because of the love and mercy of our God we need not fear “the end” for we will be transformed into beings that shine like the stars in the heavens!

Through Christ we have inherited eternal life and each of us is a part of “the great cloud of witnesses” who gives glory to God.
​

When and where do I most feel the presence of God in my life? How do I actively engage in keeping God at the center of my life? How do I give glory to God in my life? 

Blessings,
Fr Tim





November 7, 2021

11/5/2021

 
God’s love for us as individuals is both lavish and passionate, it knows no bounds and it is the very reason for the incarnation of our God in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the manifestation of God’s magnanimous love for us, through Him God’s love and forgiveness was freely poured forth upon the entire world.

We are the recipients of this love and forgiveness and today’s readings beg the question of us: how do we respond to this love and forgiveness which is so lavishly poured out upon us?

The old woman, a widow, who throws two, almost worthless, copper coins into the temple coffers, under the doubtless sneers of the temple guards and temple priests, causes Jesus to proclaim her actions as heroic because she gave not from her excess but from her “want”. She gave all she had to live on, to God. She surely gave from her love for God, all that she had to give. It was a great sacrifice that she was making out of her love for God.

The Temple in Jerusalem was the special place for all Jews of Jesus’ time to go and make ritual sacrifices to make amends for their transgressions of the laws and commandments, they also went there to offer sacrifice in thanks giving for prayers answered, and as a sign of their love and devotion of God. These sacrifices were important in their relationship with God.
When I was growing up and something was not going my way or I was having to do something I really did not want to do, I was often told by my parents and by the nuns at school to “offer it up”, in other words to make of it a sacrifice to
God. This concept of offering up a suffering or difficult experience for a loved one or for God seems not to be as
acceptable of a practice today as it once was. Certainly not as it was in the time of Jesus. For sacrifice was one of the main ways of showing your sorrow, your commitment and or your love to God.

And yet last weekend’s Gospel openly and clearly went against this tradition and proclaimed that to love God “with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength and to love your neighbor as your self is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” “And when Jesus saw that (the scribe) answered with understanding, he said to him, you are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

What is so critically important for us to come to believe and accept deep within our hearts is that we are deeply and passionately loved by God, just as we are. I believe that if we can come to embrace this ancient truth, deep in our hearts then we can truly love our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of where they come from, where they live, what they may have done to us, what color their skin is, who they love or what their politics are...through accepting God’s deep and passionate love of us, just as we are, we will be nothing less than completely transformed as to who we and how we live in this world we inhabit...it will even change how we care for the earth that God so deeply loves.

So loving God with my whole being and my neighbor as myself is in fact the key to the Kingdom of God!

How might I respond to this lavish love and forgiveness which is so freely poured out upon me?

Blessings,
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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