Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church - Arlington, VA
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December 26, 2021

12/24/2021

 
Merry Christmas!

Certain images inspire wonder. They’re powerful beyond the simple contents of the scene.
In the nativity scene we have such an image: a serene new mother, a concerned father, and a vulnerable newborn child. Beleaguered travelers, forced to take refuge in a stable, and the child is carefully laid in a manger—a food trough.

The crude surroundings leave the new family barely protected from the elements, open to any and all who come their way. And yet it inspires wonder!

I believe that the purpose of wonder is to open our hearts. It’s to help us to see that there is more to life than we have come to expect. It tells us that coursing through human life there are elements of the divine.

The manger scene is both an invitation and a promise. The invitation is to leave our pursuit of worldly things behind and instead to enter into the Mystery. To be as vulnerable as this child and these parents. To be as open as these shepherds and as generous of heart as the three kings. To praise like the angels and pay attention like the townspeople. The resulting promise is that we will encounter God. We will discover not only that Jesus is God, but that we too share in God’s life—not only in the afterlife, but right here and right now.

AND SO, HERE’S A CHRISTMAS INVITATION, it’s an invitation in the very midst of this pandemic, in the midst of all the fear and suffering and loss, we are invited to open our hearts to the wonder of this Christmas moment.

Let us all say a prayer of gratitude for the gift of deep and passionate love that God has for each and everyone of us...just as we are! Let us not squander this moment of wonder. Let us open our hearts to the poor and the marginalized, to the voiceless and the ignored, to women who are victims of assault and harassment, to the victims of racism and bigotry and hatred, to open our hearts to the immigrants and refugees, let us reach out to the brokenhearted and lost.

Let us not forget in the rush of the gift giving that in the end this is not about gifts but it is about our God becoming flesh, becoming our salvation and the salvation of the all world! Let us allow the wonder of the Incarnation to settle into our hearts and souls and to transform us, to give us new eyes to see the world as God sees the world!

I pray that each and every one of you has a “wonder-filled” Christmas and pray you come to know how deeply and passionately you are loved by God...just as you are!
​

Merry Christmas
Fr. Tim 


December 19, 2021

12/17/2021

 
This is the time of year when it seems that everyone sings of peace on earth and good will toward all! Pope Paul VI proclaimed that if we want peace we need to work for justice. In this season of dreams of peace and good will...we are called to work for justice!

Advent is a strange season in some ways -- a season of hopes and dreams...a season of promises fulfilled and of promises yet to be fulfilled...a season of the Reign of God, that which is bursting forth and at the same time not yet fully here.

Advent is counter cultural on so many levels -- in a season when it seems the whole world begins to spin ever faster we are called to slow down...to spend time in prayer and reflection...to spend time thinking about the deeper realities of our lives in the midst of the pandemic.

Part of this season’s story is about a young girl living in a male dominated world where women were treated as property. But she breaks free from the bonds of obscurity and insignificance and becomes the heroine. A young girl named Mary said “yes” to an impossible proposition; “yes” to what must have seemed totally absurd. Imagine yourself in Mary’s place...a heavenly visitor telling you that God, The Creator of all things - visible and invisible - was “asking” you to be the mother of the long- awaited Messiah.

The whole idea that God would choose to become human, one like us, and enter into our world as a vulnerable and innocent child is almost too much to comprehend.

And yet she said “yes,” and her yes changed the world forever! To this very day...right now...her yes is still changing the world because the Risen Christ is in our midst! Because of her yes we can profess “we are the Body of Christ!”
What is God calling me to say yes to as a member of the Body of Christ? As I say yes to God, can I say yes to the immigrants and refugees, yes to the women and girls assaulted and abused by the misogyny that is the very fabric of almost every culture in every country?

Can I say yes to refusing to participate in racism and bigotry in my words, actions and thoughts? Can I say yes to reaching out in love to even those who have hurt me or whom I have hurt?

Am I brave enough to risk it all like that young girl, from a dusty little backwater town, some two thousand years ago and say yes to God and to what God has in mind for me? Am I willing to risk, like Mary, and say “yes” to God, in the midst of the chaos, fear and sorrow of this pandemic, not knowing where it will lead me...just trusting that God will walk with me on the journey?
​

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim 

December 12, 2021

12/10/2021

 
Rejoice! Exult! Be Glad!...for your God rejoices over you! The prophet Zephaniah extols us to “shout for joy”, to be glad and exult with all our hearts for our God has removed all our guilt and we have nothing to fear, even in the midst of this pandemic!

The prophet boldly proclaims that our God is in our midst and that God rejoices over us and sings joyfully because of us!
This Sunday is known as “Gaudete Sunday” (Joyful Sunday) and we light the rose colored candle on the Advent wreath as a sign of our joy. And we are joyful because of the love our God has for us.

In the Gospel we hear that when the people responded to John the Baptist’s call to repent, they asked “what should we do?” John’s response was “if you have two cloaks, share with the person who has none...and whoever has food should do likewise.”

So as we rejoice, repent and prepare for the coming of our long awaited Savior we do so by turning our attention to the poor, the marginalized, the immigrant, the refugee. In the midst of all of the vitriolic, hateful and racist actions we are called to stand up and speak out and act on behalf of our sisters and brothers who are maligned and victimized...often by supposed “Christians”!

Our baptism, by water and the Holy Spirit, calls us to prioritize our lives around our discipleship of Jesus Christ. By keeping Christ at the center of our lives we find direction and are emboldened to become, more and more, manifestations of Christ’s presence in the midst of a wounded world to which we are called to reach out to, in love, to all those who are suffering and rejected or despised, whom we recognize as our sisters and brothers!

Let us rejoice, repent and prepare by living our discipleship by reaching out to “the least ones”....speaking out and acting out on their behalf....and thus we will be ready for Christ’s coming. What will I do this week to rejoice, repent and prepare? With whom will I share an extra cloak, if I have one, or share some extra food?
​

Advent Blessings,
Fr Tim 


December 3, 2021

12/3/2021

 
REPENT! Prepare the way of the Lord! These words of John the Baptist echo down through the centuries and are as pertinent to us today as they were to those who first heard them.

John came from the desert crying out to the people, calling them to a moment of “metanoia”...literally “a turning around”. The Voice of John the Baptist cries out to us in the midst of the rush and chaos of the Advent season, calling us to a conversion of heart. He announces the breaking forth of the Reign of God in our very midst. But can we hear him amid the cacophony and the clamor of our busy and overscheduled lives? I think it is very difficult unless we are willing to step back, to sit down and to spend a moment reflecting on our lives and our relationships. We need to ask ourselves if we are “living” our discipleship.

The Scriptures for this Sunday speak of a new time for the people of Israel, a time of great hope — a new reign that is breaking forth. In this new world, mercy and justice will flourish and the wicked and unjust ones will be banished forever. But as we look around it seems as if we are a long way off from the “peaceable kingdom”. Wars rage and political unrest swirl around us like the biting winds of a cold December night. Millions of our sisters and brothers desperately seek refuge, with no home in sight. Terrorists strike the innocent and fill us with fear...it all seems so bleak.
Where is the Reign of God bursting forth? It is waiting to burst forth from within each one of us! The Reign of God bursts forth every time we respond to a person or a situation in a Christ-like manner.

Are we brave enough to “turn around” to answer the call of John the Baptist...to allow the love of God to soften our hearts and enlighten our minds? As Christians are we willing to really “live” the Reign of God through our daily actions?
What would that look like?...what would I have to change in my life for me to be a clearer living sign to others of the bursting forth of the Reign of God — bringing love, mercy and forgiveness into a world so full of anger, violence and fear? Let us prepare the way of the Lord by spreading love, mercy and forgiveness!
​

Advent 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
office@ourladyqueenofpeace.org
Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm (closed on federal holidays)
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Saturday: Vigil Mass at 5:30 pm
Sunday: 8 am, 9:30 am, 11:15 am, 1 pm (Spanish),
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