Upcoming Events

Saturday, Sept. 27:     Feed the Homeless, 9:30 AM

Sunday, Sept. 28:        Odeon Concert, 4:00 PM

Birthdays

September 

1   Felix Spinelli

1  MyChi Haan

4   Laura Kennedy

8   Lucille Selby

8   Nghia Dao

10   Rachel Burgess

11   Oanh Phan

13   Debbie Clark

13   Doan Huynh Tucker

13   Michael Knowles

14   Thanh Nguyen

18   Pauline Leonard

23   Hannah Knowles

24   Deani Coker

24  Margot Deanna Miller

28   William Houston

29   Justice Lebo

30   Michael Spinelli

Our Prayer List

We remember in our prayer:

Cathy Anderson, Dee Bailey, Kari Boeskov, Brandon, Rachel Burgess, Jane Chapman, Marie Cosimano, Tim Clary, Dorothy Connelly, John Davis, Michael Dickinson, Loretta Dougherty, Steve Escobar, Nance Finegan, Luis Garay, Carolyn Gawarecki, Louise Gibney, Jean Graham, Katherine Hafele, Margaret Ellis Harris, Alek Hensley, Leslie Hogan, Cindy Hogman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Michael Horn,  Lindsay Johns, Gray Johnson, Jamie Kaplon, Laura Kennedy, Iona Kiger, Quinn Kimball, Alice King, Michael Knowles, Ashley Kolitz, Peter Kosutic, Susan Lawrence, Thai Lee, Bruce Lineker, Evelyn Morgan, Danielle Morgan, Que Nguyen, Chick Nixon, Mary Esther Obremskey, Tom Olander, Olive Oliver, Jim Owens, Gary Owens, Valerie Parkhouse, William Ross, Fern Shuck, Irene Skowron, Josh Smithers, Inez Stanton, Candi Stewart, Patrick Stefl, Barbara Stefl, Kara Stryker, Walter Sushko, George Thomas, Elizabeth Trigg, Tammy Vanphung, Michael Weekes, Warren Weinstein, The Crowley Family, The Westfall Family, Meredith Wiech, Bernard Williams, Rev. Letha Wilson-Barnard, Rudy Zimpel.

               ____ 

Note: If you have a loved one or friend who needs prayer please call the church and leave a message at 703-532-5656, or write to Winnie Lebo at

thelebos@verizon.net  or call her at 703-536-2075.  Also, should a name need be removed from the list, please let Winnie know promptly, and give the reason.  

Saint Patrick's Ministers 

The Ministers of Saint Patrick's Church are the People of this Parish

supported by

The Rev. Marian Humphrey, interim rector

We serve our Lord as part of the Diocese of Virginia

led by

our chief pastors

The Rt. Rev. Shannon Sherwood Johnston, Bishop

The Rt. Rev. Susan Goff

Bishop Suffragan 

and  

The Rt. Rev. Ted Gulick,

Assistant Bishop 

The Vision of St. Patrick's

Saint Patrick's Episcopal Church is a community of care, called to be Christ-centered and multicultural in worship, Christian education and action to proclaim  Christ's love to the world.

St. Patrick's Organized for Missions and Ministry 

SAINT PATRICK'S ORGANIZED

FOR MISSIONS AND MINISTRY

Other members of the Vestry:   Elisabeth Nguyen, Milton Thomas, Victoria Kennedy, Ann Nelson. 

GROUPS AND ACTIVITIES

The Propers 

Given by The Rev. Marian Humphrey  

September 14, 2014

"Forgive from your heart"

The Scripture lessons from Matthew's Gospel these past few weeks including last week are part of what scholars have called the "sermon on the church", a section from Matthew that deals with how the Christian community conducts its corporate life together. Today, Jesus responds to a question from Peter and teaches all the disciples both then and now a story about God's unlimited mercy and our need to respond to others in the same way.

Peter asks Jesus how many times we are expected to forgive someone who has wronged us. He offers what he thinks is a generous number- seven times. Jesus responds by telling him that the number we are to forgive others is "70 times seven". Essentially, Jesus was saying there is no limit to the number of times you must forgive someone. Forgiveness is not a commodity to be reckoned on a calculator.

Jesus instructs His disciples about the extravagance of God's forgiveness. God's forgiveness is an undeserved gift. We call that gift mercy. God's mercy is poured out upon humanity even though human beings have done nothing to deserve or earn God's mercy. We receive mercy from God because of who God is and God has given humanity His mercy because God knows "of what we are made. We are all made of the same thing: clay, the dust of the earth, fragile, and fraught with fears, wounds and worries."[1] Therefore, we should forgive others with the unlimited mercy that God bestows on each of us.

Christian forgiveness is about a state of the heart. Forgiving someone who has wronged us can be a very difficult thing. Sometimes the offense is so egregious and deep that it wounds the soul. Incidents like we witnessed with the domestic violence between Raven's football player, Ray Rice and his then fiancée, can assault the person's sense of self. After years of abuse, the woman typically but not always, men are abused as well begin to believe that they are at fault after someone they love hits, kicks, spits, or bites them. Many individuals after years of abusive treatment are resigned to feelings of powerlessness. It is time for all of us to stop looking the other way when we see the bruises or hear the same excuses from friends or family members. Domestic violence will only stop when attitudes change and men and women truly begin to see one another as companions rather than commodities.

The human heart is a complex thing. The heart is guided by the choices we make every day. Some choices are self-serving such as not reporting some of our income so we won't have higher taxes. Other choices are refusing to be the first to end an argument with our spouse. Sometimes we choose being "right" over the loving choice to acknowledge our part in the disagreement and reconcile. "Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed." [2] When we forgive others we God become transformed into the people God has made us to be. When we forgive we make allowance for the future to be different.

And at other times, we can act generously and lovingly until we have nothing left like those amazingly brave First Responders and bystanders on 9/11/2001. Yes, our hearts are complicated alright.

If our hearts are truly centered in God, then whatever someone else may do to hurt or harm us is not as significant as the interior life we have developed with God. In other words, you and I are as capable as anyone else of doing the worst evil we can imagine. "Either we have not had the opportunity to do it or I have never been caught doing it."[3] The slave in the Gospel story who was forgiven a very large sum of money failed to extend the same generosity towards someone who owed him less.

We must grow in our hearts, with the help of God's grace, the flowers of goodness, humility, and gratitude. Jesus calls each of us to be agents of His mercy and forgiveness in the world around us. Practicing forgiveness must be an on-going custom for the church and its members. Jesus continues to call the church to new ways of living and acting in the world.

Author and Benedictine nun, Joan Chittister tells the following story about forgiveness and generosity:

"The onetime Buddhist patriarch of Cambodia, Maha Ghosandanda, saw his entire family killed by the Khmer Rouge. And he is the one who initiated the Walks for Peace through the Khmer Rouge countryside in the hope of bringing the country to reconciliation. Now that's goodness."[4] And that is what Christ calls each of us to bear within our hearts!

Let us go forth from this place with renewed hearts ready to forgive and to bring God's forgiveness and mercy to those in need.

And to this, we all say: AMEN