Dear St. Rita Families,

During this last week leading up to our 100th Anniversary here at St. Rita, I want to invite all of you to join me in a spirit of prayer and supplication to God for the good of St. Rita parish. I have said many times how grateful I am to be here with all of you, and yet we can never allow our life of faith here at the parish to become stagnant, and we can never allow ourselves to think we have “arrived” at sufficient holiness. Thus, we continue to pray and to strive to love God and neighbor with every ounce of our being!

I would like this anniversary celebration to be just that – a celebration of the wonderful gifts that God has given to this parish and to each of us through the parish. But, I would also like it to highlight our path forward. The Christian life is lived out day by day, and we are regularly given new opportunities to love God and neighbor by our fidelity to His Word and our charity to those around us.

With life in Northern Virginia being so transient, it can be difficult for families to have a sense of stability within themselves. Parish life also needs this interior stability, which means that it must have a real purpose and meaning. I have tried to articulate that meaning here by means of the Lord’s commandments of love of God and love of neighbor. These two commandments are more important than my job, my school, my social connections, my house, my car, my future, etc. Keeping God’s commandments at the forefront of life is what makes life into the adventure God has planned!

My desire for St. Rita is that we respond as much as possible to the needs of the faithful who call St. Rita home, and through you to respond to the needs of our community and our world. Because we are a smaller parish (but with a large personality), St. Rita is not unknown in the local community. And it is this community to whom we must witness first – certainly by our presence, but also by our fidelity and our charity. How else will the Gospel reach your neighbors, except through you?

Therefore, it is incumbent on every single parishioner of St. Rita to share what they have received with those around them! You see, as difficult as parking is here at the parish, believe it or not, I want it to be worse! I want the witness of St. Rita to be so great that people are flocking to get what you have received. And what you have received is Christ, who, when we turn to Him, bestows forgiveness, healing, peace, and joy. 

At Back to School Night this week, I led the parents and faculty of St. Rita School in the prayer composed for the 3rd preparatory year for the Diocese’s Golden Anniversary, which we celebrated with the dedication of the new altar and renovated Cathedral of St. Thomas More on September 5. I myself have been praying this prayer daily for several months now, especially for our parish. Christ’s charity within us propels us outward to live the fullness of the Gospel in the world around us, to proclaim to all Christ’s message of salvation – in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2), and witnessing to that salvation by living differently. The text of the prayer is below, and I invite you to make a novena of this prayer as we approach our parish’s anniversary.[i] Ask Our Lord to make of you and of St. Rita parish a bright light shining in the darkness of this world, so that all may come to know the salvation of Jesus Christ!

“Heavenly Father, in your mercy you called us out of darkness, into your own wonderful light. In the gift of the Eucharist we receive the Body and Blood of your Only-Begotten Son, and we remember in gratitude the good things you have done for us. As you invite us to rejoice, with Mary, in the work of the Lord, may you who “make all things new” now renew us in the Holy Spirit, and inspire us to share the Good News of the Gospel so that all may come to know the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.”

In Christ,

Fr. Christensen 

 [i] If you start today, Friday, September 13, the novena will end on our anniversary, September 21. If you start on September 14, the novena will end on the day of the anniversary celebration. Either way works!