Jun 3, 2012

St Vincent de Paul

Where: St Vincent de Paul, 14 M St SE, Washington, DC 20003

When: Sunday, June 3rd, 2012.

Web: The parish's website is here.

We attended 8:00am Mass at this small parish church in the Waterfront/Navy Yard area of southeast DC.  It sits amidst a greatly-changed neighborhood, with the Nationals ballpark and several office/condo/apartment complexes nearby. 

A single priest celebrated Mass (which, despite the early time, is the only one the parish has on Sunday.  There is an Ethiopian rite Mass at 10:30am), with the assistance of a deacon, an alter server, two readers, a pianist, a choir of about seven, and a few ushers.  Only the host was offered for Communion.  The Mass followed the standard rite.  The priest focused his homily on the feast of the Holy Trinity.  He noted that one way to view the Trinity is as an expression of the various relationships between God the Father, His Son Jesus, and His Holy Spirit.  He went on to suggest that right relationships between us are the only things we can take with us when we die - from them we can hope to enter heaven and be in an eternal relationship with God.  The absence of those relationships, he suggested, was hell.

The congregation numbered about fifity and was comprised overwhelmingly of black residents of the neighborhood.