St Joseph's Seminary

Where: St Joseph's Seminary, 1200 Varnum St NE, Washington, DC 20017.

When: Saturday, January 14th, 2012.

Web: The seminary's webpage is here.

We attended the 4pm Mass at this seminary for the Josephite Order.  There were about twenty seminarians, laity, and religious at the Mass, held in a beautiful chapel within the main building.  The chief celebrant was assisted by several religious and seminarians; they recited various prayers (particular to the order, perhaps) before and during Mass itself.  The homily was directed at the seminarians; the priest reminded them that their seminary life, while sometimes lonely, gave them time to comtemplate and get to know God, and thus enable them to be better priests. 

Howard University Hospital chapel

Where: Howard University Hospital chapel, 2041 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20060

When: January 8th, 2012

Web: The HUH chaplain's page is here.

We attended the 11:00am Sunday Mass at this city center hospital, on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.  A lone priest celebrated Mass for the four-strong congregation.  The Mass followed the standard rite.  The priest used his CD player to add some music to the Mass.  He focused his homily on the Epiphany story; in particular he told us a parable of a notional fourth wise man who, though trying hard, fails repeatedly to meet up with the first three.  Throughout his journey, he repeatedly encountered people in distress - rather than use his riches to fund his journey, he gave them away to help those in need.  Upon entering heaven, the wise man was apologetic to God for not completing the journey;p but God told him that, through his kindness to others, he had indeed found God.


 God rewarded him for his faithfulness.