Some Stories of a Saint ft. author Jim Towey October 30th at 6:30 p.m. in the church

Posted on by Carolina Mejia

Join us for an inspiring evening with Jim Towey, a regular attendee at St. Joseph’s and the author of “To Love and Be Loved – A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa.” As the Founder and CEO of Aging with Dignity, Jim will share his insights on “How Mother Teresa of Calcutta Planned Her End Game – Some Stories of a Saint.”

He’ll explore the beauty of aging and offer thoughtful perspectives on approaching the end of life with grace. This promises to be a captivating and uplifting event, complete with a book signing session afterward. Don’t miss the chance to hear Jim’s stories and wisdom—mark your calendar!

St. Joseph’s Men’s Group

Posted on by Carolina Mejia

The St. Joseph’s Men’s group will continue to meet on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month at 7AM in the Parish Center where we will discuss a particular Saint’s virtues and how they apply in today’s world. Our motto?  No homework, just manly fellowship!

Join us for our bi-weekly Men’s group this Friday at 7AM in the Parish Center. Come join us!

The St. Joseph’s Children’s Choir (“Chorus Angelorum”)

Posted on by Carolina Mejia

Children in Grades 3-12

The SJCA children’s choir welcomes all parish children between 3rd and 12th grades. The purpose of the SJCA is to not only teach liturgical singing, but to also be similar to a classroom setting, where the children are exposed to the pronunciation and meaning of Latin, music education, conducting, rhythm, proper singing technique, and diction. Students meet with Maria Balducci, our music director, every other Thursday evening from 6:30pm-7:30pm. SJCA is a wonderful way for our youth to connect with other youth in our parish, and to delve deeper into our faith through the Church’s sacred music. The choir also sings for select Masses throughout the year. Please contact Maria Balducci to sign up your child or children!

The St. Joseph’s Chorus Angelorum joined with members of the St. Peter’s school choir to sing for the first Sunday of Advent evening Mass at St. Peter’s.
St. Joseph’s Chorus Angelorum sung for their 1st Sunday Mass on March 19, 2023
Pueri Cantores 2023 Mid-Atlantic Youth Choral Festival at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, March 4th.

Thank you to the members of our St. Joseph’s Chorus Angelorum children’s choir, who have just completed a second full year here at St. Joseph’s.  Twelve young parishioners spent a year working with our music director, Maria Balducci, meeting every other Thursday evening, learning how to sing properly, read music, pronounce Latin, and prepare music for Masses. They finished the year with a pizza and music party this past Thursday, and truly enjoyed spending the year together in prayer and in music.  Thank you to: Kora, Muriel, Francesca, Lila, Carlos, Teagan, Camilla, Ines, Arvin, James, Mariana, and Gaby!  If you have a son or daughter (grades 3-12) interested in singing or joining the choir, please let Maria know, and classes/rehearsals will begin again next September.

Young singers take the stage at Pueri Cantores choral festival and Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral – Catholic Standard

St. Joseph’s Come Join Us Capital Campaign

Posted on by Carolina Mejia

Dear Parishioners, 

I’d like to provide a quick update on our Parish Center building process. With our ongoing success of the “Come Join Us” Campaign, we have now over $4.5M pledged toward our $5M goal. Our fundraising committee continues to reach out to uncontacted parishioners and are also approaching external donors with vested interests in St. Joseph’s. 

$2.7 million of those pledges has been collected to date. The most common ways to fulfill your pledge are through Faith Direct (use the “Come Join Us Campaign” option), envelope checks, and stock transfers. If you have any questions at all, please contact Tim Rutten in the Rectory or Thad Hunkins. 

Finally, many of you are curious about timelines. Here’s a quick outline to communicate expectations on the What, When, and How of the project. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact Topher Cushman. Basically, it breaks out into three major areas: 

  1. Entitlements/Legal Work/Site Permits, and Preparation – Alley closure (estimated to be completed by 1st quarter 2025) – Various agencies to review and approve – New legislation drafted and voted on by DC Council. – Mayor’s signature – Utility relocation work in 2025 – Raze permit process for the parish center to start fall 2024
  2. Architectural/Engineering work – MTFA Architects to begin design work this summer – Various agencies to review and approve – DD plans complete by the end of this year and begin construction level drawings – Finalize construction documents by May 2025 and submit for permit
  3. Contractor Bid, Permit process and Notice to proceed – Summer 2025 bid out project and select contractor – Fall/winter 2025 permit issued – Winter 2025 raze parish center and begin construction

As you can see, there is a lot going on. It’s all moving much faster than I ever expected thanks to everyone’s incredible efforts. I am so grateful, and frankly amazed, at the outpouring of both financial support and outright volunteer work to help so many things come together in a relatively short time. Thank you all for supporting our mission to be a welcoming community led by the Holy Spirit that “prays, learns, serves, celebrates, and shares”.

God Bless,

Father William Gurnee

Come Join Us

The St. Joseph’s Pipe Organ Restoration & Update on Temporary Organ

Posted on by Carolina Mejia

Our beautiful Hook & Hastings 1891 pipe organ is set for a full restoration beginning June 2024, and will be gone for a year, in the trusted hands of the Wallace Pipe Organ Builders from Maine, who specialize in restoring historic tracker action organs.We will have a smaller organ, most likely a portative organ placed in the side front of the church, for the duration of the restoration.

Our Hook & Hastings organ is such a well-built organ that, even in its current state of broken trackers, cracked windchests, unstable key action, and a deficient blower, it still often produces a beautiful sound.  Our organist, Maria Balducci, knows the organ well enough to avoid ciphers, out-of-tune or broken notes, and other such oddities, but by avoiding couplers and certain notes or ranks, she is only able to use approximately 2/3 of the organ.  We are tasked with the responsibility of giving proper maintenance and care to this “artistic treasure of the city” (Carl Schwartz, Organ Historical Society, 2011), and we thank you for any support you are able to offer to the organ restoration fund.  Please see the poster in the back area of the church to see pictures and descriptions of the interior of the organ.

Update on Temporary Organ

We ran into a slight bump in our organ restoration plans, but a new solid plan has been made!  While our 1891 Hook & Hastings will be taken out for restoration beginning June 2024 for approximately a year, we had planned to rent a small two manual Hook & Hastings from a church in New Hampshire that is being closed.  However, the organ was not protected or covered during renovations to convert the church into another type of building, and the organ suffered too much damage to make it an option for us.

Our music director Maria Balducci quickly got to work.  After reaching out to our organ tuner, local colleagues, organ companies, and universities, visiting several different sites with organs, and consulting with David and Nick Wallace in Maine who are restoring our organ, St. Joseph’s will be the proud owners of a one manual Hook & Hastings restored organ, c. 1875, from New York City, restored and modified by Meloni & Farrier in 2021.  The organ will certainly be on the smaller sounding side as a one manual, four rank organ, but with a bright and full, lovely sound.  It will be placed in the area behind the cantor’s chair, in front of the Mary statue on the floor, for the duration of our organ’s restoration.  The temporary organ will arrive the week of May 27th, and our 1891 Hook & Hastings will be taken out the week of June 3rd.