As a centerpiece of its 50th anniversary Mass with Cardinal Wilton Gregory on June 4, St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg planned for its gift bearers to include original parishioners who have been there since the beginning, and parents holding newborn children to represent the parish’s future.
After the Mass, some of those longtime and new parishioners reflected on what St. Rose of Lima Parish has meant to them.
One of those offertory gift bearers was Eric Tomalá, who was accompanied by his wife Maria, by their 2 week-old baby son Luca, and by their sons Yeshua, who is 3, and Santino, who is 18 months old.
Tomalá, who works as the assistant director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center at the University of Maryland, volunteers at St. Rose of Lima Parish as the coordinator of Spanish-speaking lectors, and he read the second reading in Spanish at the anniversary Mass, from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.
As people filed from the church after the closing song and headed to a reception in the parish’s Woodlands Room, Tomalá called St. Rose of Lima Parish “my spiritual home,” and he said he looks forward to seeing his children grow in their faith there. “I also hope to grow as a father, as a husband and as a community leader here at St. Rosa,” he said.
At the reception, Bob and Judy Murphy noted that they joined St. Rose of Lima shortly after it was founded in 1972, and they expressed admiration for its founding pastor, the late Father Joseph Byron.
“He was a holy man,” said Judy Murphy, a retired accountant. Her husband Bob Murphy, who worked for the National Center for Health Statistics, added that Father Byron “made you think… The kind of people Father Byron drew here were people who really believed in Christ… and in the celebration of our faith.”
The couple, who have been married for 57 years, participated in small faith groups connected with the parish, and still do. Bob Murphy served with its social action committee, and Judy Murphy served on the parish council, helped with its summer camp and sang in its choir. “Now our two granddaughters are in the choir and were singing today,” she said after the anniversary Mass.
Another original parishioner, Sally Wilberding, participated in the opening procession at the Mass. That weekend, she had worked with other volunteers in preparing food including deviled eggs and ham sandwiches for the reception following the 50th anniversary Mass. Wilberding, who is retired after working in the administrative offices of the Dental Institute of the National Institutes of Health, volunteers with the parish’s Martha Ministry, preparing food for receptions after funerals or after events there.
“St. Rose is special. They really take care of all the people here,” she said. “There are so many ministries you can get involved in. There’s a place for everybody.”
Peggy Hart, who with her husband Jack also has attended St. Rose of Lima since the parish’s beginning, said that as priests and parishioners have changed there over the years, the parish has continued to serve its members and sometimes change its focus to meet new needs. In recent years, the parish has expanded its outreach to its growing Spanish-speaking community.
While she is a retired schoolteacher, her husband Jack Hart is retired after selling donut making equipment during his career. While over the years she served as a Eucharistic minister and taught religious education to children at St. Rose, he participated for many years in the Christmas tree sales program there, a main fundraiser for the parish, with volunteers trimming the bottom of selected trees with chainsaws and tying the trees onto people’s cars. He noted that three generations of his family joined him in volunteering with the Christmas tree sales there, including both their son and daughter and their grandsons and granddaughters,
“The biggest thing was the lunch they served,” Jack Hart joked, adding that sending people off with their family Christmas trees was a fun outside activity during the winter. “It was a tradition.”
The offertory gift bearers included Nickie and Joe Neary, another couple who have been part of St. Rose of Lima Parish since its founding.
“It has always felt like home,” said Nickie Neary, who is a retired elementary school teacher, while her husband is retired after serving as an auditor for the government. She noted that many of the original parishioners have remained friends for all these years, and some now participate in its OWLS (Older, Wiser, Loving Seniors) group.
Nickie Neary, who helped start St. Rose’s folk group in its early years and helped with its religious education classes and later volunteered at its summer camps and as a lector, noted how early Masses were held in a community theater and in people’s homes.
“Father Byron knew everybody’s names,” she said, noting that years later after he developed Alzheimer’s disease, he still remembered her name.
Among the newer St. Rose of Lima parishioners participating in the offertory procession were Laura and Michael Williams, who held their newborn adopted son John Dominic Kolbe Williams, who was a week old.
Michael Williams, an engineer, serves as a grand knight with the Knights of Columbus council at the parish, and Laura Williams is a teacher who has joined her husband in volunteering at family activities at the parish, including a Hallowtide event tying together Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The Knights of Columbus and parish’s Family Formation program help organize that activity on the parish grounds, where at different stations adult parishioners dress as saints and tell children about them. Michael Williams has dressed up as St. Joseph and Laura Williams has portrayed St. Therese of Lisieux at that event.
Laura Williams said she appreciated “the welcoming nature of St. Rose,” and her husband added that they like “the community feeling” there that brings people from different cultures together to celebrate their faith.
Related story:
Original and newest members help St. Rose of Lima Parish celebrate its 50th anniversary
