Parish Office Hours

The Parish office hours are Monday-Friday from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Thanksgiving Parish Office and Mass Schedule

We will have Thanksgiving Day Mass at 10:00 am. The office will be closed 

on Friday, November 25th and Mass will be held at 11:30 am only. 

Bulletin error on November 13

We apologize for the error in the Presider Schedule listed in the bulletin last weekend.

Walking with Purpose, St. Elizabeth’s Women's Bible Study

We would like to welcome women of the parish to join us for our Walking with Purpose Bible Study, Touching the Divine. We have classes on Tuesdays from 12:00 p.m -1:30 p.m. which are in person and on Monday evenings from 7:00-8:18 p.m. in person. You can switch between afternoon and evening based on your schedule. For  more information please contact Colleen at csteele@stelizabethchurchmd.org or sign up at: https://www.stelizabethchurchmd.org/biblestudy.

St. Vincent de Paul Society

St. Vincent de Paul Society is a Catholic lay organization that follows the spirit of our patron St. Vincent de Paul . Interested in direct outreach to the poor and needy, and to do that in a faith-sharing context?  We need you!  A new Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Elizabeth is in the works, and will soon join our other vibrant social outreach programs as one more way St. Elizabeth shows our love of God and of neighbor.  What is the St. Vincent de Paul Society?  It is a lay-led, parish-level social outreach to the poor that also has a spiritual component to it.  Intrigued?  For more information, contact Deacon Mark Asselin at MAsselin@stelizabethchurchmd.org.  

Advent Wreath Supplies Available 

Advent begins on Sunday, November 27^th.  Many Christians mark the four weeks of waiting and preparation by praying with an Advent Wreath.  If you need new candles for your existing wreath, or if you will be starting “from scratch” and also require the metal ring which holds the four candles, you may obtain these items (at cost) after the Masses this weekend.  A set of 10-inch candles is $6.00, a set of 12-inch candles is $8.00, and metal rings are $7.00.  Please note that the supply is limited.   

Please Join Us!

The Justice and Advocacy Council of Montgomery County is having a meeting on Wednesday, December 7, 2022 at 7pm in the Shrine of St. Jude’s Thaddeus Room at 12701 Veirs Mill Road, Rockville. Our special guest is Monsignor John Enzler, who is retiring after many years at the helm of Catholic Charities. Please come to honor his service (and to eat cookies and other treats)! If you plan to attend, please let us know by emailing lawrencecouch1@gmail.com.

St Elizabeth Sodality Christmas Party

All women of the parish are invited to  our Christmas Outreach Party on Thursday, December 1st at 7:00pm.  Come pray the Holy Rosary for World Peace and meet new friends while enjoying some Christmas cheer!  Feel free to bring cookies for our Cookie Exchange. We are collecting gifts for St. Joseph’s House, a licensed nonprofit family daycare for school-aged youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Use this link to contribute:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E054DA8AE292-sodality1or contact :

Annmarie Edwards at amse@verizon.net or Valerie Veise at vtveise@gmail .com if you have questions. 

Upcoming Confession Schedule

Wed., Nov. 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Fr. Fields

Sat., Nov. 26th at 4:00 p.m. Fr. O’Brien

Weds., Nov. 30th 7:00 p.m. Msgr. Parent 

Sat., Dec. 3rd at 4:00 p.m. Fr. Seamus

Wed., Dec. 7th at 7:00 p.m. Fr. Fields 

Sat., Dece. 10 at 4:00 p.m. Fr. O’Brien 

Interested in Becoming an Altar Server?

St. Elizabeth’s will offer Altar Server training to all children and young people willing to assist our priests and deacon at the Altar of Our Lord.  The training session will be held on Monday, November 21, 2022, at 3:15 pm in the church. Please sign up in advance at: https://stelizabethmd.flocknote.com/signup/103127

Arimathean Ministry 

We are seeking additional interested persons in serving in the Arimathean ministry.  If you are interested in learning more about this ministry, please go to https://www.stelizabethchurchmd.org/arimathean-ministry or contact Colleen Steele at csteele@stelizabethchurchmd.org 

Art & Environment Ministry

The Art & Environment Ministry is seeking new members interested in making St. Elizabeth’s liturgical environment a visual expression of Catholic doctrine and spirituality.  More details on this ministry can be found at https://www.stelizabethchurchmd.org/art-environment.  If you have any questions or are interested in training, please contact Colleen Steele at csteele@stelizabethchurchmd.org.

Honoring Your Loved One During Our All Souls Daily Offering  in November 

As we enter the month of November, we begin the annual tradition throughout the Catholic Church of praying during the entire month for our beloved dead. On the table in the Commons, you will find envelopes for the daily  Mass. Please complete one so your deceased loved one will be honored. Every day in the month of November, Masses are said for those enrolled.  Use the envelopes provided or you can enter your loved one’s name and make a donation in their memory by going to this link 

https://stelizabethchurchmd.org/allsouls

Seven Sisters Prayer for St. E’s Priests for November

O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of priests so hardened hearts may be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy priests; you yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things. Amen.

Thanksgiving Food Drive – Help is Needed

Help is needed on Sunday November 20^th to assemble and deliver dinners.  If you can help between 8am and 3pm please sign up on the parish website using the Sign Up Genius link.  If you have any questions, contact CathyAnn Grundmayer at 240.506.7726 or cagrundmayer@gmail.com.

Annual Winter Clothing Collection 

Once again St. Elizabeth will be joining with Our Lady of Mercy Parish in a winter clothing collection for the Catholic Community of Langley Park.  Our collection will be on the weekends of November  26/27 and December 3/4. Flyers with detailed information are available in the Commons, in our Flocknote weekly email, and on the website.

Here is a summary of the financial update 

Msgr. Parent offered at our Sunday Masses 

celebrating our patronal Feast of St. Elizabeth.

As you can see in this annual financial report, our parish collections and donations totaled about $1.4 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022. Those figures for pre-pandemic 2019 were about $1.5 million. Not ideal, especially now that inflation is kicking in, but not too bad either. Excluding our school, we ran a small operational deficit of about $22,000 for the year.  

But our investments took a huge hit. We booked a loss of over half a million dollars for the fiscal year. Please note that by archdiocesan policy, investment losses for parish schools are assigned to the parish financials, not to the school’s financials. So that half million dollar loss was generated by both parish and school reserve investments. 

Fortunately we’re not in a position where we have to sell these investments, and we expect that we’ll be able to hold on to them long enough to recover all of this loss and hopefully eventually come out ahead. 

Happily there’s also some very good news in our financial report. Our school had an operational surplus of almost half a million dollars in the 2022 fiscal year. Roughly $300,000 of that surplus came from state and federal COVID-related grants that we don’t expect to continue this year  

More good news: you’ll also see in the report that we gave $110,000 to social concerns last year – almost 50% more than we gave last year, which was a record year for us. The largest recipients were the St. Camillus Pantry [$43,733] and our sister parish in Haiti [$31,800].

The bottom line is that our parish including our school is financially sound and we have remained generous to those in need. Thank you for making this possible through your generosity.