Some Memories of Nativity’s Earlier Times

By a Nativity parishioner since 1977

June 1977 – A small sign as one crossed the railroad tracks on Old Burke Lake Road going towards Burke told of the Church of Nativity meeting at Hunt Valley Elementary School.  Apparently the railroad tracks were the boundary line between Nativity and Holy Spirit.

I had heard that St. Mary’s was a “mission church” run by European priests.  Seeing the little chapel on Rte. 123 confirmed the idea.  Back in June 1977, I didn’t know there was a church on Sideburn Rd.

Nativity didn’t even have a church!  Masses were held in the auditorium of Hunt Valley school on Sydenstricker Road.  The pastor was Fr. Ready.  He was assisted by “visiting” priests.  The first we met was a priest from Africa.  At one of his last Sunday masses, he thanked the parishioners for the cow and water tank the parish bought for his village in Africa.

The nursery at Hunt Valley (aka Holy Hunt) was held in one of the classrooms and it was staffed by “volunteer” moms—one was a “volunteer” if one’s child used the nursery.  Once in the church’s new location, the nursery continued under the supervision of the “volunteer” moms, but only at the largest masses.  They were joined by CYO teens.

At Holy Hunt, CCD classes were held during Sunday masses.

Over the years, Nativity had a number of visiting priests.  The ones that stick in my mind are the ones who had something that distinguished them from the rest.  In no particular order:

Fr. Tran Duy Nhat [ed.], the Vietnamese priest who went on to become the pastor of the Diocese of Arlington’s Vietnamese Parish, the Church of the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam.  His mother made the best spring rolls—a popular seller at the baked goods booth of the Women of Nativity’s (WON) Church bazaars for the years he was at Nativity.

Fr. Joseph Lamonde (“Father Joe”) used to roam the church (as far as his mike allowed) during his homilies.  He used to pepper the children (and some of the adults) with questions about the gospel message.

Fr. Dair, at the time recently retired from a neighboring parish, fell down the altar steps installed by Fr. Sal.

Fr. Hill, the military chaplain, was a BIG fan of Notre Dame.  One of his last homilies had to do with his work with the families and colleagues of those who died at the Pentagon on 9/11.

There have been many more other “visiting” priests.  It would be wonderful to have a listing of all of them.

When the parish moved into the present location, the building seemed so roomy. It was called the Parish Church and Worship Center.  The church proper had been designed by Fr. Ready as a multi-purpose space.  There were interlocking removable chairs instead of stationary pews. The chairs could be arranged in different directions to face a raised altar.  The altar itself was moved depending on the liturgical time of year.  My personal favorite was when the altar stood in the middle of the space surrounded by all the chairs—a church in the round.

Since the church proper was meant to be multi-purpose, events such as family dinners, meetings and yearly fall bazaars were held in the space.  The CCD classes also found their home here—families who had children in CCD set up the dividers, tables & chairs on Sunday evenings and took them down on Wednesday or Thursday evenings.

In the first building fund drive, each family was asked to pledge the “value” of one chair–$600.  When the pews were permanently installed many years later, parishioners were given the opportunity to “buy” their chairs once again before they were sold to other churches or groups.  I wonder if those were the chairs I saw when, around that time, I went to a mass at St. Mary’s.  As each family completed the pledge, they received a certificate letter implying that an entry was made into a memorial book.

A letter dated October 7, 1979 letter tells of the dedication of the church by the Bishop as well as the mass schedule.  (For a copy of this letter, see Nativity History, Part I.  ed.).

One Sunday or Holy Day, fairly soon after we moved into the Worship Center, those of us showing up for the first mass of that day found ourselves locked out.  I don’t remember why, but Fr. Ready didn’t have the key to the building.  He did have a folding table, a chalice and communion wafers in his car.  So mass was held on the sidewalk area in front of the church doors.

Fr. Ready’s philosophy was that the parish belonged to the parishioners— it was a time of parish councils.  Maintenance of the facility belonged to the parishioners, too.  A handyman made necessary repairs.  A cadre of women of which I was one, on a monthly rotating schedule, vacuumed the church flooring & carpeting and the gold crushed-velvet covered chairs & other surfaces, and cleaned the bathrooms on our hands and knees!  Another group of women washed and pressed the altar linens, cared for the vestments and arranged the flowers.  My youngest joined the swirl of little preschoolers who ran up & down the rows of chairs with dust rags in hand while the women worked.  Anna Anezin led us all.

Anna also led the a capella singing of the hymns at the earliest of the Sunday morning masses in the WorshipCenter.  At that time there was no organ.  There was also a later period when the earliest of the Sunday masses (I think 8 a.m.) had no singing.  For the masses with singing, the hymn numbers were posted on a board up near the altar.

Before the Worship Center opened, baptisms were conducted in one of three ways—during Holy Hunt Sunday masses, in the rectory (the house on Lyra Court–daily mass was held there, too), or in one’s home. A number of families opted for baptisms during the homilies of Sunday mass.

We chose to have Fr. Ready come to our home. In 1978, our 2nd child was baptized. The service was the most meaningful baptism I’ve ever witnessed. Only family, grandparents, godparents and cousins participated. Afterwards Fr. Ready blessed our home room by room.

By 1980 when our 3rd child was baptized, the baptism service was held once a month in the vestibule of the Worship Center. It was a chaotic multi-family affair with all participants crowded around the baptismal font. The associate pastor, Fr. Leonard presided at our daughter’s baptism.

It was under Fr. Sal’s renovations of the church interior that the baptismal font was permanently placed up front by the altar.

When our oldest received his first communion in April 1984, he continued another of Fr. Ready’s traditions—a child received 1st communion during Sunday mass when the child’s parents felt s/he was ready. So it was that our son and another boy were first in line for Communion before the entire congregation that Sunday—they received under both species–something new for 1st communicants at the time. The front row on both sides of the aisle was reserved for the families of both communicants.

There were quite a few associate priests assigned over the years to the parish (see Nativity History, Part I.  ed.).

Back in the time of Fr. Ready, the Women of Nativity (WON) was formed.  Every woman was automatically considered to be a member of WON, whether she attended meetings or not.  Another woman (I believe her name might have been Carol Parowski) and I sat in her kitchen on Spur Road, charismatically held hands as we prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and wrote out the constitution for the organization in an hour.  It was passed unchanged by the membership attending the meeting.  The meetings used to be held in the daytime (women tended to be at home then) in the vestibule of the church.  One of the foreign mission activities of the WON that I was in charge of was raising money to build off-the-ground water tanks in African villages.  We raised the money solely through the donations collected at each WON meeting.

The WON bazaars grew from small affairs to the largest taking up the vestibule just for the baked goods alone. I was chair of the baked goods for the years the bazaar was at its largest.  The entire WorshipCenter space, for those 2 or 3 years, was filled with all sorts of crafts made or donated by the women.   One of the last, if not the last, mega-bazaar was held the year Fr. Sal became pastor.  Since that time, the bazaar has been held in the cafeteria space and, in recent years, in the multi-purpose room.  The size of the bazaar ebbs and flows with the number of volunteer crafters producing the handicrafts.  The annual bazaar continues to this day with its craft group meeting weekly.

In Fr. Ready’s day, the WON also ran “Nativity’s Casseroles on Call” for parish families experiencing emergencies or illnesses. The family who cooked the meal would drop it off at the receiving parishioner’s home right before dinner time. One of my all-time favorite recipes (Sweet and Sour Pork) comes from the Recasner family’s delivery to our home when I had pneumonia.  To this day I continue to pray for the women & their families who made these meals possible.

In 1985, the Women of Nativity’s Recipe Sampler was published and sold after all masses.  Again, in 1994, the Favorite Foods from Friendly Folks was made available.

WON also provided bibs with a hand-stitched chiro for each baby’s baptism.

Since the early days, the WON has expanded its involvement in service to the parish and community in so many other ways of outreach and fund-raising. Information about the WON is found elsewhere in this parish history.

There now is also a Prayer Shawl Ministry whose members knit or crochet shawls for the terminally and seriously ill.  The shawls are blessed during selected Masses.  Toni Rausch is in charge.  Information about the Prayer Shawl Ministry is found elsewhere in this parish history.

One of the last big events to be held in the multi-purpose space of the Worship Center proper under Fr. Ready’s tenure was Nativity’s turn to host the diocesan priests’ lunch held annually bythe then Bishop Keating.  The entire WorshipCenter space was filled with tables and chairs for the attending diocesan priests. The WON decorated the room as well as made and served the food to all. That was when I first met our newly named pastor, Fr. Sal.

Nativity’s second building fund drive, this time under Fr. Sal, promised a CCDCenter, not a school.  It is my understanding that the plans submitted to the Bishop at the time included a gym.  The gym plans were removed to reflect this CCD, non-school, intent.  The CCDCenter became a school anyway.  Prior to the conversion of the CCDCenter into the parish school, parishioners sent their children primarily to St. Bernadette’s or Holy Spirit.

Nativity’s third building fund drive, this time under Fr. Martin, is adding on the gym, other classrooms, and additional offices for the every expanding parish.

Nuns to run the religious education program were originally from the order of the Religious Teachers Filippini.  [They were eventually recalled to New Jersey. ed.]  After searching far & wide, Fr. Sal contacted the Handmaids of Reparation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an order in Italy, that agreed to come to Nativity.  Sister Donatella Merulla and Sister Mary Attilia Todaro of that order are still here today.

Sr. Vicky [Sister Marie Victoria Bartkowski] and her companion, Sr. Therese Bednarczk were on the school staff.   They had worn suits and/or blouses & skirts, not habits.  They lived elsewhere.  I don’t remember if they ever lived in the first “convent”—the house next to the rectory on Lyra Court.

[frame_center width=”550px”]One year I purchased a model of Nativity Church from a fund-raiser held by the CYOers who were planning to attend work camp.[/frame_center]

More Snatches of Memory, Mainly from the 1980s & 1990s:

Confirmandi service hours were introduced into the parish by the time our oldest was confirmed. He did all his service hours in one swoop—spending a whole day helping the Knights of Columbus sell Christmas trees during one of the iciest and coldest times. I don’t recall if the Knights ever sold Christmas trees again after those freezing days. His confirmation was Oct 1990. Fr. Sal was pastor.

Our 2nd oldest for part of his confirmandi service was the Easter Bunny for the preschoolers Easter Egg Hunt. His confirmation was Nov 1991. Fr. Sal was pastor. These are pictures of Bishop Keating entering and leaving the church.

[frame_center width=”550px”][/frame_center]

The tradition of children dressing as shepherds (wearing bathrobes) during the children’s masses on Christmas Eve started in the 1980s.

Fr. Sal blessed the animals (pets) on St. Francis’ feast day in October. For a few years, there was also a blessing of bread products—I can’t recall if this was at a separate feast day or on Thanksgiving Day.

On Palm Sundays, mass attendees would gather outside the church doors for the blessing of the palms. All then would enter the church in a procession to their seats. I think this happened under Fr. Ready, but I might be mistaken.

Fr. Sal used to ring the bells on the church bell tower before each of the Sunday masses. The surrounding neighbors complained and the practice was stopped.

Nativity Lane was originally supposed to continue past the church and link up with Covered Bridge Road. The neighborhood on Covered Bridge Road blocked the plan.

A neighbor of mine had her aunt’s viewing hours held in the church chapel the evening before her funeral mass and burial.

I once attended viewing hours in the church proper. The funeral mass was the next day. I think this was sometime in the early 2000s.

One time during mass, the EMTs tended to a man who suffered a heart attack.

Masses of healing, Lenten missions, 2 years of Spanish classes taught by parishioner John Murray, help for families brought into the Diocese from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and Knights’ families transporting senior citizens from Heatherwood to Nativity’s Sunday masses, flowers when my parents died, and Operation Starfish are a few of the outreach programs undertaken by Nativity that I recall in the years under Fr. Martin.