LETTER FROM KATIE • April 29, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
On Sunday we’ll have our very first parish meeting, a chance to look back on the past four months since we began offering weekly services, to give thanks for God’s gifts to us, and to look ahead to where God is calling us.
LETTER FROM KATIE • April 22, 2026
Table Blessing
To your table
you bid us come.
You have set the places;
you have poured the wine;
and there is always room,
you say,
for one more.
LETTER FROM KATIE • April 15, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
Thanks be to God that Easter isn’t just one day but an entire season in the life of the Church; an entire season between Easter Sunday and Pentecost in which we get to contemplate all the dimensions of what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for us as his followers.
LETTER FROM KATIE • April 8, 2026
This is the paschal feast,
the Lord’s passing from death to life:
so cries the Spirit.
No type or telling, this, no shadow.
Pasch of the Lord it is, and truly.
LETTER FROM KATIE • April 1, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
One of the most arresting moments of Palm Sunday is when we cry out, “Crucify him!” and acknowledge that we are not only the ones Jesus comes to save, but also, in our own ways, the ones who help drive the nails. We are both recipients of his mercy and participants in the world’s sin—caught up in patterns we cannot fully untangle, and desperately in need of God’s rescue.
LETTER FROM KATIE • March 25, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
I have really enjoyed our times of silently praying the Examen together on Sunday. I couldn’t believe how quiet it was (for a congregation that is 50% children) as we prayed the entire Examen for five minutes this past Sunday.
LETTER FROM KATIE • March 18, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
When I was reflecting on the fourth step of the Examen—Sorrow for Sin—I was struck by this insight from Joseph Tetlow, a Jesuit priest who has been teaching and praying the Examen for decades:
“Never, never start examining yourself until you have thanked God for the gifts that God is giving to you—not in general, not in the past, but right now, today.”
LETTER FROM KATIE • March 11, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
Lent carries a quiet sorrow. As we slow down and pray, we begin to see more clearly the ways we have turned from God and from one another. That realization can bring a certain sadness—not the sadness of despair, but the sorrow of love.
LETTER FROM KATIE • March 4, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
I have really enjoyed the silence during our services this Lent as we’ve taken time to pray through the steps of the Examen Prayer together.
LETTER FROM KATIE • February 25, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
I closed my sermon this past Sunday with a prayer for Recollection from Teresa of Avila.
Gracious Friend, give me the grace to recollect myself in the little heaven of my soul where You have established Your dwelling. There You let me find You, there I feel that You are closer to me than anywhere else, and there You prepare my soul quickly to enter into intimacy with You…
Experiencing Lent With Our Children
Dear Holy Comforter parents and families,
It was good to see many of you at our Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner and our Ash Wednesday service.
Lent has begun. This season is similar to Advent in that it’s a season of waiting and preparation, and both share the color purple in the liturgical calendar.
LETTER FROM KATIE • February 19, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
It was great to see so many of you Tuesday night at our Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner (Thank you to Elena and Tom Benning for helping us pull it off.) and last night at our Ash Wednesday service.
I encourage you to take a look at my letter from last week and Matt Wooldridge’s letter to CHC families which you can find here, to explore the ways we’ll be preparing for Easter together.
LETTER FROM KATIE • February 11, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
The Epiphany season comes to a close this Sunday with a reading about the transfiguration of Jesus. And that is appropriate because aside from his resurrection, there is no more significant display of Jesus’ glory than the transfiguration, when he shines bright as the sun and is identified as God’s Beloved Son. All of Epiphany has been building toward this revelation of who Jesus is.
LETTER FROM KATIE • February 4, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
It was such a joy to be back with you in person last Sunday for our kid-led Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. What a gift it was to see our children leading us in worship—reading scripture, offering prayers, joining the procession, serving communion. Their joy and confidence were a beautiful reminder that God is alive and at work among us.
LETTER FROM KATIE • JANUARY 28, 2026
This Sunday, we will celebrate together (either in-person or online) the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple or the Meeting of the Lord as it is called in the Orthodox Church. The story of the Presentation is told in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 2, verses 22-40.
Letter from Katie • January 21, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
One of the first things most visitors notice about Holy Comforter is how involved our children are in our services as readers and communion servers participating joyously in our singing and the gospel procession, and welcomed to receive communion after their baptism. As it says in our worship guide each week:
Letter from Katie • January 14, 2026
Dear Holy Comforter,
It was delightful to be with you last Sunday on our birthday as a congregation! I was surprised at how strangely normal it felt (as evident in the fact that we forgot to take any pictures to document the event), but I suppose that is a testament to the fact that we’ve been praying and meeting together for almost two years–first as a small group, then as a small group + monthly services, and now as a church plant meeting weekly with two small groups. It’s really amazing to reflect on the slow, steady growth of our community, which has always been supported and empowered by prayer and our affection for each other.
Letter from Katie • January 7, 2026
It was such a delight to be with all of you at our commissioning service on Sunday and I am looking forward to our first weekly service this Sunday at 5 pm at Hyattsville Mennonite Church, which will be followed by a potluck. You can sign up here.
Letter from Katie • December 23, 2025
Merry Christmas, Holy Comforter!
I pray that each of you would have some space in these busy days to rejoice and meditate on the coming of Jesus Christ, God with us. I look forward to seeing some of you on December 28 when we host Incarnation Anglican at Hyattsville Mennonite Church and I’m praying for those who will be away and traveling.
Letter from Katie • December 17, 2025
Dear Holy Comforter,
Since this week invites us to enter more deeply into the joy of the Lord, I wanted to reflect in this letter on singing—and how it opens our hearts to joy. But I also wanted to talk about singing because in the coming months we'll have an a Acapella Sunday (that means singing without instruments) every 4-6 weeks to give our lead parish musicians, Anna Yong and Joel Chan, a chance to rest and to remind us that worship is the work of the church and not just a few gifted individuals.