Dear Good People of St. Philip's,

It is a privilege to greet you for the first time today as your Pastor and I also join you in saying good-bye to your long-time Pastor and my good friend and mentor, Fr. Denis Donahue! I am sure he will be missed around here but the good news is that he will be nearby. 

For those of you who do not know anything about me, I am a native Virginian, born right here within the Arlington Diocese in a small town called Bealeton, near Warrenton, Virginia. As you might guess, in Warrenton we are quite aways away from the Beltway out there in rural Fauquier County, but most people out that way still have a Northern Virginia connection just with a little more space to live. My home parish was St. John the Evangelist in Warrenton (not St. John the Baptist, that is Front Royal or St. John the Apostle that is Leesburg, or even St. John the Beloved, that is in McLean, we are the humblest of the Johns... but also, the friendliest!!). I am the oldest of 4 children, two boys and two girls, I graduated from UVA (Wahoo Wa!), then went to seminary (2 years at St. Charles Borromeo in Philadelphia and 4 years of theology in Rome, Italy). I have been a priest for 15 years, served 2 years as a missionary in Dominican Republic, and hope team USA wins the World Cup! As time goes on, I am sure you will learn more details about my life but now I would like to share a little about who I am on the inside. 

There are three important words that I think say a good bit about who I am and how I think: family, holiness, and the Eucharist. 

First, I was very blessed to grow up in a loving family with two parents now celebrating 47 years of marriage! Don’t get me wrong, our family is not perfect, a far cry from it. But it does seem that God intended each of us to grow up in a family no matter how imperfect and challenging they can be. As a priest I have found too that families are so important to healthy parishes and I am so pleased that Fr. Donahue has chosen to focus on outreach and building up families here at St. Philip’s. I hope to continue what he has started here.

Secondly, holiness is something that has always stuck out to me as so important for us as Christians, especially in our own day and age. When I first started practicing my faith in a more serious way at the age of 17, right away I was struck by how important true holiness is for our life with Christ. We don’t have to have a high IQ to be holy, we don’t have to be a star athlete or be famous to be holy, we only need to try day in and day out to live out the plans God has for us. I also hope many of you can accompany me on this road toward greater holiness in our lives.

Finally, the Eucharist, it is a word and a reality that encompasses some of the most important moments of my life. Some of my first memories as a child were attending Sunday Mass with my parents and the Eucharist was part of discovering and discerning my vocation. I have come to understand as a priest the Eucharist is part of who I am not just as a priest but as a person as well. The Eucharist, Jesus’s body and blood, is something that continues to amaze me and I hope I can share a little of that Eucharistic wonder that has struck me with each of you.

May God Bless you and may God be praised as we begin this journey together! 

Father Jeb