The Little Way Cafe is indeed little — but so was the proverbial mustard seed.
Despite its size, the cafe, part of the newly renovated parish hall at St. Louis Church in Alexandria, will be key to “creating a vibrant parish life,” said Father Keith O’Hare, pastor.
Billed as the first parish-based cafe in the diocese, it will be a central gathering spot for a new ministry of evangelization and fellowship, and Father O’Hare hopes the aroma of espresso brewing and pastries on the counter adds to an ambiance that’s “a combination of cozy and spiritual.”
“If the parish is a family, this is the family room,” he said, adding that the large adjacent patio is like the family’s backyard, with tables and inviting string lights for sitting outside during the warmer months.
Father O’Hare believes that parishioners come to church seeking two kinds of connection — “vertical union” with God, but also “horizontal union” with each other — opportunities to make friends and serve together, share their faith and support each other on the spiritual journey.
The church does an excellent job with the vertical union, but often has been “less excellent” at finding ways to help parishioners connect horizontally, he said.
Father O’Hare, who plays jazz saxophone and guitar, said he noticed a need for more fellowship opportunities soon after he arrived at the parish in 2017. When he hosted a few “wine, cheese and jazz” receptions to get to know parishioners, he met several longtime church members who didn’t know each other, even though they had been around the parish or even attended daily Mass together for years. That’s when he knew adding more opportunities for fellowship would be one of his goals.
The cafe — which he emphasizes is not a business but a ministry, where coffee drinks and pastries will be available for a suggested donation — will help fill in the gap. He hopes guests will ask about the name, which was inspired by the spirituality of St. Therese of Lisieux, the French saint and doctor of the church.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge will bless the cafe March 25, but the official opening will be after Easter, Father O’Hare said. Initial hours will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays.
Carmen Lane, parish director of operations, said the cafe idea grew out of discussions following a workshop a few years ago at Nativity parish in Timonium, Md., which re-envisioned its outreach after borrowing ideas for growth from successful megachurches. The project was chronicled in the 2013 book “Rebuilt,” by Father Michael White and Tom Corcoran.
“Cafes are relatively common in very large Protestant churches,” but less common at Catholic parishes, said Father O’Hare. He also visited Trinity House Cafe, a Catholic cafe ministry in Leesburg, to get ideas.
But what really galvanized the project was the need for extensive repairs to the parish hall, a small white historic building across the parking lot from the church and rectory. Built in 1876 as a one-room schoolhouse, it was purchased by the Richmond diocese in 1925 to serve as a chapel where visiting priests celebrated Mass once or twice a month. In the 1940s, it was expanded and became St. Louis Church. In 1962, when the larger current church was built, the building was converted to an 1,800-square-foot parish hall, named for Msgr. Eugene Walsh, pastor from 1955 to 1967.
Over the years, the building had been improved and repaired, including a partial roof repair in 2006, but the space was less than inviting. “You could call it humble,” Lane said.
“Providentially, it was so bad it really needed renovation,” Father O’Hare added.
So the cafe became part of the Walsh Hall renovation, which was done as a pro bono project by architect Mark Cerny, who met Fr. O’Hare when the priest was serving at the Arlington diocese’s Bánica Mission in the Dominican Republic and Cerny visited on a mission trip. The hall has a ramp and a new accessible restroom that can accommodate guests in wheelchairs.
The cafe’s wide granite countertops will hold a commercial-quality espresso machine and the space will be managed by Andrew Lane, the parish director of youth and young adult ministry, said Father O’Hare, who hopes parishioners will stop by to sit and talk after daily Mass or come for a coffee break when they’re home teleworking.
“Through heart-to-heart conversations over delicious cups of coffee, we will encourage each other and help each other grow in our Catholic faith,” he said.
