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By Zoey Maraist
“Do you have a lavender dream?” That question, posed on social media, was how Katie Rinker first learned that Seven Oaks Lavender Farm was up for sale. Katie, a lavender lover who enjoyed visiting the Catlett farm near Nokesville, quickly asked her husband, Jason, about buying it. He was hesitant, but Katie smelled opportunity. Previously, […]
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By Anna Donofrio
Deacon John M. Meyerhofer’s journey to the priesthood was gradual but steady. “I found that, rather than too many singular moments in my life, God tends to work very slowly but consistently,” he said. Deacon Meyerhofer, 30, grew up as the third of four kids. His family attended St. John the Apostle Church in Leesburg […]
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By Jim Hale
The first time he considered a vocation to religious life, Deacon Timothy Banach was an engineering student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Catholicism at UVA is heavily influenced by the dynamic witness of the Dominican priests at St. Thomas Church, and Deacon Banach felt compelled to consider life as a Dominican after breaking […]
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By Anna Donofrio
As long as he can remember, Deacon Christian N. Njodzela, 28, has felt a desire for the priesthood. The youngest of eight growing up in Vekovi, Kikaikelahki, Cameroon, Deacon Njodzela said he often attended daily Mass with his mother, where he first felt the desire to become a priest one day. At the age of […]
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By Anna Donofrio
Deacon Andrew T. Lewandowski, 56, said his decades-long journey to the priesthood is “not the norm.” “I don’t think God calls most people to the priesthood at a late age, which is probably a good thing, but at the same time … God’s constantly surprising us,” he said. Deacon Lewandowski grew up the third of […]
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By Jim Hale
Catholicism wasn’t on his mind the day a bizarre experience happened to Deacon Mike Sampson in 2012. The Washington lawyer had been exploring Christianity, but that amounted to visiting Protestant churches. “One day, I was coming back from work in Arlington and was just walking up the stairs and I began to pray,” said […]
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By Jim Hale
The loneliness that stirred Deacon Joseph Connor to pick up a book on New Year’s Eve 2013 was about to transform everything he knew about prayer. The sophomore engineering student at Virginia Tech didn’t have a party to go to, so he searched for something to read at his parents’ home in Alexandria. “The book […]
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By Ashleigh Kassock
High school can be tough, but on rare occasions it can be a place of grace. It was for the McCoppin family, and especially for their eldest daughter Kelly who just graduated from Saint John Paul the Great High School in Potomac Shores.
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By Anna Donofrio
It’s not every day that a parish turns 230 years old. As the Basilica of St. Mary in Alexandria celebrates its milestone anniversary this year, parish historian Kitty Guy and archival manager Virginia Nyce released an updated book on the parish’s history. The new book, “Brick Chapel to Basilica: A History of Virginia’s Oldest Catholic […]
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By Jim Hale
As the oldest son in a Peruvian immigrant family, Deacon Alfredo Tuesta did what his sense of duty and his culture compelled him to do. “We came from very humble beginnings,” said Deacon Tuesta. “When I say I come from Lima, I don’t mean that I come from the elite, but from the outskirts. I […]
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7/23/26
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