In the spirit of St. Martin de Tours, who tore his military cloak in half to share with a poor man in need, St. Martin’s Cloak provides financial and other assistance to those in need. Join St. Martin's Cloak and put Catholic Social teaching into practice by helping those less fortunate in our community.
The guild partners with various organizations in Montgomery County and provides emergency support to persons by way of food, utilities, clothing and housing and to selected individual clients, as well as donations to assist local social service organizations.
St. Martin’s Cloak sponsors food drives at the parish, periodically reaching out with appeals for items like backpacks, personal hygiene supplies and winter coats..
St. Martin’s Cloak’s food drives have collected almost 5,300 pounds of food! Giant Food gift cards are also very welcome. Most of the food and cards were distributed to Bethesda Help, Catholic Charities of Montgomery County, The Fr. McKenna Center, and Sacred Heart Church. In addition, members are involved in once-a-week sandwich preparations collected from parishioners for the homeless.
St. Martin’s Cloak meets on the second Wednesday of the month. Please join and be part of this rewarding social justice organization. For more information, contact the parish office at (301) 530-1550 or [email protected].
Chair - Paul Eder
Treasurer - Greg Stortstrom
Secretary - Joan Muller
St. Martin's cloak is extremely grateful to the parishioners who have provided thousands of dollars in funds through the poor box and/or individual donations!
You can also give online!
The Parish Life Committee of the Pastoral Council seeks to stimulate both spiritual and social growth within the Parish and foster growth in community spirit. They encourage participation in multiple activities within the parish, including the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and donut socials after Mass. Volunteers are more than welcome. Please contact the Parish office to join. 301-530-1550 [email protected]
A network of volunteers who assist in projects to raise money to benefit the Right to Life Group of Montgomery County such as selling Christmas cards and Mothers’ Day flowers. Other activities include the March for Life, assisting pregnant women through the Gabriel Project, and praying the Rosary outside a Gaithersburg abortion clinic on Saturdays.
Questions? Contact Edward and Lisa Tennant 301-897-5412
Fostering the spirit of their founders, St. Vincent de Paul -patron of all charity, and St. Louise de Marillace, founder of the Ladies of Charity and co-founder of the Daughters of Charity. This Vincentian spirit is carried out through prayer, reflection, serving the material and spiritual needs of the sick, the poor, and the marginalized of society, and seeing Christ in the faces of those they serve.
As the only Ladies of Charity parish in Montgomery County, MD, they volunteer for many service hours to the parish and the community. Members meet in-person or virtually three to four times a year. The unit’s main service project consists of weekly visits to a nearby senior nursing care facility, assisting with the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Word, and distributing Holy Communion. The members also host a yearly Christmas Party for the residents at a rehabilitation center. Concurrently, the unit members contribute to some of the other Parish’s other ministries
Involvement in the Ladies of Charity also affords opportunities to become involved in Archdiocesan and national Ladies of Charity spiritual events, ministries, and leadership roles. Those support St. Ann’s Center for Children, Youth, and Families. Members also attend the Archdiocesan Ladies of Charity fall Assembly/Retreat, and the Ladies of Charity of the United States of America’s annual Assembly.
New members are always welcome!
For more information contact Mary Hand at 301-219-2552 or [email protected].
Fun Fact!
Our founder, St. Vincent de Paul, was one of
St. Jane Frances de Chantal’s spiritual directors!
Sandwiches are collected at the parish every Friday between 9-9:15am and delivered to S.O.M.E., Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, and Shepherd's Table. More volunteers are welcome as the need is great.
Please Contact Maria Cornelius [email protected] 301-613-6991 to help.
"I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest. Maybe some of you would like to ask the same question. Let me try briefly to reply. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God? Yet, I know that, at a certain point in my life, I became convinced that Christ was saying to me what he had said to thousands before me: 'Come, follow me!' There was a clear sense that what I heard in my heart was no human voice, nor was it just an idea of my own. Christ was calling me to serve him as a priest." - Pope John Paul II
At St. Jane de Chantal, we strive to raise vocation awareness among our Parish and surrounding community. We pray for the young men in our seminary, and for those who have yet to hear God's call. Through our Vocation Spotlights, we learn about our current and future priests by sharing their testimonies. We raise money and run many miles while participating in the annual Run for Vocations. We also host pizza lunches for our children, where they hear first hand from priests and nuns. All of this is done to reinforce the fact that the church needs vocations, that God does call men to follow Him, and that we should be aware as we may be a small part of the story.
The Archdiocese of Washington has a fantastic online presence in dcpriest.org. If you are interested in learning more about our seminarians, the Office of Priestly Vocations, or the Blessed John Paul II Seminary itself, we encourage you to visit dcpriest.org.
The Give the Gift of Prayer campaign is something we do every Advent. After Thanksgiving, parishioners will notice a strand of Christmas lights in the rear of the church, adorned in tags. Each contains the picture of a current seminarian, brief information about him and his studies, and a prayer on the reverse. It is simple; we ask that these are brought home so that each seminarian has prayers being said for his vocation.
Reading our Vocation Spotlights gives us the opportunity to see some of the many ways God reaches out to those preparing to be priests in our Archdiocese. The Vocations Comittee makes every effort to gather and produce these on a monthly basis, which allow testimonies to be heard within our parish.
We participate in the larger Run for Vocations effort, as part of the Marine Corps Marathon held in Washington, DC. Each year, we field a team of Marathon and 10K race runners who raise money and run many miles on behalf of those giving their life to the church.