Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament

In all my years and many moves, Blessed Sacrament is the church I went to for most of my adult life. I started going there in 1998, not too long out of college at the recommendation of a coworkers. There were two Catholic Churches closer to my apartment, but this one actually had relatively easy parking (street, but there is a lot of it). Over the years, I was more involved at certain times than at others, even leading the Young Adult Group for a short period of time. Through sermons that tended to be more intellectual than at most parishes and good relationships with serious but caring priests, I was able to develop my faith a lot. I cannot express how much this parish has affected my life.
I continued to attend Blessed Sacrament even when I was living a half hour drive from the Church, but had to change parishes when I moved to Philadelphia in 2009. (Three hours was just a bit too far to drive every Sunday morning.) I have been blessed to find three very good parishes in the three places I have lived since that move. However, I have never felt as comfortable or spiritually stimulated as I did at Blessed Sacrament. I love the parish so much, that once before my son was born and while my wife was out of town, I came down to DC saying I was going to visit friends. I did that, but the real reason I came down was to go to Blessed Sacrament one more time.

So, after a wee bit of sinning in my previous review, I need to do a wee bit of praying in this one. Actually, I will be doing a lot of praying between now and November 4.
«Eat, Drink and be Merry» comes from the Bible, and it is certainly a mantra amongst Unilocalers — let me share the full text and talk a little about this Church:
Ecclesiastes 8: 15: «Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun,»
Pretty bloody good eh? As Benjamin Franklin has also said — «beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.»
OK — so this place is
1. A beautiful and historic Church which has been on Chevy Chase Circle for about 100 years.
2. Reasonably good community — lots of kids as they have a school.
3. About a mile from my house which is why — when I can — I go there regularly and take the kids.
So we are walking there a couple of weeks ago, it was a beautiful September Sunday morning, and one of the kids says:
«Dad, why are we walking to Church?»
Me: «because when I was a kid I walked to Church all the time, because you kids get chauffered around too bloody much, because it is a beautiful day and it builds character»
A: «Dad, how come everytime we do something where it builds character for us you end up saving a couple of bucks?»
Later on in the same walk I was trying to make them proud of their Irish Catholic heritage, and ensure that they continue the tradition.
L: «Dad, why does it matter, why is it so important?»
Me: «Because your ancestors died for this faith because since 400 years ago Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell were killing people in Ireland just because they were Catholic and your ancestors survived and you should honour them by being good Catholics»
L: «Dad, why couldn’t our ancestors just have moved to Spain where the Catholics were the ones doing all the killing and persecuting?»