Father Hathaway’s Column — August 3, 2025
Guest Columnist: Father James R. Searby, Parochial Vicar
THE ROMANCE OF OLD TOWN
The golden sun plays upon the Potomac’s silvery waters in its morning dance before our very eyes, while memory and grace open the mind and soul. In that daily shimmer, I find a reminder: life is not a series of errands or duties, but an unfolding romance — a pilgrimage strewn with signs of the divine.
This month marks one year since I moved to the Basilica and to my now-beloved Old Town. From my very first week, so many of you asked with sincere interest: “Do you enjoy being here?” It struck me then, and still moves me now, how deeply rooted your love for this place, this parish, is. And so let me answer not only with gratitude, but with affection: I don’t just enjoy being here. I love being here — with all my heart.
There is a grace that fills every nook and cranny of our church and our town. We walk paths once tread by saints and sinners. We rest in the public squares where our Republic was born. We raise our hearts in prayer in pews once worn by hands calloused from war, peace, poverty and prosperity. Memory is not a relic here — it is alive. It soaks every inch of Saint Mary’s. It is her place, and Our Mother prepares a feast for her children.
Every morning, I walk beside the river and breathe in this grace. Saint Josemaría Escrivá was once asked which chapel he most loved. He simply pointed to the street and said, “that one.” For God is found, and is at work, not only in the sanctuary, but in every crack of cobblestone and every leaf that catches the light.
This way of seeing — the truly romantic vision — is profoundly Catholic. To be Catholic is to see the world as charged with wonder, mystery and meaning. It is to be immersed in what the Church Fathers and poets alike have called the sacramental imagination: to see life not as a problem to solve, but as a quest to live. A tale of beauty, suffering, longing and love — all of it pointing us home.
On Palm Sunday, when the Pharisees asked Jesus to silence the crowds, He replied: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). And here, in this glorious town, the very stones do cry out — through history, beauty and presence.
It is a grace to walk these streets with you — our hearts open, our eyes lifted. This is no ordinary neighborhood. It is a chapter in the great romance of salvation. And we are living it together.