Mother of God Community

Mother of God Community is a Catholic and ecumenical charismatic community located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area of the United States. The Community office and grounds is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Under the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, the Community is recognized as a "private association of the faithful" with its governing statutes approved by competent Church authority; in this case by the Archbishop of Washington. In addition the Community is now a full member of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships, with a recognized relationship to the Roman Pontiff through the Pontifical Council on the Laity at the Vatican in Rome. Members of the Mother of God Community believe they are called to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to grow in the knowledge of God through daily prayer, fellowship, evangelization, and service to the Church. Members include Christians from all walks of life – families, couples, priests, and singles, college students, seminarians, and retired people. There are members and affiliate members, but only about a dozen members actually live in the Community's large residential house.

The Mother of God Community began in 1966 right after the close of Vatican II, when various housewives, particularly Edith Difato (1924 - ) and Judith Tydings, and other individuals within Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Maryland, began experiencing a new awakening of the Holy Spirit and of God's love in their lives. They began meeting daily after Mass and read the documents of Vatican II and other works about the role of the Holy Spirit in both the lives of saints and in those of ordinary people. The first recorded prayer meeting took place on June 7, 1968, in the parish hall of Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac, Maryland with more than 90 persons in attendance. It is considered by many as the first prayer meeting in the Eastern part of the U.S. of the movement which would later be called the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, for it was shortly thereafter that participants began hearing about similar prayer meetings and outpourings of the Spirit in places like Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, South Bend, Indiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan and other cities. The prayer group in Potomac, which is within the Archdiocese of Washington, began communicating with these and other groups and soon Catholic Charismatic prayer groups began springing up throughout the U.S. and eventually all over the world. The group in Potomac became a catalyst for the start of other new prayer groups within the Washington, D.C. area and in other regions.

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