Mother of God Community - Community School and Property

Community School and Property

In order to provide a Catholic school for their children, in 1987 community members voted to purchase a wedged-shaped piece of land along Goshen Road on the northern perimeter of Montgomery Village. The Mother of God School began that Fall in an unused public school building in the Aspen Hill area of Montgomery County, Maryland, and two years later the School was transferred to the a newly built, three story structure on the purchased property in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The third level of the School building was largely devoted to office space and the other two stories housed the School, K thru 8th Grade. A few years later a building with four classrooms and large gym with a vaulted ceiling was added to the School. Today the gym is not only used by the School, but is also used as a place of worship for a Byzantine Catholic community on Sunday mornings, for the Community’s weekly prayer meeting on Sunday evenings, and for other activities. Originally, as another Catholic school was being built for parishes in the northern part of Montgomery County, the Archdiocese of Washington had requested that the Mother of God School be restricted to Community members and their children. However, it is now open to all children and, although still a private Catholic School, it is affiliated with the Archdiocesan School System and tries to adhere to that System's policies. The School now has a sizable pre-K program as well.

At the same time that the School was built there was erected on the property a three story, monastic like residence which contains five apartments, a large chapel, living room, library, and a common kitchen and dining room. The residence, now known as “Goshen House,” is the center for many community gatherings and has been the home of various couples, singles, priests, and consecrated religious who have felt called to live together in Christ in a more immediate sense just as Jesus lived with and formed his early disciples in a common lifestyle. At one time Joe Difato and his family had lived in one of the apartments.

It is a coincidence that the Mother of God Community property is directly across the street from a parish site, St. John Neumann Catholic Church, where most Community members also attend.