Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, recently blessed the now-completed chapel at the newly constructed Sacred Heart Home in Hyattsville, Maryland.
With the Oct. 3 blessing, the nursing home is “now a house of God, built with love, labor, prayer and perseverance,” said Sister Vacha Kludziak, a member of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate and who for nearly 25 years has served as administrator of Sacred Heart Home.
“This chapel is not just a building – it is a living testimony to God’s love and faithfulness,” she said. “This sacred space now holds the Eucharistic presence of Jesus Christ, the living God, in our midst.”
The chapel is the centerpiece of the new nursing home that features four residential wings – each named and decorated for a season of the year – with private rooms with private bathrooms, common dining room areas, country kitchens and social activity areas.
“The chapel is the most important part of this building because this is where the Host is all the time,” Sister Vacha said. “This chapel gives our residents and staff a spiritual connection. It gives them a sense of meaning to their lives and to their work. This chapel elevates their self-worth.”
She said it was her prayer that “the Sacred Heart of Jesus reign in this chapel, this home and in every heart that enters this dwelling.”
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Sacred Heart Home, which has served the elderly by providing nursing care, spiritual care and other services in a building situated on nine acres on Queens Chapel Road.
The Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate assumed sponsorship of Sacred Heart Home in 1998 at the invitation of Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington. The order was founded in Poland in 1878. In this archdiocese, sisters also serve as sacristans at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The sisters are renowned for the care of the residents of Sacred Heart Home. It has consistently been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best places in Maryland for long-term care for the elderly. It has a five-star rating from the federal government, and a recent study conducted by an independent research group found that “respondents were unanimous in their praise for the care, compassion and service provided by the Sisters and staff … Sacred Heart was given very high ratings by all of the people we talked to as a model of what a senior care home should be.”
The new nursing home with chapel and an adjacent convent for the sisters were built after it was determined that the original facility constructed in 1926 required constant costly maintenance.
Construction began in 2020 on a new convent for the sisters because the existing convent had to be razed in order to make room for the new nursing home. The work was completed by Morgan-Keller Construction of Frederick, Maryland.
Construction was slowed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the blessing was delayed because Cardinal Pierre was in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis and the subsequent election of Pope Leo XIV.
After residents moved to the new building, the old building has been used by local and federal police agencies for K-9 and other training.
The altar for the new chapel comes from the former St. Laurentius Parish, which mainly served Polish Catholics in Philadelphia. It was closed in 2014 due to structural issues. The pews come from the now-closed Philadelphia monastery of the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary, several of whose members reside at Sacred Heart Home. The chapel also includes appointments from the previous chapel.
Sister Vacha said the chapel is a “place of grace, peace, hope, solace, healing and worship” where residents, staff and visitors can “feel the love of God and the love of this community.”
Among the 44 residents of the nursing home are several women religious and priests. The chapel is used each day for daily Mass and daily recitation of the rosary.
“We use it all the time – people pray throughout the day, and we also have First Friday devotions and Adoration,” said Ray Alcaraz, director of mission advancement at Sacred Heart Home. He noted that recently the grandson of a resident was married in the chapel so that his grandmother with mobility issues could attend the wedding.
For more information on the project and how to assist the sisters at Sacred Heart Home, call Ray Alcaraz at 301-277-6500.
“It is God Himself who enables us to be His instruments in every act of kindness, every offering of time, every whispered prayer and in every good deed,” said Sister Vacha. “We are the living stones of His Church, and together we have built a dwelling place for His Spirit.”
