Falls Church, VA – “Hey man, wanna jet?” local Catholic John Irish asked his roommate at a party filled with single Catholic women.  “Sure, let’s go home.  I’m kinda tired, and we have to get up early tomorrow,” replied his roommate, Paul. “There are a lot of cute girls at the 7 am Mass.”

John, an un-married, should-be father of four, reportedly had a great time at the party.  “Man, there were so many cute girls there,” he told Paul as they shared an Uber ride back to their Arlington apartment.  “Did you get any numbers?” asked Paul.  “No, but I am going to friend a couple of people on Facebook,” replied John.  “How long do you think I should wait before doing that?”  “Definitely 3 days, man.  Don’t want to appear desperate,” Paul replied.

“Oh, wow, dude.  One of the girls just sent me a friend request,” John said, looking at his phone.

“Which one?” Paul asked.  “The cute teacher from St. Mary’s that you were talking to for like an hour?”

“Yeah…she was cute, but why would she send me a friend request so soon?  I mean, we just met. What do you think she means by that?”

“I don’t know,” Paul replied.  “Invite her to Theology on Tap…actually, tell her you’re going to ToT.  See if she shows up.”

John brightened up.  “You know, Mary is friends with her.  I’ll ask her to tell her that I might be there.”

The conversation continued at their apartment after John fed their cat, the only female that he has had dinner alone with in the past three years.

“So, who’s going to be at brunch tomorrow?” Paul asked.

“The usual crowd.  Steve, Pete, Mike, Alan, Dave and Tom,” replied John.

“Do you think we could get any girls there?” asked Paul, forgetting that he had just been at a party with fifty women who would have gone, if asked.

“Well, I was going to ask the teacher, but I don’t think so now.” John said.  “I want to see her a couple of more times before I take it to that level.”

“You know, it is just so hard to meet the right girl in this town,” exclaimed an exasperated John, who has met more beautiful women in the past month than most DC bachelors meet in a year.  “I know God has a plan for me, but sometimes it seems like no matter what I do, I stay single.”

“Have you tried praying the novena to Saint Roch?”

“Several times.  I even asked my good friend Beth to pray it with me.  I never received any signs, though.”

“So whatever happened with that girl that you kept inviting to the movie nights at St. Joseph’s?” asked Paul.

“Well, we had fun, but then she kind of drifted away.  I really thought we had clicked at the movie nights, but when I asked her last week to meet up with us for drinks, I never got a response.  What about you?  Weren’t you talking to that one girl on Catholic Match for a month?”

“Yeah, we had some great conversations.  But, after praying about it, I realized that she wasn’t right for me.  She’s into Medjugorje, and you know man, the Church hasn’t approved that.  Also, did you notice that thing with her left eyebrow in low light situations?”

“Dude, maybe we should move to like New York or something.  I have a friend who shares a house with a bunch of other guys, and they are always meeting really cute girls at parties,” his roommate replied.  “Maybe we could get four other guys to share a place with us up there.”

“Aren’t you glad you didn’t go to the seminary?” Paul reminded him, as he picked up another slice of pizza.  “Yeah, dude.  A life of celibacy??  No way!” the 45-year old John replied.