It’s Friday once again, my friends, and we have much to be thankful for – as always. We made it through Hurricane Laura this past week with not so much as a drop of rain here in Houston, and while we are grateful that the Lord spared our community, we stand with our brothers and sisters in Lake Charles and southeast Texas who took the worst of it. We lift them up to the healing mercy of God and we stand ready to assist them in their recovery.
I’ll have more on that below.
Secondly, today is Feast Day of one of my favorite saints,
St. Augustine, so I am especially joyful and grateful to the Lord for giving us this wonderful man of God. The late 4
th – early 5
th century Bishop of Hippo (modern-day Algeria) in Northern Africa, Augustine was the oldest son of
St. Monica, whose feast day was yesterday.
He was a rebellious young man, taken with excess and the way of the world, but through the constant prayers of his mother, had a conversion later in life and was eventually baptized (by
St. Ambrose, no less) in his early 30s. He wrote of his conversion in his now famous book, “Confessions,” which is one of the great spiritual autobiographies of all-time. He’s considered a giant in Catholic philosophy and theology, and is rightfully remembered as one of the Doctors of the Church. Of his many famous writings and sayings, I am particularly fond of this:
“Late have I learned to love you, beauty at once so ancient and so new!” St. Augustine is a wonderful example to us all that it is never too late to discover the wonders of God.
As we celebrate the
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time this weekend, we’ll hear these words of our Lord, which undoubtedly Augustine reflected on in his life as he made his way from a life of sin to giving himself totally to God: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” May we have the courage to do likewise.
On to the news of the week:
• Of course, we invite you to please join us for Mass via our
livestream on Sunday at 9 a.m. on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. You can find the link to the livestream at
www.ctrcc.com/live-stream, and in addition, you’ll find there both a worship aid and a link to the Scripture readings to follow along with Mass. And you can make your weekly offertory contribution online at
www.ctrcc.com/donate. If you’d like to join us in person for Mass, we welcome you on Saturday at 5 p.m., or Sunday at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Remember we will resume our 11 a.m. Mass in two weeks on Sunday, Sept. 13 (the Sunday after Labor Day). It will be like our other masses in that we will be limiting attendance to 25 percent capacity and keeping social distance, but it’s our hope it will provide an extra opportunity for those of you who feel comfortable returning to public Mass. To help us in that regard, however,
we need your assistance to serve as ushers, and greeters before Mass, and as the sanitizing team after Mass. It’s easy to do and we’ll show you the ropes, but the only way we can offer these public Masses is to have your assistance in serving the community. There’s a link to sign-up to help at
www.ctrcc.com/liturgy.
• Regarding helping in the recovery efforts of Hurricane Laura, I am awaiting official word from the Diocese of Lake Charles and the Diocese of Beaumont on how we can assist them. As you might imagine, the first few days after the storm are being spent assessing damage, clearing roadways, and getting power back up. It seems Beaumont fared much better than Lake Charles, but there is a lot of destruction everywhere. I’ve heard from a few who would like to go assist those in need with manpower, but I think we’d be wise to wait and see where they are asking for the help. For now we can best assist them with our financial donations through
Catholic Charities USA, which is partnering with their own chapters in Beaumont and Lake Charles to get the aid immediately to those impacted the greatest. You can donate via the red link on the top of their website at
www.catholiccharitiesusa.org. I did so today and encourage you to do likewise if you are in a position to help.
• Speaking of the hurricane that missed us, did you stock up on supplies and food items earlier in the week? If so and you find yourself now with an abundance of food in your pantry, might I suggest you donate it to the
Cypress Assistance Ministries Food Pantry? We’ll take it off your hands and redirect it out into our own community. We take Food Pantry donations all the time, but if your cupboards are overflowing, CAM could sure use the help. Requests for assistance from the Food Pantry (
www.cypressassistance.org) are running at an all-time high during the pandemic, and this would be a great way to help them while ensuring that nothing expires while it sits in your pantry. It’s a win-win for everyone.
• We’re going to be wrapping up the active phase of our
2020 CtR Census soon. I thank all who have responded so far, and if you still haven’t completed it, I’d ask you to do so this week at
www.ctrcc.com/census. It’s quick and easy, taking less than five minutes, and we’ll be a great help to us in updating our database to get information to you in a timely manner of your choosing. On the worship aid at Mass this weekend you’ll see a
QR code that you can scan using the camera app on your phone. It will take you directly to the Census form where you can complete it. Likewise, we’ll have the QR code on the screen during the announcements at Mass for those watching the livestream. Just point your camera app to your screen and
Bam! (to quote Emeril!), the Census will pop up on your phone for you to complete. Ain’t technology grand, my friends? Of course, if you’d like to complete it old-school style, just call us at the office and we’ll talk you through it. The choice is yours, but
please do complete the Census. It will be a great help to our parish. Thanks!
• A note to parents: please remember to
register your children for Religious Education (Pre-K through 6
th grades) and Youth Ministry (7
th-12
th grades) by this coming Monday, Aug. 31. We need to get a head count in advance of the Catechetical Year which will start on Sept. 20. See
www.ctrcc.com/re for the details.
• As we head into September we’ve got a lot of opportunities to engage and grow in the faith resuming after the summer hiatus. There’s Catholic Scripture Study (CSS) starting soon, a Fall Book Study group, a new program offered by the Divorced and Separated Ministry, the Cana Experience group for mothers of young children, and much, much more. To stay up on all that is happening, simply go to our main parish web page at
www.ctrcc.com, and
scroll about halfway down to the section entitled “What’s New at CtR.” (Clever, huh?) There you’ll find links to all those programs and ministries. I know it’s different in the age of Covid, but your parish is alive in Christ, my brothers and sisters. We’ve never shut down – we’ve only transitioned into a new way of being Church and we’ll continue to evolve to serve you in your journey toward Christ.
As St. Augustine himself says, “Ever ancient, ever new!”