Bulletin for July 23

Dear friends in Christ,

I wrote in last week’s bulletin how we are in the middle of a long stretch of readings at Mass that all come from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. On this 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time we read a snippet (it’s only two verses) from Chapter 8 of one of the most well-known passages of the letter. Here it is in full: “Brothers and sisters: The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches the hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.”

That’s it – short and sweet, but so powerful, too. I particularly love the part about the Spirit coming to our aid for we do not know how to pray as we ought. Amen to that! I think we can all relate to not being able to pray at certain times. We go to God, but we are struck mute or our mind is a mess and we don’t know what to say or do at that moment. St. Paul is telling us to call upon the Holy Spirit at that time, and a perfect way to do so is to simply say, “Come, Holy Spirit,” or in Latin, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.” It’s a beautiful prayer for guidance of the Holy Spirit. Try it sometime when you feel you don’t know how to pray as you should. It’s an invitation to allow God (“the one who searches the heart”) to come to us. All we have to do is listen and trust in Him.

I am away from the parish this weekend as I make my way to South Bend, Ind., and the campus of the University of Notre Dame for a conference on Catholic preaching. Priests of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston are encouraged to participate in ongoing formation of their ministry, but I must admit I’ve been a bit negligent in that regard the past few years. It seems there is always something happening here that has kept me from going to a workshop or conference, but this year I’ve been able to clear my calendar for a few days. Preaching the Word of God is one of my true passions and this conference at Notre Dame is a good opportunity for me to sharpen my skills and learn from other talented preachers. I formerly taught homiletics (the theology of preaching) at St. Mary’s Seminary, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been engaged in it on a regular basis. There’s always new developments in the art of preaching and approaches of how to do it better. Just as you wouldn’t want to go to a doctor who hadn’t received any continuing education since medical school so should you be wary of a priest who hasn’t picked up a book or participated in a workshop since seminary days. I’m hopeful of putting to use what I learn to the betterment of our community.

I’ll be back later in the week. Fr. Ralph and the deacons will handle duties on Saturday and Sunday morning, and then my old friend, Fr. Dominic Pistone, will be the presider for the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday. Fr. Dominic (not to be confused with Fr. Dominic Peluse, SCJ, the former pastor of CtR who was in town visiting last week) joins us from time to time, usually to celebrate one of the evening Masses on the weekend. As I like to point out to him, he was my pastor many moons ago at St. Luke the Evangelist parish in southeast Houston when I was in high school and college. In fact, he’s the one who signed my application when I entered the seminary, so he’ll undoubtedly have to answer to St. Peter about that one day!

Fr. Dominic is now the full-time Catholic Chaplain at Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. He is present to visit the sick and administer the sacraments to those in need, and there are other priests like him who serve the other hospitals in the Medical Center. If you or a loved one are ever hospitalized in one of the hospitals there you can request the priest to come to your room for anointing or the Anointing of the Sick. It’s a vital ministry of our Archdiocese and it is made possible through your contribution to the annual Diocesan Service Fund (DSF) appeal that we undertake every January.

Our 2017 goal for the DSF is $305,000 and we are currently about $25,000 short of meeting it. We’ve got until the end of the calendar year to pay it, but I encourage you to make your pledge now if you have not done so already. All parishioners who have not yet pledged should have received a letter from Cardinal DiNardo. The Catholic Chaplain Corps at the hospitals is just one of more than 60 ministries that the DSF supports, and your pledge is important to keep those ministries alive and active in the community. It’s a wonderful way to go beyond ourselves at the parish and serve the larger Church of Galveston-Houston.

I would appreciate if you would look for your reminder from Cardinal DiNardo in the mail and make your DSF pledge today. We also have additional envelopes in the narthex of the church, or to make it even easier, you can follow the link on our parish website. It will take you to www.archgh.org/dsf and there you can make your pledge online. That’s how I made my pledge and it was fast, easy and secure. A gift of any size will be a great help to us meeting our goal and providing for others. Thank you for your support of the many ministries that benefit from the DSF.

Along that line please allow me to make my occasional plug for our online offertory platform, Faith Direct. On these summer weekends when many of us are traveling for vacations it is a great way to stay connected and help our parish. As at your home, our bills do not stop during the summer (indeed the electric bill goes up, just like in your home), and your weekly contribution allows us to meet our obligations. I love it for my personal tithing as it is one less thing I have to remember. There is a form on page 12 of the bulletin or you can sign up online at www.faithdirect.net and enter our parish code of TX150. Remember, you can also make your pledge to the  Living Our Mission: Shaping Our Future Capital Campaign via Faith Direct, too. Faith Direct also gives you the option of declining weekly offertory envelopes since they are not needed with automatic drafts. If you still receive envelopes in the mail that you do not use, let our front office know and we’ll take you off the distribution list. It saves the parish money as we are charged by the mailing house for all envelopes that are distributed. It’s a win-win for both you and the parish.

Lastly we say goodbye this week to Kyle Hatfield, our Assistant Director of Youth Ministry, who is leaving the parish with his wife, Angela, to join The Pines Catholic Camp in Big Sandy, Texas. Kyle has been with us just a year, but he did a great job working with our junior high students. He enjoyed his time with us, too, but camp ministry holds a special place in his heart and he feels called to this new position at The Pines. We thank him for working for us and hope to see him again in the future. Thanks, Kyle! A search for a new assistant director is underway now and I’m hopeful we can get the right person here before too long. Rachel and Bryan Smyth will hold down the ministry until then, and as always, parents are encouraged to get involved and help where possible. 

Peace,
Fr. Sean