June 19 update from Fr. Sean

Parish Update – Friday, June 19

Happy Friday and  Happy Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! As mentioned at the start of the month, June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart and today, 19 days after Pentecost on the Friday after Corpus Christi Sunday, is always the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. While not a holy day, it is a beautiful feast for us to reflect upon the merciful heart of our Savior. (Tomorrow, by the way, is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.)

Today’s feast was first celebrated in the 17th century, though devotion to the Sacred Heart began much earlier and can even be traced back to the early Church Fathers like St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Ambrose. It was  St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French mystic nun, however, who popularized it when she received several private revelations of the Sacred Heart in 1673. The mother superior of her religious order wasn’t easily convinced of the authenticity of these revelations, but through perseverance and prayer, they were later verified and the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been praised ever since. We owe a lot to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque!

The Sacred Heart leads us into the  12th Sunday of Ordinary Time this weekend. (You’ll be seeing nothing but green vestments from now until November.) I love the opening line from this Sunday’s Gospel from St. Matthew:  “Fear no one.” Period. Those words of Jesus to his disciples are applicable to you and me, my brothers and sisters. We are not to be afraid because the Lord has set us forth in mission to preach (live) the Good News. Do not worry about what tomorrow might bring. Go forth and be not afraid for the Lord is leading his people.

Of course, this Sunday is also a time to wish a  Happy Father’s Day to all our dads. We honor all of our fathers, both the living and deceased, and thank them for the gift of life they provide. Let us call upon the patron saint of fathers, St. Joseph, to watch over and intercede on behalf of all of these good men. And let us not forget the wonderful gift of life that grandfathers, adopted fathers, stepfathers, foster fathers and Godfathers offer their children. May God bless them all! (Our Religious Education department has some good resources for kids that connects Father's Day, Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary at  www.ctrcc.com/re.)

In other news:

• Join us for Mass this weekend, either in person (wear a mask, please) at 5 p.m. Saturday, or at 9 a.m. or 5 p.m. on Sunday, or else plan to tune in at 9 a.m. for the  livestream via Facebook or YouTube. We apologize for the audio difficulties during last week’s Mass. We got those worked out later that same day and hopefully they are a thing of the past, but sometimes the technical gremlins like to remind us they are still lurking. You may notice a different look to the livestream this weekend as we will be trying out new cameras that have been installed in the church. We’re going to move away from the temporary tripods and instead have fixed cameras with higher zoom capability and greater resolution in the back of the church. The angles will be slightly different than in the past, but let us know how it looks. Remember you can find a Worship Aid and a link to the readings to follow along with the online Mass at  www.ctrcc.com/live-stream.

• As so many of you have been doing, we also invite you to make your  weekly tithe while joining us online for Mass. Your continued support of the parish offertory is a great help to the parish during this time. We’re blessed that participation in electronic giving has greatly increased the past few months (thank you!), but of course, our total collections have dropped significantly since we’ve had to curtail our masses.

Tomorrow is National eGiving Day and we invite those of you who have not yet signed up to donate electronically to prayerfully consider doing so at this time. We have two options, Faith Direct of PayPal, and you can find the link to do so at  www.ctrcc.com/donate. It’s quick, easy, and secure, and whether you are making a one-time gift, or (hopefully) starting up a recurring weekly or monthly offertory amount, we thank you for your support. eGiving helps us greatly in that we save considerably on the printing and mailing costs of parish envelopes as well as on check processing fees from our bank. Of course, we’ll still accept mailed in or dropped off envelopes. I know many of you like that tradition and that’s fine. But if you’ve thought about moving to eGiving, tomorrow would be a great day to do so to help support our ongoing mission. Thank you always for your continued generous support of CtR.

• If you have not yet signed up for our upcoming  Virtual Vacation Bible School, scheduled for July 13-17, now is the time to do so. We’ll need to close registration at the end of the month to make sure we have enough supplies and volunteers (yes, even though it is online, we still need volunteers to help us make it happen). Get all the information on registration (and to sign-up to help) at  www.ctrcc.com/vbs. It’s shaping up to be a great week. We already have families signed up from more than 10 states who plan to join us. Make plans to join us!

• We have an Open House planned for  CtR Catholic School next Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. It will be in-person at the school, and we’ll of course be following all social distancing practices. Masks are required, and for this session, to help us manage it safely for all, we ask that only adults attend. You can RSVP to attend by following the link at  www.ctrschool.com/events/summer-open-house.

Our school staff has been busy making plans to welcome students back to our campus beginning on Aug. 19. We’re following all guidelines and procedures – which are evolving daily, it seems – from the state and local authorities, as well as the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, but we’re committed to making it safe for our students and faculty alike. Come see all that CtR School has to offer those seeking a Catholic education  committed to excellence in educating young hearts in body, mind, and spirit. We have openings in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 8th so please help us spread the word to families who might be interested in learning all that we have to offer their children.

• Please keep our Youth Ministry team in prayer next week as they host a  Franciscan LEAD retreat for high school teens on our campus. The LEAD (Leadership, Evangelization, and Discipleship) retreat comes from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where our youth ministers all graduated from, that teaches authentic, lasting leadership that flows from intimacy with Christ. It’s usually held elsewhere, but with the pandemic, we’re hosting it on campus with all safety precautions. It’s a great opportunity for some of our teens to grow closer to the Lord and learn how to lead others like Christ. Pray for them!

• We were blessed to be joined by  Joseph White at Mass this morning. You may recall Joey was with us last summer as a seminarian intern. He’s set to be ordained a transitional deacon a week from today, Friday, June 26 at the Co-Cathedral. He’ll still have a year of formation and studies to complete before his ordination to the priesthood next summer. Hopefully he’ll be able to return to Rome in the fall where he was studying but that’s still to be determined. Though the ordination is not open to the public because of the pandemic, please remember him and the three other young men who will be ordained with him. We look forward to their continued ministry and to their eventual priestly ordination next year.

Praise be to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, now and forever! Amen.

Peace, Fr. Sean