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January 9, 2025Dear friends in Christ,
This Sunday, we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which traditionally marks the 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time, and as such, is an opportune time for us to recall our own baptism. Most likely you were baptized as an infant, but for some, it comes later in life as a convert to the faith. Regardless of age, baptism cleanses us of original sin and inaugurates into a way of life. As we hear John the Baptist say in today’s Gospel, “He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with that comes a mandate to live our lives worthy of our calling. Every day we should strive to live that out in a more authentic and purposeful way. What a great mission God has entrusted to us!
When we truly encounter the risen Christ in our lives that experience should have a transformative result in us. We are never the same after meeting Christ. Think of the two travelers on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) whose lives are forever transformed when Jesus opens up the scriptures for them and breaks the bread. Such a change is possible for us, and in fact, God desires that personal relationship with us. A beautiful way to cultivate that relationship is to be a good steward of the gifts we have received.
This weekend is also our annual Stewardship Sunday. At the heart of everything we do at CtR, from Sunday worship, to faith formation, to service to the greater community, is a desire to joyfully give thanks to God for our many blessings. We recognize that each of us has been gifted by God. That’s at the core of our Christian faith. In baptism, God called each of us by name and gifted us with the Spirit. How do we return just a portion of that gift back to the Lord? That’s Stewardship in a nutshell.
At Mass this weekend we’ll have cards in the pews to help you plan for how Stewardship can become a way of life. I’d ask every adult (and even teens) to complete the prompts on the card, and return it next week, or to make it even faster and easier, there is a QR code on the card you can scan with your camera on your phone and complete online. The Stewardship commitment card is a way to grow your faith life while supporting the mission of the parish.
We like to speak of Stewardship in terms of looking at our G-P-S, that is our Giving, Praying, and Serving. At the start of the new year we might consider committing ourselves to a deepening of our personal prayer and devotion time. Likewise, we might prayerfully consider increasing our gifts of service by participating in one of our many ministries or organizations in the parish. We should also resolve to take a renewed look at how we are responding with our financial gifts. The size of the gift will differ with each one of us, but we all have a responsibility to the good of the community to give back in proportion to what we have received.
We do so primarily in two ways, or as we say in Latin, ad intra and ad extra. The weekly Sunday collection (offertory) is ad intra: it’s how we are able to pay our bills, compensate our hard-working staff, and continue the ministry and mission of the parish. Without your support, we can do none of that, so thank you for making it possible. The Diocesan Services Fund is ad extra: it supports the more than 60 ministries of the Archdiocese that no one parish can do on its own. We’ll speak more about that in a few weeks when DSF 2025 kicks off.
For now, if you have not reviewed your weekly tithe to the parish recently, might I ask that you take a renewed look at it? I know I have done so in my own personal giving and I have found that I can “bump up” my contribution. If you can as well, I invite you to do so. If not at this time, perhaps you will be able to do so later in the year. But let’s all make a conscious decision to give proportionally and prayerfully.
One easy way to do so is through our automated giving program called Faith Direct. I highly encourage you to consider making this your mode to support the parish. Most of us are accustomed to paying for items electronically online on a regular basis. We do so for our mortgages, car payments, tuition, credit cards, Amazon purchases, heck, even fast-food delivery. Why not make your church contribution online as well? It’s fast, easy, and secure.
To enroll in Faith Direct, visit www.faithdirect.net and enter our parish code of TX150. In just a few minutes you will be signed up and you can decide how much you wish to tithe to the weekly offering and any second collections. The size of the offering is not important. That’s between you and the Lord to determine. Every gift is a blessing, and every gift is important.
Automated offertory giving is a great benefit to the giver since you can control how often, and how much, you’d like to tithe each week, and how you want it to be collected (bank debit or credit card). It also makes it easier on you in that you need not worry about finding your checkbook (remember those?) and scribbling out a check or hoping that you have an extra $20 in your wallet when the basket comes around. It also helps the parish have a consistent offertory each week when people are gone on vacation or miss Sunday Mass. We as a parish can budget more properly and efficiently and meet our own obligations more easily.
More than 700 of your fellow parishioners, including myself, have found Faith Direct to be a great blessing. Please consider joining us and making your gift of the treasure of Stewardship to our community. As always, I am grateful for your generous support to CtR. It’s truly humbling to me, and as your pastor, I pledge that we will use everything you entrust to us for the benefit of our parish and the furthering of the mission and ministry of the Church. Thank you very much.
In other news, please keep our CtR youth in your prayers next weekend as more than 180 of them will be on their Confirmation retreat. I look forward to joining them for Mass next Saturday evening. The retreat is an important part of their journey toward the Sacrament of Confirmation the students will receive later in May. In particular I want to thank the adult chaperones and core team members who will join them this weekend. You can be proud of the fine teens (and our dedicated adults) of our Youth Ministry program. It’s just one example of how your gifts of Stewardship help us provide opportunities and support for all people to grow in their relationship with Christ, to encounter Him in the Church, and to go forth to make Him known through lives of service and love.
Peace, Fr. Sean