Weekly Letter: Sept. 3, 2023 Bulletin

Dear friends in Christ,

    “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” As far as opening lines go, you would be hard pressed to top those words from Jeremiah that we hear this weekend on the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jeremiah is a reluctant prophet, and for good reason. He knows the job is a hard one, and the people will not be open to his message. He’s going to suffer greatly for it, too.

    But he cannot turn back, and indeed he is compelled to go forward to proclaim God’s commandment. When he says he’s been duped, it is in the very best sense. If you will pardon the double negative, he cannot NOT do it. With a fire burning in his heart, he moves forward in mission to tell the truth, even as he knows it’s going to cost him personally. May we be compelled in like fashion to imitate Jeremiah and so live a life that reflects our love of God, and most importantly, of God’s love for us.

    In other news, on this Labor Day weekend we come to Mass to do “work.” Ironic, isn’t it? But our Sunday celebration of the liturgy is truly “the work of the Church.” Actually, all liturgy is the work of the Church. It’s what we do, and the “doing” of this good and holy work is our small way of giving praise and glory to God. Not that God needs our praise, but rather we have an innate need to give glory to God.

    And just as we would, I hope, not show up late or leave early for work, I gently remind you that the same goes for the work of the Church. Please make every effort to be on time at the start of Mass. As our crowds pick up after the summer lull, that may mean we need to leave home a few minutes earlier to assure that we get here on time, park, find a seat in the pews, say a few silent prayers and prepare our hearts to engage in the celebration. That takes work!

    The same is true at the end of Mass. You don’t dare “skip” out of work on a regular basis, do you? Yet every week I see streams of people pouring out of the church while others are still receiving Holy Communion. It boggles my mind. Mass is not over. It’s not time to leave. It’s disrespectful and it’s wrong. Your day will not be improved by leaving five minutes early. Unless you are elderly or need extra time or assistance in exiting the church, please return to your pew after you receive Eucharist, kneel and pray and give thanks to God for His wonderful gifts. Let’s work on getting out of the consumer mentality of church (“what I get”) and allow our hearts to be transformed by joyful thanksgiving (“what I give to God”).

    Next weekend we will again participate in the annual Missionary Cooperative Appeal of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. As you may recall, each year we host a visiting sister, priest or brother to inform us of the good work their religious order is doing in spreading the Gospel to all people throughout the world. It is our chance to unite our hearts with those at work in the missionary fields and to offer our support for their service. Missionary appeals are the chief ways these orders sustain their work, so I’d ask you to please be generous in the second collection that will be taken.

    Joining us next weekend will be Father Finbarr Felix of the Missionary Society of St. Paul (MSP), a congregation of priests founded in Nigeria in 1977 and which is very prominent here in our own Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston working in several local parishes. In addition to the U.S., the MSP priests work in 15 other countries. With more than 300 priests worldwide they are doing great work in Africa and beyond. Your support of their mission enables them to provide services such as offering rehabilitation and support for over 300 orphans who lost their parents due to AIDS in Malawi, and providing freshwater wells and education in rural communities of Chad, South Sudan, Kenya and Nigeria. It also helps sponsor more than 120 seminarians (they are one of the more robust religious societies in the world in terms of seminarians) and assists their society to establish and build new churches. Please join me in welcoming Fr. Finnbar to CtR and may we be open to his message and support the good work of the Missionary Society of St. Paul as they continue to take the good news of Jesus Christ to those who desperately long to hear it.

    Finally, I ask for your prayers for myself and a group of 79 parishioners as we leave on Monday, Sept. 4 for our pilgrimage to Egypt, Jordan, and the Holy Land of Israel. We will carry your intentions with us and we promise to pray for you in all the holy places, especially in Jerusalem. It’s always deeply moving to be in the land where our Lord walked and to look out upon the hills and Sea of Galilee where he ministered, and we’ll be celebrating Mass every day in many of the same places that we read about in the scriptures, including at the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Resurrection, which contains both Calvary where Jesus was crucified, and the empty tomb where he was buried and rose from the dead. I’m going to try to send updates every few days via Flocknote and social media to give you a sense of what we are seeing and where we are visiting. We will return on Sept. 16, so be nice to Fr. Vincent as he’ll be holding down the fort in my absence.

    Our offices are closed tomorrow on Labor Day. Please keep all who labor in your prayers as we honor the dignity of human work. We pray also for those searching for gainful employment. Remember that Cypress Assistance Ministries has a vibrant job placement program and stands ready to assist people in finding their way back into the workforce.

Peace, Fr. Sean