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May 21, 2018Dear friends in Christ,
On the Feast of Pentecost this weekend we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus and what has come to be known as the “birthday of the Church.” Gathered together in Jerusalem, the followers of Jesus, who were comprised of every race and tongue, soon discovered themselves to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” It was a microcosm of what the Church would become: faithful believers in the saving work of Jesus Christ who are empowered by the Spirit to go and spread the Good News. That work continues today. We, too, come from different backgrounds and ways of life yet we are united by the Spirit of God to build up the Body of Christ in all we say and do.
Pentecost is also the close of the 50 days of Easter. For the past 90 days – 40 days of Lent and now 50 days of Easter – we have walked with the Lord. We were marked with ashes, shouted “crucify him” on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, waited at the empty tomb, rejoiced in the resurrection, and witnessed his ascension. What a journey these days have been for us spiritually. I love how the rhythm of the Church’s liturgical seasons helps frame our lives. Now, emboldened by the Spirit at Pentecost, we resolve to go forth to live as “intentional disciples!”
This Monday, May 21, Catholics throughout the world will get to celebrate a liturgy that has never been previously celebrated. Given that the Church is roughly 2,000 years old, that’s saying something! Pope Francis has designated the Monday after Pentecost to be the feast day of Mary, Mother of the Church. The date will change every year depending wherever Pentecost falls on the liturgical calendar, but this year it is tomorrow. We will celebrate this new feast day at our regular 9 a.m. Mass in the chapel.
Pope Francis added the memorial to the Roman Calendar after carefully considering how the promotion of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under this particular title might encourage growth in “the maternal sense of the Church” and in “genuine Marian piety,” said Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Cardinal Sarah noted that the “joyous veneration given to the Mother of God by the contemporary Church, in light of reflection on the mystery of Christ and on his nature, cannot ignore the figure of a woman, the Virgin Mary, who is both the Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.” The Marian title of “Mother of the Church” was first given to the Blessed Mother by Blessed Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council. Subsequently, some countries, dioceses and religious families were granted permission by the Holy See to add this celebration to their particular calendars. With its addition to the General Roman Calendar, it will now be celebrated by the whole Roman Catholic Church. Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!
Our two seminarians from CtR have just finished their academic year at Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas, and, I’m happy to report, did well in their studies and are continuing on in their discernment. Please keep Angelo Luna and Matthew Najvar in your prayers. Angelo, who just finished his first year of studies, will live at the rectory this summer and you’ll find him assisting us in a variety of ministries at CtR. He’ll be with us through June and July and our plan is to get him involved in as much as possible so he can get a feel for the rhythm and life of the Church and the priesthood. I am encouraging all of our departments and ministries that are active in the summer to invite him to your meetings and events. We want to put him to work!
Matthew has completed his second year of studies and will be working as a missionary intern this summer with Dumb Ox Ministries in Louisiana presenting a series of retreats for high school students and young adults on St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. This is a particular important movement in the Church and Dumb Ox Ministries, named after the great St. Thomas Aquinas, does wonderful work in bringing youth and young adults to a greater awareness of the dignity of the human person through their retreats.
As part of his internship, Matthew is fundraising to help offset the cost of the ministry, and you are invited to help support him in his efforts. We’ve made a donation in the name of the parish, but if you’d like to personally contribute to his internship you may do so though the website. Click on the “Sponsor a Summer Missionary” link, and enter Matthew’s name in the comments section. Or if you’d like, you may make a donation to CtR and indicate that it is for Matthew Najvar’s summer internship, and we’ll make sure it goes to support him. Any amount is welcome, but above all please keep Matthew and Angelo in your prayers as they continue in their formation, and please pray that more young men from our parish might follow them in discerning God’s call to enter the seminary.
Lastly, Fr. Ralph and I, along with about 200 of our brother priests, will be in Galveston for a few days this week attending our Priests Convocation. We gather every two years with Cardinal DiNardo to focus on a topic of study (this year, we’re taking a look at ministry in the aftermath of trauma – timely in that many priests and parishes are still dealing with a new reality in light of Hurricane Harvey), conferences, and workshops. We’ll hear from the Cardinal on pastoral initiatives in the Archdiocese and to enjoy a few days of fraternal brotherhood with our fellow priests. Please pray for us and know that you will be in our prayers, too. There will be no daily Mass on Tuesday-Thursday this week, but our deacons will be leading morning prayer on Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m., and evening prayer on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Peace, Fr. Sean
P.S.: This Thursday, May 24, we will celebrate a milestone at our CtR Catholic School with the first-ever 8th grade graduation Mass and ceremony. This is just our fourth year of existence for the school and we are graduating 16 young men and women who are moving on to various local Catholic and public high schools next year. We congratulate them and their families on this great accomplishment and thank them for being wonderful examples of leadership to all of our CtR Catholic School students. We are proud of the legacy they leave behind as our first graduating class!
