Bulletin for May 28

Dear friends in Christ,

    Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. We remember Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father where He sits in glory until He comes again, a belief we profess every Sunday in our Creed. This feast is celebrated 40 days after the Easter resurrection which by tradition would have put it on the calendar for last Thursday. Some of you may remember “Ascension Thursday” holy days from your youth. It is still celebrated on that Thursday in some of the dioceses, but several years ago nearly every other diocese, including the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, chose to move the celebration to Sunday to highlight its prominence and give more people an opportunity to celebrate. So to be clear – you did not miss a Holy Day of Obligation! It just moved a few days down the calendar so that we might celebrate it in all its glory today.

Next week we close out the great 50 days of Easter with the celebration of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit as Jesus has promised. You are invited to wear red to Mass next Sunday as we did on Palm Sunday as a visual reminder of the gift of the fire of the Holy Spirit. 

We mark an anniversary and transition this week in one of our most popular and important ministries at CtR. It’s the 14th anniversary of the establishment of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. In our Adoration Chapel near the front of our campus (adjacent to the daily Mass chapel), the Blessed Sacrament is always available to us. What a blessing it is to have access to our Lord in his Eucharistic body at any hour of the day or night. It is a way to cherish and extend the gift of the Mass throughout the week. I highly encourage you to stop by the Adoration Chapel before or after Mass, or any time during the week, to give thanks to God.

For the past 10 years, George Valdez has overseen this ministry for our community and has done so with a care and devotion that is to be admired. His great love of adoration has inspired many in our parish over the years, and he has organized a great system of “adorers” who scheduled time to be in the chapel. This week George passes on his role as Coordinator of Eucharistic Adoration to Anthony Brown. I am grateful to George for his ministry and thankful to Anthony for stepping in to carry it forward. Please join me in thanking George for his tireless service to our parish, and to adoration in particular. What a blessing he has been to us, and while he will still be found in the chapel in prayer in the presence of our Lord, he can do so now in knowledge that Anthony and others will keep it running smoothly. Thank you for your ministry, George!

We have more than 300 parishioners who dedicate an hour a week at all hours of the day and night to spend in adoration. We do have, however, some hours in the week when there is just one person in adoration. It would be wonderful to fill that time with additional adorers. Please consider joining this most vital ministry of our parish. It’s a blessing not only to the one who spends time in adoration, but clearly for the parish as a whole. There is information in the foyer of the Adoration Chapel on how to join.

Speaking of Wednesday, our school year concluded this past week, and so we’ll suspend our weekly 8:30 a.m. Mass on Wednesdays during the summer until the kids return in August. Our regular Wednesday evening Mass continues, of course. Since this is the last Wednesday of the month, the Mass this week will include the Anointing of the Sick.

A parishioner remarked to me recently that they were unaware that we anointed people each month. We do! Every last Wednesday of the month our Mass includes the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. If you have a surgery or hospitalization scheduled soon, we encourage you to attend the Mass so that you might be anointed. Others who have chronic or long-term illness, such as cancer and the like, are also invited to be anointed. Of course, if you are unable to attend the Mass on the last Wednesday, Fr. Ralph and I are happy to anoint you at any time by scheduling an appointment.

If you missed the announcement last weekend I’m happy to report that our recent CtR Spring Festival was our second biggest ever in our 32 years, tying last year’s total, by bringing in more than $233,000 for the parish. Thank you one and all who made it possible.

Leading the way was once again the live and silent auctions which brought in a whopping $148,933, the highest ever. (Thank you to Tony and Beckie Croes, our auction chairs, and Dan Block and Briz Garcia, our auctioneering team!) The raffle ticket sales for the new vehicle, along with the tickets and the great looking T-shirts, netted a $35,111, and the Flea Market also had more than $10,000 in sales for only the third time in our history. (Thank you Claire Westlake and team!) Every booth, ride and game did well over the weekend, but beyond that I think that everyone who attended had a great time. All of that was made possible to you, the parishioners of CtR, who gave of your time. Thank you again to everyone who volunteered in a booth, bought a ticket, or lent a hand in any way. We couldn’t have done it without you. As for what the parish does with the funds generated by the Spring Festival, it always goes to a variety of areas and ministries. We certainly will use it to help pay down our debt obligations, but we’re also going to use some of it this summer on capital improvements and updates to our physical plant. More updates on those as the summer unfolds.  

Let me again express my sincere thanks to our dedicated core committee, led by Mike and Camille Havelka, our general chairpersons. My sincere thanks to them and all of their great team. What a blessing they all are to our parish. And remember they are parishioners just like you and me. They give of their time and talent to make this possible, so be sure and thank them when you see them at church, and better yet, join them next year by getting involved and doing your part. It’s a community event and when we all participate as joyful stewards we are blessed beyond measure.

The Archdiocese will also be blessed with four new priests who will be ordained next Saturday, June 3. Please note that we will not hold confessions next Saturday so that Fr. Ralph and I might attend the ordination of these new priests to welcome them to our presbyterate. Please keep them in your prayers as they begin their ministry. 

Our offices are closed Monday, May 29, for Memorial Day. Please join us in remembering all those who died while serving in the military for our great country. May God grant them eternal peace, and bring comfort to their families. I have been asked to offer the Invocation and Benediction at the annual Memorial Day program on the grounds of Houston National Cemetery on Veterans Memorial Drive this year. It will be my honor to lead the prayers for those who have served. The program begins at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public.

Peace, Fr. Sean