The Eucharist is at the heart of our Catholic faith. Our belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar is not just one aspect of what it means to be Catholic. It is everything! If Christ’s presence were merely symbolic then we wouldn’t feel the distance from it we do when we don’t have it.
And that, of course, is the question we must ask.
Do we truly believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist? There have been many studies over the past few years that show Catholic belief in the Real Presence is at its lowest point in history. This is a grave threat to our foundational belief. We must reclaim, teach, and share that belief that Christ is really present to us.
And as ironic as it might seem I think this period of the pandemic is just the time to do so. When we did not have public Mass for six weeks earlier this spring, did you miss the Eucharist? Before you answer that question, ask yourself this one: Did I miss the Eucharist itself or did I miss “going to Communion?” There’s a difference. One is an action or ritual; the other is the very body and blood of our salvation.
I know many are still social distancing from Mass and, of course, the obligation to attend is still dispensed. No one is required to come, and I think that is a good thing that many, particularly for those who are most vulnerable or who care for those in high-risk categories. I know you truly miss not only the act of communion but also the Eucharist itself. Many of you have shared emails or notes to me telling me that very thing. But please know this: Your desire for the Eucharist, and the sacrifice you are making for the good of others to be absent from it, is a beautiful witness. It speaks volumes to your love of Christ and neighbor. God bless you for that!
• Join us for Mass this weekend in honor of this great feast of the Eucharist, either in person on Saturday at 5 p.m., or on Sunday at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Remember our Sunday 9 a.m. Mass is livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. You can find a worship aid to follow along at
www.ctrcc.com/live-stream
This week, immediately following the 9 a.m. Mass, we will have a Holy Hour in honor of Corpus Christi Sunday. It will begin at the end of Mass and continue in the main church until 11 a.m., when we’ll close with Benediction. There’s a great tradition of offering a Holy Hour on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (Pope Francis will be doing the same in Rome on Sunday), so we’ll offer that opportunity as well. If you are coming to Mass, you are, of course, welcome to stay for any or all of the Holy Hour, and if you are watching the livestream, we’ll plan to keep it going for the entire hour so that those at home can join in remotely.
• If you will be joining us on the livestream, I ask you to please remember your offertory support of the parish by donating online at
www.ctrcc.com/donate. It’s fast, easy, and secure either via Faith Direct or PayPal. There’s a long tradition in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston that 100 percent of the Corpus Christi Sunday collection goes to support St. Mary’s Seminary for the training of future priests. That makes sense as without the priesthood there is no Eucharist.
It does mean, however, that we miss out on an entire week’s collection for the parish each year on this particular Sunday, and this year, given our drop in attendance due to the virus and suspension of Mass, that will be felt even more acutely.
Cardinal DiNardo is allowing us a one-time exemption to keep 10 percent of the collection this week, but that still is a big loss for us. By all means we need to support the seminary, but I ask you to please perhaps remember the parish double next week as we make up the loss in offertory this week.
I’ll have more to share with you next week on our parish budget. We are wrapping up our current fiscal year and planning for the new one on July 1. As you can imagine, it will be especially tight for the foreseeable future as we see where we will be in terms of parish operations come the fall.
• Summer officially arrives next Saturday, but let’s be honest: it’s here already! We usually have a host of activities planned at this time, but many of those have been postponed or reformatted due to the pandemic. We invite you to visit
www.ctrcc.com/summer to learn about a couple of virtual offerings that we have on tap, including Virtual Vacation Bible School. Never to be deterred, our Youth Ministry (which accounts for many of our summer happenings most years) still has a host of ways that they’ll be connecting with the kids over the next couple of months. See their plans at
www.ctryouth.com
• Summer is also an excellent time to explore CtR Catholic School as you begin to make plans for education in the fall. See
www.ctrschool.com for all the details. Applications are open now for Pre-K through 8th grade and tours are also available throughout the week. Come see what CtR School can offer that no other school can. Our administration team is at the school each day and is hard at work preparing for the 2020-21 school year, taking into account all state and archdiocesan guidelines for safety in light of the ongoing coronavirus precautions. Much is still to be determined, of course, but we’ll be ready to meet the needs of our students and parents whatever the fall might bring.
Likewise our Genesis Early Childhood Program has openings available for our youngest learners (18 months – 4 years) at
www.ctrcc.com/genesis
• Lastly, join me in a birthday shout-out tomorrow for our own
Carrie Taylor, Director of Communications for CtR. Carrie has been instrumental in assisting us with parish-wide communications ever since the pandemic began. She updates the website, oversees our social media pages, responds to messages on Facebook during the livestream, films nearly all of our videos, and a host of other things to keep everyone in the loop and up-to-date even while we are apart. We appreciate her hard work on behalf of us all in helping us stay connected.
She’s a native daughter of CtR, too, having grown up in our RE and Youth Ministry programs, and even met her husband, James Taylor, at CtR, got married here and baptized their three children here. Her mom, Carolyn, is our parish bookkeeper and her grandmother, Loretta, is our No. 1 office volunteer. You don’t get more CtR than that! Thank you and
Happy Birthday, Carrie! (I can’t say how old she is, but she did remind me that I’ve known her more than half her life and I’ve been the pastor here 16 years. Good thing math is not my strong suit.)
St. Anthony of Padua, whose feast day is tomorrow, pray for us!