Happy Friday, everyone, and a
Happy Labor Day weekend, too. Hard to believe we’ve reached September, but apparently we have. All the days and months have begun to blend together for me, so I’ll take the word of my desk calendar that we are indeed now in September.
On this Labor Day weekend we will do the “work” of the Church, the celebration of the Church’s sacred liturgy. We do that every time we gather, but given that the dispensation from attending Sunday Mass is still in place, and many are being rightfully cautious before they resume attending, it’s understandable that the idea of the liturgy being “work” may have slipped our mind. But whether the church is filled to capacity, or if only the priest is present, the work is being done for the praise of God and the good of all of God’s people. Likewise, when you watch online and pray in your own home, that work continues. Not that God needs our praise, of course, but rather we have an innate need to give glory to God.
Labor Day is, of course, a secular holiday and not a Church holy day, so it’s understandable that our readings for the
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time this weekend don’t exactly address “work.” But I think we would be wise to pay heed to the beautiful Psalm 95 that will make up the responsorial psalm this Sunday:
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” It seems there is an awful lot of hardening of hearts that is going on in our world these days. Let’s not give in to the ways of the world, but rather resolve to make today – and everyday – a day when we hear his voice. If we make that our daily “work,” then our hearts will remain open to where God desires to lead us.
Our offices are closed Monday for Labor Day, though we will have 9 a.m. Mass that 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 in these times. May new horizons be opened up to them. Likewise, many workers have seen their hours or pay cutback as a result of the pandemic. May they have the grace and sustenance to persevere until better times present themselves.
For a holiday weekend, there’s a lot going on at the parish these days so let's get to it:
• First and foremost, as mentioned above, the “work” of the sacred liturgy will take place and so we invite you to please join us for Mass
via our livestream on Sunday at 9 a.m. on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. We had a bit of a hiccup last Sunday when our server went down across the entire campus, causing us to be delayed in getting the video link posted. We apologize for the inconvenience, but it really was a major outage that was out of our control. Thanks to all who were patient and understanding (we had the video up within an hour after Mass), and to those who were not so patient and understanding and who wrote emails complaining about it, well, thank you, too, I guess, and as we say in Texas, “Bless your heart.”
You can find the link to the livestream at
www.ctrcc.com/live-stream, and in addition, you’ll find there both a worship aid and a link to the Scripture readings to follow along with Mass. And you can make your weekly offertory contribution online at
www.ctrcc.com/donate. Thanks for your continued support of the parish.
If you’d like to join us in person for Mass, we of course welcome you on Saturday at 5 p.m., or Sunday at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
And remember that we will resume the public celebration of our 11 a.m. Mass next week on Sunday, Sept. 13 (so not this coming Sunday, but the Sunday following). It will be like our other masses in that we will be limiting attendance to 25 percent capacity and keeping social distance, but it’s our hope it will provide an extra opportunity for those of you who feel comfortable returning to public Mass. To help us in that regard, however, we need your assistance to serve as ushers, and greeters before Mass, and as the sanitizing team after Mass. It’s easy to do and we’ll show you the ropes, but the only way we can offer these public Masses is to have your assistance in serving the community. There’s a link to sign-up to help at
www.ctrcc.com/liturgy.
• We will celebrate a funeral Mass for
Corporal Wesley A. Rodd tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 5 at the parish. You may recall the news reports that Cpl. Rodd was one of eight servicemen (seven Marines and one Navy sailor) who were killed on July 30 in an amphibious assault vehicle accident off of San Clemente Island in California during training. Cpl. Rodd, 22, grew up in the neighborhood behind the church and was a graduate of Cy-Fair High School. Though not Catholic, he married a Catholic woman and was beginning formation to come into the Church through RCIA. He and wife would attend CtR whenever they visited Cypress, and they were with us to celebrate Christmas Mass last December. They have a son, Ezra, who was born earlier this year.
As Cpl. Rodd was much beloved in the community, we are expecting a very large turnout, so I would invite you to pray for him and his family, but I’d also ask that please do not come to the church for the funeral unless you were close to the Rodd family or had a connection with Wesley. We will live stream the Mass on our Facebook page, and you are welcome to watch and pray with us virtually. We are grateful to God for Cpl. Rodd’s service to our country and we pray that the Lord will bring comfort and consolation to his family.
May he, and his fellow servicemen who died alongside him, rest in peace.
• A number of parishioners have asked about assisting those who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Laura and so we’ve created a page with several resources at
www.ctrcc.com/floodhelp. First and foremost, please pray for those who have lost so much. We in Houston know firsthand how devastating a hurricane can be to a community and we want to lift up our neighbors to the Lord.
Next, CtR is partnering with
Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana to send supplies and monetary donations where they are needed most. Our own
Deacon Kerry Bourque made contact with them this week (it always helps to have a Cajun talk to a Cajun – they can truly understand one another!), and they tell us the greatest need at this time is for monetary donations and supplies for families who have been displaced from their homes. You can donate via an
Amazon Wish List on our webpage and the supplies will be sent directly to Catholic Charities who’ll make sure they get to those in need. Additionally, 100 percent of
financial donations made via the link will be used by Catholic Charities of Southwest Louisiana to get people back on their feet.
The Diocese of Lake Charles is grateful for our prayers and support, but stresses that donations are the best way to help at this time. I know there are some who’d like to visit in person to offer help, but they are asking that we hold off on that for the time being until the infrastructure of the city can handle the additional people. Many areas of Lake Charles are still without power and water service at this time.
Thank you for your help to our brothers and sisters in their time of need.
We’ll also have a collection basket available in the narthex this weekend if you’d like to donate cash or checks (make checks payable to CtR and include a note in the memo line, and then we’ll submit one large payment on behalf of us all).
• This weekend is also the annual 2
nd collection for the
University of St. Thomas and Catholic University of America. Catholic University in Washington, D.C., is the national university of the Roman Catholic Church and the only university founded by the Catholic bishops. St. Thomas is our local Catholic university in the heart of Houston and one of the nation’s top Catholic schools. Did you know that there is a parish scholarship available for any CtR parishioner who chooses to attend UST? We’re happy to support our students that attend UST and the university matches our parish donation. It makes for a nice pool of scholarship money available for our UST students from CtR. Thank you in advance for your generosity to Catholic higher education.
And being the first weekend of the month, it’s also
Cypress Assistance Ministries Food Pantry weekend, so for those who do come to Mass, we encourage you to bring items for the pantry. I saw on the CAM marquee that they are in need of mac and cheese, and I’m sure with school starting, there will also be a need for cereal, peanut butter and jelly, and other breakfast and lunch items. You can drop them off at the parish at any time, be it Sunday or during the week, and we’ll get it to CAM on your behalf.
• Thanks to everyone who donated school supplies during
Operation Backpack these past few weeks. All the supplies have been shared with local school children and with our friends at Our Mother of Mercy parish.
We’ll have a special Back-to-School blessing at all masses this weekend as our CtR Catholic School and the local Cy-Fair schools begin next Tuesday. May God keep all of our students and teachers safe and may holy wisdom accompany them throughout this academic year.
• Lastly I want to share with you (see photo) one of many kind notes we received from the women of
Angela House in Houston. Thanks to the generosity of CtR parishioners, we were able to provide new bedding for Angela House, which provides trauma-informed rehabilitative services in a safe, homelike atmosphere for formerly incarcerated women. It offers individual and group therapy, referrals for medical and mental health care, dental and vision care, job readiness training, twelve step-recovery groups, as well as emotional and spiritual support for up to 22 women at a time.
It is housed in the former priory of the Carmelite Fathers in southeast Houston, where as a toddler in the ’60s, I played while my mother played bridge with the priests at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish. Each resident has an individual room, but the beds were woefully past their usefulness. Your donations marked for “Outreach” in the CtR offertory each month helped assure that these women who are transitioning back to society can have a safe and comfortable place to sleep each night. Thank you for your generous support. The women were overjoyed with their new beds –
I especially like the one note that describes their comfort level as “people-eating beds.” That sounds pretty good to me!
St. Peter Claver, Patronal saint of the Diocese of Lake Charles, whose feast day is next Wednesday, Sept. 9, pray for us!