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April 3, 2024Dear friends in Christ,
Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Easter continues for 50 glorious days so let us celebrate with hearts and minds renewed in the Risen Christ. This Sunday, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday, a day dedicated to the Divine Mercy devotion that focuses on the mercy of God the Father through His Son, Jesus.
To commemorate the day, we will have a service at 3 p.m. Sunday in the church. Deacon Jack Alexander and our Divine Mercy Cenacle Prayer Group will lead a reflection on the devotion, and there will be a time of reading from Scripture, quiet reflection and Adoration of Blessed Sacrament, and then a recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. All are invited to join us for this time of prayer in thanksgiving for the gift of the Divine Mercy to the Church.
We also welcome 28 of our brothers and sisters into the Catholic faith at the 9 a.m. Mass as they make their Profession of Faith, are confirmed and receive Holy Eucharist. They join the 11 others who were baptized at the Easter Vigil (and one more who was confirmed). My thanks to our wonderful RCIA team that has prepared these 40 new Catholics over the past year (and more in some instances). Do you have a family member or friend interested in learning more about our Catholic faith? Invite them to “come and see” what the Church is all about. My thanks to Julie Cook, Director of RCIA and all the RCIA team for walking the walk with those who join our church.
I won’t say that “Easter is behind us” because the Resurrected Christ always goes before us, calling into a deeper union with the Father. But as we move through the coming 50 days our immediate attention now turns to our upcoming 39th annual Spring Festival, April 27-28 – just three weeks from now! Visit www.ctrcc.com/festival for a complete overview of everything. The website is a convenient “one-stop” clearinghouse for everything you might need related to the Festival.
After the break for Easter Sunday last week, our tent will be up again this weekend on the walkway between the church and Parish Hall after all masses, so please stop by to take care of a number of items in advance. Chief among them is to volunteer your time and talent over the weekend by taking a shift or two (usually in a block of two hours each) in one of our many booths, rides and games. The help and support of everyone in the parish, both young and old, is most needed. It’s a great way to give back to the life of the community. Sign up this weekend to ensure your spot helping in your favorite booth or game. You don’t even have to wait until this weekend – visit the Festival webpage to sign up online now.
Remember as well that we will need help the week leading up to the Festival. If you can’t help on the actual days of the Festival, consider lending your time in the days prior (help is most needed in the evenings), and even in the day or two after the Festival as we return items to storage. There’s no shortage of ways to lend a hand. See the website for additional information and times where help is needed most.
Now is the time as well to begin sorting through your garage or attic for items you’d like to donate to our always popular Flea Market. Get them ready and then you can begin dropping them off in the Community Center beginning on Saturday, April 20 and continuing throughout the week leading up to the Festival. You can even volunteer your time in the Community Center helping the team sort and price the donations (and maybe pick up an item or two yourself in advance).
Of course, one of the best, and quite frankly easiest, ways to support the Festival is to buy a book of raffle tickets. It’s a great way to show your support, and best of all, you have a chance to win the Grand Prize of a $12,000 Visa Gift Card, or one of several other gift cards that we'll be giving away. But you cannot win if you do not play! You can pick up tickets (or drop off money and stubs from sold tickets) after Mass at the Festival tent, or remember that you can also buy a raffle ticket online at the Festival website.
Other easy ways to assist include becoming a Festival Sponsor (we have several levels to choose from) as a way to help underwrite our expenses; selecting an item off of our Amazon Wish List that will be sent directly to the parish for our Live and Silent auctions; donating $5-10-20 gift cards from local stores and restaurants for the Mystery Booth; for those of you who are bakers, you can help out by making cakes and cookies to donate to the always popular Sweet Shoppe; and, finally, donating name-brand liter bottles of soft drinks (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite) or cases of bottled water for our booths. As you can see, there’s no shortage of ways to get involved, so join us as we count down the days to April 27-28. For all your Festival questions, visit www.ctrcc.com/festival or email [email protected].
Lastly, with Lent over now, we are wrapping our 2024 Lenten Almsgiving initiative with Catholic Extension to assist Sacred Heart parish in the Diocese of El Paso. Thank you to the hundreds upon hundreds of you who have contributed to help rebuild and repair the structure of the parish (the physical body of the Church, the building itself) so that the parishioners of Sacred Heart can continue to serve the poor and needy (the living body of the Church, the people of God). The online portal to give will close this Monday, April 8, so if you'd like to make your gift of alms, please do so by the close of business that day. We'll have the final tally for you in a couple of weeks, but I've already heard from Fr. Rafael Garcia, the pastor who joined us at the beginning of Lent, who expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude for our support. We'll look to continue this Lenten Almsgiving initiative with another project next year.
Peace, Fr. Sean