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August 14, 2024Dear friends in Christ,
Our first reading on this 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time comes from the Book of Proverbs and it is particularly lovely and inviting. I’m fond of the opening line: “Wisdom has built her house.” In Hebrew literature Wisdom is always feminine in nature and is God’s first creation. Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit that offers grace that allows one to practice virtue more perfectly. Thus it is that we are invited to come to the table of Wisdom, eating and drinking her food and wine, so that we might advance in the way of understanding. That sounds like a dinner party I want to attend.
As we are created by God, we can come to discover the beauty and knowledge in the world around us, but true wisdom can only come from its source – namely God alone. We must strive for such wisdom by conforming ourselves ever more to the Son of God. That is why the dinner invitation of Lady Wisdom will ultimately lead us to the banquet of life that is Jesus’ body and blood that we hear about in our Gospel this Sunday from John 6. It’s our fourth of five consecutive weeks of hearing these important words of our Lord. He is the living bread that has come down from heaven. He is Wisdom incarnate. Come to the table!
In other news, I shared with you a financial snapshot of the parish as we enter into a new fiscal year. If you missed it, you can find it on our parish website. This week, we take a look at some of our pastoral numbers from the past year. Every summer all the parishes of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston are asked to complete a report that gives a snapshot of the local church. As with our finances, I also like to share this information with the parish family as it gives us a good overview of the sacramental life and ministry of our community of Christ the Redeemer.
The first number won’t come as a surprise – we continue to grow at a strong rate. CtR now numbers 7,581 registered families. For the past several years we have averaged anywhere from between 200-300 new families yearly. As I always say, come one, come all. We’ll make room. All are welcome here!
As we welcome all who have joined the parish in the past year, I also remind you that if you’ve been attending a while and haven’t yet registered, please do so today. It’s quick and easy to do – just stop by the information desk in the narthex (by the welcoming monitor) after any Mass and pick up a form, and return it either in the offertory basket next week, or drop it by or mail it to the parish office. That’s the old school way, but, of course, you can also register electronically on our parish website. It’s quick and easy to do so.
Registering as a parishioner might be a different concept for some people. Though it’s fairly common in the U.S., those who move here from other parts of the world may find it to be an odd request. Why does the church want to know about me? It keeps us informed on who is calling CtR home, but most importantly it helps us to help you grow in your faith. We want to keep you in the loop with all the opportunities for spiritual enrichment in the parish. We promise not to bombard you with too many mailings, and you can control what ministries you want to hear from via our Flocknote email system, but we do want you to be aware of what is happening. I might also add that if your physical address or phone number has changed recently, please let us know in the office so that we might update your information in our records. A lot of us have discontinued our land line phones that might have been on our registration form long ago, so let us know of a good current contact for you, please.
We baptized 247 children (from birth up to the age of seven) this past year. The Church sets the age of reason at seven, so children may be baptized up to that age, and then those children older than seven are brought into the Church through the Rite/Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. Given that the U.S. birth rate has dipped the last several years it may not be that surprising that our overall number of baptisms will fluctuate somewhat from year to year.
In regards to adults in RCIA, we continue to grow through that wonderful ministry. We baptized 11 adults and teens at the Easter Vigil and then welcomed another 37 adults into full communion with the Catholic Church. That’s a whole bunch of new Catholics we welcomed into our faith. Praise God! We have approximately 100 people at some stage of preparation in RICA at the moment, and I expect at least a dozen or more will be received into the Church just before Advent. Perhaps you know of a family member, or friend or co-worker who has asked you what the Catholic faith is all about. Invite them to come to the RCIA and learn more about it. Of course, it would be great if you would accompany them on the journey as a sponsor. We need more Catholics to step forward and help others come to discover the beauty of our Church through RCIA.
In Religious Education, we catechized more than 1,200 children from Pre-K 3 through 6th grade, and our Youth Ministry (junior and senior high school) had another more than 600 registered. We helped 337 children celebrate First Reconciliation and First Communion this past year, a slight increase over the previous year. We also had 201 teens, mostly sophomores in high school, receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. When you factor in the enrollment in our CtR Catholic School (475 students) and the number of parents who choose home-based educational opportunities (approved by the Church) for their elementary-age children, we are ministering to more than 2,000 young disciples. We owe a great deal of thanks to our hard-working RE and Youth Ministry departments who help catechize all these children (and their parents) throughout the year.
Finally, we celebrated 52 marriages at CtR this past year, and we commended to Almighty God the souls of 78 of our brothers and sisters in Christian funerals. Usually, for some strange reason, the number of weddings and funerals closely parallel one another. It’s one of the odd quirks of Church life, but this year the funerals far outpaced the funerals, so I pray we can reverse that trend next year.
Statistics like these are interesting to track from year-to-year but in the end they are just numbers. We know the real beauty of our church is in the people behind the numbers. Every person in every one of our more than 7,500 families has a story to tell about what God is doing in his or her life. God has called each of us by name. How will we respond to that call in our lives? It will differ for each one of us no doubt, but we all must respond. Make it your solemn pledge this year to grow in your own journey with the Lord. Deepen your prayer life, get involved in a ministry or two, become more generous – in short, pledge to be an intentional disciple and a good steward of the gifts that God has given you. Let us live our lives with a dedicated faith in the Lord so that we might go forth to be His leaven for the world.
Peace, Fr. Sean