Weekly Letter: Sept. 10, 2023 Bulletin

Dear friends in Christ,

     Greetings from the Holy Land! Having visited Cairo, Egypt and Amman, Jordan earlier this week, our group of 79 from CtR has made its way to Israel. We’ll spend this coming week on a pilgrimage to the holy sites in and around Jerusalem, and we’ll be carrying your prayers with us. We’ll return home later this coming week in time to celebrate with you at the parish next Sunday, but for this week, our 11 a.m. Sunday Mass will be on the Mount of Beatitudes and not Huffmeister. We miss you, but I have to admit that the view is a lot better here!

    Actually, due to an earlier publishing deadline with the Labor Day holiday, I’m writing these words to you while still sitting on Huffmeister, so the above information is strictly what is on our travel itinerary. With any bit of luck, it will have indeed come to fruition by the time you read it today! If you get my weekly Parish Update Flocknote I’m going to try to send periodic updates from overseas if the internet is working where we are, but I can’t promise you anything other than we will definitely be praying for you, and we ask that you do the same for us.

    As mentioned last week, we are happy to welcome Fr. Finbarr Felix of the Missionary Society of St. Paul (MSP) to CtR this weekend as part of our annual Missionary Appeal. Please make him feel at home. Fr. Finbarr and all the MSP priests do great work not only in Houston, but throughout the world, and your donations to the missions will enable them to continue to do so. Thank you for your support in the second collection this weekend for the Missionary Society of St. Paul.

    I’m happy to share with you that Kerry Chu has joined our staff as of last week as our Director of Social Outreach and Ministry, a newly created position. I’ve long wanted to have someone on staff who can be the central point of engagement for the parish in terms of expanding our social outreach and services, and I am very happy to have Kerry in that role. Many of you know her from her various ministries here at the parish (she’s been our Respect Life chair for a number of years as well as a member of our Stewardship Council), and I truly believe she has a heart for this work.

    In this new role, Kerry will be our liaison with Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM) and help us create a comprehensive approach to outreach and service in the community and will be charged with helping us make known (and most importantly, put into practice) the Catholic Church’s teaching on Social Justice. She’ll also help us coordinate our many ministries that have an outreach component to them.

    Though we are creating this position from the ground up, in a sense, it’s a return to our roots. CAM began as a ministry of the parish, operating out of a trailer on our back property. For many years, the late Joan Christensen was on our CtR staff and also the Executive Director of CAM. Some years ago, CAM branched off into its own separate non-profit status, but the parish has always retained close ties with it in terms of funding and promoting its programs and providing volunteers.

    For at least the past 10 years I’ve talked with our staff, Parish Pastoral Council, and Finance Council about creating such a position, but the timing was never right for a variety of reasons. Finally, we said if it is important we do this – and we were all in agreement it is – then let’s make it happen. I truly believe it is vital for a parish of our size to have a social ministry presence. We can’t simply farm things out to CAM and then wash our hands of it. We want to be engaged in outreach and service to our brothers and sisters, especially those most in need.

    To be clear, we’re not looking to duplicate what CAM does, but rather we seek to partner with them (and other entities in the Cypress and northwest Houston) to expand our offerings. The needs in our community are great, and it is important that the Church play an active role in making known Christ’s teaching and admonition that we take His message of love and mercy to the peripheries. I’m excited to see how Kerry will help us all do so. Please join me in welcoming her to our staff. She’s already hit the ground running and is making connections and you’ll be hearing more from her and her ministry soon.

    I’ll end with a few quick notes: Next weekend is Catechetical Sunday and the beginning of the new Catechetical year. My thanks to all our catechists and those assisting with Religious Education for our children and youth. More on that next week. … We’ll also be celebrating Welcoming Sunday for our new parishioners after the 11 a.m. Mass next Sunday. If you are new-ish to the parish (perhaps you joined at some point in 2023), please stop by the Parish Hall after the 11 a.m. Mass for an overview of all that CtR has to offer. We’re glad you’re here! … The annual Knights of Columbus Casino Night is less than two weeks away on Saturday, Sept. 23, and it’s always a can’t miss event. Visit www.ctrcc.com/knights to secure your tickets in advance.

Peace, Fr. Sean