Fr. Sean's Weekly Column

Dear friends in Christ,
It’s a monumental day for us at CtR as we dedicate our Redeemer Activity Center (RAC). We welcome Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, who today celebrates our 11 a.m. Mass and who will formally dedicate the RAC afterward. All are invited. My heart is full of joy and gratitude at the amazing effort by so many people who have helped us reach this day. Of course, it is you, the people of CtR, who made it possible by first being part of our faith community that continues to grow. The RAC is a direct response to the needs of our parish community in three distinct ways, each represented by one of the major components of the building itself.

Dear friends in Christ,
We are just one week away from the dedication of our new Redeemer Activity Center, aka the RAC. You’re invited to join us next Sunday, Aug. 12 for Mass at 11 a.m. with Cardinal DiNardo presiding, and then afterward we’ll move over to the RAC for the dedication. As mentioned before, I know not everyone who wants to come will be able to fit into the church for Mass or into the auditorium of the RAC for the blessing, but we’ll do our best to accommodate all who can join us. Rest assured we’ll have plenty of opportunities for you to see and tour the RAC over the next few months so if you can’t make it next week, don’t despair. It’s going to be there for a long time.

Dear friends in Christ,
We’re just two weeks away from the dedication of the new Redeemer Activity Center (RAC). All are invited to join us for Mass at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 12 with Cardinal DiNardo presiding. Afterward we’ll gather in the RAC for the dedication ceremony and blessing. We all can’t fit at one time, so we’ll have opportunities for you to tour the new building over the next several weeks. I’ll have more details soon. The building is looking great and I can’t wait for you to see it. It’s a much needed and great addition to our campus made possible by you, the parishioners of CtR.

Dear friends in Christ,
Our Gospel today from St. Mark contains what I think is one of the most comforting and beautiful lines in all of Scripture: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” Those words of Jesus always strike me as being so tender. What a gentle invitation it is to “rest a while.”

Dear friends in Christ,
On this 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time we hear in the Gospel of St. Mark of two very specific actions that Jesus initiates with His disciples. First, He “summoned” them. Sometimes we say that Jesus “called” His disciples, but I like how St. Mark uses the word that is translated for us in English as “summoned.” A summons carries with it some weight or stamp of official business. It’s done for a specific purpose and you best answer a summons. A call can easily be ignored (I get perturbed whenever someone calls my cell phone - how dare they call me when a text will suffice!), but a summons requires a response. And the disciples respond beautifully to that summons of Jesus.