Parish Update – Friday, July 16

Happy Friday, one and all! It's been a bit of a dreary week around here, hasn't it? At least in terms of the weather. I've had just about enough of these daily mid-afternoon downpours, thank you very much. And while I'm not necessarily asking for a return to 97 degree temperatures coupled with 98 percent humidity, I wouldn't mind a day when I didn't have to break out the umbrella to walk across the campus. Ah, such are the summer days in Texas.

If the weather has you down we can at least look forward to the gospel this upcoming 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, which comes from St. Mark and contains what I think is one of the most comforting and beautiful lines in all of the Sacred Scriptures: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31) Those words of Jesus always strike me as being so tender. What a gentle invitation it is to “rest a while.”
 

Summer is an ideal time to do so, if you can escape the heat of Houston. That’s not always feasible for everyone or even practical when our summer schedules are already packed with so many activities. Still, these words of our Lord deserve to be taken to heart. This might be an opportune time to think outside of the box. While it is nice to do so, we don’t necessarily have to go to the beach or the mountains to take up Jesus on his invitation. “Coming away” might be as simple as popping into the Adoration chapel to spend an hour “resting” with Him, or it might be unplugging our lives from all of our devices (phone, computer, tablet ... noise!) and just being still in the presence of the one who calls us by name. Try it this week and I bet you will discover a rest unlike any other.

Let’s see what is happening around CtR this week

• We invite you to please join us for Mass this weekend, either in person or via our livestream on Sunday at 9 a.m. on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. 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. … If you’d like to join us in person for Mass, we welcome you on Saturday at 5 p.m., or Sunday at 7, 9, and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

• Remember that our nursery is once again now open on Sundays at the 9 and 11 a.m. Masses each week. It will also be available for select events during the week. Parents with young children who would like to make use of it are welcome to do so at your convenience, and of course there is no charge. We’re using KidCheck as our online system to check-in and out children. For more information and a link to pre-register on KidCheck if you don’t already have an account, visit our website at www.ctrcc.com/nursery.

• Directly across from the nursery in the church, underneath the bell tower, is our parish Reading Resource Center where we have an assortment of books, magazines, and CDs on Catholic topics and spirituality. We’ve had it closed during the pandemic to minimize contact and social distancing, but we’re reopening it this weekend. I encourage you to take a look and pick up an item or two that might interest you. Some are free and most everything else is only a few dollars, so browse to your heart’s content. It’s all on the honor system and you’ll see a slot where you can drop in your cash or check. … We’re looking to clear out some of the current inventory to make room for an expansion later in the fall. I’m hopeful we can begin to offer some additional items for sale in addition to the reading material: things like rosaries, crosses, bibles, and other sacramentals and gifts you might like to have or to give for a Baptism or First Communion gift. We would welcome your suggestions on what kind of items you might want to see there, and we’ll see if we can get a small gift shop up and running, perhaps with one of the ministry groups monitoring it on Sundays. (You can leave comments here on our Flocknote page on what items might interest you.) It’s in the planning stages now, so let us know your thoughts.

• Also on Sunday at the 9 a.m. Mass we will celebrate the Rite of Acceptance for our RCIA community. You will recall we do so twice a year for those who have never been baptized and who now wish to enter into a more formal preparation process to join the Church. I ask you to pray for these brothers and sisters and they make their journey of faith in the coming months. ... Next week we will celebrate the Rite of Welcome for those who have been baptized in another Christian tradition who also desire to join the Catholic Church. It's a great sign of life and vitality of our parish that we continually welcome new members who wish to be in communion with us. May God bless them on the journey and may we accompany them in prayer and by modeling to them what it means to live an authentic faith in service to the Gospel.

 • I offer a gentle reminder about our ongoing 2021 Diocesan Services Fund drive. Our 2021 goal for the DSF is $305,000 and we are currently about $25,000 short of meeting it. (I erred in the bulletin this week and stated it was $70,000 short, but it’s actually much less – sorry about that.) Nothing too alarming as we’ve got until the end of the calendar year to pay it, but I encourage you to make your pledge now if you have not done so already. All parishioners who have not yet pledged should receive a letter from Cardinal DiNardo later this week, and I would ask that you respond and join the more than 900 fellow parishioners who have made a gift.
 

Recall that DSF funds the more than 60 ministries of the Archdiocese that no one parish can do on its own, but that collectively we can make possible in your name. Ministries like the Catholic Chaplain Corps at the hospitals of the Texas Medical Center, the office of Vocations and Seminarians, the Office of Youth Ministry (the big Archdiocesan Youth Conference, which teens from CtR will attend, will be held in a couple of weeks), Catholic Charities (which has been on the front line of offering assistance during the pandemic), and so much more. It’s a wonderful way to go beyond ourselves at the parish and serve the larger Church of Galveston-Houston.
 

I would appreciate it if you would look for your reminder from Cardinal DiNardo in the mail and make your DSF pledge today. We also have additional envelopes in the narthex of the church, or to make it even easier, you can follow the link on our parish website. It will take you to www.archgh.org/dsf and there you can make your pledge on-line by indicating CtR as your parish of record. That’s how I made my pledge and it was fast, easy, and secure. A gift of any size will be a great help to us meeting our goal and providing for others. Thank you for your support of the many ministries that benefit from the DSF.
  

• Finally please remember that our annual Operation Backpack for school supplies kicks-off this weekend, and runs for the next three weeks. Bring them to mass or drop them off in the parish office during the week. We are asking for new school supplies (wide notebook paper, folders, binders, spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, map colors, etc.; see the website for a complete list) that we can distribute to local school children in need through Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM) and also our sister parish, Our Mother of Mercy, in Houston’s Fifth Ward. We always have a great response from the CtR community so please remember to pick up a few items when you are at the store. There’s even a link to our Amazon Wish List on our website (www.ctrcc.com/operation-backpack) where you can buy items online and have them sent directly to the office. Easy-peasy!

• The past two weekends I've been privileged to witness the weddings of two young ladies (Kristen Ginsburg and Sarah Krennerich) who grew up in CtR. It was tough (but ultimately a blessing) for the old pastor to see girls who I met 17 years ago when they were in elementary school get married. How can that be possible?!? We send out congratulations to both of them and their husbands as they begin their lives together. ... This Saturday I've got my third wedding in as many weeks and it's for a couple who met in a most interesting way. Do you recall when we undertook "Operation CtR" in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in 2017? We assembled various teams to go into the community to help cleanup and repair homes that were damaged in the flood waters. Elizabeth Kenney had just moved to Houston for work a week prior to the hurricane, and not knowing anyone in the area, she volunteered to help. What better way to get to know people than by helping others in need, right? Well, she was assigned to Hugo Pena's cleanup crew, and Hugo steered her into our Young Adults Group, which is headed by Matt Lane (he's also a member of our Parish Pastoral Council and our choir). Flash forward four years and now Elizabeth and Matt will walk down the aisle this Saturday. Just shows how God can bring good out of any and every type of situation (with an assist to Hugo, too!) when we are open to doing His will in serving others. Congrats to the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Lane!

Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray for us!

Peace, Fr. Sean

P.S.: We had a great response to the first night of "Our Sacred Space" this past Monday night. If you missed it here's a link to the video of it: https://youtu.be/7OERHECU2hE This week's presentation will feature our art glass throughout the church. Join us Monday at 7 p.m.