Parish Update – Friday, Oct. 15
Happy Friday, one and all! It’s a great day outside as it seems that the last of the muggy summer-like weather had departed from us. And it’s a great day for some baseball, too, as the Astros and Red Sox go to battle in the American League Championship Series starting tonight. ... Fair warning: there’s a certain deacon at CtR whose name I won’t mention (hint: it’s the same as the guy who had a hand in the parting of the Red Sea!) who is from Boston, and so let’s just say we may have to have a “come to Jesus meeting” on the altar if things don’t turn out the way that I know the Lord intends!
In the month of October it’s not uncommon to come across mysterious figures. There are all sorts of ghosts and goblins that are readying themselves for Halloween, but I want to call your attention this weekend to a real mysterious figure. He appears often in the Book of Isaiah, from which we will read on the
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. He’s known only as “the Servant.” That sounds like the title of a Hollywood thriller, doesn’t it? “The Servant” is coming!
But this is no horror story. In fact, it’s a redemption story. During his lifetime, the Servant went unnoticed or was shunned. He endured great suffering, which people viewed as divine punishment for his private sins. It was only after his shameful death did the people realize that the Servant suffered for them, that it was the Lord’s will that he bear their guilt, take their punishment, and thus justify them.
So who was the Servant? Though at one point he’s identified as Israel, he remains a mystery. But what is true is that after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, his disciples saw a deeper connection between his life and the life of the Servant. Jesus gave his life to take away our punishment, not only for Israel, but for all humanity. He is the Suffering Servant who redeems us. That is why he reminds us in the Gospel this Sunday “whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant.” Just as Jesus, the Son of God, did not come to be served, but to serve, so, too, must we.
Let’s take a look at 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.
• We’ll have
Coffee and Donuts after the Sunday morning masses in the Parish Hall this weekend, too, and don’t forget as well that we also have our
CtR Catholic School Open House after the 11 a.m. Mass on Sunday. It will include tours of our classrooms and opportunities to visit with staff and teachers and will start in the RAC Auditorium (we’ll have donuts available over there, too) and run from 12:30- 2 p.m., so make plans to stop by. I encourage you to spread the word to prospective families to come and see all that our Catholic school
has to offer for students in grades Pre-K3 – 8
th. See
www.ctrschool.com for further information.
• Remember that tonight, Friday, Oct. 15, is our
Evening of Taizé Prayer and Community Dinner. The
Knights of Columbus will serve a free spaghetti dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall and then the prayer service begins at 7 p.m. in the Church. It’s all free, and even if you didn’t RSVP, we invite you to join us. Childcare will be available. It’s going to be an uplifting evening of prayer for all ages. See
www.ctrcc.com/taizeprayer for details.
• In other news, I want to give you a heads-up toward next weekend when I’ll be speaking at all the masses about the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s
Ignite Capital Campaign. CtR will be joining with our brothers and sisters in the 140 parishes and
Cardinal DiNardo to raise funds to provide for the future of pastoral ministry to the 1.7 million Catholics in the Archdiocese. You’ll hear directly from me on its origins and aims, and we’ll have much to share with you about it in the next few weeks that follow.
A little background first: The Ignite campaign began in 2016 and has been rolled out to groups of parishes, about 30 or so at a time, in the succeeding years, though it was put on pause twice due to Hurricane Harvey and the interruption of services during the Covid-19 pandemic. … CtR was always scheduled to go in the last grouping of parishes, so we’re right where we thought would be in terms of it, just a year or two delayed. You’ve likely seen news about it in the
Texas Catholic Herald or on social media as it has made its way through all of our sister parishes.
Among its aims, Ignite will provide much needed funding to serve
St. Mary’s Seminary (a new dormitory has been built for seminarians along with upgrades to the infrastructure of the nearly 75-year-old campus). It will also provide an endowment for Catholic School tuition, particularly in our inner city schools, replenish the Disaster Relief Fund that was depleted after the losses incurred in Hurricane Harvey (our neighbors at St. Ignatius in Spring benefited from that after their campus was flooded), and will create a Faith Formation Endowment to provide catechetical training for those who teach the faith to our children. …
I’m excited about all those things, but that last portion to further the formation of lay catechists is a real key for me. We need well educated and formed catechists who can teach not only children, but also adults. We have a beautiful Catholic faith and it is paramount that we be able to share it with young and old alike.
But the largest portion of the Ignite campaign is reserved for the parishes themselves.
Every parish, including CtR, will benefit from Ignite in that they will keep $1 for every $3 raised. The parishes can use the money raised for any project or need that they see fit on their respective campuses. For what our plans are at CtR, well, you’ll need to join us at Mass next weekend on Oct. 23-24! … Sorry to leave you with such a tease, but I just wanted to whet your appetite today. For now, please pray for the success of
Ignite, make plans to do your part to help us, and let’s get ready to Ignite the faith, not only here at CtR, but throughout our big, beautiful local church of Galveston-Houston.
• Here’s something else to look forward to:
Trunk or Treat returns on Friday, Oct. 29 from 5-7 p.m. All are invited to join us for music, games, candy and more in the parking lot behind the parishes offices. This is a fun, family event co-hosted by the parish,
CtR School, and our
Genesis Early Childhood Program, and is supported by the
CtR Ladies Auxiliary and
St. Anne's Society. So in short, it’s open to everyone in the parish. ... We invite you to sponsor a decorated trunk (we’ll have prizes for the best in show), and bring candy for all the kids in their costumes who will be making the rounds safely in our parking area. It’s a great evening of family fun for everyone. If you’d like to volunteer or donate candy, contact our parish office. Make plans to join us for a monstrously fun evening!
• We’ve seen an uptick in email spam recently, so let me remind you that that neither Fr. Vincent or I will ever email you asking for money or gift cards. This is known as “phishing” and scammers are good at it, asking you to call or reply to a message. It might appear to be from us and even carry our name, but it is a fake. Check carefully the email address it originated from and you’ll see it is not from the parish. Never click on any link and certainly don’t respond. Just delete it and mark it as spam. … A good rule of thumb is if it looks a bit off in regards to phrasing, punctuation, or even “the ask,” it’s a scam. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but it’s widespread throughout the country, and though we’re working to eliminate it, these things are hard to shut down. Pray for those who prey on the vulnerable, but never respond.
• I will be away from the parish this weekend, but we welcome
Fr. Jonathan Mitchican, the chaplain of
St. John XXIII High School, who will join us for the 9 and 11 a.m. Masses. We have a number of students from CtR enrolled at St. John XXIII, and it’s always good to have Fr. Jonathan with us. I’ll return the favor and celebrate Mass for him and the students next week at their school.
St. Teresa of Ávila, aka St. Teresa of Jesus, the great Spanish Carmelite mystic, whose feast day is today, pray for us!
And, since we were just speaking about him, let me add … St. John XXIII, whose feast day was this past Monday, pray for us!
Peace, Fr. Sean