Parish Update – Friday, May 6

Happy post-Festival Friday, brothers and sisters. I still haven’t lost the smile from my face as I reflect back on the epic time we had last weekend at our Spring Festival. I’ll have much more on that below, but really that was just a prelude to a very busy week on our campus that will culminate Sunday on Mother’s Day and the 4th Sunday of Easter.

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 7, we will celebrate our annual spring First Communion Mass at 9 a.m., as we welcome 120 or so children to the table of the Lord for the first time. We rejoice with them and their families and pray that the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist will nourish them all the days of their lives. … Please note that due to the First Communion Mass our regular Saturday confessions will not be heard this week.

Also this past week we celebrated two Masses of Confirmation on Tuesday and Thursday where about 180 of our high school students received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, we congratulate them on receiving that important sacrament and pray that they (and all of us) will continue to call upon the gifts of the Holy Spirit as they live out their faith in the world. … My thanks to all our catechists and core team members who assisted both our young children and teens in their sacramental journey the past year.

We turn our attention now to the 4th Sunday of Easter, or what we often call Good Shepherd Sunday. That’s because the Gospel reading this weekend is always an account where Jesus likens himself to a shepherd, such as we hear from the 10th chapter of St. John. He’s quite succinct: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” … I have no doubt the middle part of that statement is true – the Lord knows us. But do we really hear his voice, and do we follow him? That part is left to us, my friends. Whose voice are we listening to these days? Who are we following? ­

It’s a hot one today (we’ll have the A/C running at full capacity at Mass, rest assured), and looks like we are in for some August-in-May weather for foreseeable future, so let’s take a look at what is happening around CtR this coming 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 a special Mother’s Day blessing at all masses, and the Knights of Columbus are serving up breakfast after the 7 and 9 a.m. masses if you would like to treat Mom. All are welcome to join us. Thank you, Knights!

• We have an opening for an IT Support Technician on our staff. You may recall a few months back I mentioned our desire to fill two positions to oversee our technology needs at both the parish and school. We’re very happy to have hired Zoom Tong (yes, his name is Zoom!) as our Director of IT and he has hit the ground running and is doing great things as he learns from Tony Croes, who is moving to the Hill Country at the end of the month. … Now we need to fill the Support Tech role to assist Zoom in working with computers and all the technical support on our campus, and though we are always first and foremost about the work of the Holy Spirit, computers and technology do play a large part in the work we do. … Please help us by forwarding the information to qualified applicants you might know who would be interested. All the details and a job description can be found at www.ctrcc.com/workwithus.

• A reminder that registration for next year’s (2022-23) Religious Education and Youth Ministry classes is now open. You may register children in grades Pre-K3 through 6th online at our parish website at www.ctrcc.com/re and children in grades 7th-12 on our Youth Ministry website, www.ctryouth.com. … We are seeking catechists to help us teach the faith, so please consider signing up yourself. We’ll give you all the training and help you along the way, but parents are the best teachers of the faith. We invite you to partner with us in passing on the great gift of faith to your children. If you want to ensure the best range of options for class times, take care of your registration now. Don’t delay! It’s one less thing to worry about over the summer.

• Speaking of summer, registration for Vacation Bible School and Catholic Faith Camp is also underway. VBS will be June 27-July 1 from 9:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. daily, while Catholic Faith Camp will be June 13-17, from 8:45 a.m.- 12 noon daily.  See our parish website at www.ctrcc.com/re for information on registration and volunteering in either program. … For students in grades 6-12, Youth Ministry offers weekly Bible studies and game nights as well as camps and conferences out of town in June and July. See the Youth Ministry webpage at www.ctryouth.com for all the details.

• We have formation sessions coming up next week for both Altar Servers (for students in 5^th-12^th grades) and Eucharistic Ministers of Holy Communion. Now would be an excellent time to get trained in those ministries so that you might begin to serve at our liturgies over the summer. For specific dates and times, see the respective links on the front page of the main parish website at www.ctrcc.com.

• Let’s take a look back to last weekend and our 37^th annual Spring Festival. I don’t know about you, but the overwhelming emotion I am feeling is one of profound gratitude. I’m so very thankful for the gift of the people of Christ the Redeemer as the parish and community returned again to celebrate our families, our friendship, and our faith after two years of being apart. … Suffice to say we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our hundreds of parishioner volunteers who made the event a great success. My thanks to all the booth workers, food servers, auction helpers, game attendants, flea market and sweet shop workers, Knights of Columbus, Ladies Auxiliary, CtR School students and faculty, Youth Ministry, the Piece Makers, and everyone else. It was a superb job by all. … And, of course, a great big thank you to all of you who came out to support us during the weekend. The weather was great and the crowds were consistent throughout for the food booths, the games and rides, and the auction. I kept hearing over and over again, “It’s so good to be back together again,” and I couldn’t have agreed more. … That’s a credit to good planning, dedicated volunteers, and the grace of God! Everyone contributes to the success of the festival, whether you bought raffle tickets, or priced items in the flea market, or poured Cokes, or baked a cake, or worked a shift in a booth or ride. The list goes on and on and on. Everyone is part of it and everyone contributes to the success of it. That’s stewardship in action so thank you one and all.

• As always we are indebted to Mike and Camille Havelka in their final year as our chairpersons. It’s hard to put into words how much this couple has given to our community. They’ve been part of the festival committee since 1988, and the chairs of it since 2004. They always go the extra mile and do this because of their great love of the parish and the people of our community. Thank you, and may God bless you, Mike and Camille! … They will be the first to tell you it’s not just them, of course. The entire core committee gives so much. Each member or couple of the committee is responsible for a given area of the festival and they all do their work with dedication and a love for our community. It’s a true act of stewardship on the part of them all, most of whom have been giving back to the parish for many years. They include: Tony and Beckie Croes, Lynne and Rick Boehm, Peggy Bell, Jill and Mike Dimiceli, Bryan Chatman, Emily McAnally, Cody Feagin, and Mike and Camille’s two adult children, Rachelle Havelka (along with Austin Shaffer) and Steven Havelka (along with Leslie Buxton), and from our staff, Megan Dillingham, our Director of Advancement. … Thanks as well to Angie Quest Wells and Jean Puig, who oversaw our incredible Flea Market. You all really outdid yourselves this year on the amount you donated to the Flea Market – and the amount you took home from the Flea Market, too!

• My special thanks to Jenny Tyler and Ondrea Baker who oversaw the auction this year. Along with Megan and Sara Ruvalcaba, they did a fine job of finding items and organizing both the live and silent auctions, both of which were a grand success. … I also want to thank our DJ, master of ceremonies and auctioneer Dan Block, who along with Briz Garcia, did a great job keeping the live auction moving, and of course, thanks to all our bidders and buyers! There are hundreds of more names of volunteers I could list, but please know of my deep gratitude to God for you and your service to our community.

• If you went hungry during the festival, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. It was a feast beyond compare. Please join me in thanking our barbecue team who smoked up delicious brisket sandwiches and sausage. Special thanks to all our food booths: Vietnamese (Fr. Vincent’s Aunt’s egg rolls were a hit, as was the Bubble Tea), Filipino, Cajun (killer crawfish and gumbo!), Mexican, Italian, and of course our Knights with the traditional hot dogs, fries, and the insanely popular funnel cakes. I wish they would have kept track of how many funnel cakes they served. My goodness, that line was never ending!

• Our Grand Prize Raffle winner of the $12,000 Visa gift card is a parishioner who wishes to remain anonymous, but I can tell you they said they buy a book of tickets every year, and this year, it paid off. Let that be an inspiration to us all! Congrats to all our prize winners and all who bought tickets for a chance to win. I’m sorry if I didn’t call your name, but don’t give up on that dream! … I appreciate all who stayed after the grand prize drawing to help break down the tables and chairs. We had a large group helping out and were done in short order. When we all pitch in, it doesn’t take that long. Thanks for working together. It takes a few weeks to settle all the accounts and we’ll have a full report for you soon. … For now, I ask that you say a prayer of thanksgiving to the Good Lord for all who made it possible, for the Havelkas and our Core Committee, and for all in our community who offered their time and talent to make it happen. Echoing the theme from the weekend, it was so good to be back together. We are truly blessed to have an event like the Spring Festival and a community of people that does so much – and has a great time doing it – for the good of our brothers and sisters. God is good – all the time!

• Finally, we wish a blessed and happy Mother’s Day this Sunday to all of our mothers. Moms hold a special place in our hearts and we need only look at the example of Jesus to know that love and respect for mothers is part of our faith. From the wedding feast at Cana to the hill at Calvary, Mary was always present in the life of her son. In a special way we ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on all mothers, both living and deceased, and let us not forget the wonderful gift of life that grandmothers, adopted mothers, step-mothers, foster mothers and Godmothers offer their children. May God bless them all!

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!