Happy Monday Parish Family!
This week begins our new confession schedule. Confessions are offered at the following times: Wednesdays and Thursdays 5-6pm and Saturdays 3:30-4:30pm. Please note that the surrounding Catholic Churches offer confessions as well should you need to go outside our offered times.
In his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si', Pope Francis calls all of us to feel deeply our stewardship to care for the earth and the poor. As Catholics, we honor our Creator as we care for His creation. In an effort to minimize our impact on earth and her natural resources, we are moving towards a paperless bulletin. Effective this weekend we will be sharing our information through Flocknote, our social media outlets and our website. Please be patient with us as we traverse this new way of sharing our story and passing information.
Mark your calendar for Wednesday, August 10 Sanctus will have a BINGO BASH for the whole parish! Win prizes, have fun, meet new people. Pot-luck served from 6-7pm, please bring a dish to share! Bingo begins at 7pm and will end at 8pm. Everyone is welcome!
Adoration is this Thursday, August 4, from 9am-9pm. If you are interested in being part of this ministry please join the Flocknote group through the button below.
After all the Masses this weekend, the Men's Christ Renews His Parish group will be selling food items. Please help them fundraise for their upcoming retreat.
Come visit us at the Back to School Event on Saturday, Aug. 6 from 9-11am at the Hutto Memorial Stadium. We look forward to seeing you there.
For our Saint of the Week Series, I'd like to introduce you to St. Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayes (1832-1914). Born an only child, Rafqa's mother died when she was seven years old. Her father remarried but she and her step-mother never got along. Her family fought over who she should marry and when she was just a young teenager, she decided to become a nun. She immediately felt an inner peace that told her this was the right decision. She was put in charge of the kitchen and in her spare time, she taught the young children of the village all about Jesus. Seeing her natural ease around children, she was asked to be a teacher then, shortly after, asked to establish a school for girls with another nun.
When her order was being combined with another, she had to make a decision to either stay in the combined order, join a different order or be released from her vows altogether. After much prayer, and a vision from St. Anthony of the Desert, she joined the Lebanese Maronite Order which was dedicated to prayer, silence and sacrifice. This life was much different that her past order but she embraced it and grew much closer to the Lord. She suffered so much, even losing an eye from a bad surgery and eventually went completely blind. Ultimately, she became paralyzed and instead of feeling sorry for herself, she looked at her sufferings as a way to unite herself closer to Jesus.
How often do we turn our backs on God when we suffer? When you have a choice to make at the peak of your suffering, will you choose to love Jesus like Saint Rafqa did? I pray we all have the strength to say "Yes, Lord, I still love you" even in our darkest time.