Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

          

 This Sunday’s gospel passage opens with “ Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” Jesus loves us and wants us always to do the right thing. We are called to be vigilant and place our trust in Jesus if we want to inherent the kingdom in which God has created. 

        

In the second reading this Sunday, St. Paul does a wonderful job of describing the journey of faith. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” We have a realization that our faith is not based upon feelings but on the word of God. We are called to move beyond our feelings to be the Christians that God has called us to be. Our constant relationship with God shows that trust is what we should always treasure with God. 

Next, I want to address and issue that affects the Sunday Weekend Mass in the Church. I understand that there are many reasons for people and families to be late for Mass. However, over the last few months, people have been walking into Mass and seating themselves while the readings and Psalm response are taking place. This action is extremely distracting for those proclaiming the word and for those already seated. I ask, please; if you are late for Mass, please wait to be seated after the readings for the Mass are completed. We will give you enough time to find a seat.  

This year we will celebrate the 57^th   anniversary of the founding of St Hyacinth. For this year’s celebration, the weekend of August 20^th - 21^st.  there will be a time of  prayer, remembrance, and celebration. There will be giveaways, and fun throughout the weekend culminating with the raffle of wonderful prizes. Please plan to participate in this wonderful celebration. 

We will kick off our parish celebrations with an 8:00 am Mass on Saturday morning August 20^th. We will have adoration and prayers throughout the day in the Church to celebrate and commemorate all those who have gone before us in our parish. 

To continue the parish anniversary celebrations, we will have Casino night on Saturday evening after Mass. There will be casino games, food, and  prizes. Casino night tickets are on sale now. 

For our parish 57th  anniversary Sunday’s celebrations which will begin after the noon mass we will have food fun and  prizes with the silent auction and major prize raffle. The grand prize being a $3000 gift card. Raffle tickets are on sale now. 

For our parish anniversary, we are collecting funds   for a Statue of St. Hyacinth. A four-foot custom-made linden wood and painted statue of St Hyacinth will cost approximately $18K. (The handmade statue would have St. Hyacinth holding a monstrance and a little statue of a Madonna with Child). We have placed a special donation box is in the Narthex as well as a picture of the statue.  You can give online at  https://sthyacinth.org/statue-of-st-hyacinth as well.  Thank you for your support in precuring a statue for our Church.

Finally, as you are aware by all of the news in our community and throughout the country, there is a severe food shortage and all of the food banks including our own SVDP food bank. For the month of August, our own SVDP, is  asking everyone specifically to bring cans of fruits, cans of vegetables and cans of soup. The donation box is in the narthex of the Church. A list of SVDP requested donation items are located on our parish website at https://sthyacinth.org/special-events . Thank you for your generosity in supporting SVDP. 

God Bless,

Fr. Reginald Samuels