Parish Update – Friday, Dec. 2

Happy final first Friday of 2022, my friends. We’ve moved into December and the end of the year is rushing toward us, though the mild weather on tap for this coming week doesn’t exactly want to make me cozy up around the fireplace. Being a native Houstonian, I’ve decorated for Christmas in shorts and flip-flops before and it seems this year will be no different.

This coming 2^nd Sunday of Advent finds us still waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord, but it brings with it a most welcomed visitor – John the Baptist. He comes seemingly out of nowhere to prepare the way of the Lord and while he was by all accounts a bit eccentric, his message is as timely today as it was some 2,000 years ago. Let us heed his message to repent and as we go about busily preparing our Christmas lists and making plans for the holidays – in air conditioned comfort, no less – let us prepare our hearts as well to welcome the coming of the King of Kings.

Here’s what is happening in and around CtR this week:

• Following our morning masses this Sunday we invite you to the Parish Hall for not only Coffee and Donuts, but the annual St. Joseph Altar Bake Sale. The ladies who put on the St. Joseph Altar in March each year use this December bake sale to fund all the needed materials for that great event in the spring. Come help them out and enjoy some delicious homemade treats (the Italian cookies and pastries are not to be missed!) 

• Our first-year Confirmation high school students, mainly those in 9^th grade, will be away from the parish at Camp Cho-Yeh near Livingston on their annual retreat this weekend. Please keep them in your prayers as they have begun their preparation toward receiving the sacrament next year. Fr. Vincent will join them for Mass on Saturday evening. … As you may recall, Confirmation is a two-year journey for us at CtR. Our Confirmation 2 students will attend a retreat in January, and then we’ll have another Confirmation 1 retreat later in March. Lots of good things are happening with our Encounter high school ministry so do lift them up to the Lord, and remember their small group leaders and catechists in your prayers, too, please.

• Next Thursday is a Holy Day of Obligation as we honor the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We’ll celebrate a vigil Mass on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m., and on Thursday, Dec. 8, masses will be at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. The CtR School students will have a separate Mass in the afternoon, so there is plenty of room for everyone at the morning Mass. A postcard sent to all families recently listed the wrong time for the vigil Mass on Wednesday. It does, in fact, begin at 7 p.m., as is customary for our Wednesday evening masses. … It is under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception that the United States has been dedicated as well as our Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. While the Blessed Virgin Mary has many titles and days dedicated to her, the Immaculate Conception is supreme. Our parish offices will be closed for the holy day.

• Looking a bit further ahead (and I’ll remind you of this next week as well) on Monday, December 12, we celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We’ll honor her with a Liturgy of the Word Prayer Service on Sunday, Dec. 11 beginning at 8 p.m. It will be bilingual in both English and Spanish, and include all the readings, hymns, and songs that we are accustomed to using to honor Our Lady, and afterward we’ll celebrate into the night with a grand fiesta to which all are welcome. … Her feast day is always a special day in all Catholic parishes, but especially those of us in Texas and the southwest. Our Lady of Guadalupe is Patroness of the Americas (as declared by Pope Pius XII in 1946) and holds a special place in the hearts of all people of faith. Please join us for a late night prayer to honor her next Sunday, or at Mass at 9 a.m. on the actual feast day next Monday.

• As mentioned last week we are once again assisting our twinned parish of Our Mother of Mercy Church by collecting Christmas gifts for the children of that community. Many of the larger parishes of the archdiocese have a “twin” and it is encouraged that the two work together on a variety of projects. We’ve collaborated on the Christmas gift giving project for several years now and it is always a great success. CtR parishioners are generous in giving and our brothers and sisters in Christ at OMOM are truly grateful.

OMOM was founded in Houston’s Fifth Ward in 1930 and is one of the great historical African-American parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. It is quite small in number, but they are large in spirit. It serves not only as a spiritual home, but also a community advocate in the Fifth Ward and is a place of refuge for many who are trying to make it through these difficult times. Each year OMOM tries to offer each child a Christmas present from the larger community. For many it might be the only present they will receive.

• We invite you to bring an unwrapped Christmas gift and drop it off in the narthex next week or, better yet, use our convenient Amazon Wish List found at www.ctrcc.com/adventoutreach and have it sent directly to the office, as a number of you have already done. Thank you! … The gift need not be elaborate or extreme, but simply from the heart. The children range in age from just a few years old up to 17, but the bulk are in the 5-15 age range. What do they want? Well, just about whatever any child wants. Feel free to use your imagination. Basketballs are always popular with the boys and the young girls always seem to gravitate to the dolls. Maybe you can ask an expert – your own child living under your roof. It’s a safe bet that the children of OMOM would welcome the same type of gifts.

• Closer to home we are also again collecting gift cards to be distributed through Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM). Drop off a gift card to a local merchant (Wal-Mart, Target, and HEB gift cards seem to be the most popular as they can be used for a variety of items) in the narthex at church or in the office over the next week and we’ll distribute them through CAM. It’s a great way to help out those in need in our community and be part of the Christmas spirit.

• Remember our Christmas liturgical schedule for this year: Saturday, Dec. 24, Christmas Eve: 4 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 25, Christmas Day: 7 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. (The 11 a.m. Mass will be in Spanish.) Caroling will take place 30 minutes before every Mass. … A couple notes to call to your attention: Yes, you are reading that correctly – the late Mass on Christmas Eve begins at 11 p.m. With the early 7 a.m. Mass the next morning, it makes it a bit easier on our many ministers and musicians if we end, instead of start, at midnight, so adjust your schedule accordingly. … Also, note that there is no evening Mass on Sunday, Dec. 25, but for those who would like a late afternoon Christmas Day option, our friends and neighbors at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church off Hwy. 6 will celebrate a 5:30 p.m. (English) and a 7:30 p.m. (Spanish) Mass.

• St. Francis Xavier, whose feast day is tomorrow, pray for us! … Outside of St. Paul himself, Francis is considered the greatest missionary in the history of the Church. One of the seven co-founders of the Society of Jesus in the 16th century with, among others, St. Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier traveled extensively in his life, especially in and around India where he helped spread the faith that today is alive like few other places. We are blessed to have a number of Catholic families from India at CtR and their religious heritage can be traced all the way back to the missionary efforts of St. Francis Xavier. … He also traveled and preached in Japan, and longed to make it to mainland China, but died on an island just off of it on Dec. 3, 1552. What a life! If it can be said you are second only to St. Paul the Apostle in terms of the impact of your missionary efforts, you know you have done well!

Peace, Fr. Sean