Parish Update – Friday, March 24
Happy Friday, my friends. I pray all is well with you and yours. We’ll be celebrating the 5th Sunday of Lent this weekend, but our journey to the cross is far from over. In fact, we are just now coming into the homestretch. This coming week is our final full week of Lent, and then next weekend we will celebrate Palm Sunday and begin the solemn days of Holy Week. … We’ll have more on all of that in next week’s update, but in our Gospel this Sunday we get a “sneak preview” of sorts of what is to come at Easter with the story from St. John of the raising of Lazarus. Just as Jesus awakens and calls for Lazarus from the realm of the dead, so too shall Jesus himself rise on the third day.
How about us? Are we prepared to die and rise with Jesus? If your Lent has been less than spiritually fruitful, fear not. There is still time to have “a good Lent.” Recommit yourself to your prayer, fasting and almsgiving the next two weeks and see if you don’t see an improvement in your walk with the Lord. … Remember the words from back on Ash Wednesday: “Now is an acceptable time!” The time is now to return to the Lord. There are still plenty of good days ahead to prepare yourself for the coming Easter celebration.
Here’s some of the news and notes of what is happening at CtR this week:
• We invite and welcome you to join us for Mass this weekend on Saturday at 5 p.m., or Sunday at 7, 9, and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. For those unable to join us in person due to illness or infirmity, our livestream is available 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. … We’ll have Coffee and Donuts available after the Sunday morning masses, too, hosted by our Divine Mercy Cenacle prayer group.
• This weekend is one we’ve been looking forward to since last year about this time – it’s the kickoff to our 2023 CtR Spring Festival! Truth be told, the work has been going on behind the scenes for months now, but this weekend we’ll distribute raffle tickets to everyone after all masses, open our advance ticket booth, and begin sign-ups for volunteer positions. We’ll hear from Bob Suarez, our chairperson, and a few of our Festival committee leaders, and our Festival core team will be on the plaza after all masses. Stop by to get your t-shirts and tickets for the 38th annual Spring Festival happening five weeks from now on April 29-30.
• It’s no secret that what makes the Spring Festival such a wonderful event for our parish and community is the great number of people who volunteer their time and talent over the weekend. It is Stewardship in action. Your help is especially needed to staff a shift or two (usually in a block of two hours each) in one of our many booths, rides and games. The help and support of everyone in the parish, both young and old, is most needed. It’s a great way to give back to the life of the community. Sign-up this weekend to assure your spot helping in your favorite booth or game. You don’t even have to wait until this weekend – visit https://bit.ly/volunteerspringfestival to sign up online now! Note the tabs at the top of the page you can use to navigate the sign-up page to find the area (rides, food, games, bingo, flea market) in which you are most interested in helping out.
• While it is clear that Stewardship in action – the people of the parish coming together to put on a great community event – has been the one constant in all of our Spring Festivals over the years, going back to the very first one in 1988, it is also true that the Festival is never the same year after year. We’re always tweaking it here and there, adding a few things, subtracting others, and trying to provide the best experience for our community. … Like the work of the Holy Spirit which gives it life, our Spring Festival is never static, but always active and pulsating with a vibrancy that comes from God working in and through our people.
• That will be clearly evident this year as we roll out a few changes, most notably to our location on campus. We’re shifting the bulk of the activities to the back parking lot behind the Parish Activity Center. While we’ll still have a few things visible up front, the move to the back opens up a whole new dimension for us, giving us more space to maneuver. ... This is in direct response to what you told us in our post-Festival meetings and surveys after last year. You love the Festival, you told us, but there were growing concerns of our size in relationship to bumping right up against the traffic on Huffmeister. We listened, and we think the new layout will address those concerns, while giving us a new dimension to more effectively use our real estate. Why be so jammed packed under a tent when we have plenty of room right behind us? … And while I know change can be daunting, let’s approach it with an open mind and heart and see how it goes. I’m excited to see what it looks like!
• We’ve got a few tweaks to the hours, too, but for the most part, everything you’ve come to love about our Spring Festival will be present. It’s been a successful event for lo these many years, so we’re not about to touch the core of what makes it great – the people of God coming together to celebrate our community and enjoy a few days of fun with one another! … We’ll have the live band on Saturday night, DJ and auctioneer Dan Block with the live and silent auctions (with some incredible items up for bid!), all your favorite food booths, rides and games for the kids (including a new Tot Spot on the Redeemer Activity Center lawn for our youngest festival-goers!), Bingo (in its new home in the Parish Hall with plenty of space for more people), and so much more! … We’ll roll out all the details in the coming weeks, or take a look at www.ctrcc.com/springfestival to see for yourself.
• I ask that we do our part to help our community at the Festival. One particularly great way to help is by taking a book of Raffle Tickets that will be distributed this weekend and selling them to your friends, neighbors, co-workers, or even yourself! It’s an easy way to show your support, and best of all, you have a chance to win a $12,000 Visa Gift Card. How sweet would that be? … Another cool new thing is you can buy your Raffle tickets online in advance this year by visiting: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=jZcxFR. … You can also become a Festival Sponsor (we have several levels to choose from) as a way to help underwrite our expenses. And, of course, we are in need of $5-10-20 Gift Cards from local stores and restaurants (for the Mystery Booth), cakes and cookies for the Sweet Shoppe, and donated items for the Flea Market (we'll begin accepting them the week prior to the Festival). … As you can see, there’s no shortage of ways to be involved, so join us as we count down the days to April 29-30. For all your Festival questions, visit www.ctrcc.com/festival or email festival@ctrcc.com.
• In other news, be wary of any emails or text messages you may receive that are reportedly from me or Fr. Vincent. There's a new wave of scams and phishing attempts going around and they are quite clever. Look closely at the email address or number, however, and you'll see they are not actually from us. If it looks fishy, it is! ... Trust me, when we want to email or text you, you'll know it really is from us. Just a word to the wise to keep your guard up and be wary about responding if it "looks funny."
• Remember our penultimate (love that word!) Lenten Fish Fry happening this evening. My thanks go out to all the Knights for their hard work each and every Friday of Lent, and of course to the Ladies Auxiliary and Confirmation teens who are all pitching in and doing their part. As I walk around the Parish Hall and visit with folks, I am reminded time and time again what a blessing it is when we all work together to serve God and serve neighbor. … Seriously, you can’t even begin to imagine the hours that so many people put in to make the Lenten Fish Frys happen every week. Dozens and dozens of your fellow parishioners offer their Friday afternoon and evening to assure that we all have a wonderful dinner and fellowship to look forward to. I am always gobsmacked (there’s another great word!) by the selflessness of so many in our community. Thank you to all our volunteers! Be sure and say thanks to those you see working on our behalf. … And after you’ve done so, join us for Stations of the Cross in the church at 7 p.m.
Our Lady of the Annunciation, pray for us! … Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. It always falls on March 25, nine months to the day prior to Christmas. It’s a day we remember the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would be the bearer of the Christ-child. May we likewise echo Mary’s “fiat” (her “yes”) to the Lord and serve him joyfully all the days of our lives.
Peace, Fr. Sean
