Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Please welcome to our parish this weekend the Fr. Ron Mrozinski from Cross Catholic Outreach. He will preside at all the liturgies this weekend and share with the community the mission work of Cross Catholic Outreach.
The IGNITE campaign is composed of 6 distinct case elements. Five of the case elements: Seminary renovations, Catholic Education Scholarships, Faith Formation Funding, Harvey Relief, and a Future Disaster Fund will touch every Catholic in out Diocese, today and for generations to come. STHY will be keeping one third of all the monies raised in our parish. By working together, we will be able to replace the flooring and lighting systems of Guyot Hall to make it a more hospitable gathering place for our parish community.
Several weeks ago, we handed out brochures containing an outline of the IGNITE campaign. This brochure included information on the case elements, our parish case and the upcoming reception schedule for the parish. Please check your schedule for an available reception date and place it on your calendar. Please RSVP one of the receptions at
IGNITE@sthyacinth.org.
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis has encouraged the Church to have a special collection next weekend October 19th and 20th for The Society for the propagation of the Faith. This is Holy Father’s Chief missionary arm, providing resources for more than 1150 mission dioceses the world over. The special second collection will go towards the support of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in their efforts to train some 80,000 seminarians preparing for the priesthood and about 10,000 men and women preparing to serve as religious brothers and sisters.
Mark your calendars to join us for “Trunk or Treat” - our annual fun day for the young people of the parish on Saturday, October 26th from 4:00 pm -8:00 pm in Guyot Hall.
On July 1, 2019 we began a new fiscal year at STHY as did all of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. One of the chief responsibilities of a pastor is sound management of the Church’s temporal goods and prudent and balanced management of all financial responsibilities. Copies of the FY 2018 - 2019 financial report are in the Narthex and or online at Sthyacinth.org.
I can report that STHY financial health is stable. However, going forward we will be challenged in the parish finances. The Church bills are being paid;
we are in good standing with all of our Archdiocesan obligations. However, STHY’s finances going forward in 2020 will be challenged by the increase in the cost of ministry obligations and the increase in the cost of the maintaining the aging infrastructures of the main Church and parish facilities. I thank each of you for your continued sacrifice, week in and week out, to support the ministries and operations of our parish. Only with your support are we able to do the work of the Gospel. Thank you very much.
The projected FY 2020 budget has been discerned to be drastically conservative in nature, with forecasted collections and revenue to remain flat.
Due to the flat 2020 forecasted revenue and collections, we have reduced the current parish FY 2020 budget by close to 12%. Due to the challenges we face here at St. Hyacinth in the coming year, the budget cannot account for all of the major increase in the costs and expenses for ministry and to take care of our 49 year old Church building and 35 year old Guyot Hall building. The Main Church building, Guyot Hall, Guyot Hall kitchen, Religious Education Building, and infrastructures are aging and need major attention and repairs in the very near future. I pray that you’re continued giving will exceed our forecast. As our parish and ministries continue to do the work commissioned by Christ, we must all continue to be good stewards of God’s gifts so we can effectively serve those who seek to encounter Christ at STHY.
I ask that you prayerfully consider reviewing your weekly giving to the parish, and if it has remained at a constant and consistent level the past few years, please consider increasing it. However, I do want to address the approximately
the over 986 registered families here at STHY that we have no record of your giving to the Church. We do acknowledge that many are giving to the Church through the weekend collection; however, STHY needs you start using your envelopes or move toward electronic giving. In this way we can account for all those who are a part of the parish that are truly giving and it is an expense of the church for envelopes to be mailed to registered families.
We currently spend close to $10K a year on offertory envelopes and if we could use our electronic giving, this would reduce the expense of mailed offertory envelopes dramatically. Everyone’s gift of a weekly tithe in the offertory is a great act of Stewardship. You can tithe by two ways, through your parish envelopes that are mailed to you or electronically through www.faithdirect.net by entering parish code TX 526. It’s fast, easy and, yes, very secure, and a great way to support the work of our parish.
Finally, I will ask everyone to continue to keep 40 of our parishioners in your prayers as we finish our final leg of our parish pilgrimage in Italy this week. As the pilgrimage leader, I have been presiding over all of the masses and services during our time away. Please be assured that I have been praying for each and every one of you during this pilgrimage. I hope that you will continue to follow our actions on my Facebook page.
God Bless
Fr. Reginald Samuels