Dear friends in Christ,
This, That & the Other ... Our journey of 40 days is officially underway as we celebrate the
first Sunday of Lent this weekend. Our psalm response at Mass will be the beautiful and powerful Psalm 51, whose response is
“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” That pretty much sums up Lent, does it not? We are sinners and we turn God for his mercy. It’s the only thing that will save us. … While we sing just a few stanzas of the psalm today at Mass, I encourage you to bookmark
Psalm 51 in your bible at home and read it often in these Lenten days. I pray that this will be a time of spiritual renewal for all of us.
... Please keep foremost in your prayers our
Catechumens and Candidates who are in the “home stretch” for their entrance into full communion with the Church. We will celebrate the Rite of Sending for 20 of these Catechumens at the 9 a.m. Mass this Sunday and later that night they will be received by
Cardinal DiNardo at the Rite of Election that we are hosting at CtR (one of four such services around the Archdiocese). Our 20 from CtR, along with nearly 1,800 others from throughout Galveston-Houston, will makeup the largest group of Catechumens from any one diocese in the country. … Over the course of Lent we’ll celebrate the three scrutinies (minor rites) for our Catechumens (the unbaptized). Meanwhile, those baptized Christians who seek full communion in the faith (the candidates) are also preparing for their entry into the Church. As they all journey to the table of the Lord, let us dare to walk with them and ask the Lord guide us all into a more perfect union with the Son and God’s holy Church. ... It's also
Welcoming Sunday this weekend after the 9 and 11 a.m. Masses. If you are relatively new to CtR, perhaps joining – or thinking about joining – in the past few months, we invite you to the Parish Hall after either of those two Masses for a short introduction to CtR from myself and some of our pastoral staff. Come discover all the ways to be part of our community. We'll have breakfast for you, too!
... In other news, we still have a handful of opening left to join us on our
2020 Parish Pilgrimage to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany this coming June. If you haven’t yet made your summer travel plans I invite you to consider joining us June 5-16 for what promises to be a enlightening pilgrimage to see one of the world’s most well-attended spiritual productions. … If you are not familiar with the Passion Play in Oberammergau, the story of how it came about is amazing. In 1633, the people of the small village in Bavaria vowed that if God spared them from the ravages of the bubonic plague they would produce a play every 10 years depicting the life and death of Jesus. The death rate from the plague fell dramatically following the pledge, and the people kept their end of the vow and have produced the play in every year ending in “0” since then. All of the performers, musicians, and technicians in the play are from the village of Oberammergau. For five months over the summer every 10 years they come together to keep the vow their ancestors made to God, and in turn it has become a worldwide phenomenon for people to attend.
... Our trip includes tickets and accommodation to the play, which has long-since sold out. Our itinerary over the 12 days will also include stops in Heidelberg, a cruise on the Rhine River, Lucerne, Switzerland, Innsbruck, Austria, Salzburg, Nuremburg, and Munich. We’ll have daily Mass in some beautiful churches along the way, including Schonestatt Monastery dedicated to the Divine Mercy, the Shrine of the Black Madonna, and many others. Total cost for the pilgrimage is $4,190 per person and includes round-trip airfare, first-class hotels, two meals a day (breakfast and dinner), transportation (big, comfortable coaches), daily guides, tips, taxes, and, of course, tickets to the Passion Play. … Those of your who have traveled with us on previous pilgrimages know that Inspirational Tours does a fabulous job of taking care of us.
Contact Roxie Goetz (e-mail at the link or call 281-469-5533) in our parish office for additional information, but do so soon as we have room for just a few more to join us.
... The
4th annual Priests vs. Seminarians basketball game is happening this Friday, March 6 at Delmar Fieldhouse, which is not too far from CtR, just up 290 at the Mangum Road exit. It’s a wonderful family event (there is even a Fish Fry tailgate beforehand – how Catholic is that!) and while the competition on the court will not make you forget the Rockets, it’s always a spirited game. Best of all, it benefits St. Mary’s Seminary, where our priests are formed and educated. Tickets are just $4 and can be purchased at
www.houstonvocations.com.
Fr. Vincent and I are not playing, but we will be rooting for our brothers – and remember,
good guys wear black!
... Lastly, remember that this coming Saturday, Feb. 29, we will celebrate First Reconciliation for our 2nd grade students. They’ll have confessions in the church beginning at 8:30 a.m. We usually wrap up with the kids about 10 a.m., and then Fr. Vincent and I will stay for any adults who are present, so please plan accordingly. ... Lastly, and most importantly, God loves you! See ya’ at Mass!