Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

          In this week’s Gospel, Jesus performs the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This miracle is the only miracle of Jesus that is accounted in all of the four gospels. As we witness Jesus’ action of generosity, we are called to be generous as well. The Gospel of the multiplication of loaves and fishes is a foreshadowing of the gift of Jesus in his Body and Blood the last supper on the night before he died and in which we now celebrate the Eucharist. In turn, when we receive the Eucharist, we are called to give. 

          We have just completed the ‘Parishioner Call Project’ a few weeks ago. This project consisted of the Staff of St. Hyacinth calling and contacting every parishioner in our community to check the wellbeing of everyone during our time of disruption and change in our community and country. We have some interesting results. We were able to contact and talk to a number of parishioner in our parish. Yet, we have number of our parishioners who we were not able to contact to due to disconnected, changed, or obsolete phone numbers. If you did not receive a call from St. Hyacinth over the last few weeks, please call and let us know that you are doing ok and to update your contact information. You can update your information on our website on the parishioner update form. 

          Open our Hearts: a Pastoral letter on racism was released in 2018 by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. The USCCB describes this letter as “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and it corrupts the souls of those who harbor racist or prejudicial thoughts. The persistence of the evil of racism is why we are writing this letter now.” I am challenging every one of our parish to go download this letter and review it. You can go to Sthyacinth.org and click directly on the banner/ tile named “Open our Hearts” and it will take you to the pastoral letter. 

          

          The Coronavirus has affected every aspect of ministry here at St. Hyacinth. I ask the faithful to continue to support the St Hyacinth community through on-line giving or by mail.  This will ensure that our parish will be able to meet payrolls and pay monthly bills.    Go to online giving tab at Sthyacinth.org and either enroll online at https://membership.faithdirect.net/TX526 and our Church Code is TX526, or give online through PayPal, Text to Give, or simply mail in your contribution into the Church with the address being 2921 Center Street. Thank you for your support.

        

            We are living in constantly changing times, but two things that are not changing are our devotion to our parish and it's needs. We know many of our lives have been turned upside down in the last 5 months. The parish's has been too. We are struggling. We need, same as you, to know what's coming in so we can budget what goes out. I'm not asking you to give more; I'm asking you to give DIFFERENTLY. By going to the website and signing up for RECURRING online giving, you let the parish know we can count on your support weekly. This helps us budget and plan. you will be receiving more information about this over the next few weeks, but I tell you , the time is NOW and the need is CRITICAL.

          

          Religious Education and Faith Formation classes will be starting up at the end of September, and now is the time to start the registration process for  the upcoming religious Education school year.  Due to the current environment with social distancing and COVID – 19, Faith Formation will be a bit different for all of us at the start of the Religious Education year. All classes for all grades will be offered online through January 1^st.  Families will be able to work at their own pace as they follow the online home study material that will be provided. Registration will start in a few weeks. Once when we are able to ascertain the number of students and educational needs, we will be providing families with books, lesson guides, calendar and access codes. Thank you for your patience as we seek the best ways to serve the young people of our parish.Go to :https://sthyacinth.org/student-registration  to register your child online. 

God Bless,

Fr. Reginald Samuels