Dear friends in Christ,
“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Those words from the Gospel of St. Luke resound in our hearts as we celebrate the birth of our savior, Christ the Lord. On behalf of Fr. Ralph, our deacons, and the entire pastoral staff of CtR, I wish you and your family a blessed and merry Christmas.

The Religious Education Department was excited to have their program in the new Redeemer Activity Center auditorium! See the full story.

The Senior Bag Project, just one of the many supported by the Ladies Auxiliary, is in it's sixth year. Learn more about what the Ladies do to support this project!

Dear friends in Christ,
Today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and our last full week of this great time of waiting for the Lord. Next week we have the 4th Sunday of Advent on Dec. 23 and then, just a day later, Christmas will be upon us. Let’s use this week to wait in joyful anticipation. As a people we don’t usually like to wait, whether it be in traffic, the doctor’s office, or in line at the grocery store. But Advent waiting is different and worth the effort. We light the rose-colored candle on our Advent wreath today as a joyful reminder of the two-fold coming of Christ at His birth and at the end of time. Today is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday from the Latin word meaning “rejoice.”

Dear friends in Christ,
This second week of Advent finds us still waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord, but we get a most welcomed visitor today – 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, let us prepare our hearts as well to welcome the coming of the King of Kings.

Dear friends in Christ,
As we begin the four-week season of Advent today we are called to wait joyfully for the Lord. We know Christmas is near. The Thanksgiving holiday is behind us and many of us are probably already in high gear in terms of preparations for Christmas. We know as well that it’s often a time when our nerves can easily fray and we feel stress more acutely. Why not make a “liturgical new year resolution” to wait patiently? While everyone else is speeding up, try slowing down and listening for the voice crying out in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

This morning, the District Attorney of Montgomery County executed a search warrant for records and information related to an ongoing investigation. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston continues to cooperate, as we have since the outset, with this process. In fact, consistent with Cardinal DiNardo’s pledge of full cooperation, the information being sought was already being compiled.

Dear friends in Christ,
Today is the Solemnity of Christ the King, the final Sunday in Ordinary Time of the Church’s liturgical calendar. Next week we begin the great season of holy waiting, Advent. But before then we honor Christ as our King. Not an earthly king of physical and political power and might, however, but a king who lays down his life in service to all.

Dear friends in Christ, Welcome to our 10th anniversary weekend celebration of the dedication of the “new” church at Christ the Redeemer. I put “new” in quotes because while our present church building is relatively new at 10 years of age, our parish is in its 38th year. (And, yes, we’re already planning on a big parish-wide 40th anniversary celebration in 2020.)

Dear friends in Christ,
While in our country we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day a little more than a week from now, this week at CtR is one of joyful thanksgiving as we mark the 10th anniversary of the dedication of our “new” church. It is to Almighty God that we give thanks for the gift of our earthly spiritual home as we wait in joyful anticipation of union with Him in our heavenly home. It’s a time of great rejoicing for us at CtR as we recall the beautiful events of 10 years ago and we see God’s manifestation in all the people who make up our parish community.

Dear friends in Christ,
As the calendar shifts into November we begin a busy two months until the end of the year. There are a lot of activities at the Church that warrant our attention and participation, and, of course, we’ve all got a lot of family commitments to attend to with the holidays coming into full view. But as hectic as it will undoubtedly get let’s all remember to slow down and focus on the “one thing” that deserves our utmost attention, namely the Lord. As we hear abundantly clear in today’s readings from Deuteronomy and the Gospel of St. Mark, “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Put that love of the Lord above all else and, like the scribe in today’s Gospel, we too “will not be far from the Kingdom of God.”

Dear friends in Christ,
As we close out October this week we come to one of my favorite days of the year, Oct. 31, and, no it’s not because I am a fan of Halloween. In fact, it’s one of my least favorite holidays. I freely admit to being one of those “old grumps” who thinks no one over the age of 12 should ever wear a costume. It boggles my mind how big Halloween has become, but such is life. It just strikes me as being much ado about nothing.

Dear friends in Christ,
I extend my thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday last Sunday. I received a number of well wishes in person, in cards, and on social media and I thank everyone who reached out to me. And to those of you who heard my “Bob Dylan homily” last weekend (I presided at all but the 5 p.m. Mass on Sunday) and have been asking, yes, I did make it to his concert and enjoyed it very much. And, yes, he did perform “Gotta Serve Somebody,” the song I referenced in my homily. But in true “Bob fashion,” he completely changed all the verses! Fortunately, the chorus “It may be the devil or it may be Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody” stayed the same.

Dear friends in Christ,
There is a lot of alliteration going on in the Old Testament passage that we hear today in the First Reading at Mass. It comes from Solomon in the Book of Wisdom – listen to the first three lines: “I prayed ..., I pleaded ..., I preferred ...” That’s a lot of p’s! And what is it that Solomon prayed for, pleaded for, and preferred more than anything else? Nothing less than holy wisdom itself. When we seek wisdom first, and not the fame and fortune of the world, as Solomon could have certainly requested, we too will know the grace that he received. When we are gifted with wisdom we have all that we need. Let us pray today that the Lord will shower us with such wisdom in all the deliberations of our life.

Dear friends in Christ,
We’ve moved into the month of October, which is always my favorite month. The temperatures are starting to drop just a bit affording us a chance to give our air conditioners a break, and it’s a great time to be outdoors, perhaps for some backyard grilling or football under the “Friday Night Lights.” There is a great feeling in the air and hopefully a pep in our step. It’s also a wonderful month in the life of the Church. October is always designated as Respect Life Month, and this first Sunday of the month is Respect Life Sunday.

Dear friends in Christ,
I always like when Moses appears in our First Reading on Sunday. As I’ve stated a number of times, I’m a big fan of Moses, and outside of Jesus (and probably Mary, too), he’s my favorite person in all of the Sacred Scriptures. In the Book of Numbers today we hear how God comes down in the cloud and strikes up a conversation with Moses, and then “takes” some of the Spirit that was on Moses and bestows it to the elders. I find that fascinating! The Spirit that Moses has, which he of course received from God, is thus sort of subdivided out and given to others, and when the elders receive some of what Moses had been given, they too are able to prophesy in the name of the Lord. That my friends is some powerful stuff!

Dear friends in Christ,
Thank you for the wonderful response to last weekend’s “text to join” Flocknote sign-up. More than 1,900 of you opted in and more are still coming in every day. That’s quite a flock! I had no idea it would be of interest to that many, but I am overjoyed at the level of excitement about it. You should have received your first messages this week including a introduction to the Word on Fire series sent this past Tuesday and my pastor’s message sent this past Thursday. If you didn’t get either of those, contract Bridget Richardson, our director of Communications.

Dear friends in Christ,
Today is Catechetical Sunday in the Church in the United States. It’s the day set aside to mark the beginning of the new Religious Education year for children, youth and adults. It’s also our first day of new RE year at CtR as classes begin this week for all our children and for junior high and high school youth ministry as well.

In 2001, a then-16 year old girl and her family notified this Archdiocese that Fr. Manuel La Rosa-Lopez had kissed and touched her inappropriately when he was assigned as Parochial Vicar at Sacred Heart in Conroe. We immediately referred this information to Children’s Protective Services for further investigation. Father La Rosa-Lopez denied touching the girl inappropriately, and the girl’s family decided not to pursue the matter, relocating out of the country that same year. After an internal review, including presentation of the above allegations to the newly founded Archdiocesan Review Board in 2003, Father La Rosa-Lopez was permitted to return to parish ministry in 2004.