Bulletin for May 19

Dear friends in Christ,

On this 5th Sunday of Easter we hear the Lord speak of what He calls a “new” commandment – love one another. Seems odd that He should label it as new. Isn’t love the oldest of all commandments? Of course it is, but this “new” type of love Jesus is asking of us is meant to mirror His love for us. Only when we give of ourselves freely, as He did on the cross, will we be fulfilling what the Lord asks of us. Let us strive to always do so.

As the school year begins to draw to a close, we are already looking ahead to next year. Parents of children who will be entering Pre-Kindergarten are invited to join us at 6:30 p.m. this coming Thursday, May 23 for our annual Pre-K Preview. Prospective families (kids are welcome, too, of course) can visit with teachers and tour our classrooms to see what a great program we have for children. Our staff will be on hand to answer all your questions. Come see what a blessing a Catholic education is for your children. We’d love to have you join us. If you know of others looking for a comprehensive Pre-K program, pass along the invitation to them, too. No need to RSVP, just come at any time beginning at 6:30 p.m. Our school website has more information.

Also on the school website you’ll see we have an opening for the Business Manager. We’re looking for someone with an accounting background to oversee the business operations of our school (accounting, budgeting, payroll, etc.). It’s a great opportunity to work close to home with flexible hours on a great team. Contact our principal, Dan Courtney, in the School Office (281-469-8440) for more information.

In other news, I’m happy to announce that we have planned a parish pilgrimage to Germany for next June 5-16, 2020 to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau. Many of you have asked about this opportunity and I’m excited that we have again coordinated with Inspirational Tours to make it happen. It promises to be a special trip and one that I’ve been looking to make for 20 years.

The story of the Passion Play in Oberammergau 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 during 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. I tried to go in 2000 and 2010 but could never match up my calendar with the production schedule. This year I made a vow that I was definitely going in 2020 and I look forward to taking others with me!

Our trip includes tickets and accommodations to the play, which has long-since sold out. Our itinerary during 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. As always, there will be plenty of sight-seeing along the way. We have a brochure with our daily itinerary and all the details available in the Parish Office, the narthex and online at our parish website.

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 you who have traveled with us on previous pilgrimages know that Inspirational Tours does a fabulous job of taking care of us. I’ve been using them for 20 years and have never had a bad experience. It’s truly a first-class operation that takes care of everything along the way.

We are limited in the number of people we can take so we’ll begin taking reservations at 9 a.m. this Tuesday, May 21 in the Parish Office. Roxie Goetz, our pastoral associate, will be here that morning to accept a non-refundable deposit of $600 per person. The balance is due by March 5, 2020. Check your calendar and make plans to join us for this most memorable pilgrimage. It only comes around once every 10 years so I hope you will be able to join us.

We do have a handful of spots left for our pilgrimage this summer. We leave on June 9 to tour the Shrines of Southern Italy on a 13-day trip that will take us to Rome, Assisi, San Giovanni Rotondo, Naples, Isle of Capri, the Amalfi Coast and various points along the way. We’ll celebrate Mass in some of the world’s most historic and beautiful churches and cathedrals, including St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and we’ll join Pope Francis for his daily audience on June 12. The cost of $3,890 includes airfare, hotel, transportation, guides and everything else. I believe there are only four spots remaining, so if you’d like to go, contact Roxie in the office today. You can find a brochure for the Italy trip on our website as well.  

In other news, please join me in welcoming Ashley Bass to our staff as our first-ever Director of Stewardship. Many of you know Ashley from her work on the Parish Pastoral Council (she rolled off after a three-year term last December) and other ministries that she and her family are involved in here at CtR. She’s been instrumental in working with myself and Megan Dillingham, our director of Advancement, in ramping up our Stewardship efforts for the past year and it makes sense to bring her into the fold in a more official capacity. You’ll recall that Stewardship was one of the key areas of our Vision 2020 Pastoral Plan that we pledged to highlight during the next two years, and I’m overjoyed that Ashley will take the lead in it for us – though everyone in the parish should rightly consider themselves Ministers of Stewardship! We’ll have more to share soon on the many ways that we can all be better stewards of God’s gifts in our lives.

Peace, Fr. Sean