Bulletin for Nov. 11

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.

We’ve got a wonderful series of events planned to celebrate our anniversary so let’s review them and I hope you will make plans to join us at some point over the weekend. This Friday, Nov. 16 is the actual day of the anniversary (it fell on a Sunday 10 years ago), but we’re blocking out the whole weekend this year to give us all a chance to participate in the festivities. If one day is good, three are even better!

On Friday we will have our regular morning daily Mass at 9 a.m., but with a special added touch – it’s Grandparents’ Day at CtR Catholic School so the school kids and their extended family members who are in town will join us. It’s the last school Mass before the kids take off for the Thanksgiving break and it has become an annual tradition to honor grandparents that day. So everyone is invited to join us that morning to thank God for our church home and our families.

Later that same night on Friday, Nov. 16 we invite you to join us in the church for Solemn Evening Prayer at 7 p.m. A church is first and foremost a house of prayer and our sacred space is a lovely place in which to prayerfully enter into the presence of the Lord. We’ll gather that night to sing the traditional evening prayers of the church and then have a small reception afterward in the narthex. While the abundant natural light that streams into our church during the day is lovely, I really find praying in it at night to be a particularly beautiful experience so I hope you will join me.

On Saturday, Nov. 17 we mark our anniversary weekend with our Family Fall Service Day. It’s no coincidence that this day of service falls in the center of our anniversary weekend – service is at the heart of our parish and our faith. We are baptized into Christ’s body so that we might go forth to be His hands and feet to the world. We’ll be sending teams of volunteers into three main areas (groups on campus, groups off campus and teams at our sister parish of Our Mother of Mercy). It’s a great way for both young and old, individuals and families, to be Christ for others. I’m grateful to our Youth Ministry team, who is coordinating the activities of Family Service Day, so go to their website at www.ctryouth.com to discover the various ways you work for a few hours on Saturday, Nov. 17. The teams will gather at 8:30 a.m. that morning before going out to the various work sites to lend a hand. Please note we’ll close sign-ups on Tuesday morning this week so that we can be sure we have enough people allocated at each location, so take a moment today to be sure you and your family are registered to help.

Then next Sunday, Nov. 18 we’ll mark our 10th anniversary at all the Masses. The Mass we will celebrate that day will be the Mass from the Dedication of a Church, so the readings will not be from the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, but rather the same ones from 10 years ago. Our Gospel for the day will be Matthew 16:13-19, the story of Jesus declaring Peter as the rock upon which he will build His church. After all the Masses we’ll have a reception in the Parish Hall with cupcakes to mark the day. And then don’t forget the cherry on top – the Heritage Concert from the CtR Choir at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon in the church. It promises to be a prayerful time of song as our choir presents an hour of sacred music that will lift our hearts and extend our Thanksgiving joy.     

Since the day of dedication 10 years ago we have welcomed nearly 2,750 new families to our community. We now number more than 7,000 families who call this parish home. God’s holy Church is never static. It is always in mission to the world. I invite you today to take a moment and thank God for the gift of your faith lived here at Christ the Redeemer, and then resolve to deepen your faith by living it more deeply with a spirit of gratitude as a good steward of the many gifts God has given you. The church building itself is where we gather and are fed, but we are sent to leave the building and bring Christ to others through our lives in action.

In other news, remember that throughout the month of November we keep in our prayers all who have died, and we have a Book of Remembrance in the church by the baptismal font. You are invited to inscribe the name of those loved ones who have died and we’ll remember them at Masses this month.

This Thursday, Nov. 15, we’re hosting a special live-stream event of Dave Ramsey’s Smart Money presentation at 6:30 p.m. in the Redeemer Activity Center Auditorium. Dave Ramsey and Chris Hogan are giving the talk in San Antonio, but we’ll be streaming it live in the RAC. Best of all, it’s free! We have offered several of the Financial Peace classes at CtR over the years and they have been a great help to many of our parishioners. Here’s a chance to participate live and learn how we can manage our finances in a way that helps us live without the burden of debt. Dave Ramsey and his team have helped countless people prioritize their spending and get control of their finances so as to return honor to God. It promises to be an informative and engaging presentation and it’s a great opportunity for us to have it live-streamed directly into our auditorium at no cost to our parishioners. See the website for more information and come join us.

Next weekend we have the regularly scheduled monthly second collection that helps fight poverty at its roots. For more than 40 years, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has provided funding for groups that make lasting change and lift up the poor in the U.S. The collection has helped secure funding for low-income day care centers, legal advocacy to enforce fair wages, programs that emphasize education, and affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods. For more than 43 million Americans, there is a thin line between eviction and home, between hunger and health, between unemployment and work, between anxiety and stability. This line is the Poverty Line. For a family of four that line is $24,257, according to 2015 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Your donations will give those in poverty the support they need to make lasting changes. CCHD invests in community-based solutions that know no racial or religious boundaries. Together we can make a difference in families and communities locally and throughout the U.S. Please donate prayerfully and generously.

Peace,
Fr. Sean