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July 17, 2024Dear friends in Christ,
Our gospel this 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time comes from St. Mark and contains what I think is one of the most comforting and beautiful lines in all of the Sacred Scriptures: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31) Those words of Jesus always strike me as being so tender. What a gentle invitation it is to “rest a while.”
Summer is an ideal time to do so, if you can escape the heat of Houston. That’s not always feasible for everyone or even practical when our summer schedules are already packed with so many activities. Still, these words of our Lord deserve to be taken to heart. This might be an opportune time to think outside of the box. While it is nice to do so, we don’t necessarily have to go to the beach or the mountains to take up Jesus on his invitation. “Coming away” might be as simple as popping into the Adoration chapel to spend an hour “resting” with Him, or it might be unplugging our lives from all of our devices (phone, computer, tablet ... noise!) and just being still in the presence of the one who calls us by name. Try it this week and I bet you will discover a rest unlike any other.
I hope you are making plans to join us next Saturday, July 27, for our inaugural CtR Trivia Night. It’s a fundraiser for our awesome Youth Ministry department to support their year-round programs, retreats, and conferences for our junior high and high school teens. The Trivia Night is open to the entire parish on Saturday, July 27 from 6:30 – 10 p.m. in our Youth Ministry Suite in the Redeemer Activity Night. You can register individually for $30 and we’ll place you on a team with others, or gather a group of family and friends and sign up as your own team of six for $150.
It’s a great way to come together as a family (or join up with another family) to test your wits in a variety of categories. I’d love to see some of our ministry groups pull together a team or two of six and see who is the champion of them all. It’s a family-friendly night (anyone age 12 and up is welcome to play, and childcare will be available) with plenty of snacks and non-alcoholic drinks, and we’ll play several rounds to keep it moving.
I’ll be there as the MC, or for an extra donation I might even join your team. Back in the ’80s playing Trivial Pursuit with friends I learned the secret was to always answer “Ernest Borgnine” to any question. For some reason, more often than not, it was usually correct! (Kids, if you don’t know who Ernest Borgnine is, ask your grandparents.) Come join us for what promises to be a fun night of fun for everyone! To sign up, visit www.ctrcc.com/events/trivianight. And, if trivia is not your thing, or you can’t be there that night, consider being a supporting sponsor to help our Youth Ministry department.
In other news, I offer a gentle summer reminder about our ongoing 2024 Diocesan Services Fund drive. Our goal for the DSF this year is $353,000, and we are currently about 80 percent of the way to meeting it. Thanks to the more than 725 donors who have already made a pledge. We’ve got until the end of the calendar year to meet our goal, and so for those who have not yet done so, I encourage you to join our effort. As an incentive, remember the parish receives back 75 cents on every dollar that we go over our goal, and 50 percent of the total pledge of first-time donors, so that makes for a nice rebate for our community at the end of the year.
Recall that DSF funds the more than 60 ministries of the Archdiocese that no one parish can do on its own, but that collectively we can make possible in your name. Ministries like the Catholic Chaplain Corps at the hospitals of the Texas Medical Center, the office of Vocations and Seminarians, the Office of Youth Ministry (the annual Archdiocesan Youth Conference, which teens from CtR will attend, will be held in a couple of weeks), Catholic Charities (which has been on the front line of offering assistance following Hurricane Beryl), and so much more. It’s a wonderful way to go beyond ourselves at the parish and serve the larger Church of Galveston-Houston.
I would appreciate it if you would look for a reminder from Cardinal DiNardo in the mail soon and make your DSF pledge today. We also have additional envelopes in the narthex of the church, or to make it even easier, you can follow the link on our parish website. It will take you to www.archgh.org/dsf and there you can make your pledge on-line. That’s how I made my pledge and it was fast, easy, and secure. A gift of any size will be a great help to us meeting our goal and providing for others. Thank you for your support of the many ministries that benefit from the DSF.
Finally, with school starting in less than a month, please remember that our annual Operation Backpack for school supplies is underway. We invite you to bring items to Mass or drop them off in the parish office during the week. We are asking for new school supplies (wide notebook paper, folders, binders, spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, map colors, etc.; see the website for a complete list) that we can distribute to local school children in need through Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM). We always have a great response from the CtR community, so please remember to pick up a few items when you are at the store. There’s even a link to our Amazon Wish list on our website where you can buy items online and have them sent directly to the office. Easy-peasy!
Peace, Fr. Sean
P.S.: For some of our long-time parishioners, there is an open invitation to remember the life and legacy of Dave & Dianna Perham today, Sunday, July 21, at 2 p.m. in the Community Center. The Perhams were long-time Ravensway residents and integral members of CtR from our beginning in 1980 and for many years thereafter, hosting countless parish meetings and celebrations in their home and here on campus. Dianna was our original parish Social Director and Wedding Coordinator, too, and she and Dave did so much to grow our faith community and the community of Cypress alongside it. What a blessing they were to CtR! Both have passed away in recent years and their children are hosting a celebration of their lives for members of the Cypress community who knew and loved them. All are welcome.