For this Sundays Gospel, we continue with the readings from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus challenges his disciples to not only follow the letter of the law, but to full embrace the Holy Spirit. This week we need to call on God’s mercy and forgiveness as we seek to keep His mandate for our lives: to be the best Christian’s that we are called to be.
For 2020, Cardinal DiNardo has assessed our parish DSF goal at $84,000. DSF supports more than 60 ministries and programs that serve the faithful of the Archdiocese and us here at St. Hyacinth. From Catholic chaplains at the hospitals and the Port of Houston, to religious education training for our teachers (who pass on their faith to our children), to outreach to seniors, to youth ministry, to soup kitchens, to Catholic Charities ministry to the poor and disenfranchised, and to training for seminarians, deacons and priests, the DSF provides funding for people and program that serve us all.
The IGNITE campaign has been going on for a few months here in our parish. Everyone in our parish has been asked to consider in one way or another to contribute to this archdiocese campaign to improve the ministry of our archdiocese. Our Goal Archdiocese IGNITE capital campaign is $750,000 over 3 ½ to 4 years with some $253,000 to be returned to the STHY earmarked for new lighting and flooring in Guyot Hall.
FORMED is the revolutionary digital online platform that gives STHY unprecedented access to video-based study programs, feature films, audio presentations, and eBooks from the Church’s foremost presenters. With your free access to FORMED, 24/7 on your television, smart phone, laptop, I-pad, or Kindle, you can: Prepare for Mass, study the scriptures, watch religious movies and programs as a family, Enrich your marriage with the award winning video programs, and help your children grow in faith and character with engaging children’s materials. Our parish Password to FORMED.org is 77GVZ3.
Next, Have you noticed the St. Vincent De Paul Collection container in the Narthex of the Church and Guyot Hall ? There is an ongoing need for food items in our greater community. To assist a greater number of people in need of food, we are asking everyone to bring in donated food items on a regular basis for the St. Vincent De Paul food pantry. The SVD food pantry is always in need of nutritious nonperishable items such as peanut butter, tuna, canned meats, vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce, canned fruit, rice, beans and shelf stable milk. Thank you for your great generosity.
Mark your calendars for Sunday May 3, for our 2020 Parish Spring Festival. This will be our eighth festival for our parish in 20 years. Volunteers are still needed in many areas. Please make plans to get involved now and come join us for what is shaping up as great festival for the life of St. Hyacinth. I highly encourage you to make your commitment to helping our parish at the Bazaar.
If you have not picked up your Spring Festival raffle tickets, they are available from members of our Spring Festival Committee members after Mass or pick them up from our parish office. You may return Spring Festival tickets to an ushers at Mass or return them to the parish office.
For Ash Wednesday (February 26th) here at STHY we will be offering one Mass and three Liturgies of the Word services with ashes. Mass time is 8:00 am; Liturgy of the Word services with ashes: 6:00 am, 12:00 Noon, and 7:00 pm. These liturgies will require our entire ministry teams’ presence, so please make sure to sign up.
Next, we will have our annual Parish Liturgical Ministries retreat on Saturday February 29th. Go to Sthyacinth.org for more details about the retreat.
Finally, as of the writing for the bulletin, the boiler for the Church is no longer working which means that there is no heat for the Church, the older part of Parish facilities and Church offices. Due to the age of the boiler, several contractors have advised that any new attempted repair work on the boiler will not guarantee that boiler will function, and these contractors have simply advise that it is not in the best interest of the Church to attempt to repair the boiler. We are currently working with the Archdiocese as to the next steps we need to take. We will keep everyone informed.