Third Week in Advent

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Church Tradition lets us know that the third Sunday of Advent is “Gaudete,” “Rejoice,” Sunday, named after the entrance antiphon in the Roman Missal. At the midpoint of our season, the liturgy overflows with rejoicing. This season is meant to show the joy of our faith in Christ the Light. The season of Advent encourages us to make time in our preparations to joyfully greet Jesus in the Christmas season.

The Advent candle for the 3rd Sunday of Advent symbolizes Joy with the "Shepherd’s Candle" reminding us of the Joy the world experienced at the coming birth of Jesus. Notice

Like John the Baptist, we all play a role in revealing and announcing Jesus Christ to the world. Just as the prophet Isaiah announces a year of the lord, we are called to use the action of announcing all the ways in which God has been there for us. We are all called to reach out to those that are less fortunate, to make sure that the good news of Jesus is heard and seen in the world.


Now that the Holiday season is in full swing and there are several opportunities for our parish community to witness the love of Christ to those in need this season. The Knights of Columbus are sponsoring a coat drive and there is a collection box for coats in the narthex. Thank you for your generosity.

The next opportunity for you to give is to the parish itself. The 2023 STHY gift list is out and this presents a great opportunity to support our parish in a special way to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Check out the list in the bulletin or https://sthyacinth.org/2023-christmas-wish-list and see how you can share the gift of Christmas with STHY.  

With the busy times of the Season of Christmas right around the corner, enrolling in online giving today is a great way to ensure your gifts of treasure to St. Hyacinth are received even if you may be out of town.  Go to https://sthyacinth.org/online-giving and register for online giving. Don't forget to add your Christmas or End-of-Year contributions to your account this season. Thank you for your online support of St. Hyacinth.
   
One of our goals for the new year is to increase the number of people using our electronic formats for the dissemination of information from our parish. We have our website: Sthyaicnth.org, which is updated almost daily with information about the activities that go on in the parish. There is Flocknotes, which is our information delivery service for the parish, in which we email and or text information about the activities of the parish.  Go to Flocknote.com/sthyhouston and join the group “Parishioners”.  We are on Facebook, go and ‘like’ our Facebook page at   https://www.facebook.com/StHyacinthchurch .

  Let’s look ahead to the Christmas schedule. Our Christmas Mass schedule is as follows: Sunday, December. 24th, Christmas Eve: 4:00 pm, and 12 Midnight; Monday, December. 25th, Christmas Day: 10:00 am.

With all those masses we will be stretched thin on ministers to help cover the many needs of the Christmas Liturgy. I am asking our Eucharistic Ministers of Holy Communion to please sign up to assist at one (or two) masses if at all possible. Same goes for our Sacristans, Acolytes, Altar Servers, Ushers and Greeters. We will have a lot of visitors with us this Christmas season and we need your presence, please.

Construction update:
As you can see by the construction there has been a tremendous amount of work that has been done on the reconstruction of the parish office and classroom building. The 6-inch metal structural walls for the building is about 90% complete. The trusses installation and sheathing are underway. This process should take a few weeks. 

God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels