On July 1, 2024 we began a new fiscal year at STHY as did all of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. One of the chief responsibilities of a pastor is sound management of the Church’s temporal goods and prudent and balanced management of all financial responsibilities. Copies of the FY 2024-2025 financial report are online at Sthyacinth.org and will be in print shortly. I can report that St. Hyacinth’s financial health is stable at best. However, going forward we are and are currently challenged in the parish finances. The good news is that Church bills are being paid; we are in good standing with all our Archdiocesan obligations and St. Hyacinth has NO DEBT. However, STHY’s finances going forward in 2025 will be challenged by the dramatic increase in the cost of ministry obligations, inflation, and the dramatic increase in the cost of maintaining the infrastructures of the parish facilities. Currently, St Hyacinth is not meeting our weekly planned budget contribution goals of $16,833.42. (The weekly financial budget goals are listed in the bulletin every week). The planned budget contribution amount is the year (FY2025) budget amount broken down to a weekly amount. (52 weeks). The projected FY 2025 budget has been discerned to be drastically conservative in nature, with forecasted collections and revenue to remain flat. Due to the challenges, we face here at St. Hyacinth in the coming year, the budget cannot account for all of the major increase in the costs and expenses for ministry and to take care of our 56-year-old Church building, 40-year-old Guyot Hall building and Rectory. Over the last two years, we have made significant improvements to the entire church complex including new flooring for the Guyot Hall, new carpeting for the Religious Education Building and mold removal and new flooring for the Rectory. However, due to age of the Church complex, we will have to continue to address the church aged infrastructure, Church sound system and Church Marquee over the next year. The HVAC system to the Religious Education Building will need to be replaced over the next year or so as well. I pray that your continued giving will exceed our forecast. As our parish and ministries continue to do the work commissioned by Christ, we must all continue to be good stewards of God’s gifts so we can effectively serve those who seek to encounter Christ at STHY. Yet, I want to thank each of you for your continued sacrifice, week in and week out, to support the ministries and operations of our parish. Only with your support are we able to do the work of the Gospel. Thank you very much. I ask that you prayerfully consider reviewing your weekly giving to the parish, and if it has remained at a constant and consistent level the past few years, please consider increasing it. However, I do want to address the approximately 1000 plus registered families here at STHY that we have no record of your giving to the Church. We do acknowledge that many are giving to the Church through the weekend collection; however, STHY needs you to start using your envelopes or move toward electronic giving. In this way we can account for all those who are a part of the parish that are truly giving, and it is an expense of the church for envelopes to be mailed to registered families. We currently spend close to $10K a year on offertory envelopes and if we could use our electronic giving, this would reduce the expense of mailed offertory envelopes dramatically. Everyone’s gift of a weekly tithe in the offertory is a great act of Stewardship. And remember, you can do it in two ways, through your parish envelopes that are mailed to you or electronically through online giving. You can start your online giving journey on our website at https://sthyacinth.org/online-giving