Salvation history is shown through all four readings this Sunday. Moses, the psalmist, the Apostle Paul and St. Luke, all give us a snapshot of the progression of our understanding of God and how God was seen through the people over the ages. How we view our faith is how we see God.
The story of Moses and the people tell the story of a God of wrath and transactional form of faith. The Psalmist puts faith in the lord to “clean” his heart asking God for transformation. With the apostle Paul, speaks on the abundant grace of God and his infinite patience. In the gospel reading, we have St. Luke telling us the mercy of God. How we perceive God is how we act. When we share our knowledge of God, then we grow to be merciful people.
Religious Education classes is starting this Sunday and registration is currently in progress. You can register online at Sthyacinth.org or register in Faith Formation office during Sunday office hours. Please continue to pray for of our teachers, aids and students as they begin their faith formation journey.
Remember as well that when you are registering your child for Religious Education classes you can also sign-up yourself to be a catechist or aide. We need a number of catechists to teach our children, from the littlest ones in the early grades on through middle school and high school. It’s a wonderful way to get involved in the life of the parish and to live out the call of Stewardship of your time and talent.
One of the principal goals of 2022 is to increase the number of people that are contributing to the Church to Faith Direct, our electronic giving platform. We have over 1000 registered families here at STHY that maybe giving to our parish in the Sunday collection; however, we don’t have a record of them using their envelopes or Faith Direct. The Church spends close to $10,000 a year to print and mail our parish offertory envelopes. The easiest way for us to significantly reduce these printing expenses is to sign up as many people to Faith Direct. You can enroll for online giving through https://www.sthyacinth.org/online-giving. thank you for your generosity.
Bible Study will begin on September 20th at 8:30 am in Guyot Hall. First Corinthians: The Church and the Christian Community explores the key elements of the gospel message that St Paul introduced to a new and growing Church. Presenter Tim Gray examines Paul’s advice for living an authentic Christian life in a pagan culture as well as his teachings about the nature of grace, the Church as the body of Christ, and the most powerful gift of all—the Eucharist. There are 11 Sessions scheduled. Register online at https://www.sthyacinth.org/catholic-scripture-study.
Next, as you are aware by all of the news in our community and throughout the country, there is a severe food shortage and this has affected all of the food banks including our own SVDP food bank. For the month of September, our own STHY’s SVDP, is asking everyone specifically to bring cans of fruits, cans of vegetables and cans of soup. The donation box is in the narthex of the Church. A list of SVDP requested donation items are located on our parish website at https://sthyacinth.org/special-events . Thank you for your generosity in supporting SVDP.
For our parish 57th anniversary, we are collecting funds for a Statue of St. Hyacinth. A four-foot custom-made linden wood and painted statue of St Hyacinth will cost approximately $18K. (The handmade statue would have St. Hyacinth holding a monstrance and a little statue of a Madonna with Child). We have placed a special donation box is in the Narthex as well as a picture of the statue. You can give online at https://sthyacinth.org/statue-of-st-hyacinth as well. Soo far we have collected just over $13,000 toward the statue. Thank you for your generosity.
Finally, please pray for me and several of the parishioners of our parish family. We will be headed for a pilgrimage to Europe and Germany to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau. In 1633 the Oberammergau villagers promised to perform the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ every tenth year, in so far as no one was to die of the plague. The villagers were answered by God and therefore in 1634 the first Passion Play took place. The promise has been kept until today. Even though I will not be able to photograph the play itself, please follow me on my Facebook page as we travel throughout the religious sites throughout Germany and northern Europe.