Fourth Week of Advent

December 14, 2021

by Fr. Reginald Samuels

Fourth Week of Advent / Christmas/ Christmas Octave

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

          Everyone knows that Christmas is a time of gift-giving. The meaningfulness of a gift is not dependent upon the amount spent but on the heart given. The greatest gift ever given is the greatest heart ever given: God sent the only Son to dwell among us. Jesus came among us as God’s gift of Salvation to us. As a gift of salvation, Jesus is the incarnation of God’s loving presence among us. This gift cost us no money. It does cost us our own life: a heart turned to God.

As you are “making your list and checking it twice” for those you will remember at Christmas, might I so humbly ask that you please don’t forget your church? The parish relies on your end-of-the-year donations to help us meet our ever-growing financial obligations for our parish. We are happy to assist those who might need or want to make end of the year tax donations of cash or stocks, or if you have a minimum distribution from your IRA that you must take, we can help in that area as well. Please call the parish office for details. Thank you for your generosity and support of St. Hyacinth.

As we wind down our Advent season and move into the Christmas season please let us continue to pray for our country and our governmental leaders that they may continue to work hard to cherish the gifts of life and liberty and work to safeguard those liberties. We always keep in our prayers those who are serving our country in the military services, especially those far from home at this time of the year. May the Lord protect them and guard them, and bring them home safely and soon.

          One of our goals for 2022 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 .

I want to congratulate and offer my gratitude to everyone here at St. Hyacinth who participated in the 2021 DSF campaign. We have reached our assessed commitment goal of $80,000 for DSF 2021. Cardinal DiNardo has sent his congratulations and appreciation for our efforts with completing this goal. Thank you all for your generosity in completing our goal!!

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

For Sunday December 26^th, there will be the regular Sunday schedule of Masses at 8:00 am , 10:00 am and 12 Noon .

          The parish office will be closed on December 23^rd, 24^th, and 27^th in observance of Christmas and Friday December 31^stfor the celebration for the New Year.   On behalf of the staff here at St. Hyacinth, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a joy filled New Year!

Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent and Merry Christmas,
God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels