Second Week of Ordinary Time

January 9, 2024

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

The work of discernment, learning to listen to God, is a process that we all grow into. With practice, we become more and more familiar with the ways of God and how He works in our lives. We learn to hear and see God at work in the people in our lives as well. As we approach this weeks’ gospel, we are called to recognize the voice of god calling in our lives.

“Behold the Lamb of God” is the gospel passage that John the Baptist begins Sunday’s passage. We know these words very well because they are a part of the Eucharistic celebration. As we enter the season of Ordinary time, we are called to delve deeper into our own relationship with the Lamb of God. As we witness the closeness of Jesus’s disciples, we are called to be close to Him as well.

Next, I want to thank all those who have contributed to the various donation drives that have been going on here at STHY over the Christmas season. For our Stain Glass restoration project we have collected $51,643 soo far. Thank you for your generosity in helping us reach our goal. The donation progress report can be found on the front opening page of our website Sthyacinth.org.

One of our goals for 2024 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 .

Please keep in prayer throughout the next few weeks for our 45 high school youth who will be having their Confirmation Retreat on January 26^th -28^th. Mrs. Pamella Johnson along with the Confirmation team have all been working very hard over the past few months to make sure that all the details for the retreat are ready for our Confirmandi. Cardinal Danial DiNardo will be the Celebrant for the Confirmation Mass which is scheduled for June 2024. Thanks to Faith Formation and Confirmation Team for all of your hard work with the young people for Confirmation 2024.

Finally, I want to address an issue that has been occurring in the Church at Mass for a while. If you are late for Mass, please do not enter the Church and seat yourself DURING the readings and the Psalm response. This action is extremely distracting for the Readers of the Mass, the Cator performing the Psalm response and the rest of the Church congregation that are seated. We understand that there all kinds of circumstances and reasons for someone to be late for Mass, however, it is extremely distracting for someone to enter the Church during the readings and the singing of the psalm response. Once the readings and the singing of Psalm response are over, we will give everyone chance to be seated before the Priest or Deacon gives the homily. Thank you for your cooperation with this matter.

The parish offices will be closed Monday January 16^th as we celebrate the National observance of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.