Twenty – Second Week in Ordinary Time - St Hyacinth Catholic Church

August 24, 2021

by Fr. Reginald Samuels

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

I want to thank everyone for making our 56th parish anniversary, a wonderful experience. It was wonderful seeing everyone out to celebrate the life of the parish. We have all gone through a year that we will never forget that God continues to bless us each and every day.

I want to thank Mrs. Palmella Pitman, our Director of Liturgy and Music along with Deacon Charles Pitman for planning and implementing our Day of Reflection. Next, I want to thank Mrs. Pamela Johnson, Our director of Faith Formation along with Faith Formation Assistant, Christine Reilly, and Our Coordinator of Youth Ministry Steven Sotelo along with the Catholic Daughters, Knights of Columbus, our Men’s and Women’s ACTS community, Legion of Mary, St Vincent De Paul Organization, a host of volunteers who made the Luncheon and Raffle special. I want to give a special thanks to Raul Turner for his help in the distribution of Raffle tickets for the event. The DJ , Mike Layton, Our parish Secretary, Mrs. Mary Jo Howell along with Mrs. Elena Rodriguez our parish bookkeeper. Chris Hoems and Deacon John Rapacki for setting up and Christopher Pitman who helped coordinate the sound systems.

This weekend please welcome the Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales. Fr. Joy Thomas M.S.F.S. will be presiding and making an missions appeal for the Religious order. The archdiocese has challenged every parish to open of their doors for a missions appeal every year. The Missionaries of St. Francis De Sales is an international religious congregation founded in France in 1838 by Fr. Peter Mary Mermier. The order is in 26 countries, with 1300 professed religious priests and 750 seminarians. For more information: www.fransalians.com.

Religious Education classes will be starting in a few weeks’ time, and now is the time to start thinking about the upcoming religious Education school year. Registration is currently in progress. You can register on line or register in Faith Formation office during Sunday hours.

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. We’ll train you and give you all the support you need. The Faith Formation staff is happy to answer questions and get you involved.

One of the principal goals of 2021 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 Sthyacinth.org/ onlinegiving. As always, know that your generosity is truly a gift from God.

Phase two of the renovation of the main sanctuary will be starting in just two short weeks. Labor Day weekend, September 4^th and 5^th will be the last weekend in our sanctuary. We will be moving all Church services to Guyot hall for approximately eight – ten weeks to accommodate the renovation of the main sanctuary. Studio Red Architects will be guiding us on phase two of the renovation. For the renovation of the sanctuary, we are planning to replace the existing pews, flooring, and lighting in the main church.

God Bless
Fr. Reginald Samuels