Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Jesus tells us of himself: “I am the good shepherd.” As our good shepherd, Jesus fights for us and saves us from the jaws of all that would hurt us. In gathering the lost and searching for the sheep that has been scattered, Jesus does the work of the Father who desires that all should be found, loved in the family of God.
Once again I want to thank all the wonderful people who were responsible for decorating the Church this Easter season. There have been many people who have worked long and hard of the past few months to make sure that the people of St. Hyacinth could celebrate the resurrection our Lord. Thank you all for your time and generosity to make this Easter season special for all.
Next, there is an ongoing need for food items in our greater community. To assist a greater number of people in need of food, we are asking everyone to bring in donated food items on a regular basis for the St. Vincent De Paul food pantry. The SVD food pantry is always in need of nutritious nonperishable items such as peanut butter, tuna, canned meats, vegetables, pasta, pasta sauce, canned fruit, rice, beans and shelf stable milk. Thank you for your great generosity.
Next, we are currently providing livestreaming of the Masses here at St. Hyacinth. Please go to our website Sthyacinth.org, St Hyacinth Facebook page or St Hyacinth Viemo.com page to view the current livestream mass. Be on the lookout for the Sunday 10:00 am livestream mass if you are not able to come to Mass.
One of our parish goals in 2021 is to increase the number of families supporting St Hyacinth using Faith Direct. Currently we have 214 families using Faith Direct and hopefully by the end of the year we can have at least 325 families of STHY on Faith Direct. The number of 325 families represents 20% of our parish population of registered parishioners. You can register in less than five minutes by logging sthaycinth.org and pressing the Faith Direct icon and entering our parish code of TX526 or by just simply scanning the QR code found on the poster in the Narthex.
However, I do want to address the approximately the over 1044 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 start moving 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.
Finally, as you are aware by now the aged boiler for the Church is no longer functioning and cannot be repaired; and along with aged HVAC/ cooling system to the Church has been evaluated and will need to be replaced. The first phase of renovation of the Church will be starting soon with the plan to put in the new heating / boiler system to the Church and Religious education building along with updating and replacing the HVAC/Cooling system with a new system to the Church and Religious education building. During this time will replace one (1 of 4) of the main HVAC/cooling systems to Guyot Hall. The cost of replacing and repairing the heating and cooling systems for the Church, Religious Education building and Guyot Hall will be approximately just over $200,000. Thank you for your generosity to St Hyacinth.
God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels
