Saturday Vigil: 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. (Spanish)
Sunday: 7:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. (reserved for 60 & above parishioners), 4:00 p.m. (Lifeteen)
Daily Mass: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, 7:30 a.m.; Wed, 12 p.m. (noon)
Adoration: Mon. - Thurs. 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. Fri. 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Confessions: Sat, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
After visiting St. Mark for a couple of Masses back in 2012, Denis and Chrisy Ryan began considering joining the parish.
“Our youngest son asked if we would change to St. Mark,” Denis says. “I replied, ‘We could, maybe there will be a sign to send us that direction.’ In that Mass, the priest announced his retirement, and my son at the age of 6 turned to me and asked, ‘Is that our sign?’ The rest is history.”
Denis and Chrisy met at the University of Dallas Rome campus dedication in 1995 and were married the following year. They have two boys and are active members of our parish community. They first became involved in parish life when they
had enrolled their children in religious education, providing snacks and doing some volunteer work.
“Then I get the smile and, ‘Hey, have we met?’ from Dennis Pettit and Sean Stenovitch,” Denis says. “I became a Knight and we began to settle into the community.”
As for Chrisy, she began helping with Vacation Bible School and gradually joined other ministries that suited her interest and talents. Both Chrisy and Denis now find themselves involved in a variety of ministries. Denis helps out with the ACTS team, ACTS core, and is an active Eucharistic Minister. Chrisy serves funeral meals and participates in weekly adoration. The two also help with Life Teen meal service.
Chrisy enjoys the many events and organizations that exist here at our parish.
“It is nice to have so many so you can connect with a group that suits you,” she says. “I also enjoy how down-to-earth and friendly the parishioners are.”
Denis appreciates how active the parish community is, with many people involved and offering their time, talent and treasures on a regular basis.
“It’s inspiring and makes this a special place,” he says. “We are called to center ourselves on Christ in our lives and the numerous ministries allow each of us to do this in mind, spirit, and body.”
As Catholics, we need to have a foundation of prayer and faith in order to help serve others. Being involved with our parish community has helped
Denis and Chrisy grow in the faith. Chrisy has found spiritual growth through attending adoration.
“Weekly adoration has allowed me to enjoy the blessings of the Rosary and quiet time with the Lord in this all too-busy world,” she says.
“I have begun to attend daily Mass more often and witnessing what so many faithful servants of Christ offer inspires me to volunteer my time to the St. Mark community and local and global community,” Denis says. “It’s not just the parishioners — my children have set an example, one going to Uganda on a mission trip and the other serving the homeless outside of his college community.”
Both Denis and Chrisy have daily practices that help them to live out their faith and grow in their relationships with the Lord, which include prayer and reading Scripture. The two of them have brought the faith to their children by living as an example of stewardship and active participation in our parish community.
“I have led and hosted Bible studies for over a decade,” Chrisy says. “I hope that it showed my family how important it is to continually learn about the Word and to also keep faithful Christian friends.”
“We are called to stewardship when the Mass ends, plain and simple — “Go in peace and serve the Lord,’” Denis says. “We need to show our children and our fellow parishioners the importance of giving back to the parish and community. We all have gifts it’s time to show that light!”
“We are called to stewardship when the Mass ends, plain and simple — “Go in peace and serve the Lord.’ We need to show our children and our fellow parishioners the importance of giving back to the parish and community. We all have gifts — it’s time to show that light!”
DENIS RYAN
Most people associate stewardship with giving. Some think it is a desperate plea for money. Some think of it as giving of their time, talent, and treasure to a worthy cause. Still, others think of stewardship as a single, noble gesture of generosity so common this time of year.
But I have come to understand stewardship as a way of life rather than a singular act, donation, or the answer to a plea for resources. It is a lifestyle that focuses on giving back a portion of the gifts I have received from God, which brings abundant joy and blessings in return.
At Christmas, when gift giving and receiving is so common, couldn’t it also be the time when stewardship as a way of life is unwrapped in each of our lives and shared with others? After all, the gift of the first Christmas was the gift of God’s own Son, whom He shared with all of humanity with love and joy.
A stewardship conversion changes our mindset and the catalyst for stewardship is gratitude. As we recognize that all we have is a gift from God, it lights up
our gratitude, as if it were a giant Christmas tree with too many lights to count. All we can do is look at it with wonder and awe and be grateful for what we see, what we have, and the opportunity to give back something to God. It is more than just a “holiday stewardship,” which seems so common at this time of year. It is at the core of this way of life, and once that gift is unwrapped our conversion takes hold, and our lives transform into a life of faithful stewardship and active discipleship intended by our God.
My hope and prayer for you and your family are that each and all of you be blessed during this season of God’s grace, unwrapping the gift of stewardship in your lives, and finding the joy and peace of His gift during this season of grace and all year long.
In Christ, Fr. George Pastor
We extend our gratitude to all those who volunteered for and attended our recent Oktoberfest and All Saints Workshop events.
As the Christmas season approaches, it is easy to get swept up in the commercialism that tells us Christmas begins on Black Friday. But Adventcentered traditions are a simple way to differentiate between the two seasons. Traditions can help us embrace what this season truly means and allow us to consider ways to enter into careful preparation for the birth of the Christ Child with our families.
While hanging stockings, consider hanging one for Jesus so family members can place “gifts” in the stocking for Him. These can be commitments made on a notecard offering to give up desserts during the week or promising to do one extra chore for another family member. Advent can be as much of a time for fasting and almsgiving as the season of Lent — after all, both seasons prepare our hearts for a great feast of the Church.
Need more ideas? Create a manger bed for Jesus. For every good deed that a member of your family performs, place some straw in a small manger
displayed somewhere prominently in your home. By Christmas, there will be a fitting bed in which the Christ Child can be placed. Or consider participating in a gift outreach and make the shopping experience for that gift a family outing. By focusing on the person who will receive the gift, you will help make the act of shopping more meaningful.
While there are many activities to help prepare our hearts for the Christmas celebration, nothing centers us more securely in this season of Advent than participating in the liturgy. Try to attend parish penance services or take part in service opportunities organized by our parish ministries. As a family, spend time with the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic Adoration, reminding your children that the Christ Who dwells there in the monstrance is the same Christ Who came to this world as a baby — for it will be there in the presence of Christ that we can truly sing, with hearts ready to receive Him, “Oh come let us adore Him, oh come let us adore Him.”
With all the commercialism surrounding Christmastime, it’s far too easy for us to lose sight of the true reason behind the season. Overwhelmed by our endless to-do lists and the hustle and bustle of last-minute shopping, our focus quickly shifts away from the Christ Child’s birth. And yet, hidden amongst the holly wreaths and garlands, the Christmas Nativity remains a tangible reminder of the Incarnation, pulling us back into time for a moment as we reflect upon the incredible gift of Christ’s birth.
Interestingly, it was circumstances much like our own today which first led St. Francis of Assisi to recreate the Nativity scene nearly 800 years ago. Frustrated with the growing materialism and greed that seemed to pervade 13 th-century Italy, St. Francis wanted a way to visually remind people of Christ’s humble beginnings — to show them that Christmas isn’t about pomp and circumstance or material goods, but rather about unselfish love. Describing the idea to his friend Giovanni, St. Francis wrote, “I want to do something that will recall the memory of that child who was born in Bethlehem, to see with bodily eyes the inconveniences of his infancy, how he lay in the manger...”
And so St. Francis’ idea took form on Christmas Eve in 1223. This original Nativity scene was a living one, even including live animals. Villagers were deeply moved by the silent display of humble beauty, and the Nativity tradition soon spread throughout Italy and surrounding Europe. It is a tradition that remains today in nearly every Christian church and in many homes. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without a Nativity scene somewhere.
Coming in various sizes and styles, each Nativity replica continues to focus our hearts on the true
meaning of Christmas — to help us remember that Christmas isn’t about the amount of gifts under the tree or the festive decorations, but rather about celebrating Christ’s birth. Many families have a tradition of hiding the Infant Jesus, only placing Him in the crib on Christmas morning. This helps build anticipation during the Advent season as we anxiously await the Divine’s birth. Others go a step further, actually wrapping up the Christ Child to be opened as the very first gift of Christmas. Yet, whatever your family’s particular traditions, we hope that the Christmas Nativity continues to draw your heart heavenward this Christmas season — to center us all on the greatest gift ever given, our Incarnate Lord.
Coming in various sizes and styles, each Nativity replica continues to focus our hearts on the true meaning of Christmas — to help us remember that Christmas isn’t about the amount of gifts under the tree or the festive decorations, but rather about celebrating Christ’s birth.
