Rev. Eric J. Ritter, Pastor
From the Pastor’s Corner, January 2012
December was a very busy month for me and our community at St. Dominic. We had a lot of celebrations in honor of our Blessed Mother ending with the very special event of our Blessed Mother giving birth to Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Our celebrations started on December 4th by hosting the Federation of the Guadalupanos at our church. Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Gustavo, with Monsignor Kevin Ryan, Spiritual Director for the Federation, and I concelebrating. Guadalupanos from all over the city were represented. A reception followed in the Piper Community Center.
Then we celebrated Mary on Dec 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, with a mass at 8:30 in the morning and at 6:30 in the evening. The evening mass was also an initiation for our Sisters in Christ ACTS Team who started their preparation for the Women’s ACTS Retreat to be held in March 2012.
The eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe was a special time as we witnessed the re-enactment of the Apparition of Our Lady to San Juan Diego. The actors from Our Lady of Guadalupe in Helotes graciously performed the re-enactment on a very cold afternoon but the warmth and unity of the actors reflected the message from Our Patroness of the Americas. Thank you to our seminarian intern, Antonio Gonzales, for inviting the OLG actors to our church.
On the following day, December 12th, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a rosary was prayed at 4:30 am, followed by the matachines and the celebration of mass. Seven new members were inducted to the Society of Guadalupanos – Rebecca Durand, Irma Garza, Mary Jane Kline, Ana Marie Lopez, Patricia Moreno, Sharon Willborn-Ponce and Carolina E. Martinez-Reyna. Many thanks to President Susan Gonzales for all her efforts in coordinating these celebrations.
The 2nd anniversary of our church was celebrated on December 18th with the lighting of the anniversary candles at all masses. It was also a special day for St. Dominic because Archbishop Gustavo came to celebrate an Igbo Mass in our chapel for our Nigerian Community. We were blessed to celebrate an Igbo Mass in the Chapel and a Spanish Mass in the main church, both at the same time. The community of St. Dominic truly believes in the diversity of cultures.
As a celebration of our anniversary, we were honored to have Archbishop Gustavo draw the winning ticket for our car raffle. Thanks to Henry Ornelas and Tom Van De Walle and their team for their hard work in raising $66,000 on the car raffle to apply to our building fund. Congratulations to Brenda Pargas - winner of our car raffle. And she is one of our own parishioners!
St. Dominic celebrated the last mass of 2011 and the first mass of 2012 in our beautiful church decorated with over 300 poinsettias. Many thanks Beatrice Hernandez, President of our Altar Society, and her staff for their hard work in beautifying our church.
We began 2012 committed to promote vocations by prayer and awareness. Our seminarian intern, Antonio Gonzalez, has formed a Vocations Committee to bring the awareness for praying for and promoting future priests. The integration of a special prayer for vocations was initiated after the intercessions of all masses.
As we begin this New Year, may we all continue to grow in our prayerful life and give thanks for the many blessings God has bestowed on us.
