St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church

Ladies: STA's Women's Retreat is February 20, 21 and 22 of 2015 at Columbia Lakes Resort in West Columbia, Texas, The Retreat theme is "My Covenant With You."

Contact Verna Patout at 281-240-6721 X104 for more information.

Edge Core Meeting: January 27th.

Confirmation Sponsor night: January 28th.

SANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 7, 2015—While the year 2014 will go down in history for having the highest level of global persecution of Christians in the modern era, current conditions suggest the worst is yet to come.

Open Doors released its annual World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous and difficult to be a Christian. This year, the threshold was higher for a country to make the list, indicating that worldwide levels of persecution have increased. Topping the 2015 list for the 13th consecutive year is North Korea. Africa saw the most rapid growth of persecution, while the Middle East saw targeted attacks, resulting in a mass exodus of Christians.

Approximately 100 million Christians are persecuted worldwide, making them one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world. Islamic extremism is the main source of persecution in 40 of the 50 countries on the 2015 World Watch List. While persecution can take many forms, Christians throughout the world risk imprisonment, torture, rape and even death as result of their faith.

AT LEAST SEVEN CHURCHES WERE BURNT JANUARY 17TH IN NIGER! PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS

February 27th-March 1st, Pine Cove Retreat Center.

Cost: $150. Deadline for money and forms is February 13th.

Required for all Confirmation students.

Liability waivers in enrollment package from stayministry.com.

Parent/Sponsor & Confirmandi Night of Reflection & Dinner.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015. 6:30 pm-8:00 pm.

Please RSVP to cvigil@stasugarland.com.

Bring a side dish to share. Required class for students.

Come half an hour before all Masses on the FIRST and THIRD weekend of the month and before all weekend Masses in May and October when different ministries at STA lead the Rosary.

The Rosary is also prayed after 8 am morning Masses and before the 6:45 pm Wednesday Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena and Mass.

Pious tradition teaches that Our Blessed Mother gave the Rosary to St. Dominic with instructions to popularize its use, and she has repeatedly asked in church-approved apparitions to pray the Rosary for peace in the world!

In his 2002 Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, "Rosarium Virginis Mariae," Pope St. John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries to the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious to give the Rosary "fresh life and enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary's place within Christian spirituality." He asked that the Rosary be prayed for the cause of peace in the world and the cause of the family.

The Rosary is not a dry and boring exercise, the Saint reminds us, but a way of concentrating the mind on the particular mysteries and "remembering" with Mary as we pray to Christ and listen in the Spirit to the Father's voice.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed in the chapel after daily Mass and the Rosary for the conversion of sinners, for those who will die that day, and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Saying the chaplet for the dying at the 3 pm Hour of Mercy is especially powerful and a great Spiritual Work of Mercy.

 A copy of the original image of the Divine Mercy in our chapel. 

Fr. Santy Kurian, M.S.F.S., celebrated his first Mass as pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas on Tuesday, July 1, 2014, and was officially installed by The Most Reverend Bishop George Sheltz at the 9:30 am Mass on Sunday, July 20, 2014..

Fr. Santy is a member of  the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, a religious order. He has served as a Catholic school principal for seven years, a pastor for four years, and as a parochial vicar in India and the U.S. for eight years. A native of Kerala, South India, Fr. Santy came to the U.S. in October 2007.

Ordained a priest on May 2, 1995, Fr. Santy notes that "Priesthood is meaningful only when rooted in the Eucharist."

O God our Creator, from your provident hand we have received our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You have called us as your people and given us the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God, and your Son, Jesus Christ.

Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit, you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty. Give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome—for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us—this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.