September / October 2021

FOR THE GOOD

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Any bright investor wants to see a good return for their money. They constantly study the market and gauge the prevailing trends to weigh their options so that they can provide for their family and lifestyle throughout their life and into retirement. We, in the Diocese of Beaumont, view the investment in our young people in just the same way. We want to put our resources in the lives of our youth so that it may pay dividends for generations to come in Southeast Texas. We so desire to see the faith lived and loved by the young disciples of today and future leaders of our community tomorrow.

As your bishop, you have probably seen me at our schools, parishes, youth events, Catholic Student Center at Lamar and, in general, anywhere I can invest my time to foster the faith of the young men and women of our diocese. I believe that my time with this demographic of our community is one of the most important places I can minister to help build our diocese and strengthen our faith community for decades to come. Special gratitude goes out to our teachers, catechists, youth ministers and supporters of our many diocesan ministries who allow our youth programs to be so vibrant. There are so many ways to get our young people involved in parish ministry. Such activities that I have had the privilege to partake in this summer alone are: the Youth Convention in Houston with more than 650 of our teens, visiting our summer campers up in Woodville, Confirmations around our diocese, evenings with the young adults at the Cathedral, various sporting events, Masses and visitations to our five schools at year’s end, graduation celebrations, working with the College ACTS retreat core team, and visiting with our seminarians while they were home this summer have all inspired me tremendously. Together we are building up the Kingdom of God for the future as we form hearts, minds and souls to be vibrant Catholics of faith in the workplace and to foster ecclesial vocations that will serve our parish communities for generations to come. At the Youth Convention alone, we had more than a dozen teens stand up for a vocation call and commit to praying daily for God’s will for their lives. May these investments continue to pay dividends for generations to come.

We can be very proud of what is happening in our diocese as we invest in our future, and yet, we can always do more to get involved in supporting our youth events and being mentors to the generations behind us. If you ask me what your investment strategy should be in a post-COVID world, I would tell you to “invest in futures.” The weekend of the Solemnity of Christ the King will also bring individuals, families, youth and young adults of the diocese together for a festival of faith on Saturday November 20. Some of our parishes are goldmines of ministry and others are waiting to blossom — please find out how to encourage, support and get involved.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Bishop David L. Toups