Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:14-15) This week is the Fourth Sunday in Easter, and it is traditionally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of the Gospel reading today in which Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd. We’re all familiar with the images: Jesus standing, staff in hand, with the lamb across his shoulders. We have a beautiful stained-glass image of this in the stairway leading up to the choir loft. In fact, it’s the screensaver on my phone! Or perhaps we think of Jesus sitting under a tree – a little lamb on his lap. These are beautiful images, but they are incomplete. For thousands of years, the Jewish people have used the … [Read more...]
Beginning Experience Weekend
Widowed? Separated? Divorced? Listen. Accompany. Heal. One weekend … All the difference. Join us for the Beginning Experience of New Orleans Weekend Retreat May 17-19, 2024 at the Cenacle on the Lake Retreat Center located at 5500 St. Mary Street, Metairie, LA. For more information including registration and fees, contact Registrar, Liz Reis at (504) 858-1813 or email lzbthreis@yahoo.com. Weekend program includes materials, two nights’ lodging and five meals. Beginning Experience is an international ministry founded by a Catholic religious sister and her divorced friend offering hope and healing for those who have lost their marriage through death, separation or divorce. The Beginning Experience weekend transforms lives and has helped thousands navigate the road through grief. … [Read more...]
Willwoods Married Couples Retreat
May 18-19 & May 25-26 Would you like to break away with your spouse and spend quality time enriching your marriage? Then join us on either one of our upcoming Married Couples Retreats at the beautiful St Joseph Abbey Retreat Center in Covington. For more information or to register go to www.FaithandMarriage.org. Don’t miss out on this great weekend get-a-way! A suggested donation is requested but not required. Scholarships are available. Cost should never be a reason why a couple cannot make a weekend. … [Read more...]
Our Lady of Good Counsel Special Mass April 26, 2024 at 5pm
April 26, 2024 is the traditional Feast Day of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Although we usually have a special Feast Day Mass at Good Counsel, the 5:00p Mass at OLGC on Sunday, April 28, 2024 will honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in a special way. … [Read more...]
Upcoming Ordinations
Priest Ordination On Saturday, June 1, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Louis Cathedral, Archbishop Aymond will ordain Deacons Austin Barr, Jorge Gomez, and Cuong Tran to the presbyterate for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. You are cordially invited to attend the ceremony. Priests and deacons are asked to bring their vestments. … [Read more...]
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be observed on Sunday, April 21, 2024 also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Today the Church throughout the world prays for vocations. Will you make a special effort to ask the Lord for vocations to the priesthood and religious life? Pray for the priests who have ministered to you throughout your life, both living and dead. Encourage your children, grandchildren, or other young people to consider a vocation as a priest or religious brother or sister. Pray a rosary for more young men and women in our diocese to respond to God’s call. Here is the Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis for this 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/vocations/documents/20240421-messaggio-61-gm-vocazioni.html … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – March 31, 2024
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory. Col. 3:2-4 One year while I was living in Rome, my parents came to visit me during the last week of Lent. Since my Dad is a permanent deacon, he sat next to me on the altar when we celebrated Mass at the beautiful church of St. Alphonsus near St. Mary Major where the original image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is enshrined. As it came time to read the Gospel, my Dad came and asked for a blessing, after which then he began to solemnly intone “Al-le-luia! Al-le-luia! Al-le-luia!” I quietly said: “Shhh! We don’t say that now. It’s Lent!” He quickly whispered that since we were celebrating a … [Read more...]
Alleluia!
Easter Sunday is the day of the “Alleluia!” After forty days of Lenten sacrifice and fasting, we finally arrive at the most important day of our liturgical year, and the only word we have to express our inner joy is “Alleluia!!” In the old Greek version of the Book of Tobias, in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew psalter, and in the original Greek of the Apocalypse we hear about this most holy word. It is part of the earliest Christian liturgies of which we have record. It is a word composed of the divinely acclaiming verbal form Allelu and the divine pronoun term Ya (for YHWH or Yahweh). So, preserving its radical sense and sound, and even the mystical suggestiveness of its construction, it may be literally rendered, “All hail to Him Who is!”--taking “All Hail” as equivalent … [Read more...]
The Precepts of the Church
“Now when they heard [Peter's preaching] they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). When the people heard Peter and the apostles preaching about Christ, they instinctively asked, “What shall we do?” Over the centuries, the Church has given answers to this question, adapting the unchangeable elements of the Christian vocation to the pastoral requirements of each age. In our times, the responses to this question are summed up in what have come to be known as “The Precepts of the Church,” which are derived from Catholicism's moral and doctrinal foundations. The Cathechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2041-2043, lists five precepts of the Church, listed and briefly discussed below. Attend Mass on Sundays and on … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – March 24, 2024
At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.” One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.” Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.. (Lk. 23:44-46) “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion” begins Holy Week. If it has been a while since you have experienced all of the services of Holy Week, consider doing so this year. Commemorating the events of the Lord’s Suffering and Death help us to have a greater understanding of the importance of the … [Read more...]
