The annual Citywide Pentecost Celebration and Mass sponsored by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office is scheduled for Sunday, May 27, 2012, 2:00 pm– 4:30 pm at St. Benilde Church, 1901 Division Street in Metairie. Praise and worship, led by Al Mansfield,will take place before Mass. The CCRNO music ministry, led by Joe Polito, will provide music. Testimonies to the work of the Holy Spirit will be given by Timmy McCaffery and Lydia Dufresne. Fr. Lance Campo, Director of the Center of Jesus the Lord, will be the celebrant and homilist. All are invited. Contact information: phone: (504) 828-1368; website: www.ccrno.org; email:

Congratulations to our first communicants!

Lorenzo Bogaert
Tristan Clincy
Isabella Dupre
Therese Fayard
Olivia Francis
Anabelle Goggin
Anna Hutchinson
Kalia Jackson
Raelyn Mornay
Paris Rayfield
Josephine Someillan-Harris

May 13, 2012 – May Crowning and Blessing of Mothers at all Masses on Mothers Day.

May 20, 2012 - We welcome to Archbishop Aymond for Mass and the Blessing of St. Stephen Schoo at 2:00pm!  Mark your calendars!

June 10, 2012 – Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) with Eucharistic Procession after the 10:30am Mass

Every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. we pray the Rosary at the Woman’s Heath Center, 3500 St Charles Avenue (on the left of the Capital One bank near Louisiana Avenue). This facility is one of four abortion centers in the New Orleans area and within our parish boundaries. For more information please contact our new Parish Pro-Life Coordinators, Miriam Ogden and Kathy Fayard

The Book of Revelations

Our adult education study of the Book of Revelation will begin on Thursday, June 14.

Come learn about the most challenging and most misunderstood book in the Bible, the last book called “Revelations” or “The Apocalypse.”  This Bible study will include videotaped discussions, printed materials and roundtable discussion.

In order to accommodate everyone, we will have two classes each Thursday:  1:00 pm until 2:30 and 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm.  For more information please contact the Director of Religious Education, Phillip Bellini, at the parish office or

Camp Abbey is an overnight, Catholic summer camp for children completing 2nd through 8th grades sponsored by the CYO/Youth & Young Adult Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  Boys’ sessions are June 3-9, June 10-6, June 17-23, and June 24-30.  Girls’ sessions are July 8-14, July 15-21, July 22-28, and July 29-August 4.  The cost is $395 per week inclusive, and partial scholarships are available.  Camp includes opportunities for prayer, Mass, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Eucharistic Adoration, as well as activities such as volleyball, basketball, softball, flag football, arts & crafts, archery, swimming, boating, performing arts, camping, hiking, and rock climbing.  Come home to Camp Abbey and make lifelong friends and great memories, and grow in your relationship with Jesus in the summer of 2012.

For more information or applications, visit www.campabbey.org or contact or 985-327-7240

Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts
(to be prayed beginning May 18)

The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian.

ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, "Speak Lord for Your servant is listening." Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the Rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans. Can we do the good works our faith calls us to do, without having to compromise that very same faith? Without religious liberty properly understood, all Americans suffer, deprived of the essential contribution in education, health care, feeding the hungry, civil rights, and social services that religious Americans make every day, both here at home and overseas.

What is at stake is whether America will continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society-or whether the state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how they get to do it. Religious believers are part of American civil society, which includes neighbors helping each other, community associations, fraternal service clubs, sports leagues, and youth groups. All these Americans make their contribution to our common life, and they do not need the permission of the government to do so. Restrictions on religious liberty are an attack on civil society and the American genius for voluntary associations.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America issued a statement about the administration's contraception and sterilization mandate that captured exactly the danger that we face:

Most troubling, is the Administration's underlying rationale for its decision, which appears to be a view that if a religious entity is not insular, but engaged with broader society, it loses its "religious" character and liberties. Many faiths firmly believe in being open to and engaged with broader society and fellow citizens of other faiths. The Administration's ruling makes the price of such an outward approach the violation of an organization's religious principles. This is deeply disappointing.

This is not a Catholic issue. This is not a Jewish issue. This is not an Orthodox, Mormon, or Muslim issue. It is an American issue. Both our civil year and liturgical year point us on various occasions to our heritage of freedom. This year, we propose a special "fortnight for freedom," in which bishops in their own dioceses might arrange special events to highlight the importance of defending our first freedom. Our Catholic institutions also could be encouraged to do the same, especially in cooperation with other Christians, Jews, people of other faiths, and indeed, all who wish to defend our most cherished freedom.

On May 6, 2012 at 3:00pm at St. Louis Cathedral, our parishioner Beth Turner will be awarded the Order of St. Louis IX Medallion by Archbishop Aymond at St. Louis Cathedral.  The Order of St. Louis IX award was established more than 40 years ago to honor those members of the laity who have contributed their time and talents to the church.

Even if you don’t know Beth, you’ve surely heard her play the organ! Beth donates her time to the parish to play the organ each week at the 4:00pm Vigil Mass. With her husband Pete Wolbrette (and their friends) Beth also organizes our annual “Jazz” Mass on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. Thanks for all you do for us, Beth!

Deacon Paul A. Nalty, Joel J. Soniat, the Cassard Family, Pilar Martinez, Janet, Finnegan, John P. Finnegan, Mrs & Mrs A R Headrick, Mr & Mrs T.B. Finnegan, Dr Harley Flay Freiberger, Margaret "Peggy" Freiberger, James Leeming, Claire Hero Martin, Garrett Hudson Martin, Thomas L Avegno, Francis Musser Avegno, Lucy Brocato, Mr & Mrs S.C. Brocato, Mr & Mrs John Liljeberg, the Bush, Cerniglia, & Kappesser Families, Ellen & Robert F. Grace, Leslie Guise, Margaret McNamara McAuliffe, Dr Alfonso G. Matute, Professor Bertha C. de Matute, Lester & Ethel Heidingsfelder, the Reverend Harold Dicharry CM, Brother James Steinbeck CM, Mrs C Velasquez, Mario Velazquez, the Wetzel/Sullivan Family, Raymond Pelleteri, Raymond J. Salassi Jr, Vetter Amadeo Taylor, Mr & Mrs Herbert J. Petit Sr, the Nicholls Family, Patricia Miles, Betty Jane A. Hanemam, the Betpouey-Dwyer Families, Mac & Val Clementino, Mr & Mrs P.H. Youngblood, Camelia LeBlanc Bychurch, Earl & Rosemary Hymel, Mr & Mrs William A. Heausler Jr, Richmond G. Favrot, Ronald & Pauline Marchessault, Vic & Lena Chisesi, the Gallaher Family, the Collins Family, and the Egatz Family.

The month of May is traditionally dedicated to Mary in many cultures, since May is considered the season of the beginning of new life.  In ancient Roman culture, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of bloom, of blossoms, and the Romans celebrated ludi florales (floral games) at the end of April, asking the help of Flora for all that blooms since May 1 was considered the beginning of growth.  In the same way, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives us the newness of life in the person of Jesus Christ so that we might become new creations born into Eternal Life.

Since medieval times, we begin to see a connection between Mary and the month of May. Among the earliest witnesses are: Alphonsus X, King of Castille, Spain (+1284) with his "Cantigas de Santa Maria.” Here and elsewhere, both Mary and the month of May are greeted, welcomed and celebrated on specific days in May. Later, it became the custon in Italy to devote the whole month of May to Mary. On each day of the month, special devotions to Mary were organized.

Today, May crownings occur in many Catholic parishes and homes with the crowning of a statue of Mary. The ceremony traditionally takes place with young girls dressed in dresses carrying flowers (traditionally hawthorn) to adorn the statue. One of the girls (often the youngest) carries a crown of flowers or an actual golden crown on a cushion for placement by the May Queen (often the oldest girl) on the statue. The flowers are replaced throughout the month to keep them fresh.

Crowning Mary is associated with adding ornamentation to an icon of Mary, sometimes as simple as adding additional gold trim. Perhaps in homage to this, Pope Clement VIII (+1605) added two crowns to the icon of Mary with the Infant Jesus in the Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome. The crowns were eventually lost, but were replaced by Gregory XVI in 1837 in a Rite that was to become the standard practice for crowning.

“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 holy days of obligation, and rest from servile labor.
Weekly Sunday Mass is obligatory for all Catholics. There are very few factors that might excuse Sunday Mass attendance, such as personal illness or serious infirmity, the need to attend to someone suffering from the same, significant travel, or certain jobs affecting public safety or welfare.

Confess your sins at least once a year.
Catholics above the age of discretion (about seven years of age) are required to confess their grave sins to a priest at least once per year, at any time during the year.

Receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.
This reception of the Eucharist can take place any time in the Easter season, from the First Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday (after Pentecost).

Observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.
On Fridays in Lent Catholics, aged 14 and older, are bound to abstain from meat. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics aged 18 to 59 inclusive, are also bound to fast, by taking only one full meal and two smaller meals (together not to equal the one full meal), with no snacking between the meals.

Help provide for the needs of the Church.
The Church leaves to individual Catholics the right to determine precisely when and how they will assist with the temporal needs of the Church. However, the lack of specificity in Church law should not be taken as a sign that it may be ignored. Sunday collections, annual appeals, spontaneous offerings, bequests and wills, and so on are all ways that Catholics have to satisfy this precept of support.

Check out the St. Joseph Day pictures!

The parish is very grateful to Hunter Harris and Rosary Henry and the many many parishioners who organized the beautiful St. Joseph Altar.  Hunter and Rosary would be the first to recognize that they couldn’t have done it without your help.  And so THANK YOU to the numerous volunteers:  the cooks, the servers, the runners, the cleaners and everyone who played such a tremendous role in making the Solemnity of St. Joseph such a great success and a very happy day for all! This year was even better than last year!  Thanks for a great day!

May 2012

General Intention
The Family. That initiatives which defend and uphold the role of the family may be promoted within society.

Missionary Intention
Mary, Guide of Missionaries. That Mary, Queen of the World and Star of Evangelization, may accompany all missionaries in proclaiming her Son Jesus.

Please pray for the intentions of the Holy Father!

In 1634, a mix of Catholic and Protestant settlers arrived in Southern Maryland from England aboard the Ark and the Dove. They had come at the invitation of the Catholic Lord Baltimore, who had been granted the land by the Protestant King Charles I of England. While Catholics and Protestants were killing each other in Europe, Lord Baltimore imagined Maryland as a society where people of different faiths could live together peacefully. This vision was soon codified in Maryland’s 1649 Act Concerning Religion (also called the “Toleration Act”), which was the first law in our nation’s history to protect an individual’s right to freedom of conscience.

Maryland’s early history teaches us that, like any freedom, religious liberty requires constant vigilance and protection, or it will disappear. Maryland’s experiment in religious toleration ended within a few decades. The colony was placed under royal control and the Church of England became the established religion. Discriminatory laws, including the loss of political rights, were enacted against those who refused to conform. Catholic chapels were closed and Catholics were restricted to practicing their faith in their homes. Catholics lived under this coercion until the American Revolution.

By the end of the 18th century our nation’s founders embraced freedom of religion as an essential condition of a free and democratic society. So when the Bill of Rights was ratified, religious freedom had the distinction of being the First Amendment. Religious liberty is indeed the first liberty. This is our American heritage, our most cherished freedom. If we are not free in our conscience and our practice of religion, all other freedoms are fragile. If our obligations and duties to God are impeded, or even worse, contradicted by the government, then we can no longer claim to be a land of the free.

Is our most cherished freedom truly under threat?
Among many current challenges, consider the recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring almost all private health plans to cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. For the first time in our history, the federal government will force religious institutions to facilitate drugs and procedures contrary to our moral teaching, and purport to define which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit an exemption. This is not a matter of whether contraception may be prohibited by the government. It is not even a matter of whether contraception may be supported by the government. It is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception and sterilization, even when it violates our religious beliefs.

What can you do to ensure the protection of religious freedom? To learn more about our first freedom, and to send your message to HHS and Congress telling them to stand up for religious liberty and conscience rights, go to www.usccb.org/conscience today! Thank you for joining the effort to end this unprecedented governmental attack on conscience and intrusion in religious affairs.

The Beauty of Human Sexuality

Over the last three weeks, I have tried to explain – by outlining sociological, medical and moral concerns – some of the reasons that the Church has consistently taught that artificial contraception violates the dignity of the human person. In this brief article, I would rather focus on the “other side of the coin’”: what the Church teaches about the beauty of human sexuality within the context of a holy, healthy marriage. Far from bringing in secular sources for this article, I would rather summarize one particular document issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family entitled “The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality.” It can be found here: www.vatican.va
Althought the document is very lengthy, I want to focus on three points: (1) the call to love; (2) true love and chastity; and (3) the Christian vocation.

What is the “call” to love? Since mankind is made in the image of God, each of us is called to love. And the meaning of love is revealed to us in the inner life of the Trinity: “God is love.” (1 Jn 4:8). God lives in a mystery of personal loving communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And since God created the human race in His own image, love is the “fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.” Because of this, a person is capable of a higher love than mere sexual attraction, which can reduce other persons to being objects to satisfy one’s own appetites. This can be seen in the love expressed in friendships and in loving care for others (self-Giving). True love desires the “good” for another person because he or she is also made in God’s image and worthy of being love. Selfish love is when our primary reason for loving others is how it affects us.

This is not to say that sexual love is “bad” in any way. As man and woman, we are called to love in the unity of body and soul. Femininity and masculinity are complementary gifts that God has inscribed in us. Sexuality is a vital and necessary component of us as human beings, and self-giving of sexuality is part of the very mystery of creation. It is a truth that stands at the very center of the Christian reality. In the self-giving of marriage, we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) by which we participate in the creation of children – other human beings made in God’s image and likeness. And that brings us to (2): true love and chastity.
The word “chastity” comes from a Latin adjective meaning “pure.” It is used in opposition to the deadly sin of lust. An essential element of chastity is “self mastery” over one’s urges. Either a person governs one’s passions and finds peace, or one allows oneself to be dominated by one’s passion and becomes unhappy.

It is important in this context to understand the meaning of “chastity,” which is different between married and unmarried people. Virginal love and married love are the two forms in which a person’s call to love is fulfilled. Since sexual love is ordered by its nature to the mutual self-giving of fertility, it only becomes truly human when it is integrated into the complete and mutual lifelong gift of a man and a woman. Therefore, in the context of marriage, man and woman are called to “conjugal chastity” in that their sexual relationship is reserved for each other and excludes the possibility of sexual intimacy with others. Unmarried people practice chastity in “continence,” meaning refraining from sexual activity. Since the human purpose of sexuality is the self-giving of all of the human person, including fertility, sexual intimacy outside of marriage provides neither the permanent commitment that is expected of total self-giving, nor does it provide the community or love (or example) so vital to the health and holiness of children. It should be obvious that the modern world often devalues chastity in favor of a false freedom that convinces us to seek the satisfaction of any and all earthly urges. As taught by St. Paul, chastity requires rejecting certain thoughts, words and sinful actions. (Rom. 1:18; 6: 12-14; 1 Cor. 6: 9-11; 2 Cor. 7: 1; Gal. 5: 16-23; Eph. 4: 17-24; 5: 3-13; Col. 3: 5-8; 1 Thess. 4: 1-18; 1 Tim. 1: 8-11; 4: 12). Self-mastery is a sign of inner freedom and of responsibility towards oneself and others.

In marriage Christians are called to live their self-giving in a right personal relationship with God. There is no legitimate love which is not also love for God. And to love the Lord means to respond positively to His commandments: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn. 14:15).

And that leads us to (3): the Christian vocation. The Second Vatican Council stressed a “universal call to holiness”: “All the faithful, whatever their condition or state — though each in his own way — are called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father Himself is perfect.” One might be called to married love or one might be called to virginal love. But formation for true love is always the best preparation for the vocation to either married love or virginal love. That being said, marriage is not “the effect of chance or the product of evolution of unconscious natural forces; it is the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love. By means of the reciprocal personal gift of self, proper and exclusive to them, husband and wife tend towards the communion of their beings in view of mutual personal perfection, to collaborate with God in the generation and education of new lives.” And married love has four characteristics: it is human (physical and spiritual), total, faithful and fruitful. These characteristics are founded on the fact that "In marriage man and woman are so firmly united as to become, to use the words of the Book of Genesis — one flesh.”

Since each human person is a product of the self-giving act of human sexuality, it is within the context of marriage that true love must be taught. As Pope John Paul expressed, Christian parents ought: “devote special attention and care to education in virginity or celibacy as the supreme form of that self-giving that constitutes the very meaning of human sexuality.” Within the self-giving community of marriage, a child is free to respond his or her own vocation to either marriage or virginity (even as a priest or religious). As the Holy Father continues: “if parents do not give adequate formation in chastity, they are failing in their precise duty. Likewise, they would also be guilty were they to tolerate immoral or inadequate formation being given to their children outside the home.”

The purpose of life is to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves. The world’s understanding of “love” is often misleading. God’s idea of love is true.