Uptown New Orleans Catholic Church on Napolean Avenue - Monsignor Nalty
Rectory 504-899-1378 | Fax 504-899-0480
School 504-891-1927
ststephenpar@archdiocese-no.org
From the Pastor – May 11, 2025
Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” (Jn 10:27-28)
For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 7:17)
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. 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 Good Shepherd image to refer to God. It goes back to Genesis 49:24, where Joseph was saved “By the power of the mighty one of Jacob, by the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the God of your father…” Such imagery was used by Moses and most of the prophets. And it was used most familiarly by David in the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
So when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd, he wasn’t singling out the nicest herdsmen in the field. He was pointing to the prophecies about Himself. He was revealing Himself as God. But within this revelation was something knew. Jesus says at Jn 10:11 that “A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” Now this might seem a bit extreme. Sure, the shepherd loved the sheep. Sure he protected, fed and led them. But most of us would find it strange to give up our life for animals.
And that’s what happened, and that’s what is revealed in the second reading from Revelations. “the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them.” So the Good Shepherd is also the Lamb of God. And that Lamb of God lays down his life for the other lambs. The infinite God becomes a lamb and allows Himself to be led to the slaughter on the altar of the cross. Behold the Lamb of God, slain on the cross to take away the sins of the world!
During a recent remembrance on Good Friday, I described the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. I tried to imagine why would God allow Himself to be so brutally slaughtered by sinful men. The theological answer would be that He did it to show how much He loves us. It’s hard to wrap our minds around a love that strong. I can’t explain the “why” He would die for us. But I know that He did.
(Very Rev. Msgr.) Christopher H. Nalty
msgr.nalty@gmail.com
Masses
St. Stephen
Saturday Vigil at 4:00 pm
Sunday at 8:00 am and 10:30 am
Sunday at 5:00 pm at OLGC
Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC)
Center of Jesus the Lord
Charismatic Mass
Sunday at 10 am
Weekdays Masses
Monday – Friday 6:30 am St. Henry
Tuesdays 6:00 pm St. Stephen
First Fridays 6:00 pm Latin Mass
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Tuesdays 4:45 – 5:45pm St. Stephen
Thursdays 7:00 – 8:00am St. Henry
Confession Times at Good Shepherd
Saturdays 3:00 – 3:45pm St. Stephen
Sundays 9:30 – 10:15am St. Stephen
Sundays 10:00 – 10:30am OLGC
First Fridays 6:30 – 7:00pm OLGC
Upcoming Celebrations
The Ascension of the Lord
June 1, 2025
Pentecost Sunday
June 8, 2025
The Most Holy Trinity
June 15, 2025
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
June 22, 2025
Novena in Memory of Pope Francis
The entire Church mourns the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.
This novena has been prepared to help pray for the Pope during the time of mourning. The daily novena – lasting for the novendiales period from April 26 to May 4, 2025 – consists of a short reading from Scripture or some other ecclesiastical text and some brief prayers, including orations drawn from the Roman Missal and the Order of Christian Funerals.
Pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis
(December 17, 1936 – April 21, 2025)
O God, who in your wondrous providence chose your servant Pope Francis to preside over your Church, grant, we pray, that, having served as the Vicar of your Son on earth, he may be welcomed by Him into eternal glory. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
V. Eternal rest grant unto Francis, O Lord.
R. And let the perpetual light shine upon him.
And may his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
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 to “Glory in the Highest,” and taking “He Who is” in the sense in which God said to Moses: “Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel; WHO IS hath sent me to you.” The ancient Jewish and Christian tradition all point to the conclusion that the “Alleluia” belonged to the Hebrew liturgy from the beginning as a divinely authorized doxology. As to when it was first formed, much evidence points to it being one of man’s most ancient formulas of monotheistic faith–the true believer’s primitive Credo, primitive doxology, primitive acclamation. That in part would explain remarkable fondness for its liturgical use. As a rule the Church uses it wherever joy is to be emphatically expressed, especially as to triumph or thanksgiving.
The “Alleluia” is a great characteristic of Easter, as it has an important place in all of the liturgies, constantly appearing at the beginning and end, and even in the middle, of psalms, as an instinctive exclamation of ecstatic joy.
The very sound of the words should be held to signify a kind of acclamation and a form of ovation which mere grammarians cannot satisfactorily explain; this is the reason why the translators of the Old Testament have left it untranslated, and the Church has taken it into the formulas of her Liturgy or of the people who use it at any time or place where joy need be expressed for God’s greatness and love! Alleluia! Praise God!
Altar of Repose
Mass of the Lord’s Supper
At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday (7:00 PM) sufficient hosts are consecrated for that Mass and for the next day. These consecrated Hosts remain in a ciborium on the corporal in the center of the altar until the end of Mass, after which they are carried in Solemn Procession to the Altar of Repose, with the priest vested in a Cope and Humeral Veil, and covered with a canopy. The Blessed Sacrament remains in the temporary tabernacle at the Altar of Repose, and the Holy Thursday service concludes with the stripping of all altars except the Altar of Repose.
Holy Thursday is a day of exceptional devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and the repository is the center of the love, prayers and aspirations of the faithful. After the Good Friday service, the Blessed Sacrament remains available only as viaticum for the dying and for Communion given on Good Friday at the service called The Veneration of the Cross (Good Friday at 3:00 PM). While the Blessed Sacrament remains in this temporary tabernacle at the altar of repose, a lamp or candle is always kept burning.
On Holy Thursday we will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00 PM, which commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist when Jesus washed his Apostle’s feet. This Mass begins the Sacred Triduum. This year Adoration at this Altar of Repose will take place all night, from the end of the Holy Thursday Mass until the sun rises on Good Friday at 6:00 AM.
PLEASE SIGN-UP to take an hour or a half-hour of the Vigil! Sign-up sheets are in the back of church.
Sunday Collection for Retired Diocesan Priests
May 10-11, 2025
Each year on Good Shepherd Sunday the Archdiocese of New Orleans designates a special second collection to help support the medical and retirement expenses of our diocesan priests. Please be generous in supporting those priests who have given their lives to serve us and the Church!
Happy Mother’s Day!
In 1914 the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, and President Woodrow Wilson signed it, establishing “Mother’s Day” to emphasize a women’s role in the family. One thing important to note is that the apostrophe in “Mother’s Day” is in between the “r” and the “s,” indicating the original meaning of the day, which is to honor one’s own Mother, rather than Mothers in general.
We are bound by our love and through God’s command to honor our own mother, but we have to always remember that we have another mother in Heaven. When Jesus became a human being, He also became our brother. And as He hung on the cross He gave us his Most Holy Mother to be our mother: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” (Jn 19:26-27).
On this Mother’s Day, we pay homage to our own earthly mother. We might call her Mom, Mama, Ma or Mommy, but we have her to thank for giving us life, bearing us in her womb, and tenderly caring for us as we grew up. We are called to remember her gentleness as well as her wise counsel. And whether our mother is living or deceased, we know that our love for her is never diminished.
May Crowning of Mary
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.
Easter Baskets for the Needy
THANK YOU! Because of your financial contributions the St. Vincent du Paul Society was able to distribute Easter Food Baskets to 30 families during Holy Week, each including a $50.00 gift certificate from Rouse’s for the main course. We are so grateful for your continued support of our mission to serve those in need!
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