From the Pastor – March 17, 2024

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer. 31:34)

What does Jeremiah mean that the law will be “written on our hearts”? We don’t have to go far to find out. In Paul’s Letter to the Romans he says: “For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people’s hidden works through Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 2:14-16).

The basic idea is that even those who are unbaptized or non-religious have access to the truth because they are made in God’s image and likeness. Even “unbelievers” have a conscience. And the Church sees conscience as the subjective norm of morality. Conscience is defined as the last practical “judgment of reason which at the appropriate moment enjoins one to do good and to avoid evil.” Thus, conscience is not a power of the soul like the mind or the will, neither is it a habit like prudence, but it is an act of the mind to direct personal action.
And the Church also teaches that one has the right to act according to his conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. One must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must one be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters.

However, there are limits to the “subjectivity” of conscience. For instance, one might commit acts that will “suppress” one’s conscience. A serial killer would be a dramatic example. No one could kill innocent people on a regular basis without suppressing the horrible reality of the act.

This right of freedom of conscience does not allow one to arbitrarily disagree with the natural law or God’s teaching and claim that one is acting in accordance with conscience. A sincere conscience presumes one is diligently seeking moral truth from authentic sources – seeking to conform oneself to that moral truth by listening to the authority established by Christ to teach it. With all of the talk in the news about “conscience protection,” it behooves each of us to sensitize our own. And fight for it.

(Very Rev. Msgr.) Christopher H. Nalty
msgr.nalty@gmail.com

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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.

Easter Baskets for the Needy

We will again be distributing “Easter Baskets” with food items to families in need so they can enjoy a traditional holiday meal. Please check out our Easter display in the rear of church for basket item suggestions. We would ask that all donations be returned by Sunday, March 24, 2024.

Lenten Fish Fry

After the Stations of the Cross, the Knights of Columbus will host a Lenten Fish Fry at the rear of the Rectory consisting of fried Catfish, French fries, coleslaw, and corn for $14.00 each, or $12.00 each for purchases of three dinners or more.  Proceeds will benefit both Good Shepherd Parish and Knights of Columbus.

Lenten Guidelines

THE LENTEN SEASON
A distinction is to be made between Lent and the Easter Triduum. Strictly speaking, Lent ends with the beginning of the Triduum on Holy Thursday. The Ordo notes: “Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper exclusive on Holy Thursday.”

FASTING AND ABSTINENCE

Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by all Catholics who are 18 years of age but not yet 59. Those who are bound to fast may take only one full meal. Two smaller meals are permitted if necessary to maintain strength according to each one’s needs, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted. Abstinence from meat is to be observed by all Catholics 14 years or older on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and on all Fridays of Lent. The determination of certain days as obligatory days of penance should not be understood as limiting the occasions for Christian penance.

MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF OF LENT
The Spirit of the season of Lent should be maintained throughout the weeks of Lent. The obligation to observe penitential days of the Church is a very important part of our spiritual life.  Individual circumstances must be taken into account, but in general, people should seek to do more rather than less, since fast and abstinence on the days prescribed should be considered a minimal response to the Lord’s call to penance and conversion of life.

Requiem Mass Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 11 am

It is with the most profound sadness that we inform you of the death of our longtime Director of Religious Education, our dear friend, Phillip Bellini.

Phillip had such a tremendous love of the Catholic Faith and a zeal for the Salvation of Souls that he devoted his entire life to teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 15 years of which he did in our parish. He will be greatly missed by his friends, our parishioners and everyone to whom he taught the Catholic Faith over the last 35 years. Eternal Rest grant unto to Phillip, O Lord, and let Perpetual Life shine upon him! May he Rest in Peace. Amen.

Palm Branches Needed

If any parishioner has access to sago palms (the kind pictured above), we would love to get some for decorations in the church, and for the procession on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024. Please cut palms and bring them to the church this Thursday or Friday! Please call the office if you can help.

Altar Server of the Year

Altar Servers play a very important role in the Sacred Liturgy. They are part of the procession, handle incense, help prepare the altar for Mass, aid with baptisms, and help with the sacred vessels. Each year the Archdiocese honors altar servers from around the parish that have been nominated by their parish. This year our “altar server of the year” is our newest server: Nathaniel J. Almon!

Congratulations to Raymond Bankston & Ken Hamrick!

On Sunday, March 3, 2024, at St. Catherine of Sienna Church, Archbishop Aymond presented the Order of St. Louis IX Medallion to our parishioners Raymond Bankston and Ken Hamrick 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 Raymond and Ken, you know of their work! Raymond is one of our faithful sacristans who opens up the church and sets up for Mass. Ken became very active during COVID in helping us disinfect the church between Masses. He is also very active with the Knights of Columbus. “Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” (Mt 25:40).

St. Katharine Drexel – March 3

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 26, 1858, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Her father was a well-known banker and philanthropist. Both parents instilled in their daughters the idea that their wealth was simply loaned to them and was to be shared with others.

Early in her life, while on a trip with her parents, Katharine saw the plight and destitution of the native Indian-Americans. This experience aroused her desire to do something specific to help alleviate their condition. This was the beginning of her lifelong personal and financial support of numerous missions and missionaries in the United States. The first school she established was St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1887).

On January 27, 1887, Katharine had a private audience with Pope Leo XIII in Rome, and asked the Holy Father for missionaries to staff some of the Indian missions that she as a lay person was financing. She was surprised to hear the Pope suggest that she become a missionary herself. After consultation with her spiritual director, Bishop James O’Connor, she made the decision to give herself totally to God, along with her inheritance, through service to American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Her wealth was now transformed into a poverty of spirit that became a daily constant in a life supported only by the bare necessities. On February 12, 1891, she professed her first vows as a religious, founding the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament whose dedication would be to share the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist among American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Always a woman of intense prayer, Katharine found in the Eucharist the source of her love for the poor and oppressed and of her concern to reach out to combat the effects of racism. Knowing that many African-Americans were far from free, still living in substandard conditions as sharecroppers or underpaid menials, denied education and constitutional rights enjoyed by others, she felt a compassionate urgency to help change racial attitudes in the United States.

Founding and staffing schools for both Native Americans and African-Americans throughout the country became a priority for Katharine and her congregation. During her lifetime, she opened, staffed and directly supported nearly 60 schools and missions, especially in the West and Southwest United States. Her crowning educational focus was the establishment in 1925 of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only predominantly African-American Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States. Religious education, social service, visiting in homes, in hospitals and in prisons were also included in the ministries of Katharine and the Sisters.

In her quiet way, Katharine combined prayerful and total dependence on Divine Providence with determined activism. Katharine left a four-fold dynamic legacy to her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who continue her apostolate today, and indeed to all peoples:
– her love for the Eucharist, her spirit of prayer, and her Eucharistic perspective on the unity of all peoples;
– her undaunted spirit of courageous initiative in addressing social iniquities among minorities — 100 years before such concern aroused public interest in the United States;
– her belief in the importance of quality education for all, and her efforts to achieve it;
– her total giving of self, of her inheritance and all material goods in selfless service of the victims of injustice.
Katharine Drexel beatified on November 20, 1988 and canonized on October 1, 2000, both by Pope St. John Paul II.

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