Over thirty days, the Church has celebrated four feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the Assumption (August 15), the Queenship (August 22), the Nativity (September 8), and the Holy Name of Mary (September 12). On September 15, we usually recall “Our Sorrowful Mother,” also known as Mater Dolorosa in Latin. This year the feast will be preempted by the Sunday Mass. Over the centuries, the Church has recognized popular devotion to seven sorrows of Mary: (1) the Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus (Lk 2:34); (2) the Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family (Mt 2:13); (3) the Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days (Lk 2:43); (4) the Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross (Lk 23:26); (5) the Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:25); (6) the Descent from … [Read more...]
Convocation of Priests
The Convocation of Priests will be held from September 11-13, 2024, at the New Orleans Marriott Warehouse Arts District Hotel. All priests serving in the Archdiocese will begin the Convocation 11:00 AM on Wednesday, September 11th. We will conclude by 1:00 PM on Friday, September 13th. … [Read more...]
Labor Day – September 2, 2024
(The Rectory is closed) The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. If the dignity of work is to be protected, then the basic rights of workers must be respected--the right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, to the organization and joining of unions, to private property, and to economic initiative. “I would like to remind everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity: ‘Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life’.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth [Caritas in Veritate], no. 25, … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – September 1, 2024
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” (Mk 7:15) If there’s one thing in the world we don’t like, it’s hypocrisy. I remember sitting next to a man on an airplane one time. When he saw that I was a priest in clerics, he was initially very courteous. He said he was Catholic and spoke about being involved in the Church when he was younger. As our conversation continued, he began to spend a lot of time criticizing the Catholic Church, particularly it’s teachings on marriage and sexuality, a male priesthood, and the “hierarchy.” After listening for a while, I asked him where he went to church at the moment. He responded: “Oh, I … [Read more...]
Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Feast Day September 5 On 10 September 1946, on a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she termed the “call within a call,” which was to give rise to the Missionaries of Charity family: “to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the cross for love and souls” by “laboring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor.” On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially erected as a religious institute for the Archdiocese of Calcutta. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Mother Teresa expanded the work of the Missionaries of Charity both within Calcutta and throughout India. From the late 1960s until 1980, the Missionaries of Charity expanded across the globe and in their number of members. Mother … [Read more...]
Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest & Martyr
August 14 St. Maximilian Kolbe was born in Poland in 1894 and at about the age of 10 had a vision of the Virgin Mary. She offered him a white crown and a red crown, representing purity and martyrdom. He chose both, a foreshadowing of his life to come. In 1910, he joined the Conventual Franciscan Order. He was sent to study in Rome where he founded the Militia Immaculatae on October 16, 1917, an organization dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Ordained a priest in 1918, Father Maximilian returned to Poland and began his untiring missionary activity, starting a monthly magazine and establishing two evangelization centers dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin: Niepokalanów, the “City of the Immaculata,” in Poland, and Mugenzai no Sono in Japan, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide. … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – August 11, 2024
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. (Jn 6:41-44) As I mentioned over the last two weekends, the Gospel this Sunday is a continuation of the 6th Chapter of John’s Gospel. Two weeks ago we heard about the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes. Last week we heard Jesus raise the bar and describe Himself as the “Bread from Heaven,” calling to mind the manna from heaven of the Exodus. This Sunday Jesus starts facing … [Read more...]
The Assumption of Mary
August 15, 2024 HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION! Masses at 6:30 AM (St Henry Church) and 9 AM (Basilica of St Stephen) After the Ascension of Jesus, Mary aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers. In her association with the apostles and several women, we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation. Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection … [Read more...]
Mission Appeal – Diocese of Eluru in India
August 3-4, 2024 Thank you for your generosity to the Diocese of Eluru in our mission appeal last weekend. Monsignor Bala and the members of his diocese are extremely grateful. … [Read more...]
From the Pastor – August 4, 2024
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (Jn 6:24-29) Beginning last weekend on the 17th Sunday of the Ordinary Time … [Read more...]
