The Easter Season officially concluded on the Feast of Pentecost two weeks ago, and and on the following Monday we began “Ordinary Time” anew with the colors of the vestments and altar furnishings returning to green from the violet of Lent and the white of Easter.  What’s so “ordinary” about it?  Actually, “Ordinary Time” is the English translation of the Latin Tempus Per Annum (“time throughout the year”) and gets its name from the word ordinal, meaning "numbered," because we begin to count the weeks rather than the seasons. Ordinary Time, depending on the year, runs either 33 or 34 weeks, and makes up the time in the Church calendar that does not fall within the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter. The Church celebrates two periods as Ordinary Time.  The first period, ran … [Read more...]

Q: With the summer heat about to arrive, the norm is for people in New Orleans to dress down even more casually than they do at other times of the year. The issue of church attire is a sensitive one – especially in an area where it’s hot nine months out of the year. What’s your perspective on how people should dress for Mass? Archbishop Aymond:  I have a variety of feelings about this. There’s a part of me that remains grateful to God that a person is in church, regardless of how he or she is dressed. I certainly realize there are individual circumstances where a person may have other responsibilities and is not able to dress in what we might consider an appropriate manner, so I want to be sensitive to that. At the same time, the church is a sacred place – truly holy ground. It is a … [Read more...]

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.  Our parishioners, Nell Carmichael and Barry & Katie Almon will be among those honored at St. Catherine of Siena Church at 2:30p on May 7. Even if you don’t know Nell, Barry and Katie, you surely know of their work!  Nell is a tireless rectory volunteer who also cooks and serves the poor at the Rebuild Center.  Most of our younger parishioners know Barry and Katie, who direct our RCIA program for Confirmation. “Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” (Mt 25:40). … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

At the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday (7:00 p.m.) 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 … [Read more...]

One of the most beautiful and fragrant reminders of Easter morning are Easter lilies.  We will be purchasing them for the altar for use over the Easter season.  If you would like to donate an Easter lily in the name of a loved one, there are envelopes in the back of church.  Please return by April 2, 2023. … [Read more...]

This Sunday is “Lætare” Sunday, which comes from the introductory antiphon of Mass “Laetare Jerusalem” shown above (meaning “O be joyful, Jerusalem”).  On this Sunday we are called to have a restrained joyfulness because we’re halfway through the pilgrimage of Lent and getting closer to Holy Week.  While we should strengthen our resolutions regarding our penitential sacrifice, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The rose vestments testify to this special Sunday which also has several other meanings attached to it throughout the centuries.  Since the Jews frequently referred to the city of Jerusalem as “Mother Jerusalem” the early Christians began referring to the Church as “Mother Church.”  And since Jerusalem was mentioned in the introit, Lætare Sunday began to known as … [Read more...]

The tradition of a St. Joseph Day altar came to New Orleans from the Italian people of Sicily.  During the middle ages, Sicily faced a severe drought, and the people were reduced to eating fava beans, which were usually given to the animals. They prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph, and their prayers were answered: the rains came! In thanksgiving, the people of Sicily developed a tradition to decorate the St. Joseph Altar on the right side of most of their churches (or to make a small private altar at home) with flowers, fruit, candles, wine, fava beans, specially prepared cakes, breads, fish and cookies. Since the Feast of Joseph (March 19) almost always occurs during Lent, no meat is allowed on the altar. The custom of preparing an altar as a symbol of devotion to St. Joseph is … [Read more...]

March 17, 2023 St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world’s most popular saints. He was born in Roman Britain in the 5th century. When he was a young boy he was captured by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave to tend sheep. Ireland was a land of druids and pagans but Patrick turned to God for help. In his Confession, he later wrote: After I came to Ireland the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me-- as I … [Read more...]

While many people give candy, flowers and cards to each other on February 14, few know the connection between “Valentine's Day” and the Catholic Church. Until the most recent revision of the Roman Calendar in 1969, February 14 was the Feast of St. Valentine. Little is known of the Saint except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. However, "Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome" remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics. The Feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are … [Read more...]