May 29, 2009 - Day of Prayer and Fasting before Hurricane Season

The Catholic Bishops of Louisiana declared Friday, May 29th, 2009, to be a Day of Prayer and Fasting, asking the Lord’s intercession, that we be delivered from all storms. St. Landry Catholic Church is within the North Region of the Diocese. In the Diocese of Lafayette, regional prayer services will be held as follows:

WEST REGION: St. Anne Catholic Church—Mass
17315 Lionel Rd. • Abbeville, La. (Cow Island)
Thursday, 28 May @ 6:30 pm

NORTH REGION: Ecumenical Prayer Service
Hope Presbyterian Church
434 S. Main St. • Opelousas, La.
Wednesday, 3 June @ 6:30 pm

CENTRAL REGION: Cathedral of St John the Evangelist
914 St. John St. • Lafayette, La.
Monday, 8 June @ 6:30 pm

A Prayer for the Hurricane Season written by the second Bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, La., Bishop Maurice Schexnayder is found below.

A Prayer for the Hurricane Season
by Maurice Schexnayder, Second Bishop of Lafayette, Louisiana

O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; You are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of danger over which we have no control; the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster.

During this hurricane season we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wound seem to refuse to heal with passing time. O Virgin Mary, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a stormless eternity awaits us. Amen.