Homily for Christ the King

Homilies are now available to download and listen to!

As part of our answering the challenge of the Holy Father to go out and evangelize utilizing new technologies, we're now offering the homily each week for download. Clicking the link to the homily should download it and automatically start it playing in whatever music player your computer is set up with.

On the technical side, the file sizes are about 5 megs which means it may a minute or two to download on slower Internet connections. It is also an MP3 formatted file which means that these are essentially podcasts. Don't worry if all the technical words don't mean much to you. It means we're using the latest in technology in order to make sure our church parish can reach the most people.

The current week's homily is available on a link on the front page of the website next to the link for the current week's bulletin. On the page with the prior bulletins, the corresponding homily will be sitting side by side with its bulletin. We started on the anniversary of the start of the Catholic Church, Pentecost Sunday --- over six years ago. This mass, Christ the King, is our four hundred thirteenth podcast to be posted. The homily is given by Father Jerry Mesley.

So, take a listen and let us know what you think. Click here to download the homily from St. Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, Louisiana.

Bulletin for the Week of November 22, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

Thursday of this week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  Mass that day will be at 9 am and I hope to see you there.  Although Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, it is certainly religious in its theme.  This year, we have much to thank God for as a church parish and a community.  The generosity of so many of our parishioners in volunteering their time, talent and treasure has been such a great blessing to me as your pastor, and I am grateful to God for the blessing that each of you are to me in my priestly life and in the furtherance of the mission of St. Landry Church.  Our mission is quite simple:  To grow in our knowledge and love of God the Father through the life of Jesus Christ, His Son, with His Grace prompting us to serve all in charity by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are blessed with three devoted deacons and a hard- working and dedicated staff who make all the good things happening here possible. Thanks to them and all of you. I am very blessed to be your pastor!

My hope is that during this time of the year all of us are able to look back and see the blessings that God has given us as a church community and individually during the year and to thank Him.  Of course, some of us have suffered during the year, and many have said "good-bye for now" to loved ones who have passed into the next life.  However, even if it has been a difficult year for you individually or as a family, we can still thank God for the hope of eternal life that He has given us, a hope that eases the pain of suffering and death in this world with the belief that we will all be joined together again, without pain or suffering, in God's Heavenly Kingdom.  Let us take the time to thank God for all His blessings, great and small.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, the end of the Church's liturgical year.  This celebration is a reminder to us that Jesus can help us to overcome any problem we might have if we let Him reign in our hearts.  The primary goal of our life here on earth is to live with God for eternity in the next life, and as Christians this must be our first priority. We make this our first priority by following God's commands as Jesus teaches us through His Church in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, and by cooperating with God's Grace and living a life of virtue and prayer in Faith, Hope and Charity.  No matter what the circumstances in our lives here on earth, we always have the hope of eternal life in heaven, and nothing on earth has the power to take that away from us. In sum, we celebrate the gift God has given to us in Jesus' life, death and resurrection, and we renew our resolve to live a life on earth worthy of the eternal life God has promised. Let us praise Christ our King!

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of November 22, 2015 has been posted. Click here to see it.

The calendar on the website has been updated with all events for the coming week along with prayer intention information and information on the second collection for all of the masses. Take some time to look at our calendar here.

Updates are also being made to our St. Landry Catholic Church blog. You can get to the blog from the church home page under the Bulletins and News section or you can just click here to go to it.

Don't forget, we're also sending out live updates via Twitter. Our Twitter name is StLandryCath. You can see updates by clicking here.

And we're also on Facebook --- friend us! You can see our updates on our page SaintLandryCatholicChurch.

Homily for the Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homilies are now available to download and listen to!

As part of our answering the challenge of the Holy Father to go out and evangelize utilizing new technologies, we're now offering the homily each week for download. Clicking the link to the homily should download it and automatically start it playing in whatever music player your computer is set up with.

On the technical side, the file sizes are about 5 megs which means it may a minute or two to download on slower Internet connections. It is also an MP3 formatted file which means that these are essentially podcasts. Don't worry if all the technical words don't mean much to you. It means we're using the latest in technology in order to make sure our church parish can reach the most people.

The current week's homily is available on a link on the front page of the website next to the link for the current week's bulletin. On the page with the prior bulletins, the corresponding homily will be sitting side by side with its bulletin. We started on the anniversary of the start of the Catholic Church, Pentecost Sunday --- over six years ago. This mass, Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred twelfth podcast to be posted. The homily is given by Father James Brady.

So, take a listen and let us know what you think. Click here to download the homily from St. Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, Louisiana.

Bulletin for the Week of November 15, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

We are rapidly approaching the end of the liturgical year (next Sunday) and the end of our secular year (December 31). During this time, we will celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas and in general the holiday season. In addition, this coming year we celebrate a "Year of Mercy" beginning on December 8, the date of our observance of The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The observance of the Year of Mercy will continue until Sunday, November 20, 2016 (The Feast of Christ the King).

"Mercy" has many different and nuanced meanings in our spiritual life, such as the forgiveness of sins, giving a helping hand or even just some kind words that sooth someone's suffering. Over the course of the Year of Mercy we will examine several different meanings of "mercy" as it relates to our life in Christ. However, for now, and in preparation for the Year of Mercy, it is good to reflect on the ultimate mercy of God, which is our salvation. In our salvation, mortal man has been lifted up and out of the despair of sin and death by our Savior Jesus Christ, and then given the gift of immortality, that is, eternal life in union with God. This "mercy" was made known to us by God coming to earth in the life The Incarnate Son, Jesus the Christ, who by allowing Himself to be lifted up on The Cross lifted us out of the pit that we had dug for ourselves and could never have gotten out of without Him. Not only that, He bailed us out while we were still sinners, and because of His Love for us, continues to bail us out even when we sin again.

We also must show mercy towards others. It is critical to our salvation because Sacred Scripture teaches us that in order to receive a merciful judgement, we must be merciful to others. However, in order to be merciful to others, we must first learn what mercy is. Studying the life of Jesus during the coming year will help us to see the different ways we can be merciful to others, especially in more nuanced and particular ways. The beauty of this design by God is that we not only experience God's Mercy in direct ways, but also experience it in the work of The Holy Spirit in ourselves and other people, that is, in the entire Body of Christ.

As stated, we are coming to the end of the liturgical year, a time when we should reflect on the previous year as well as put forward renewed effort to cooperate with God's Grace in the year to come. This year, a good focus for our end of year reflection is to honestly examine our hearts to make sure we are attentive to God's teaching as given to us in Sacred Scripture and as taught by His Church, to search our lives for the areas where we are in need of His Mercy and in humility ask for it, and in light of His Mercy for us, to look for ways to show mercy to others.

St. Landry Awarded the 2015 Preservationist of the Year Award
As I mentioned a few weeks back, last weekend St. Landry Church was awarded the 2015 Preservationist of the Year Award "in recognition of its ongoing effort to preserve and renovate the historic St. Landry Church in Opelousas, Louisiana." We are so grateful to the Preservationists of St. Landry, Inc. for their recognition of our work. As I mentioned at the award ceremony, "preservation" for us a church community, at the core, is observing and preserving the faith that's been handed down to us for our salvation and for the next generation. In this case, it meant providing a fitting place for the worship of God by our community. In our ongoing work as a community of faith, we must always remain focused first on our salvation...the most precious gift God has given to us!

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of November 15, 2015 has been posted. Click here to see it.

The calendar on the website has been updated with all events for the coming week along with prayer intention information and information on the second collection for all of the masses. Take some time to look at our calendar here.

Updates are also being made to our St. Landry Catholic Church blog. You can get to the blog from the church home page under the Bulletins and News section or you can just click here to go to it.

Don't forget, we're also sending out live updates via Twitter. Our Twitter name is StLandryCath. You can see updates by clicking here.

And we're also on Facebook --- friend us! You can see our updates on our page SaintLandryCatholicChurch.

Homily for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homilies are now available to download and listen to!

As part of our answering the challenge of the Holy Father to go out and evangelize utilizing new technologies, we're now offering the homily each week for download. Clicking the link to the homily should download it and automatically start it playing in whatever music player your computer is set up with.

On the technical side, the file sizes are about 5 megs which means it may a minute or two to download on slower Internet connections. It is also an MP3 formatted file which means that these are essentially podcasts. Don't worry if all the technical words don't mean much to you. It means we're using the latest in technology in order to make sure our church parish can reach the most people.

The current week's homily is available on a link on the front page of the website next to the link for the current week's bulletin. On the page with the prior bulletins, the corresponding homily will be sitting side by side with its bulletin. We started on the anniversary of the start of the Catholic Church, Pentecost Sunday --- over six years ago. This mass, Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred eleventh podcast to be posted. The homily is given by Father James Brady.

So, take a listen and let us know what you think. Click here to download the homily from St. Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, Louisiana.

Bulletin for the Week of November 8, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

Many thanks to all who participated in our Memorial Mass on All Souls Day last Monday.  What a beautiful liturgy, and I know the families who grieve appreciate the support of those who were able to attend.  We thank all our servers, lectors, choir members and sacristans, as well as Deacon Joubert who coordinated the liturgy.  Their work and dedication is very much appreciated.  Please be sure to keep in your prayers those who mourn and for the repose of souls in purgatory.

Mark Your Calendar for Annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet
We are rapidly approaching Thanksgiving and the end of the Liturgical Year, which concludes November 22 when we celebrate The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  The feast day reminds us that we should give praise to God the Father for the gift of His Incarnate Son Jesus and that the Spirit of Christ the King should always reign in our hearts.  As has now become custom, we will also have our appreciation banquet for all our volunteers that evening after the 5 pm Mass at the Opelousas Catholic cafeteria.  At the risk of omitting someone (please accept my apology in advance!) these volunteers and their spouses are invited:

          Members of The Altar Society and Knights of Columbus
          Money Counters
          Readers
          Extraordinary Ministers of Communion
          Altar Servers and their parents
          Festival Volunteers
          Ushers
          Members of the Parish Advisory Board and Finance Council
          Trustees
          Sacristans
          Members of our choirs and musicians
          CLJ/Bible Study Leaders
          Youth Group Volunteers

We thank all of our volunteers for their gift of time and talent. Without these gifts we would not be able to function as a healthy church community.  Please make plans to attend, and we look forward to seeing you there.

Food Boxes During November
As usual we will focus on helping those who are in need during the holiday season. We will again place boxes at the doors of the church during the month of November for non-perishable food donations. The donations will be sent to ICONS, our local food pantry, for distribution to those in need in our community. Please be generous in helping during the holiday season.

Veterans Day
This week, on Wednesday, November 11, our country celebrates Veteran's Day, a day when we take time to give thanks to those who have served in our armed forces. As we are reminded every time armed conflict occurs in our world, in order to protect individual and societal freedoms, including the freedom to practice our faith, an armed force is often necessary. We are thankful for the brave men and women who have served or are currently serving in our armed forces, and we pray for them and their families.  John's Gospel tells us: "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." We thank God for raising up these men and women who are willing, if necessary, to lay down their life so that others have the opportunity to live a life in freedom and full human dignity. We pray that God will continue to bless our country, and that He bless and keep in his care our veterans and active service members. May we always appreciate what they have done for us!

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of November 08, 2015 has been posted. Click here to see it.

The calendar on the website has been updated with all events for the coming week along with prayer intention information and information on the second collection for all of the masses. Take some time to look at our calendar here.

Updates are also being made to our St. Landry Catholic Church blog. You can get to the blog from the church home page under the Bulletins and News section or you can just click here to go to it.

Don't forget, we're also sending out live updates via Twitter. Our Twitter name is StLandryCath. You can see updates by clicking here.

And we're also on Facebook --- friend us! You can see our updates on our page SaintLandryCatholicChurch.

Homily for All Saints Day

Homilies are now available to download and listen to!

As part of our answering the challenge of the Holy Father to go out and evangelize utilizing new technologies, we're now offering the homily each week for download. Clicking the link to the homily should download it and automatically start it playing in whatever music player your computer is set up with.

On the technical side, the file sizes are about 5 megs which means it may a minute or two to download on slower Internet connections. It is also an MP3 formatted file which means that these are essentially podcasts. Don't worry if all the technical words don't mean much to you. It means we're using the latest in technology in order to make sure our church parish can reach the most people.

The current week's homily is available on a link on the front page of the website next to the link for the current week's bulletin. On the page with the prior bulletins, the corresponding homily will be sitting side by side with its bulletin. We started on the anniversary of the start of the Catholic Church, Pentecost Sunday --- over six years ago. This mass, All Saints Day, is our four hundred tenth podcast to be posted. The homily is given by Father James Brady.

So, take a listen and let us know what you think. Click here to download the homily from St. Landry Catholic Church, Opelousas, Louisiana.

Bulletin for the Week of November 1, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

It's good to be home from my trip to Philadelphia for my brother Ed's 25th Jubilee.  The trip went well, and I was able to extend to him all the good wishes many of you asked me to express.  He was very appreciative of the prayers and support!  Thank you much!!

This weekend, we celebrate All Saints Day, which is the celebration of what is commonly referred to as the "Church Triumphant." The Church Triumphant are those people who have gone before us from this life, and whose souls are now in Heaven in union with God. We hope many of our family members and friends are members of Church Triumphant, and we celebrate them for two reasons.  First, because they are now living in a state that we hope is also our final end, and our hope is to see them again there in perfect happiness.  Second, while living here on earth they gave us an example of living a life in Christ, which is the greatest gift any of us can give to another.  We thank God and all in The Church Triumphant for handing on the faith to us.

All Souls Day, which we celebrate on Monday, is a day we pray for what is known as the "Church Suffering."  The members of the Church Suffering have passed from their human life on earth and are now in purgatory, but "suffer" because they have not yet reached fullness of union with God. Praying for the dead is a good and pious act (2 Maccabees 12:46), and is one of the traditional Spiritual Works of Mercy.  Both these pious devotions are good for our souls and help us to grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus, so I encourage all of us to attend Mass both these days and participate in other services offered.  The blessing of the cemetery will take place this weekend on Saturday after the 4pm Mass, and Masses Monday for All Souls Day are at 12:05pm and 6pm (our Annual Memorial Mass praying especially for those who passed away last year).

Special Devices for Hearing Impaired Available
With the installation of the new sound system, it is so nice to hear compliments about the sound instead of complaints!!  We're so glad that so many of you are enjoying it as well.  However, we have several members of our congregation who have hearing impairments and may be in need of additional sound support.  We have available devices that receive the sound signal directly from the system and can be used with headphones or ear buds.  If you are in need of such a device, please see Fr. Brady and we would be happy to provide you with one.  Many people in our congregation have used them to great benefit, so don't be shy about asking for one!


Sacred Heart Statue
Our beautiful Sacred Heart statue is not missing from the sanctuary.  Rather, it is being re-furbished just like St. Jude and St. Anthony were.  We look forward to its return refreshed and updated.  Again, we thank those who have made the refurbishment of our statues possible.  Thanks much!!

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of November 01, 2015 has been posted. Click here to see it.

The calendar on the website has been updated with all events for the coming week along with prayer intention information and information on the second collection for all of the masses. Take some time to look at our calendar here.

Updates are also being made to our St. Landry Catholic Church blog. You can get to the blog from the church home page under the Bulletins and News section or you can just click here to go to it.

Don't forget, we're also sending out live updates via Twitter. Our Twitter name is StLandryCath. You can see updates by clicking here.

And we're also on Facebook --- friend us! You can see our updates on our page SaintLandryCatholicChurch.