Bulletin for the Week of January 3, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

As we continue to celebrate Christmastide this weekend, we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord today.  Traditionally, this feast was celebrated on January 6, ending the "twelve days" days of Christmas.  However, we now celebrate it liturgically on the Sunday between January 2 and January 8.  "Epiphany" comes from a Greek verb meaning "to reveal."  Therefore, the Epiphany celebrates God's revealing or manifesting Jesus' identity as true God, Messiah, and Savior of the world.  It not only commemorates the fact that Jesus appeared to save us, but that God revealed the identity of Jesus to the world.  The Gospel reading for the day is from the second chapter of Matthew, where the magi from the east seek the newborn king of the Jews, and of course, find Him and pay Him homage.

As we continue to celebrate the joy of Christmas for the remaining time in the Christmas season, we are reminded in the Epiphany that God not only sent His Incarnate Son as our Lord and Savior, but that He did so in a way that we could recognize and understand, and therefore follow Him in the way of truth and peace.  Like the magi, our mission is to seek Him, to come to know Him, and to pay homage to Him not only with our words, but also by living our lives in the way Jesus taught us.

Giving Thanks and My Particular Thanks for You and Your Generosity at Christmas!

Last week we celebrated the secular New Year, and at this time of year it is appropriate to reflect and give God thanks for the gifts he has given to us, the first and foremost being His Son, the source of all grace and the source of our salvation.  We should also take into account the particular gifts we have received in the past year and thank God for them.  Each and every one of us has at least been blessed with the gift of living another year here on earth, with the opportunity to grow in our knowledge and love of God.

In my case, there is the specific gift that St. Landry Church and its people have been to me.  I want to thank all of you for your support of me in my vocation and as your pastor. The last five and a half years have been a joyful time for me, and I am lucky to be here.  You have been supportive in every initiative we have undertaken, and have been patient with me when I make mistakes.  I know that you have helped me to become a better priest and pastor.  The longer I am here, my appreciation for God's gift to me of being your pastor only deepens. I want to especially thank our staff, who have been absolutely wonderful in their help to me and our parish.

I also want to thank you for your generosity, especially over the last few weeks and during Christmas.  The number of cards, the amount of food, and the Christmas gifts you have dropped by is both generous and humbling.  I will try to thank you individually when we see each other.  In the meantime, please know of my thanks and appreciation for the Christmas gifts and for all you have done for me and our parish, not only during the past few weeks, but ever since I arrived.

Thanks again, and may God Bless you in this Christmas Season, that you may receive the Grace God the Father gives to you in the Incarnation of His Son, that you may cooperate with that Grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that you may come to know Him ever more deeply in the upcoming year.

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of January 03, 2016 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 Feast of the Holy Family

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, Feast of the Holy Family, is our four hundred eighteenth 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 December 27, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

This weekend, we celebrate the Holy Family:  Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Our focus is on the Human Nature of Jesus.  Not only did he become flesh and is like us in all things except sin, but he grew up in a family and was raised by Mary and Joseph.  This celebration reminds us that Jesus is fully human like us, subject to all the struggles and trials of life just as we are.  It reminds us that we can imitate Him in all things by the Grace of God.
 
This week, we might say:  "Happy Mary, Mother of God!!" That may sound a bit strange, as opposed to "Happy New Year!!"  However, that is the feast day that we celebrate on January 1st each year.  The celebration is not as much about our Blessed Mother as it is about the fact that Jesus is indeed God in His Divine Nature.  Therefore, our Blessed Mother is the Mother of God.  The celebration of this feast is intended to strengthen our faith about the two natures of Jesus, both divine and human, to celebrate the fact that God Himself has visited us on earth, and to properly understand the special role our Blessed Mother was given in God's plan of salvation.  Because of its importance, it is a holy day of obligation and we are obliged to attend Mass that day.  Our special schedule for that day is a 4 pm vigil Mass on Thursday, December 31st and 9 am and 5 pm Masses on Friday, January 1st.

As we continue to celebrate Christmastide, we will celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord next Sunday. Traditionally, this feast was celebrated on January 6, ending the "twelve days" days of Christmas. However, we now celebrate it liturgically on the Sunday between January 2 and January 8. "Epiphany" comes from a Greek verb meaning "to reveal."

Therefore, the Epiphany celebrates God's revealing or manifesting Jesus' identity as true God, Messiah, and Savior of the world. It not only commemorates the fact that Jesus appeared to save us, but that God revealed the identity of Jesus to the world. The Gospel reading for the day is from the second chapter of Matthew, where the magi from the east seek the newborn king of the Jews, and of course, find Him and pay Him homage.

As we continue to celebrate the joy of Christmas for the remaining time in the Christmas season, we are reminded in the Epiphany that God not only sent his Incarnate Son as our Lord and Savior, but that He did so in a way that we could recognize and understand, and then follow Him in the way of truth and peace. Like the magi, our mission is to seek Him, come to know Him, and pay homage to Him not only with our words, but also by living our lives in the way Jesus taught us.  In two weeks we will celebrate the Baptism of The Lord, when we are reminded of our own baptism and the Grace God has given to us to lead a life in imitation of Jesus and renew our resolve to cooperate with the Grace we have received.

Many Thanks for the beautiful Christmas Liturgies

After next weekend, we will we will return to "Ordinary Time" liturgically, changing from white to green for our liturgical color.  With the beginning of Ordinary Time, we thank all those who made our celebration of Christmas so beautiful.  The music was wonderful throughout, and we thank our musicians and singers: The Adult Choir and their director J.P. Porrier; our youth choir and their director, Rafael Henry; and Marla Faust/Megan Wilkes. Our Altar Society did a wonderful job in decorating the church, and they were coordinated by Deacon Joubert and Yvonne Normand.  We thank our various ministers at the liturgies, our readers, extraordinary ministers, servers and sacristans who volunteered their time and made adjustments to their personal schedules to serve us. We thank those who donated to the flower fund, making it possible to beautifully decorate our sanctuary and church.  And of course, our wonderful office staff and maintenance crew did a great job over the course of the holidays.  Again, thanks to all!!

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of December 27, 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 Christmas

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, Christmas, is our four hundred seventeenth 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 December 20, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

Today we celebrate the fourth and final Sunday of Advent.  As the time celebrating the birth of our Savior approaches, we should intensify our preparation and anticipation of celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord.  This Fourth Sunday of Advent reminds us we have a mission here on earth.  In our Gospel reading today, we hear the story of The Visitation, where our Blessed Mother, after being told her mission by the angel Gabriel, follows his directions and visits her cousin Elizabeth.  One goal of our life on earth is to fulfill the mission God has given to us, whether it be wife, husband, single person, mother, father or religious.  God created us for this mission, but he made us free, so we are able to accept or reject the role He has given us in His overall plan of salvation as well as His plan for OUR salvation.  If we allow God to speak to us through the life of Jesus, not only this week, but at all times, then we can discern what is truly good for us in our lives and live a life at His direction.  Whatever mission God has for us, He will provide the Grace to accomplish it.  Once we determine what God is asking, then we decide whether or not to accept His invitation.  During this last week of Advent, as we prepare for and anticipate the coming of Jesus to the world, in our prayer let us put ourselves in a position to hear God's voice and accept the Graces Jesus gives us to fulfill our mission.

This week we also begin to celebrate Christmas.  Of course, we celebrate Christmas Day on Friday in a special way as the birthday of Jesus.  However, we continue to celebrate the Christmas Season until the Baptism of the Lord, which is celebrated on January 10, 2016.  For the most part, the secular world will be finished with Christmas by the day after December 25th.  We, on the other hand, will continue to celebrate the Mystery of the Incarnation for more than two weeks. Our Blessed Mother reflected on the marvel of the Incarnation in her heart (Luke 2:19).  So should we.  Let's not just enjoy Christmas Day, but the Christmas Season.

Enjoy reflecting on the gift God the Father has given us in His Son.  Enjoy reflecting on the gift Jesus has given us in His Life, Death and Resurrection, the events that have led to our salvation.  Enjoy reflecting on the gift of the Holy Spirit, who prompts and empowers us to live a life in imitation of Christ.  Ponder the gift of eternal life (our one true Hope) given to us if we follow Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Let us, as a community, not follow the world in allowing Christmas to end after December 25, but rather keep the Christmas spirit in our hearts all year by continuing to celebrate and reflect on the great gift we have all received at Christmas:  the gift of God Himself dwelling among us and leading us to eternal life with Him.

For all those who are out of town for Christmas, know of my prayers for you and wishes for your Merry Christmas!

Priest on Call for the Hospital
Last week I mentioned that the best way to get a hold of a priest outside of business hours was to call the office and choose option 5.  However, I forgot to mention that if the emergency is a hospital emergency then the best way to get in contact with a priest is to ask the hospital personnel to contact the priest on call.  There is a priest on call 7 days a week for Opelousas General, and all of the Lafayette hospitals have chaplains, so if the emergency call is for a hospital visit, the best way to contact a priest is through the hospital.

Sanctuary Lighting
Just an update on the sanctuary lighting...  We tried to install new lighting last week, but unfortunately ran into some problems.  The sanctuary lighting will not installed until after the first of the year.  Remember, patience is a virtue!

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of December 20, 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.

Advent Mission by Doug Barry

This Mission of Advent is our four hundred sixteenth podcast to be posted. The Mission is given by Doug Barry. He's a co host of Life on the Rock on EWTN each week as well being a founder of Radix http://radixguys.com/ and Battle Ready http://www.battlereadystrong.com/

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

Homily for the Third Sunday in Advent

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, Third Sunday of Advent, is our four hundred fifteenth 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 December 13, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

As Christmas approaches, I want to report to you the status of the various ongoing projects at the church.  Last week, we were able to make our full report on the Sanctuary Project expenses.  We have only the sanctuary lighting to complete and it will be installed this week beginning Monday.  This final part of the project should be finished in time for Christmas.  We will also be meeting with the architects at the diocese this week to present our plan for the Valentin Hall renovations, and we hope that we will be able to move forward with construction some time in February or March of 2016.  As you know, we are not doing a campaign to finance the construction, but rather are depending on our regular offertory.  As of now, and as you can see in our weekly bulletin, we are a little behind in our regular offertory compared to the amount we budgeted at the beginning of the year.  To some extent we rely on Christmas Gifts above and beyond the regular Christmas offering to help make the budget, so if you are able, please consider putting St. Landry Church on your Christmas Gift List!  Thanks again for all everyone has done to bring us this far!!

Doug Barry to Speak Here this Week!!
As was mentioned last week at the Masses, we are very excited that Doug Barry, co-host of the weekly TV program "Life on the Rock" on EWTN, is going to speak here at the church at 7pm Tuesday evening of this week.  There is a flyer in this bulletin with the details.  We welcome Mr. Barry, and hope you can come out and join us for this very special event!

Statue Restorations
We hope you like the re-furbished Sacred Heart statue.  I think it turned out beautifully and want to thank the person who has been generously restoring and painting the statues in the church.  Please be sure to keep her and her family in your prayers.  Before I get too many questions about the whereabouts of St. Joseph, for your information it is now his turn to be "freshened up."

Festival Accounting
Just a note to let you know that the Festival de la Grande Eglise was a great success.  We were able to raise over $25,000 to help offset expenses we incur each year in maintaining our historic cemetery.  For a first time event, things went very smoothly, and we were able to learn much to improve it in the future.  We have done our evaluations and believe we should continue to have the festival on a yearly basis, so we will again have the festival in October of 2016.  Thanks again to Yvonne Normand, the festival chair, the group leaders, the volunteers and all who worked so hard to make the festival a great success!

New Phone System - Emergency Phone Calls
As you know, we installed a new phone system in July of this year, and we have had some problems with it.  We think we found the source of the problem last week, and since the repair was made, we have not had the previous problems we were experiencing.  Please let us know if you have any more problems with the system, and please accept my apology for any inconvenience you might have experienced.

Our new phone system has an emergency line feature.  In the case of an emergency, please dial the receptionist, or extension 100, during business hours.  Outside of business hours, please choose option number five on the main menu.  Because the emergency line is generally not monitored during business hours, this is the quickest way to get in touch with myself, one of the other priests or the deacons in the case of an emergency

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of December 13, 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 Second Sunday of Advent

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, Second Sunday of Advent, is our four hundred fourteenth 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 Week December 6, 2015 and the Pastor's Corner

The Pastor’s Corner 

Today we celebrate the Second Sunday in Advent as we continue to prepare and anticipate the coming of our Lord at Christmas, which is the "The Mystery of the Incarnation."  In our Gospel reading today, John the Baptist heralds the coming of the Lord, exhorting us to prepare the way for Him by repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  If we allow God to forgive our sins and to heal the wounds our sins have caused us, then there is "more room" to receive fully the Spirit of Jesus.  Obviously, Sacramental Confession is highly recommended during Advent, and we will continue to have not only our regularly scheduled times for Confession, but also an additional time each Wednesday evening from 6:30 pm until 8 pm.  I hope you are able to do a thorough examination of conscience and to receive the fullness of God's Mercy in the Sacramental Graces given in Confession.

This Tuesday is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and is a holy day of obligation.  It also begins the "Year of Mercy" declared by Pope Francis, a time we are to celebrate God's goodness to us not only in forgiving our sins, but in showing us the way to salvation.  Masses for The Immaculate Conception will be Monday evening with the vigil Mass at 5:30 pm, and then Tuesday at 8:40 am (Opelousas Catholic School Mass), 12:05 pm and 5:30 pm.

Finally, don't forget that boxes are out for collection of food, clothes and toys for those in need.  Your generosity, whether by way of material goods or a monetary donation, is very much appreciated!

Accounting for Sanctuary Campaign
The Sanctuary Campaign has ended, and nearly all the work is done.  We only have left to install new lighting for the sanctuary (which we hope will be installed this week), and all of the expenses we will incur have been paid.  The campaign was a great success, and we were able to accomplish not only the stated goals, but also do the work needed on the sound system, lighting, pews and sacristy.  As a matter of accountability and transparency, below is a summary of the contributions and expenses of the campaign.

Contributions:                                                 $151,500

Altar and Installation                                        $ 17,408
Flooring (Tile and Carpet)                                $ 55,351
Sound                                                                $ 17,406
Bathroom and Pew Construction                      $ 11,698
Air Conditioning                                               $   9,510
Sacristy Renovation                                          $ 15,378
Miscellaneous/Administrative                         $   3,539
Diocesan Assessment                                       $ 21,210

Total Expenses:                                               $151,500

Note:  we will receive an assessment credit for nearly all the Diocesan Assessment.  The credit we receive will be used to repair the roof for the north and south sacristies.

Again, many thanks to all who supported the campaign, whether by way of time, talent, donations or prayer.  All were necessary to the success of the campaign, and all are appreciated!                        

God Bless

            Father James Brady

The bulletin for the week of December 06, 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.