Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Bulletin for the Week of May 22, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

Last weekend, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is our celebration and remembrance of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world to each of us, giving us the Grace to imitate Jesus in living our earthly lives. The Holy Spirit is also the heart of our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  Jesus told the apostles that he would send His Spirit, Who would teach and remind them of all the things He taught. Therefore, The Holy Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us of what is good.  He prompts us to love God and each other as Jesus did, and gives us the Grace to act upon those promptings. Our devotion to living a life in Christ should be total, not partial. Of course, none of us has reached a point of complete imitation of Christ, so we continue to examine our lives and change, or convert, in accord with the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The first way of knowing we are living in accord with The Holy Spirit is that we do all things that Jesus commanded us, beginning with the commandments as taught by Jesus and His Church. In doing that, we can learn to love as Jesus loved.

This week, we returned to what is known as "Ordinary Time." The primary liturgical color returns to green and the paschal candle will be moved back to the baptistry to be used for baptisms and funerals. The term "ordinary" is not meant to diminish this time of year as if it is not important to our spiritual growth, but simply indicates that we are not in one of the special church seasons that has a particular emphasis on some aspect of the life of Christ, such as Advent and Christmas (The Incarnation), and Lent and Easter (The Paschal Mystery). Rather, we focus on learning about our faith and the things Jesus commanded us by learning what he taught in His public ministry and how He lived as an example to us. 

Today, we celebrate God revealing Himself in the life and teachings of Jesus as The Most Holy Trinity. This revelation allows us to better understand God the Father in the life of His Son Jesus, as well as the gift of Grace to imitate Jesus' life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Next weekend we will conclude our special feasts by celebrating God being with us until the end of time in the Eucharist, which is known as Corpus Christi Sunday, or The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Please remember we will have a Eucharistic Procession in the church after the 10am Mass in celebration of this gift, with Eucharistic adoration continuing that day until 4pm, at which time there will be Benediction. Please make plans to spend an hour with Jesus on this very special day!!

After these celebrations, we will remain in Ordinary Time until the Church New Year, the 1st Sunday of Advent. As always, we should continue to learn about Jesus and our faith through Sacred Scripture and the sacramental liturgies, especially Mass and Confession. Our journey towards Christ should be constant and consistent, regardless of the time of year!

Congratulations to our High School Seniors! 
Congratulations to our high school Seniors! Opelousas Catholic held its graduation last Friday night here in the church with Bishop Deshotel presiding.  Our students attending other schools or who are home-schooled are graduating during this time of year as well. We congratulate them all and their families, and pray that they continue their life's journey utilizing the natural gifts that God has given to them, but most importantly, that they continue to grow in the supernatural gifts of faith, hope and charity in the lives that they lead. 

Valentin Hall Construction Update
The work on the windows in Valentin Hall is progressing nicely and is nearing completion.  Without a doubt, they look beautiful and really change the appearance of the building.  We thank Lenard Bertrand General Contractors and Richard Lafleur and Guaranty Glass for the wonderful work they have done on the building so far.

We are nearing the time to begin the interior renovation of Valentin Hall.  The contracts have been submitted to the diocese for review, and we expect approval shortly.  At that time, we will begin construction on the second floor of the building.  We will provide a more detailed explanation of the construction plans and financing once the contracts are approved.  Please continue to keep the success in the project in your prayers! 

Father James Brady


The bulletin for the week of May 22, 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.

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