Homily for the Thirty First 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 seven years ago. This mass, Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred sixty sixth 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 October 30, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

This week we celebrate and honor those who have returned to their eternal home, our ancestors and relatives who, by God's gift of Grace, lived a good life in word and deed and played their part in handing down the faith to us who live here today. In the same way, we are called to be lights of Christ to those around us and especially to those whose faith formation is entrusted to our care, particularly our children. This week we have several events marking our devotion, thanking God, and praying for those who have gone before us.

Saturday, we will have our Cemetery Blessing after the 4pm Mass at 5:15pm. Tuesday, November 1st, All Saints Day, is a Holy Day of Obligation, meaning we are obligated to attend Mass that day. We will have a Vigil Mass at 5:30pm Monday, October 31st, and Masses on November 1st at 8:40am (Opelousas School Mass), 12:05pm and 5:30pm. Finally, on Wednesday, November 2, we will celebrate All Souls Day where we pray for those who are in purgatory. Mass that day will be at 12:05pm and there will be a special Memorial Mass for those who were called home in the last year at 6pm. A display of those who died in the last year will be in church by the Marian Altar until Thanksgiving week for us to remember them and to assist those who would like to pray for them by name.

Fr. Lafleur's Chalice Comes Home!
Some very exciting news...Fr. Lafleur's chalice was located in Cary, Illinois!! Last week, I was able to travel with Richard and Carrol Lafleur, Fr. Lafleur's nephew and niece-in-law, to receive the chalice. The chalice has been given to Sacred Heart Church of Ville Platte for safe keeping. Sacred Heart Church is the parish where Fr. Lafleur went to church as a child until his family moved to Opelousas when Fr. Lafleur was 12 years old. A priest's chalice is a most sacred item because of its use in the Holy Mass. For a priest, his chalice, usually received at ordination, is a most cherished symbol of his priestly life, akin to the meaning wedding rings have for a married couple. More information on the chalice and how it was located will be provided later, but for now let us thank God and the priest who was willing to give us the chalice, Fr. Carl Beekman of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Cary, Illinois. Our plan is to use the chalice in our All Saints and All Souls Masses before it is returned to Sacred Heart Church in Ville Platte.

Centennial Campaign - Volunteers Needed!
The Centennial Campaign is going very well, and we have passed the 50% mark our goal. We will soon be publishing the progress in the bulletin. For now, we will begin the second phase of the campaign next week, which is making phone calls to those we could not personally visit during the initial phase of the campaign. We need volunteers to help with phone calls in asking for donations. Training will be done on November 9 at 5:30pm in Valentin Hall and the actual work of the phone calls will be from approximately 6-8pm. Other dates for the phone bank will be provided at that time. Please come if you are able and bring your cellphone. Any time you are able to give, even if just for one evening or for a part of an evening, will be greatly appreciated!

Election Homily Link
As I mentioned last week in my homily, there was an excellent homily given and posted on the internet for viewing.  It is well worth watching and puts our election and the issues that it raises into a Catholic perspective, especially on the issues of the protection of life and human dignity.  Here is the link to the homily, which lasts about 20 minutes:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=881aDDE5qFY.

On another election note, there are groups running ad campaigns in association with the election next week who claim to be Catholic and support the abortion movement.  Please know that these groups do not speak for our Church and are gravely erroneous in their depiction of Catholic teaching.  Support of abortion in any way (procuring one, performing one, paying for one, advising someone to have one, etc.) is a serious matter and incompatible with our Christian Faith.  This includes voting for a candidate who supports abortion when there is a viable alternative candidate who supports the right to life (unfortunately, there may be times when there is no candidate who supports the right to life, so one is forced to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, which is another sad statement about the status of our society).
   

Fr. Brady

The bulletin for the week of October 30, 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.

Bulletin for the Week of October 23, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

What beautiful weekends for our Cemetery Tours the last two weeks! They were picture perfect, and the tours were once again a great success. There was much preparation and hard work put into this year's tours by many people. We thank the Cemetery Tour Committee and all those who supported, assisted and helped in making this year's tours such a great success. We also want to thank all who came and took the tour, both parishioners of St. Landry Church and our visitors. Proceeds from the tours are used for cemetery maintenance, as this month we remember and reverence those who have gone before us and have handed down to us their faith, culture and wisdom.

In that regard, we are at the time of year when we remember those who have passed into the next life before us. We especially remember our deceased loved ones on All Saints Day, which is November 1, and All Souls Day, which is November 2. Two things we should be reminded of during this time. First, if you have family members who are buried in St. Landry Cemetery, please check on their tombs, and if necessary, spruce them up or repair them. Our cemetery is beautiful, and we hope to maintain that beauty through the continued effort to maintain the tombs properly. We hope that families will continue the tradition of reverencing their ancestors by proper maintenance of their tombs. Second, our cemetery was built at a time when families maintained the tombs of their family members as well as the grounds. Because of this, cemetery endowments were not deemed necessary, so our cemetery has no endowment for perpetual maintenance. As a church parish, we maintain the cemetery without charge of a cemetery maintenance fee, and the cost of maintaining the grounds for some 4,000 tomb sites is, to say the least, substantial. The Festival de la Grande Eglise was established to help offset these cost.  If you were unable to support the festival, please consider a donation for cemetery maintenance. Special envelopes are in the church for this purpose. Thanks so much! 

Please also note the upcoming special liturgies we will have next week.  Our annual Cemetery Blessing will take place next Saturday after the 4pm Saturday Mass, beginning at approximately 5:15pm. Of course, November 1st is All Saints Day and a holy day of obligation, meaning that we attend Mass just as if it was a Sunday.  We will have a vigil Mass on Monday, October 31st at 5:30pm and will have Masses on November 1st at 8:40am (OCS Mass), 12:05pm and 5:30pm.  Please make every effort to attend this wonderful celebration of all the saints God has created and who have brought the Light of Christ into our world.  Finally, our annual All Souls Day Memorial Mass will be at 6pm on November 2, where we especially remember those who have died in the last year and pray for the consolation of their families.  Hope to see you all at these special liturgies!!

Last Weekend's Centennial Campaign Kick-Off
Thanks to all of you for the positive response we received after the kick-off last weekend of the Centennial Campaign.  Many of you have made the effort to let us know of the positive reception the campaign has received, and that is very much appreciated.  As stated, we are nearly half way to our goal, and we will begin publishing our status in the coming weeks in the bulletin so that you can be kept up to date on how the campaign is going.  Know of my appreciation to all who have helped in the campaign, including the diocesan personnel, volunteers, donors and all who have prayed for the campaign.

Mom and Dad
Finally, thanks so much for all the help and prayers for my Mother and Father.  So many of you have followed up with me to see how they are doing and to let me know of your prayers for them.  Please know that I informed them of your prayers and support and that they greatly appreciate it.  They are doing fine, adjusting to their new surroundings, and they are in good spirits.  Considering the circumstances of the flood, the transition is going better than we could have ever expected.  Thanks again!    

Fr. Brady

OCS SENIOR TRIP TO DC
Many of the Senior Class @ Opelousas Catholic will be attending the Annual March for Life in Washington, DC in January. Students will be at the entrances our church after Masses this weekend selling Raffle Tickets and accepting donations to help defray the cost of this trip. Please keep all attending in your prayers. And let us continue to pray for an end to abortion in our nation! 

The bulletin for the week of October 23, 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 Twenty Ninth 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 seven years ago. This mass, Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred sixty fifth 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 October 16, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

The Diocesan Centennial Campaign

This weekend, we formally introduce The Centennial Campaign at all our Masses.  As many of you know, the Diocese of Lafayette has begun a capital campaign called "The Centennial Campaign." It celebrates the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Lafayette, which will occur in 2018. Several other parishes, including church parishes located in and near Opelousas, have already participated in the campaign. I am very excited about the campaign as it has the potential to help our parish both in the short term and the long term.  For the last month or so, myself and volunteers have been making in-home visits, and will continue to do so as the campaign continues through November. 

 The response to the campaign has been wonderful.  As of this writing, we have been able to pledge as a community about one-half of our $440,000 goal.  Many people have come forward seeking to donate, asking they be called for an in-home visit...how wonderful!  It's so nice to experience the joy of giving with others and to help with the exciting things that the campaign will support.  I will explain in the homily this weekend in more detail how the donations to the campaign will be used, but for now the following five areas will be supported by the campaign:

1. The local church parish (in our case, for St. Landry).
2. Priest welfare and retirement.
3. Seminarian Education.
4. The poor and those in need.
5. Our college campus ministries, particular Our Lady of Wisdom at ULL and the chapel at LSU-E.

The funds that St. Landry receives from the campaign will be used to continue our construction work on the campus, namely Valentin Hall, a few remaining projects in the rectory (bathrooms and three other rooms that have not yet been repaired), and then we will return to the church building (air conditioning components, organ, and repairing water damage in the interior of the church).

For our campaign, it is hoped that a large number of us will be contributors (yes, including the pastor!) of a reasonable amount.  If we all give what we can, and not worry about what we cannot, we should be able to reach our goal without problem. Thanks again to all our volunteers and to those who have already supported campaign as we look forward to bringing the campaign to a successful completion!!

Cemetery Tours

The Cemetery Tours continue this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and we hope to continue to have beautiful weather as we did last weekend. We should remember the spiritual purpose of the tours, which is our prayer and and remembrance of those who have gone before us and left a legacy of Faith in Christ Jesus and their role in helping to build our Opelousas community. This legacy includes the Faith that has been handed down to us from the time of the apostles, as well as the things that tangibly help us worship today, such as establishing our church parish and constructing the beautiful church in which we have the privilege to worship.  Please come out and enjoy one of the tours!

Fr. Brady

CATHOLIC RADIO NEEDS YOU, ARE YOU LISTENING?
Catholic Radio for Acadiana, 1230AM, needs to know if you are listening and if you can help us spread the word. Please give us a call at 337-284-5538 or email us at office@christourkingradio.com if you can donate some of your time to help spread the good news of Catholic Radio for Acadiana in your parish community.

The bulletin for the week of October 16, 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 Twenty Eighth 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 seven years ago. This mass, Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred sixty fourth podcast to be posted. The homily is given by Monsignor Louis Melancon

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 October 9, 2016 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

What a wonderful weekend we had for the second annual Festival de la Grande Eglise!! The weather was beautiful and we had good crowds. All seemed to enjoy the festivities. My participating in the 2 Mile Color Run was great fun for me, as well as the other activities of the day, especially Bishop Deshotel joining us at the 4pm Mass. There are many people to whom we owe thanks for making the festival such a great success, and there is an insert in this bulletin acknowledging those who helped to make the day possible. We especially thank our sponsors, without whose support the day would have never gotten off the ground. Please patronize them if you are able. We will be providing an accounting of the festival as soon as the numbers are available. Thanks again!!

Holy Ghost, AIC and Opelousas Catholic Homecoming this weekend
This weekend we celebrate homecoming for our alumni of Holy Ghost, AIC and Opelousas Catholic.  We welcome home those who have matriculated from these institutions and thank them for their continued support and positive presence in the world.  Our best wishes for all our alumni, and prayers and wishes for safe travel for those coming from out of town.

Cemetery Tours begin this weekend
The Cemetery Tours begin this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and will continue next weekend. We should remember the spiritual purpose of the tours, which is our prayer and appreciation for those who have gone before us who left us a legacy of Faith in Christ Jesus. This legacy includes the Faith that has been handed down to us from the time of the Apostles, as well as the things they've done to help us tangibly in our worship today, such as establishing our church parish and constructing the beautiful church which we have the privilege to worship in today.

We remember that the promise of Christ is eternal life, and His Resurrection (and thus our resurrection) on the Last Day is both in body and spirit. We treat the bodies of those who have passed from this life to the next with reverence because it is a Temple of the Holy Spirit while alive on earth, and also because it will be raised up in glory on the Last Day. Therefore, the funds raised by The Cemetery Tours are used to maintain, repair and beautify our historic cemetery. It is important that in reverence we properly maintain our cemetery because those who have gone before us have handed down the faith to us that was handed on to them by the generation before, and we are the beneficiaries of our ancestors teaching us our faith by both word and deed. Our devotion to this endeavor is evidence of that continuing belief in the resurrection and our appreciation for what has been done for us by our ancestors!

Fr. Brady

CATHOLIC RADIO NEEDS YOU, ARE YOU LISTENING?
Catholic Radio for Acadiana, 1230AM, needs to know if you are listening and if you can help us spread the word. Please give us a call at 337-284-5538 or email us at office@christourkingradio.com if you can donate some of your time to help spread the good news of Catholic Radio for Acadiana in your parish community.

The bulletin for the week of October 09, 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 27th 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 seven years ago. This mass, Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, is our four hundred sixty third 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.