Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord

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, Epiphany of the Lord, is our four hundred seventy 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 January 8, 2017 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

We come to the end of the Christmas Season on Monday of this week when celebrating the Baptism of the Lord. The Baptism of Jesus reminds us of our own baptism. By our Baptism the Gates of Heaven are thrown open to us and we receive the Grace to live a Christian Life. However, we must cooperate with our Baptismal Grace, that is, we must accept the Grace and act upon it. God never forces Himself into our lives. The heart of our life as Christians is that we freely give ourselves to God for His purpose.

Although Grace is a free gift given by God and as such it is nothing that we merit or can earn, we can dispose ourselves to receive fully His Grace by undertaking prayer, the study of our faith and practicing virtue. In this way, we are "formed" into the life of Christ. Christian Formation is a combination of study, prayer and worship (both formal at church and in the lives we lead) that directs and leads us towards Christ.

Our church parish provides opportunities for such activities. We have two Come, Lord Jesus! groups that meet on Tuesday's at 6pm and Wednesday's at 5:15pm. These groups combine prayer and scripture study that focuses on the Mass readings for the following Sunday. For men, we have "That Man is You," a program directed by Deacon Joubert that meets Wednesday mornings at 6am. We also have a formal bible study directed by Deacons Joubert and Diesi which meet at 10am and 6pm on Mondays respectively. Also, I highly recommend a yearly retreat for all as part of our continuing formation. It is a time of quiet and reflection, something critical to a good spiritual life. A men's retreat from our parish is held each year at Our Lady of the Oaks in Grand Coteau (usually at the end of March), and there are woman's retreats as well. In addition to these things, we also have charitable and fraternal organizations, such as The Catholic Daughters and the Knights of Columbus who provide plenty of opportunity to put our faith into action in activities such as the monthly breakfast at New Life Center. We all should have activities that help us continue to learn about Jesus and express our beliefs in our actions.

Many, Many Thanks!!
With the beginning of Ordinary Time this week, we again thank all those who made our celebration of Christmas so beautiful here at St. Landry. The music was wonderful throughout, and we thank our musicians and singers: The Adult Choir and their director J.P. Porrier, the Youth Choir and their director, Rafael Henry; and Marla Faust, Stacey Caffery and Millie Boudreaux. Our Altar Society did a wonderful job in decorating the church, and they were coordinated by Deacon Joubert and Jane Savoy. 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. Thanks to all!!

Centennial Campaign Follow Up
Last week I indicated that instructions for pledge payments would be provided in THIS WEEK’S Pastor’s Corner. Unfortunately due to holiday closures we were not able to obtain the instructions. PLEASE see next week’s bulletin for the instructions. Again, our apologies for any inconvenience!

Fr. Brady

The bulletin for the week of January 08, 2017 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 Mary Mother of God

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, Mary Mother of God, is our four hundred seventy 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 January 1, 2017 and the Pastor's Corner

PASTOR’S CORNER:

"Happy Mary, Mother of God!!" On this day, that sounds 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 (Jesus has two natures, both human and divine). Because Jesus is God, 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.

As we continue to celebrate Christmastide this weekend, we will celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord next Sunday, January 8. 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."  In Jesus' life, God has given to us the fullness of Divine Revelation.

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, understand and 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!

CENTENNIAL CAMPAIGN - VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

Many thanks again for the generosity of all who pledged donations to the Centennial Campaign!  Due to the overwhelming response to the campaign across the diocese, the processing center for the pledges and setting them up for reminders has gotten behind in their work.  Therefore, many of us who set up our pledged donations to begin early in 2017 may not receive reminders for a couple of months.  I want you all to be aware of this in case you are expecting confirmations and/or reminders this week, and also to ask for your patience as the processing continues.

Next week we will provide instructions on how to make your donation without reminders until the pledge reminders can be sent (and make sure it is credited to both your pledge and St. Landry Church!) if you would like to do so.  If you choose to wait until reminders are sent, then your first reminder will have the total pledged up until the time of the reminder (for example, if your pledge was $50 per month to begin January of 2017, and your reminder cannot be set up and sent until February 2017, then the reminder will contain the donation for January and February, that is, $100). Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause, and thanks again for your patience!!

Fr. Brady

The bulletin for the week of January 01, 2017 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.