Sunday, June 19, 2022 All are invited to participate in a Eucharistic Procession immediately following the 10:30am Mass next weekend.  The procession will exit the Church, turn right on Napoleon Avenue and then go around the school and the church before returning into the church for Benediction.  It will be lead by a crucifer, and we will chant Eucharistic hymns as we bring carry Jesus in the Holy Eucharist throughout our neighborhood! We would like to invite First Communicants and young children (K-4th) to wear white attire to lead the procession.  Please meet in the front of the church near the confessional immediately after the 10:30am Mass and we will direct you.  Either bring your own decorated basket for rose petals, or one will be provided.  Anyone who can save rose petals (by … [Read more...]

On Saturday, June 4, 2022, at 10:00 AM at St. Louis Cathedral, Archbishop Gregory Aymond will ordain Joseph Alfonse DiMaggio, III, Andy Gil Gonzalez, Lennin Arroyo Martinez, Jeffrey Austin Merritt, William Patrick Mumphrey and Kesiena Dennis Obienu for the Archdiocese of New Orleans as Priests. All are invited.  Priests and deacons are asked to bring their alb. Vestments will be provided. Reception at the Old Ursuline Convent to follow. … [Read more...]

The Ascension of the Lord May 29, 2022 Pentecost Sunday June 5, 2022 The Most Holy Trinity June 12, 2022 The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 19, 2022 … [Read more...]

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are gifts which assist us in furthering our sanctification and help “complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.” The term “gift” means that the Holy Spirit bestows them; they are supernatural gifts operating in a supernatural manner. They are not gifts one simply invokes in times of emergency. The gifts are enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are: Wisdom – The gift of wisdom allows us to see God at work in our lives and in the world. For the wise person, the wonders of nature, historical events, and the joys and sorrows of our lives take on deeper meaning. Understanding – The gift of understanding allows us to comprehend how we should to live as a follower … [Read more...]

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 Rosary at 4:30 pm, Mass at 5 pm We invite everyone to a Mass to be celebrated in St. Stephen Church by His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke this coming Tuesday. Born in 1948 in Richland Center, Wisconsin, Raymond Leo Burke attended seminary in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and Rome, where he was ordained a priest by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1975. Ordained a bishop in 1995 by Pope Saint John Paul II, he served for almost nine years as Bishop of La Crosse, where he founded the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and over four years as Archbishop of St. Louis. He was named a cardinal in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Burke has written and spoken widely on Roman Catholic canon law, the Holy Eucharist, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devotion to Our … [Read more...]

On Saturday, May 21, 2022, at 10:00 AM at St. Louis Cathedral, we will ordain Da- vid Michael Doyle, Cory Paul Ford, Long Thanh Pham and Kevin Alden Seay to the Transitional Diaconate for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. You are cordially invited to attend the ceremony. … [Read more...]

Thanks to our volunteers who greeted pilgrims taking part in the Nine Church Walk on Good Friday.  The pilgrims started arriving almost at the completion of our Holy Thursday vigil at 6:00am, and they continued even into the afternoon and evening.  There were many new faces in the church for the Stations of the Cross at 6:00pm.  We had our handy clicker to count numbers, so we know that more than 2,000 people came to visit St. Stephen’s on Friday.  I sat in the confessional from 9:00-11:00 am and Father Doug from 11:00am – 1:00pm, and we were rarely alone.  The line was continuous for the entire time.  Anybody who doubts the vitality of the Catholic Church in New Orleans need only to have seen the busloads of high school groups, CYO groups, and large families taking part in the walk to … [Read more...]

Easter Sunday is the day of the “Alleluia!” After forty days of Lenten sacrifice and fasting, we finally arrive at the most important day of our liturgical year, and the only word we have to express our inner joy is “Alleluia!!” In the old Greek version of the Book of Tobias, in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew psalter, and in the original Greek of the Apocalypse we hear about this most holy word. It is part of the earliest Christian liturgies of which we have record. It is a word composed of the divinely acclaiming verbal form Allelu and the divine pronoun term Ya (for YHWH or Yahweh). So, preserving its radical sense and sound, and even the mystical suggestiveness of its construction, it may be literally rendered, “All hail to Him Who is!”--taking “All Hail” as equivalent … [Read more...]

Mass of the Lord’s Supper At the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday (7:00 PM) sufficient hosts are consecrated for that Mass and for the next day. These consecrated Hosts remain in a ciborium on the corporal in the center of the altar until the end of Mass, after which they are carried in Solemn Procession to the Altar of Repose, with the priest vested in a Cope and Humeral Veil, and covered with a canopy. The Blessed Sacrament remains in the temporary tabernacle at the Altar of Repose, and the Holy Thursday service concludes with the stripping of all altars except the Altar of Repose. Holy Thursday is a day of exceptional devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and the repository is the center of the love, prayers and aspirations of the faithful.  After the Good Friday service, … [Read more...]

As most parishioners know, the Archdiocese imposes a “tax” on the total annual collection of each parish to support the work of the Archdiocese.  An exception to this policy is that the Archdiocese allows parishes to take up a second collection at the Easter and Christmas Masses each year, and those collection are not included in the parish “taxable income.”  Please consider giving generously to our second collection next weekend to help our parish budget! … [Read more...]