The twenty-fifth day of December. In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth; the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood; the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham; the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt; the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king; in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel; in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome; the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, in the … [Read more...]

During Advent, we refrain from singing the “Gloria in Excelsis Deo / Glory to God in the Highest.” Why? Let’s start with some basic rules of liturgy set down by the Second Vatican Council in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Within the cycle of a year the Church “unfolds” the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord (no.102). The church is to be particularly directed toward feasts of the Lord that point to salvation (no.108). In other words, a principle in ritual is to celebrates “feasts” and “fasts” in different ways so as to allow the mysteries of Christ to be made clear by the celebration. The Resurrection of Christ takes pre-eminence and is … [Read more...]

The annual St. Alphonsus Cre?che Exhibit will begin on Sunday, Sunday, November 26 to Sunday December 3 at St. Dominic Church in Lakeview There will be over 100 cre?che's from around the world. For more information call Blanche Comiskey at 504-235-2931, or the FOSA office at 504-524-8116. … [Read more...]

St. Monica Feast Day – August 27 St Augustine Feast Day – August 28 St. Augustine, a Roman African, was born in 354 in Thagaste (present-day Algeria) to a pagan father named Patricius and a Christian mother named Monica. At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus, where he became familiar with Latin literature, as well as pagan beliefs and practices. At age 17, he went to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric. Although raised as a Christian, Augustine left the church to follow the Manichaean religion, much to the despair of his mother. As a youth Augustine lived hedonistic lifestyle and had a longtime affair with a young woman in Carthage from whom was born his son Adeodatus. Although his mother constantly prayed for him to become a Christian, Augustine's … [Read more...]

Pope Saint Pius X was an Italian named Giuseppe Sarto, who was born in 1835 near Treviso, Italy.  He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto, the village postman, and Margherita Sanson.  He was baptized on June 3, 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 4 miles to school each day.  As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but he never complained about this to his teachers.  He eventually came to the attention of the parish priest because of his devotion to the Mass as an altar server. In 1850, at the age of 15, he was given a scholarship from Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written) to attend the Seminary of Padua, where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies … [Read more...]

The Catholic Church is the distinctive name of this holy Church which is the mother of us all. She is the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God (for Scripture says: Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her). She is the type and she bears the image of the Jerusalem above that is free and is the mother of us all, that Jerusalem which once was barren but now has many children. The first assembly, that is, the assembly of Israel, was rejected, and now in the second, that is, in the Catholic Church, God has appointed first, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators and speakers in various tongues, as Paul says; and together with these is found every sort of virtue—wisdom and understanding, … [Read more...]

Religious Freedom Week takes place from June 22, the Memorial of Sts. Thomas More & John Fisher, through June 29, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul. Join Catholics across the country to pray and act for the freedom to serve faithfully and with integrity. In recent years, a wave of vandalism and arson has hit Catholic churches and statues. That wave rose following the leaked draft of the Dobbs decision, and it crested after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to regulate abortion. June and July of 2022 saw a huge spike in anti-Christian and anti-life attacks on churches. There have been over 250 attacks so far, including the theft of the statue of the Blessed Mother from in front of our own church, and that number steadily continues to grow. Pray that … [Read more...]

Q: With the summer heat about to arrive, the norm is for people in New Orleans to dress down even more casually than they do at other times of the year. The issue of church attire is a sensitive one – especially in an area where it’s hot nine months out of the year. What’s your perspective on how people should dress for Mass? Archbishop Aymond:  I have a variety of feelings about this. There’s a part of me that remains grateful to God that a person is in church, regardless of how he or she is dressed. I certainly realize there are individual circumstances where a person may have other responsibilities and is not able to dress in what we might consider an appropriate manner, so I want to be sensitive to that. At the same time, the church is a sacred place – truly holy ground. It is a … [Read more...]

The Order of St. Louis IX award was established more than 40 years ago to honor those members of the laity who have contributed their time and talents to the church.  Our parishioners, Nell Carmichael and Barry & Katie Almon will be among those honored at St. Catherine of Siena Church at 2:30p on May 7. Even if you don’t know Nell, Barry and Katie, you surely know of their work!  Nell is a tireless rectory volunteer who also cooks and serves the poor at the Rebuild Center.  Most of our younger parishioners know Barry and Katie, who direct our RCIA program for Confirmation. “Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” (Mt 25:40). … [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 … [Read more...]