Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: October 02, 2016
Thanks to everyone who made last weekend’s GRAND Day a success! Our Development Committee, chaired by Bobbie Carey, did their usual great job of organizing, decorating and carrying it out, both in the church for the special Mass, and then over inside and outside of the Hall. The special help of our Knights of Columbus’ cooking crew and the Ladies of the Cathedral helping with serving and cleanup has to be specially acknowledged, too. From the Baton Rouge Magnet High School Festival Singers – who both sang at Mass and thoroughly enjoyed the hamburgers and hotdogs afterward – to the constables’ deputies who rerouted downtown traffic to the vendors who brought the animals, train, ice cream, balloons, facepaint, etc., etc., everyone contributed and everyone had a good time.
The only argument I heard at GRAND Day was whether or not this year’s or last year’s attendance was higher! Why don’t we answer that question next fall by having the GRANDest Day of all in 2017??
This is the first column for the Bulletin that I’ve written in quite a while. What with fun and floods and football and financial reports, it’s been over a month since the opportunity has come up! Of course, it’s also a sign that a lot happens in our Parish, and we only have so much space in the Bulletin to report it all!
One thing in particular I want to mention is your response to our annual Stewardship of Ministry appeal a couple of weeks ago. Thank you so much for your generosity of spirit in offering your time and talents to our Parish! Those who are new to various ministries are getting contacted this week for any needed formation and training, while we are also putting finishing touches on a few special things that will be coming up on this front.
Among these will be a special Morning of Reflection for our liturgical ministers. It’s tentatively scheduled for 9 am until 12 noon on Saturday, October 22. (Don’t worry, if the television folks schedule the Ole Miss-LSU game that morning, we’ll reschedule!) I’m happy to report that Father Christopher Decker, the very energetic young pastor of the three parishes in Livonia, Maringouin and Grosse Tête, has agreed to come and share some helpful insights about liturgical ministry that day for our readers, servers, ushers and lay ministers of communion. So please, if you’re a volunteer in one of this liturgical ministries, mark your calendar and plan to be with us that morning!
Another of the projects that’s finally underway is the production of a new Pictorial Directory for the Parish. I am happy to report that Julie Brignac has volunteered to coordinate this effort – after only being asked once! Our last Pictorial Directory was put out in 2009 right after I became pastor here, and while I’ve been getting older it looks like many of our parishioners and friends are getting younger. We’ll want to document this marvelous trend! In a week or two we’ll announce when you can come to have your family photograph taken – in fact we’ll have an easy way to “sign up” for this, probably in November, via your computer!
Finally, I think I’m about ready to tackle the big question of changing the Sunday Mass times. There are no universally-popular options, and being a people-pleaser at heart I hate making difficult decisions. Yet our present three Sunday morning Masses are simply not well-attended enough to be good worship. The diocesan Pastoral Planning team and the bishop have asked every pastor to take an honest look at schedules with a view toward reducing the present oversupply of Masses throughout the diocese, and espe cially in the city. So it looks like we will begin a new schedule on January 1. Just what that will be will be announced very shortly.
Yours in the Lord,
Fr. Paul
