Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: May 12, 2018
Dearest Parishioners and Friends,
This past Sunday we celebrated First Holy Communion in our Parish! At the 10 am Mass on May 6 four of our youngest parishioners received the Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist for the very first time. Trying their best not to fidget during Mass and to remember how to be devout and serious at communion-time were Ada Diez, Abigail Castille, Catie Giering, and Davis Kelley: a picture of them with Deacon Gary and me can be found on page 6 of this week’s issue of The Carpenter.
Mother’s Day is observed this weekend in the USA and many other countries. You know, the modern holiday of Mother’s Day began in 1908, when a lady named Anna Jarvis memorialized her late mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, at her St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who during the Civil War cared for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate, and afterwards worked to advance many public health issues. Her daughter wanted to honor her not only by continuing the generous works she had been involved with, but also to pay tribute to all mothers for their personal importance within the family. She famously believed and stated that a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world.” I think we can all agree on that!
It’s curious to note that Anna Jarvis soon began to resent the commercialization of Mother’s Day. She didn’t like the way that greeting card companies, especially, misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother’s Day, turning sentiments into profits for them. Eventually she began to protest and boycott Mother’s Day, urging handwritten notes of love and appreciation to gifts, candy and commercial cards. By 1925 she’d been arrested at least once for disturbing the peace at a civic Mother’s Day observance!
Personally, I think she got a bit over-zealous. There’s really nothing wrong with store-bought tributes to mom, as long as the proper sentiments of gratitude and respect lie beneath these gifts! The most important way to honor and respect our mothers, living and dead, is by heartfelt prayer. Prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for their eternal rest and salvation, accompanied by renewed resolve to live out the values they did their best to teach us, are in the end probably the best ways to honor one’s mother!
Please join me too in looking forward to the great Solemnity of Pentecost next weekend, and the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation to our parishioners and to adult faithful from throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge. This will take place at the 12 noon Eucharist on Sunday, May 20, which will make that Mass longer and more crowded, but it’s always a wonderful celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
Finally, let me re-introduce something that’s been simmering under the surface of our Parish’s life the past few years. A diocesan Pastoral Planning Task Force appointed by the bishop has urged every Parish review their weekend Mass schedule with a view toward reducing it by at least one. We talked about this a few years ago and in the absence of consensus I backed away from the decision for a while. Yet our weekend Mass attendance does not come close to filling the Cathedral even half-way, and the population of diocesan priests, including Yours Truly, continues to age. I think we may well be getting close to the important but necessary decision to do something about this: please pray for everyone’s wisdom and docility in facing the future together!
In Christ Jesus, our Risen Lord,
Fr. Paul D. Counce
