Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: May 19, 2019
It’s hard to believe that we’re already past the midpoint of the Easter season! The 40 days of Lent each year seem to go by so slowly, at least for me, but the 50 days from Easter until Pentecost just fly by! I guess this is to be expected. Challenging times are onerous, and when we suffer – even in our willing Lenten self-mortification – our focus is the hoped-for end of the pain. Yet when we rejoice, happiness has already overwhelmed us, and while we seek to “hang on to” the good feelings as long as we can, we’ve already been rewarded: we’re moving on to something else!
So what’s next? Well, on the last Saturday of the month, May 25, at 10 am, Bishop Duca will confer priestly ordination on Deacons Tim Grimes and John Vu. Everyone is invited to the ordination Mass and to the reception following immediately in our Parish Hall.
The very next day, on Sunday, May 26, here at 10:30 am, Father Grimes’ “First Mass of Thanksgiving” takes place here. Since he has been a Cathedral parishioner for many years, many have accompanied him in prayer during his years of priestly formation. Everyone is invited to this special Mass and to the reception afterwards as well! Please, let’s make it a memorable weekend for him and his family as we show our support for him.
Two weeks later, on Saturday June 8, Bishop Duca will return for the ordination as deacon of seminarians Mathew Dunn and Danny Roussel. While they still have another year of seminary formation before their priestly ordination in 2020, as they become members of the clergy of the Diocese of Baton Rouge we rejoice that they have answered God’s call to lead us in ministry! May the Lord richly bless them and all those preparing for service in the Church.
There are some other things going on as the Easter season winds down, of course. Our Knights of Columbus will be serving barbecue chicken on Sunday, June 2. (They can’t go more than a few weeks without cooking something!) Get your ticket’s this weekend or next. And look for other activities – each one an opportunity for grace! – later in the summer!
On June 9, the Solemnity of Pentecost concludes the Easter season. It’s the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the earliest disciples. It’s a particularly apt time to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, and so here at the Cathedral our parishioners along with other Catholics from throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge – mostly adults who for one reason or another were never confirmed – join together to do just that. We will welcome both Bishop Michael Duca and his predecessor, Bishop emeritus Robert Muench, and almost a hundred candidates and their families and friends to our 10:30 am Mass that day. It’s always a most impressive ceremony during which the Holy Spirit is much in evidence in the preaching and prayers, in the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist, and in the obvious joy of the overflow assembly!
Yours in the Risen Lord,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
