Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: February 02, 2020
As we continue to wend our way through Ordinary Time, I’ll be gone most of Sunday morning, February 2. Down the river a ways, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, the Parish of St. Gabriel the Archangel is celebrating their 250th Anniversary with a special Mass and reception. It’s one of three Parishes in the Diocese of Baton Rouge that’s older than our own St. Joseph Cathedral Parish – we won’t hit that milestone for another 22 years! And since I was privileged to be the administrator in St. Gabriel way back in 1994, I have two reasons to go and share their joy!
For this reason, I’ve arranged for a substitute priest to come. While I’ll be here on Saturday evening to welcome him and hear his message, I’ll really be making sure he can handle our Sunday morning Masses by himself! His name is Father Thomas Carroll, and he’s a Piarist missionary priest serving the poor of Appalachia in eastern Kentucky. He and two other Piarists there minister across four counties where Catholics number less than half of one percent of the small, spread out population. I know you’ll welcome him and be generous to his order in the second collection that will be taken up.
Although I don’t know where I’m watching the Super Bowl yet on Sunday evening, since the Saints aren’t in it, I’m not really enthusiastic about it this year. Still, the big game is almost always a good time to gather with friends, “eat what they set before you” (and yes, look up Luke 10:8 – that’s a quote from Jesus!), and at least watch the commercials. I’m sure I’ll have some tolerably good fun that evening, and hope you do too, whether you watch football or decide Netflix or Disney+ is better.
The rest of February is likely to be simply the run-up to Lent. As you know from reading The Carpenter carefully, I’ll be preaching on Stewardship of Finance next weekend, February 8-9. We encounter Carnival season in Baton Rouge the next two weekends, cancelling our Saturday Vigil Mass on February 15 and 22 so our prayer isn’t drowned out by parades around Cathedral Square! And after the blessed two days of quiet downtown on Lundi and Mardi Gras, we’ll observe Ash Wednesday on February 26.
Are you already making your plans for a good Lent? Extra prayer, serious fasting and other penitential practices, and sacrificial financial giving are the traditional Catholic hallmarks of the season. Will they be characteristic of YOUR Lent this year? As I’ve sometimes said in years past, I heartily suggest you come up with at least one simple penance for Lent you can breezily tell everyone about, maybe even in a lighthearted way. (I do this with my famous 40 days without coffee!) But then also, between you and God, make some kind of agreement for a really strict, secret penance too. Only He needs to know about it!!
Yours in the Lord,
Very Rev Paul D. Counce
