Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: August 09, 2020
Last weekend, on August 1, the Cathedral was privileged to host another wonderful ordination ceremony led by Bishop Michael Duca. The son of another St. Joseph Parish, the one in French Settlement, Father Mathew Dunn became a priest of the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Also, Deacon Taylor Sanford of St. George Parish became a transitional deacon (“transitional” simply means he too hopes to be ordained a priest, likely next year in 2021). They are two fine young men, and even though most of their families and friends had to “attend” the ordination Mass via CatholicLife Television due to attendance restrictions here because of the Covid19 virus, it was a beautiful celebration.
Of course, this weekend we are doing it again! On August 8 six older men of the diocese will be ordained deacons also: Alec Campbell, Christopher Landry, William Messenger, Ehren Oschwald, Mark Reynaud, and Gabriel Rico. They will be known as “permanent” deacons, for as married men going on to the priesthood is not foreseen.
Please keep all of these newly-ordained ministers of the Church in your prayers. As society becomes increasingly secular it becomes more and more indifferent, if not hostile, to religion. All of our priests and deacons need the graces of God and the reassurances of grateful Catholics to persevere in their commitment to imitate the Lord Jesus in continuing His mission.
The ordination ceremonies also brought back a little bit of our beloved formality for us here at our principal Cathedral liturgies: incense is back! And we’ve got beautiful new vestments in green and white colors. We won’t be able to share the Precious Blood of Christ with most communicants for quite some time. We won’t be able to have “offertory processions” and “hands-on collections” for a while. Choirs and unmasked congregational singing is likely on hold for quite some time, as is all other social distancing. But worship of God still demands the best we can offer, and you may be sure that when some of the beautiful customs and rituals of the Church can be done, they will be done!
I have to admit I’m still occasionally flustered at Mass as I try to recall new additional priorities. Some of these are crucial to a safe environment: when to wear my mask, when to sanitize my hands, what I’ve touched, what could be contaminated, etc. I’m also trying to pay special attention to helping, for example leading all spoken responses at Mass clearly, since my voice is often the only one that is not muffled by a mask! We’ve made some functional decisions, such as to use The Apostles’ Creed as our more standard “Profession of Faith” since it’s generally better-known by Catholics than the longer Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Still, I sometimes forget! After a lifetime of “doing Mass one way,” it’s just tough for me to learn so many new things at once, I guess!
In this vein, please let me offer one word of caution, just in case it applies to you: when you come forward in the communion procession to receive the Eucharist, don’t remove your mask until after you’ve received the Sacred Host and stepped aside to consume it. Say your “Amen” with your mask on, so that you don’t spray droplets in the direction of the open ciborium of Holy Communion – just in case you’ve been infected with the coronavirus but don’t know it yet!
In the coming weeks throughout the diocese, Catholic schools will be opening, with both “in person” attendance as well as “video assisted” distance-learning. Since the learning environment has to be safe too, this means that parents, teachers, aides, coaches and administrators as well as children are all worrying right now! We all hope that their careful planning will provide not only continued good education of our youngsters, but also provide safety within a reassuring, predictable sense of normalcy. Add your prayers, please, for these also help!
Always yours in Christ,
Very Rev. Paul D. Counce
