News - May 2025 RSS Feed

Dear Parishioners, God’s plans and timing are always perfect and correct – how could they be anything else? So when God the Father sent His Son Jesus to the earth, God planned that Jesus would have a threeyear public ministry, undergo His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and ascend back to His Father in Heaven forty days after He rose. Also, there are really no coincidences nor accidents when we believe in God and His omniscience, His overall knowledge and control, of us and our world, and the entire universe for that matter. So it doesn’t matter whether Jesus ascended to Heaven after three, five, ten, 25, or 50 years of preaching, teaching, healing, and preparing His Apostles and disciples, there was going to be a time when He had to turn over His earthly leadership to the Apostles and preside over the developing Church from His heavenly Kingdom. God’s plan was three years, and since the Church founded by Jesus, with His delegation of the Apostles – the Roman Catholic Church – is alive and well all these centuries, we see that God’s plan of a three-year earthly ministry of Jesus was perfect – because it was from God. We as the apostles and disciples of today are called to be encouraged and strengthened by the fact that, with our faith in Christ as members of His Church, we can accomplish great things with the gifts which we have been given by God as His beloved sons and daughters. The original Apostles and disciples took up the challenge as soon as Jesus ascended from the earth, yet they were no different nor better equipped than we are to be witnesses of Jesus today exactly where we are. Even though we have not witnessed in our lives, nor will we ever, what the Apostles and disciples who knew, saw, talked with, and traveled with Jesus witnessed, we have the legacy of what these early Christians, the early witnesses, have left us. Today, we are witnesses of different things that help us to continue the work of Jesus and the Apostles. We don’t see Jesus Himself or the Apostles instantaneously healing the sick, raising the dead, changing water into wine, walking on the water, or anything like that today. But we believe this because of the testimony of our brothers and sisters in faith who actually did see these things because they happened to live at the same time and in the same place as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, and the longawaited Messiah, who came to save us and to show us the way to the Father and to bring us with Him to everlasting life. Jesus could not stay on Earth forever—He stayed as long as God His Father planned for Him – a perfect period of time. The Church is still here today – because God’s plans are perfect.

Dear Parishioners, In our lives, when we take on a role that is not rightly ours, it usually causes major problems. A minor children is not supposed to take on the role of a parent. A teacher is not supposed to take on the role of a student. An employee is not supposed to take on the role of employer. In the biblical world, sheep are not supposed to be shepherds. I think you get the picture. So, since Jesus Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, repeatedly tells us in the Gospels that we are the sheep and He is the Good Shepherd, why, as believers and thus, followers, would we want to reverse those roles, especially by not listening to His voice – the voice of the Risen One who gives perfect advice as the Son of God and yet is also our Brother? Listening and embracing and heeding what we hear from Jesus are “keeping His word,” as Jesus says in the Gospel this weekend. (see more)

Dear Parishioners, As you well know, the readings at Sunday Masses have been carefully chosen and arranged for each week for our benefit and our spiritual growth. The words contained in these readings are divinely inspired, with the words of Jesus Himself in the Gospels that we hear. In the second reading this weekend from the Book of Revelation, the passage ends with God saying “Behold, I make all things new.” Naturally, as human beings and not divine beings, we interpret God’s work in our world and in our lives differently and individually, yet as members of the Church and sheep of the flock, we are called to see God’s work as always beneficial for us, yet sometimes our interpretations don’t indicate that, at least not when God’s work first takes place in our lives. Yet, my brothers and sisters, this is where our faith becomes operative and that upon which we rely and depend—to see that God makes all things new in our lives, especially when change happens. (see more)

Knight of the Month for May 2025 is Ryan Remondet. Family of the Month for May 2025 is Perry & Kim Scioneaux. All practical Catholic gentlemen 18 years and older are invited to join our council. Contact Robert Beadle or Joel Ocmand for details.

Dear Parishioners, This Fourth Sunday of Easter has a subtitle just as the Second Sunday of Easter has a subtitle of “Divine Mercy Sunday,” and today’s Sunday is rightly called “Good Shepherd Sunday,” as Jesus stresses His role as Redeemer and our role as the Redeemed, or more simply: His role as Shepherd and our role as sheep/followers. There are two key verbs, action words, in the Gospel this weekend: “hear” and “follow.” Listening well and hearing correctly and intently are so important in our technological world that advances from day to day and following the voice of Jesus are crucial if we consider ourselves His followers and want to be counted among the believers. We must submit to Jesus, plain and simple. We must let Him be the Shepherd and take our places as the sheep who hear and follow as He firmly but lovingly invites us. From the time people have heard these words from Jesus Himself, the response has been twofold: some people have willingly and lovingly heard and followed His invitation, and others have unwillingly and arrogantly rejected His invitation, feeling that their submission to Jesus makes them weak, powerless, and inferior. (see more)

Dear Parishioners, As children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus, we always need to be mindful that we do not know ourselves or anything else better than God does. I say this because I sometimes hear someone say that they couldn’t be forgiven for a sin that they’ve committed or that it would take a week in the confessional for this person to go to confession. These two beliefs are the farthest from the truth. First, a person has to have the desire to want to be forgiven by Jesus, and also has to believe and know that Jesus can forgive any sin that we express sorrow for, no matter how horrible we might think it is. All we need do is to read and understand the Gospel today, the Third Sunday of Easter – Year C – and see the overwhelming greatness of the forgiveness of Jesus and His true Divine Mercy. Peter has denied Jesus three times after being told plainly by Jesus that he would do so, and this is the third time that Peter and the other Apostles meet with the Risen Jesus. (see more)