News - December 2023 RSS Feed

Making Christmas as merry as possible for children living in poverty was the driving force for the donors, hundreds of volunteers, and St. Vincent de Paul Society staff members who came together behind the scenes for this year’s gift distribution program Dec. 16 at the SVDP Dining Room.

Bishop Duca would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

There are countless persons, basilicas, churches, shrines, seminaries, convents, towns, and cities named after St. Joseph. My native country, Canada, has him as its patron.

While grief has no set timeline, the holidays can be a time of heightened emotional stress with the loss of a loved one. The grief can be more acute for those struggling with the loss of loved ones who died by suicide.

Father Taylor Sanford, chaplain at St. Albert Church on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, delivers the benediction at the end of the Presidential Investiture ceremony while new president Dr. William Wainwright bows his head in prayer. Earlier in the day, Father Sanford celebrated Mass in honor of the new president at St. Albert, a service Mass in which Wainwright said he “did most of my crying.” Photo provided by Richard Meek / The Daily Star/Hammond

With the fourth Sunday of Advent falling on Christmas Eve this year, Catholics may lack clarity in how to observe the full liturgical calendar as well as fulfill their Mass attendance obligations. Is there a two-for-one Mass – on Christmas Eve, for example – that would fulfill all obligations?

The Office of Marriage and Family Life for the Diocese of Baton Rouge received notice last month it has qualified for a financial grant to strengthen marriages in the diocese over a three-year period.

Getting back to the basics at Advent will help families “start over” and bond as they prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, said Darryl Ducote, director of the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of Baton Rouge.       

Recently and in the past, it was fun to get together with family during the Thanksgiving Holidays to catch up on things and find out what folks had been up to lately. Besides celebrating the victories of LSU and the Saints, as well as not cooking, since we went in with our siblings and ordered turkey and all the fixings from Matherne's Supermarket, I was very intrigued by what my retired brother-in-law, Dale, shared with us about in his adventures with storage auctions.

There is an intimate link between Advent and the National Eucharistic Revival, say priests and lay leaders of the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Advent increases the anticipation and longing for God dwelling among us at the Incarnation, and the Eucharistic Revival increases the anticipation and longing for the risen Lord dwelling within us in the Eucharist.