February 22, 2015 - First Sunday of Lent

Baptisms

Seminars are held every other month - register by calling the office. Attend-ance is suggested during pregnancy.

406 East Pinhook Road Lafayette, LA 70501-8727

Phone: (337) 237-0988 Fax: (337) 233-8868 Rev. M. Keith LaBove, Pastor

Parish Website: www.stpat.org

Weddings

Arrangements must be made at least six months in advance to allow time

for preparation

Office Hours

Monday – Thursday: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm; Friday 8:30 am – 12 noon

Celebration of the Eucharist

Saturday: 4:00 pm – Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 am Monday through Friday: 7:30 am

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Saturday: 3:00 – 3:30 pm and Weekdays: 7:15 am

Welcome to St. Patrick Church

First Sunday of Lent

February 22, 2015

MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK

Saturday, February 21--Vigil of the First Sun-

day of Lent

4:00 PM: Mike Guilbeau;

Jules, Isola & Bart LeJeune; Patricia Mendes;

Wallace & Romaine Venable

Sunday, February 22--First Sunday of Lent

8:30 AM: Lorraine Day; Helen Vallot;

Julia Phillips; Phoebe Vermillion;

Ewing Latimer, Jr.; Chris Gambel

10:00 AM: Parishioners of St. Patrick’s

Monday, February 23--Lenten Weekday 7:30 AM: Sick of the Parish

Tuesday, February 24--Lenten Weekday

7:30 AM: Joseph Guidroz

Wednesday, February 25--Lenten Weekday

7:30 AM: Dr. Tommy Comeaux & Dorinne;

Col. Clark Comeaux & Catherine (living);

Col. Kimberly Fedele (living)

Thursday, February 26--Lenten Weekday

7:30 AM: Julia Phillips

Friday, February 27--Lenten Weekday

7:30 AM: Dr. Charles Stewart

Friday—7:10 a.m.

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;

teach me your paths.

— Psalm 25:4

Non-Liturgical Devotions

Daily Rosary: Monday - Friday 6:55 a.m.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena: Tuesday

7:15 a.m.

Rosary for Priests: Wednesday 7:00 a.m.

Chaplet of Divine Mercy: Thursday 7:15 a.m.

Pro-Life Rosary: 1st. Friday of the month 7 a.m.

Shamrocks—Friday, February 27: Donna

Guilbeau; Patsy Robicheaux; Gerrie McGovern;

Charlotte Privat

Meetings

Al-Anon meetings are held weekly on Tuesday

at 10:00 a.m., and Thursday at 10:30 a.m., at St.

Patrick’s Parish Hall. Meetings are open to any-

one wishing to attend. Alcoholics Anonymous

meets there at 7 a.m. on Monday through Friday

(open), and at 8 am on Saturday (closed).

Lenten Opportunities for Confession

The Central Region of the Diocese of Lafayette is

sponsoring five regional “Opportunities for Confes-

sion” during Lent. Several priests will be present to

hear Confessions as follows: Thursday, March 5,

from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at St. Anthony Catholic Church,

Lafayette; Tuesday, March 10, from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, Broussard;

Wednesday, March 11, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at St.

Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, Lafayette; Thurs-

day, March 19, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Holy Cross

Catholic Church, Lafayette; and Tuesday, March

24, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Mass at 5:30 p.m.) at St.

Bernard Catholic Church, Breaux Bridge. All are

encouraged to receive the Sacrament of Reconcilia-

tion in preparation for Easter Sunday. For more in-

formation, please call Mary Bergeron (654-8682).

Lenten Daily Masses:

Monday through Friday: 7:30 a.m.

Way of the Cross: Fridays 7:10 a.m.

Holy Hour for Vocations

The monthly Holy Hour for Vocations and for the Spiritual

Renewal of All Priests will be held on Monday, March 2, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. here at St. Patrick Catholic Church,

406 E. Pinhook Road. Recitation of the Rosary begins at

5:30 p.m. All are welcome to join in these prayers for vo-cations and perseverance of vocations to the priesthood and

religious life, sponsored by the Serra Club of Lafayette.

Mass of Healing

Fr. Manny Fernandez will celebrate a Mass of Healing, on

Friday, February 27, at St. Genevieve Catholic Church, 417 East Simcoe St., Lafayette. Services begin at 5:30 p.m.

with the Way of the Cross; Confessions from 6-6:45 p.m.

followed by Mass at 7:00 p.m.; Healing service and Expo-

sition of the Blessed Sacrament. Fr. Manny is originally from the Philippines'. He has been serving in the Diocese

of Lafayette since 1987 and is currently Pastor at St. John

Church in Henry and St. James Church in Esther. After a serious illness in 1982, Fr. Manny realized that he had been

given the gift of healing and has been celebrating Healing

Masses, an offering the blessings of the Holy Spirit to the faithful, ever since.

CRS Rice Bowl

Did you know that 25% of your donations to the Lenten Rice Bowl program are returned to our Diocese, to be used

to assist the needy in our local area? The other 75% is used

by Catholic Relief Services to assist the poor throughout the world. Rice Bowl containers are available under the

stairwell near the main entrance.

Fifty Shades of Porn

As the movie based on the popular book, 'Fifty Shades of

Grey' is about to be released, we share with you the insight

of Bishop Richard J. Malone (Buffalo), head of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family and

Youth: "While marketed as a romantic story, it is in reality

a graphic portrayal of a young woman agreeing to be abused and degraded in a sexual relationship." Bishop

Malone quotes the Religious Alliance Against Pornogra-

phy, which states, “The contrast between the message of

‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and God’s design for self-giving and self-sacrificing love, marriage and sexual intimacy could

not be greater. The books and the movie undermine every-

thing that we believe as members of the faith communi-ty.” In a society where domestic violence is rampant, and

human trafficking is common, it is tragic that this is being

marketed as literature and entertainment.

St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Our Annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast will be cele-

brated on Saturday, March 14th., at the Petroleum

Club, 111 Heymann Blvd., at 8:00 a.m. Once again

the cooks, artisans, craftsmen, seamstress, gardeners, etc., who wish to provide a door prize are encouraged

to begin their project. Gift certificates from store own-

ers are also accepted. Please NOTE: it is not neces-

sary to provide a door prize. Rather this is a way to

share one’s gifts and talents with the members of our

church community. Please sign the tablet at the back of the church if you are planning to attend as we need to

know how many to prepare for.

Food for the Journey The Central Region of the Diocese of Lafayette pre-

sents “Food for the Journey”, a monthly lunchtime

speaker series designed to help Catholics live out our faith in our daily lives. Our speaker for March is Rev.

David Broussard, Pastor of St. Bernard Catholic

Church, Breaux Bridge. “Food for the Journey” will be held on Tuesday, March 3, at Hotel Acadiana, 1801

W. Pinhook Road, beginning at 12:00 noon. An op-

tional lunch buffet is available for purchase beginning

at 11:30 a.m. All are welcome to come “eat and be fed”- please bring a friend! Pre-registration is not re-

quired. For more information, please call Mary Ber-

geron (654-8682).

Oremus—A Guide to Catholic Prayer

Do you find it easy to pray? For most of us, prayer be-

comes a source of frustration as we struggle to calm our minds and to find even a few minutes to pray. In

our busy lives, prayer is seen as a luxury, when in reali-

ty it is at the foundation of a healthy spiritual life. The good news is that you can overcome your difficulties

with prayer, and it is easier than you might think. Over

the course of 8 weeks, the Oremus study program teaches you the essentials of an effective and fruitful

prayer life. Oremus is A Guide to Catholic Prayer, 8

part Study by Fr. Mark Toups, held at Holy Cross

Church, Administrative Building (A) Grace Room,

Wednesdays beginning March 25, 6:30—8:00 p.m.,

and will be facilitated by Debra Carroll. Please call

Debra to register: 337-962-2648; cost is $15 for a workbook.

STEWARDSHIP OF THE PAST WEEK Our Response to God’s Generosity to Us

Offertory……………………..$ 3,919.00

E. Europe & B. & I. Miss……$ 717.75 Thank You! The second collection next weekend will be for our

Building Fund.

Date

Saturday, February 28

4:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 1

8:30 a.m.

Sunday, March 1

10:00 a.m.

Lectors

Kathy Kalweit Gerrie McGovern Brenda DeMette

Eucharistic

Ministers

Candis Thompson

Harold Guilbeau

Rosalind Allen

Susan Cain

Ted Hampton

Kay Hampton

Leroy Abshire

Barbara Abshire

Debra Carroll

Altar Servers Merrick Stelly Melinda Voorhies Harry DeMette

Ushers

Oren Spruill

Joyce Stelly

Rachelle Trahan

Keith Toups

Robin Roy

Lionel Louviere

Liturgical Roles for Feb/March

Readings for the Week

Monday Lv 19:1-2, 11-18; Ps 19:8-10, 15; Mt 25:31-46

Tuesday Is 55:10-11; Ps 34:4-7, 16-19; Mt 6:7-15

Wednesday Jon 3:1-10; Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19; Lk 11:29-32

Thursday Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25; Ps 138:1-3, 7c-8; Mt 7:7-12

Friday Ez 18:21-28; Ps 130:1-8; Mt 5:20-26

Saturday Dt 26:16-19; Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8; Mt 5:43-48

Sunday Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Ps 116:10, 15-19; Rom 8:31b-34; Mk 9:2-10

From the Pastor’s Desk

A number of years ago, I ran across this quote from Garrison Keillor, long time radio host of ‘Prairie Home Companion’ on public radio (of Lake Wobegon fame). And I saved it:

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known."

I suspect I saved it because on some level, I felt that it connected with my own experience. Sometimes I don’t get what I want. Sometimes I get what I want, and I am still not happy. Sometimes I get what I don’t want, and I’m quite pleased. And sometimes I get what I could never have imagined wanting, and wonder how I could have lived without it. But the point is simple: All too often, what I want is not what is best for me.

In the context of the spiritual life, however, this has absolutely nothing to do with luck. Or we call it luck when we’re blind to what is really going on. Mixed in with my wants and my desires and all the blessings and losses of life is the mysterious action of God’s grace. And I emphasize mysterious — his ways are not our ways. Thankfully, God doesn’t always give us what we desire!

Lent is a glorious time to take stock of our desires. We all have them. And it’s amazing the extent to which those desires can control our lives. We run toward what we desire, and flee what we do not want. Some-times those desires are obvious to us, while other desires are unnamed and unrecognized. Perhaps the unnamed desires are the most dangerous, since their power in our lives often leaves us wondering why we did this or that. Desires are not bad of themselves. Many of them are stirred up in us by the good and the beautiful. But what happens when our desires start to control us? And what of those times when we desire what is harmful to us, harmful to others, harmful to our relationship with our God?

This is one of the reasons why we need the season of Lent. The discipline of self-denial is aimed at grow-ing emotional and spiritual “muscles”, if you will, so that we might not be held captive by the desires of our hearts. But the first step is to recognize and name our desires. Once we’ve named them, we can take them to prayer and ask that hard question: “Is this what God wants for me?”

His will, not ours, is the true driving force of true satisfaction, serenity and salvation. When we are held captive by our desires, we are dissatisfied with what we get, and our expectations are never met. What if, instead, we began with a burning desire for God, who so desperately desires us???