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St. Anne Church in Napoleonville celebrated May as the month dedicated to the Blessed Mother with a May crowning on May 13. Pictured crowning a statue of Mary are Hebert “Dickie” Daigle and his wife, Jeanie. Photo provided by Julie Adolph

Entangled by fear, confusion and sometimes thinking they have contacted the right place to have an abortion, numerous women with unplanned pregnancies reach out to Woman’s New Life Clinic.

The upcoming Sunday Mass Readings are pivotal for our mission as disciples to go into the world and tell the good news: The Ascension of The Lord and Pentecost Sunday.

The table conversations between students of St. Joseph’s Academy in Baton Rouge and formerly incarcerated people in the school’s Fife Student Commons were punctuated with bold questioning, active listening and laughter during a Teach-In on mass incarceration on April 26.

Trainees in the Mary’s Hands Network Volunteer Community Doula Program learned the “nitty gritty” of what it means to walk with moms in need during a session that was packed with information and hands-on activities at a training session on May 20 at the Catholic Life Center.

Walking with the third person of the Trinity

The flurry of committee hearings and bill debates and legislators shaking hands and conversing with their peers and constituents at the 2023 Louisiana Legislature may cause Catholics to wonder what actually happens in the halls and chambers of the state Capitol.

After having seen St Paul’s personal zeal for the Gospel, we can reflect more deeply on the evangelical zeal as he himself speaks of it and describes it in some of his letters.

Skirting a bustling area where the urban cacophony of central Baton Rouge is persistent, a planned chapel on the campus of the Society of St. Paul will offer some of the most downtrodden individuals in the community the silence of prayer, a transitory reprieve from the difficulties life has tossed their way and perhaps most important a sanctuary to spend alone time with the Lord.

Easter continues as we celebrate the 5th and 6th Sundays of this season. We hear in the Gospels the reality of the Trinity, as the father is known by the son; the son is the face of the father; and the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. Christ the Lord dwells within and among the faithful.

Bishop Emeritus Robert W. Muench, during a recent homily in Tickfaw, asked “What does it mean to be a parish?”

Ascension celebrates anniversary

The junior class at Ascension Catholic High School in Donaldsonville presented a Live Way of the Cross directed by Paula Simoneaux on March 9 at Ascension of Our Lord Church. The choir members included tenth-grade students. Pictured are, from left, front row, Brennan Tripode, Vanessa Ramirez, Tori Chachati, Kayla Borne, Thomas Nizzo, Easton Dunn, Jackson Melancon, Maya Julien, Sophie Simoneaux, Olivia Blanchard, Emilia Abadie, Alyssa Morales, and Andrew Landry; second row, Daniel Nguyen, Noah Giroir, Jackson Landry, Le’Khai Ester, Cody Cassard, Norie Cassard, Camryn Castrogovannie, Rylee Aucoin, Claire Cassard, Laneigh Breaux, Clotilde Cantin, and Austin Paine; third row, Grant Diez, Travis Cedatol, Reed James, Dwayne Landry, Jake Landry, Luke Templet, Kingston Cayette, Aaron Breaux, Landon Daigle, Karlie Chaney, Allison Griffin, and Kaden McClosky; and back row, Freddie Geason, Emily Morales, Sarah Pizzolato, and Chloe Borne.

On a brisk March 14 morning, students from St. Lillian Academy in Baton Rouge stepped onto the Catholic High School campus in Baton Rouge. There waiting, CHS friends in the My Brother’s Keeper Club greeted them by name, ready to hang out and let them experience the large high school campus atmosphere.

The season of Easter continues as we celebrate the Third and Fourth Sundays. The path to Pentecost follows the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery understood as Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. The sacred readings offer three powerful testimonies of guidance, confidence and strength for our prayer and meditation. 

Merging parishes can be spiritually challenging as the congregation of the closing church, in some cases the only church some parishioners have ever attended, casts wary glances at their new home.

St. Catherine of Siena Church in Donaldsonville came alive Feb. 26 as the New Generation Liturgical Dancers worshiped during the parish’s Black History Month Mass.

The iconic 80-foot steeple of Ascension of Our Lord Church in Donaldsonville can be seen by land travelers in the area on both sides of Mississippi River as well as on the river, proudly boasting of its 250-year history of faith and perseverance.

At 3 a.m. Ione Schexnayder LeBlanc, 90, of Darrow often puts on a pot of coffee and sits at her dining room table and begins making rosaries that will be placed in the hands of patients and their families at local hospitals.