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.
Catholic Schools students are taking a summer hiatus and spending time with family, friends and having fun. Most Blessed Sacrament School in Baton Rouge celebrated the end of the school year with a Mass and awards presentation at MBS Church. Making their way home are first-grader Haley Stelly, pictured on the shoulders of her grandfather, Wayne Weicks, Julie Weicks (left) and Elizabeth Baudoin. Photo by Debbie Shelley | The Catholic Commentator
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.
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.
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.
Ascension of Our Lord Church in Donaldsonville celebrated its 250th anniversary on April 15 with a Mass and reception. The church was packed with people who fondly remembered the history and vibrant faith of the community. Pictured is Bishop Michael G. Duca and priests from the diocese celebrating the eucharistic liturgy. A story and photos from the event will be in the May 5 issue of The Catholic Commentator. Photo by Debbie Shelley | The Catholic Commentator
The Catholic Church marked the beginning of Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday on April 2. Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem when palm branches were placed along his path days before he was crucified. As part of the Mass celebration, attendees held up blessed Palm branches during the processional. Pictured holding their blessed palm branches at a standing-room only Palm Sunday Mass at Christ the King Church and Student Center at LSU are, from left, Rachel Heisman and children Matilda, 6, Luke, 10, and Thea 8. Photo by Debbie Shelley | The Catholic Commentator
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.
I have always been at a loss for how to greet people at Easter. I suppose the default common greeting is “Happy Easter” but that has always seemed too small for so wondrous a solemnity of our faith. It is also a little secular and mundane like the greeting “Have a nice day.”
Haley Arceneaux was 29 years old when she and three other civilians aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft launched into space from Kennedy Space Center at Merrit Island, Florida on Sept. 16, 2021.
Helping youth discover “the whole point” of Lenten practices in order to draw them closer to Jesus in a relationship they yearn for will help them approach those sacrifices authentically, said youth ministers in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.