December 3, 2017 - First Sunday of Advent

Rev. M. Keith LaBove, Pastor Parish Website: www.stpat.org

stpat.org@gmail.com

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

Holydays of Obligation: 7:30 am only Sacrament of Reconciliation

Saturday: 3:00 – 3:30 pm and Weekdays: 7:00-7:25 am (and by appointment)

Baptisms

Seminars are held every other month - register

by calling the office. At-tendance is suggested

during pregnancy.

Anointing of the Sick The Church recom-

mends this sacrament for those who are grave-

ly ill or in danger of death. Call the priest to

arrange a visit.

Weddings

Arrangements must be made at least six

months in advance to allow time for prepara-

tion and planning.

406 East Pinhook Road Lafayette, LA 70501-8727

Phone: (337) 237-0988

Welcome to St. Patrick Church

First Sunday of Advent December 3, 2017

MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK

Saturday, December 2--Vigil of the First Sunday of Advent 4:00 PM: Dr. Leonard & Betty Rolfes; Mike Guilbeaux; Deacon Julien Judice; Wallace, Romaine & Ron Venable; Jules, Isola & Bart LeJeune; Phil Simon, Bud & Euna Arceneaux; Nora Broussard; Larry Romero; Darlene Maddox Sunday, December 3--First Sunday of Ad-vent 8:30 AM: Joseph & Eldie Woods; Sonya & Angela Thibedeaux; Dr. Robert Chastant & Evelyn; Eddie Upton; John Daigle; George Sigue & Siblings; Lorraine Day; Lloyd Sigue; Mary Dupuis Roane 10:00 AM: Parishioners of St. Patrick’s Monday, December 4--Advent Weekday, St. John Damascene, Priest and Doctor of the Church 7:30 AM: Beverly & Leland Gauthier, Mel Didier, Brandon Boudreaux (living)

Tuesday, December 5--Advent Weekday

7:30 AM: M/M Edras Himel Wednesday, December 6--St. Nicholas, Bishop 7:30 AM: Dr. Tommy Comeaux & Dorinne; Col. Clark Comeaux & Catherine (living); Col. Kimberly Fedele (living) Thursday, December 7--St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church 7:30 AM: In Thanksgiving Friday, December 8--The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 7:30 AM: Dr. Charles Stewart

Non-Liturgical Devotions Daily Rosary: Monday - Thursday 6:55 am Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena: Tues-day 7:15 am Rosary for Priests: Wednesday 7:00 am Chaplet of Divine Mercy: Thursday 7:15 am Pro-Life Rosary: 1st Friday of the month 7 am Shamrocks—Friday, December 8: No clean-ing this week. Meal Prayer for Advent All-powerful God, Look kindly on us, Bless this table, And unite us to all people everywhere Who wait for the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord, Amen. —To Thank and Bless

Immaculate Conception This Thursday, December 8th., is the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and it is a holyday of obligation. Mass will be at 7:30 a.m. We honor Mary, the Immaculate Conception who is Pa-troness of the United States. The collection will be for the Needy. Annual Christmas Social You are invited to attend our yearly Christmas Social on Sunday, December 10th., at 11 am. at the Parish Hall. Bring your favorite holiday dish. The parish will provide the meat. This is a great opportunity to fellowship with one another and to meet parishioners who attend mass at another time

Holy Hour for Vocations Please join us for our monthly “Holy Hour for Vocations and for the Spiritual Renewal of All Priests” on Monday, December 4, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. 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 pray-ers for vocations and perseverance of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, sponsored by the Serra Club of Lafayette. The Light is On For You On the first three Wednesdays of Advent [December 6, December 13 and 20th] from 6:30-8:00 p.m., we will be offering confessions here at St. Patrick, together with all the Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Lafayette. This out-reach is called “The Light is On For You,” and is an ef-fort on the part of our Diocese to make it as easy as possi-ble for every Catholic to come or to return to this great source of God’s mercy and healing love. You are welcome to come here or to go to any other Catholic parish in the Diocese Retreat Information The Jesuit Spirituality Center in Grand Coteau, LA is offer-ing the following Retreats: The Little Way: A Journey along St. Therese’s Path of Confidence and Love. Robin Hebert will present, January 18-21, 2018. Introduction to the Directed Retreat Nelda Turner will lead this retreat from February 9-11, 2018. Silent, Individually-Directed Retreats of 3, 5, or 8 days beginning on the following dates: (3 & 5 days only) Mon., Dec., 4 or Thur., Dec. 7th, Mon., Jan. 29 or Thus., Feb. 1st. To register, visit website jesuitspiritualitycenter.org or call 337-662-5251, M-F 8 am-12 noon and 1-5 pm. Angola Bus Trip Scheduled, Sunday, December 10 Reserve your seat early by calling the Office of Justice and Peace at 337-261-5545. There is no fee charged. Bus leaves at 7:30 am from St. Paul’s Catholic Church (Corner of Simcoe and St. John Street, Lafayette). For more infor-mation please contact Stephanie Bernard at 261-5545. Special Marriage Celebration Will you celebrate 25, 40, 50, 60 or more years of marriage during the year 2018? If you answered “yes” — then you are invited to a special Mass on Sunday, February 25, 2018 at 2:00pm at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Lafayette with Bishop Douglas Deshotel. Call 261-5653 to pre-register so that you will receive a certificate! Deadline to register is February 15, 2018. Schedule of Christmas Masses Christmas Eve: Sunday, December 24: 4 & 6 p.m. Christmas Day: Monday, December 25: 8:30 & 10 a.m. New Year’s Day; Monday, January 1st: 9:00 a.m. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. — Mark 13:33

Make this a Meaningful Holiday—Heifer Project Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently work-ing in more than 25 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become self-reliant. 31 million families have been assisted directly and indirectly since 1944. In areas where hunger and despair once prevailed, Heifer programs have reinvig-orated communities through livestock, training and Passing on the Gift. Our church will be participating in this special endeavor as a Christmas Project. Do-nation sheets are available under the stairwell. Make checks payable to St. Patrick Church. All donations will be sent to Heifer International at the beginning of the year. Heifer International meets the BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountabil-ity. For additional information please visit their web-site: http//www.heifer.org/ Food for the Journey The Central Deanery of the Diocese of Lafayette pre-sents “Food for the Journey”, a monthly lunchtime speakers series designed to help Catholics live out our faith in our daily lives. “Food for the Journey” will be held on Tuesday, December 12, 2017, at River Oaks Catering and Event Center Lafayette, 520 East Ka-liste Saloom Road, beginning at 12:00 noon. The speaker will be Rev. Joseph Champion, SSJ, Pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Breaux Bridge. An op-tional buffet ($14.00) is available for purchase begin-ning at 11:30 a.m. Pre-registration is not required. For more information, please call Danielle Huval (232-1322). Christmas Concert at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church—December 9—6:30 pm You are invited to an evening filled with musical selec-tions by the Music Ministry: The Children’s Choir, Adult Choir, Inspirational Choir, and People’s Choir. This will be a family-friendly event filled with joy, celebration, and anticipation of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Immaculate Heat of Mary is location at 818 12th St., Lafayette. STEWARDSHIP OF THE PAST WEEK Our Response to God’s Generosity to Us Offertory…………….……… $ 3,388.00 Thanksgiving Day: UCO…..…$1,123.00 Thank You!

The Second Collection this weekend is for our Building Fund.

Date

Saturday, December 9 4:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 10 8:30 a.m.

Sunday, December 10 10:00 a.m.

Lectors Angie Redrick Gerrie McGovern Robin Roy

Eucharistic Ministers

Candis Thompson Dana Guidry George Eaton

Suzanne Lavergne Kay Thompson Ted Thompson

Kenneth Broussard Madeline Simon Janeth Harrington

Altar Servers Rosalind Allen Fred Vallot Debra Carroll

Ushers Kevin & Daylan Phillips Rachelle Trahan Keith Toups

Lionel Jeanmard Ben Berthelot

Liturgical Roles for December

From the Pastor’s Desk

So Advent begins. And I have to tell you that I hope you have nothing planned for the 4th week of Advent this year. Why? Because that 4th week kind of doesn’t exist. Advent will always have 4 Sundays, which we do have this year—since Advent begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas. But this year, Christmas falls on a Mon-day (the 25th, in case you were wondering). That changes everything. On Sunday, December 24th (and the evening before), we will celebrate the 4th Sunday of Advent. However, in the evening on that very Sunday, we will celebrate Christmas Eve, with Christmas Masses following the next day.

What this means is that on Sunday, Dec. 24th, our Church will celebrate Masses at 8:30 & 10:00 am, and at 4:00 and 6:00 pm — two for Advent and two for Christmas (Eve). More importantly, there is in effect no 4th week of Advent. All this means that we have three full weeks of hope, expectation and preparation, rather than four.

As someone who loves Advent, especially the latter days, I have to admit that I’m left feeling a bit cheated by the calendar. Of course, this is something that happens every 5 or 6 years (depending on leap years). But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. A whole week of readings and prayers won’t be celebrated this year.

But neither you nor I can do anything to change that. This fact can actually lead us more deeply into one of the central dynamics of the Advent season. In early Advent, we consider the return of Jesus at the end of time. We move on to John the Baptist and his ministry of preparation for the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, and follow that with consideration of the pregnancy of Mary, and the imminent miracle of the Incarnation at Bethle-hem. None of us, or John, or Mary herself, can do anything to hasten the coming of these events. We can well im-agine John baptizing at the Jordan day after day, wondering when the Lamb would appear. We can picture Mary in her ninth month, even as she traveled to Bethlehem with Joseph, with no say over when her child would be born. There is a deeply rooted experience of powerlessness at the very heart of Advent.

This does not mean, however, that we do nothing. Quite to the contrary, our task is to wait. Our task is to prepare to accept the gift, the greatest gift the world has ever known. We do that by nurturing deep within our hearts a desire for the coming of Jesus, for the birth of the God-man. We ask God for the grace to be “as the deer longing for running streams” longing for the Lord to enter into our hearts and our lives.

We can’t make it happen, in four weeks or in three. But we can prepare ready and willing hearts to wel-come him when he comes. That work of preparation is what we call Advent.

Readings for the Week

Monday Is 2:1-5; Ps 122:1-9; Mt 8:5-11

Tuesday Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Lk 10:21-24

Wednesday Is 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-6; Mt 15:29-37

Thursday Is 26:1-6; Ps 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a; Mt 7:21, 24-27

Friday Gn 3:9-15, 20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12; Lk 1:26-38

Saturday Is 30:19-21, 23-26; Ps 147:1-6; Mt 9:35 — 10:1, 5a, 6-8

Sunday Is 40:1-5, 9-11; Ps 85:9-14; 2 Pt 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8