St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church

Oberlin, LA

February 21, 2021
First Sunday of Lent

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Out of concern for public health, on March 17, 2020, I dispensed Catholics in the Diocese of Lake Charles from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Because Louisiana remains in Phase Three of the government directives and our church parishes work diligently to protect our parishioners with sanitary measures, I removed that dispensation effective November 29, 2020. In doing so, I made clear that those who are ill, immune deficient, symptomatic, in a state of anxiety over contracting illness, or at high risk due to a chronic condition are already dispensed from the obligation to attend Mass. Given the lengthy period of the dispensation and our return now to normative practice, I am issuing this pastoral letter as a reminder of the importance of worshipping our Creator as a Catholic Community, especially on Sundays and Holy Days. 

We must first recognize that the sanctity of the Lord’s Day finds its origins in the work of God at the creation of the world.  As we read in the Book of Genesis, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation” (Genesis 2:3).   This “seventh day,” then, became for the Jews a holy day of rest to share with God His wonder and awe over the work of Creation and to worship the Creator Himself.   By keeping holy “the seventh day,” we share in the work of God.   Every good and honest work we do during the week is a share in God’s creating work.   So then, we also follow God’s example of resting, and through our worship of Him, who is the origin of everything we are and have, we enter and share in His Life.

 Continue Reading the Bishop's Message Here

Jesus made 12 promises to St. Margaret Mary in favor of those who consecrate to the Sacred Heart, in a spirit of reparation, the First Friday of each month.

The Church grants a Plenary indulgence to those who attend Mass and receive Communion in honor of The Sacred Heart of Jesus on the First Friday of each month for nine (9) consecutive months.

Here is a PDF of the Prayers

The practice of the First Saturday devotion was requested by Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, multiple times starting in 1917. She said to Lucia, the oldest of the three children:

“I shall come to ask . . . that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.”

Years later she repeated her request to Sr. Lucia, the only one still living of the three young Fatima seers, while she was a postulant sister living in a convent in Spain:

“Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at very moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”