Clarion Herald The Blessed Mother is known by many names – such as Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Guadalupe – honoring the places she has appeared.
On May 29, the local Honduran community welcomed its patron saint, Our Lady of Suyapa, with a procession, Mass and enthronement at Divine Mercy Parish in Kenner. Archbishop Gregory Aymond concelebrated the Mass with Father Robert Cooper, pastor; Father Luis Duarte, parochial vicar; and other Hispanic priests on the feast day of the Holy Trinity.
Father Duarte, a native of Colombia, used his homily in Spanish to relate a history of the Virgin of Suyapa that he first discovered while serving at St. Clement of Rome Parish in Metairie. He said God has revealed his divine life, love and mercy in simple ways to simple people throughout history.
Clarion Herald
The first reading from the first chapter of Jeremiah at the transitional diaconate Ordination Mass of five men May 22 at St. Louis Cathedral said it all.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you,” read G. Edward Merritt, the grandfather of transitional Deacon Jeffrey Merritt, from the Old Testament. Archbishop Gregory Aymond said the five transitional deacons – Deacons Jeffrey Merritt, Jody DiMaggio, Andy Gonzalez and Lennin Dario Arroyo Martinez, who will serve in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and Deacon Joseph Odongo, who was ordained for the Archdiocese of Tororo in Uganda – were chosen by God to carry out his ministry.
Diaconate internship or returns home?
By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald
Joseph Odongo, who will be ordained a transitional deacon on May 22, said he was enamored by the priesthood from stories his maternal grandmother told him about how priests help people go to heaven, speak directly to God and were holy people who help others in many ways.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I think I want to help people and help people go to heaven,” Odongo said. “My grandmother introduced us to prayer when we were kids. … We knew how to recite our prayers and follow Mass when we were young. This helped me. I saw joy in this. What pushed me to the priesthood was to serve the people of God and to pray for the people.”