BAPTISM SEMINARS

GENERAL MASS SCHEDULE

The rosary is prayed 30 minutes before each Mass.

8:00 am DAILY MASS: MON. – SAT.

Tuesdays: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena after Mass

Fridays: Sacred Heart Novena after Mass

5:30 pm SATURDAY VIGIL MASS

9:30 am SUNDAY MASS

HOLY DAYS: 8:00 am & 6:00 pm (no vigil)

Fr. Peter Akpoghiran, Pastor for emergency use only: 703-895-5709)

Fr. Peter’s St. Mark Office Hours: Mondays -- 9 am - 12 noon Wednesdays -- 1 pm - 4 pm or by appointment

Rosary Crain, Secretary

504-431-8505 (parish office) 504-431-8506 (FAX)

Office Hours: Mon. - Fri. . . . . . 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

St. Mark Office email…….stmarkama@arch-no.org

Mary Loup, PCL………………...504-289-2900

PCL email……………………. mloup@arch-no.org

St. Mark website………………www.stmarkama.com

Facebook………..St. Mark Catholic Church Ama, LA

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:

All Grades are online using: “My Catholic Faith Delivered: Faith and Life online”

CONFESSION:

Saturday 5:00 pm— 5:15 pm; Sunday 9:00 am—9:15 am;

or by appointment.

WEDDINGS:

Please contact Father at least 6 months before proposed wedding date to begin the required preparation process.

FUNERALS:

Notify Father before contacting the funeral home.

BAPTISMS:

Parents must attend a seminar before the baptism of their first child. Godparents who have never attended a seminar must also attend. Please contact the parish office for further details.

Modern readers are often shocked by the first reading, Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18, They ask, “How could a loving and merciful God request a hu-man sacrifice?” Ironically, the purpose of the original story from the an-cient oral tradition is to explain that Yahweh, the God of Abraham, does NOT want human sacrifice! Some ancient Middle Eastern religions once considered the offering of one’s child the ultimate sacrifice; they believed that child sacrifice was the best way to appease the displeasure or to win the favor of their gods. The Israelites, however, consider child sacrifice an abomination that provoked the Lord to anger (see 2 Kings 16:3, 17:17, 21:6).

The original version [that is, the story from the oral tradition] of Abra-ham’s (almost) sacrifice of Isaac explains the reason why the Israelites do not offer their children in sacrifice as do the neighboring peoples who worship other gods. According to the story, Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac, but God stops the human sacrifice and instructs Abraham to sac-rifice an animal in the place of his son. Thus, the story shows that the Israelites love their God and do not hesitate to offer Him the ultimate sacrifice, but their God loves them, too, and desires them to live! The God of Israel requires the sacri-fice of animals only, never humans.

Centuries later, when the Israelites return from Egypt and are settled in the Promised Land, they begin to write down the stories from their oral tradition. By then, human sacrifice is no longer a common prac-tice among the other Middle Eastern religions. So, inspired by God, the writer changes the focus of the sacrifice story to a more relevant issue--faith. As a result, in the written story, Abraham becomes the definitive Old Testa-ment example of a “man of faith.” When God first calls Abraham to the Promised Land, God assures him of many descendants. Abraham assumes that his son, Isaac, the miracle-child of his and Sarah’s old age, would begin the fulfillment of that promise, yet Abraham makes no protest when God asks for Isaac as a holocaust. [A holocaust is a sacrificial victim that is slaughtered and

then completely burned to ashes.] Abraham prepares to do God’s will, and his unquestioning faith is rewarded by God who not only renews His promise that Abraham will have a multitude of descendants, but also declares that because of Abraham’s obedience, his descendants will be a blessing to all the nations of earth. [Note: That blessing will come through Jesus, a human de-scendant of Abraham and the divine Son of God.]

In the first centuries of Christianity, the Church Fathers once again change the focus of the Abraham and Isaac story. They interpret it as a fore-shadowing of God’s offering Jesus, His own beloved Son, as a sacrifice for our salvation. The transfiguration of Jesus in the Gospel, Mark 9:2-10, is also a type of foreshadowing because God allows Peter, James and John to have an advanced look at Jesus in the risen and divine glory that will follow his suf-fering and sacrifice. Because the apostles have a hard time understanding that Jesus’ Messianic mission is to suffer and die, God provides Peter, James and John with an intimate and intense spiritual experience that will help them

to remain men of faith, even when they see their Messiah crucified.

SANCTUARY LAMP IN LOVING MEMORY OF:

(2/28-3/6) by Ernest & Susie Muller

MONDAY 8:00 AM:

Vernon Keller by Patsye Lunk

Dorothy Plaisance by Melanie Plaisance

TUESDAY 8:00 AM:

Kerry Michael Candies by Barbara & Charles Gaubert

WEDNESDAY 8:00 AM:

Mickie Morrill by Lillian Wegmann

THURSDAY 8:00 AM:

Special Intention

FRIDAY 8:00 AM:

Bertha Geisler by Dudley & Brenda Webre

SATURDAY 8:00 AM:

Arthur & Caroline Schexnayder by Barbara & Charles Gaubert

SATURDAY 5:30 PM:

Parishioners of St. Mark

SUNDAY 9:30 AM:

Henry & Aline Robert by Ernest & Shirley Webre

Murphy Robert by Marjory Robert

Luke & Odile Robert by Children

Judith Gaubert Zeringue by Barbara & Charles Gaubert

Lillian Friloux by Babette Robert

Mary Bascle by Randy & Leslie Petit Family

Dutch Kappel, Dolena Robert, Carol Jones, Sam Granier, Monica Schexnaydre, Audrey Zeringue,

Dana Jones, Gay-Lynn Folse, Morris Zeringue, Gaye Webre, Sandra Cortez, Ernest Webre,

Diane Triche, Joyce King, Easton Owen, Glenna Smith, Vanessa Johnson, Juli Zeringue,

Elsie Sandolph, Larry Landry, Troy Pintado, Kerri Breaux, Hilton Landry, Linda Caminata, Mende

Ford, Babette Robert, Haley Dufrene, Ken Oberle, Mabry Laviolette, Daryl Riddle,

Al Luquette, Debbie Luquette, Donald Hare, Jr. Sylvia Isidore

SANCTUARY LAMP IN LOVING MEMORY OF:

(3/7-13) by Marjory Robert

CHURCH SUPPORT: February 21-22 . . . $1,414.00

We are very grateful to and --

--for their help with our on-going maintenance issues.

Without the Lenten Dinners and the loss of rental income on the Fr. Cote Center (due to covid), we have a projected budget shortfall

of about $26,000.00. Of course, we can’t make that much money up at one time, so we will have a series of smaller fundraising events.

The first fundraising event will be a

(If you wish, it can be given in memory of a loved one.) Examples: television, jewelry, outdoor furniture, porch swing, exercise equipment, fishing equipment, etc.

(We can put smaller donations together to purchase $200-$300 Gift Cards for places like Majoria’s, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. )

The prizes we have so far are:

• Outdoor Gourmet 90 quart Crawfish Boiler (purchased and donated especially for the Raffle)

• Fr. Ed’s Nishiki bicycle (seldom used)

• A $250 Gift Card for Winn Dixie.

If you are attending Mass, you can put your donation in the box on the back table that is labeled “special collection.” (or put it through the mail slot in the par-ish office door)

If you are reading this bulletin online, Catholic Charities asks you to consider giving online through the link: www.ccano.org/collection or by mailing a check to:

Donations through this collection enable Catholic Charities to help over 54,000 individuals and families each year. Ninety-five cents of every dollar received goes directly to community services.

SPECIAL COLLECTION THIS WEEKEND (FEB. 27-28)

A collection basket for donated items and a container for monetary donations are in the back of church. There are also extra copies of the list of “suggested items for donation” next to the container.

Archbishop Aymond has designated 2021 to be the Year of the Eucharist and St. Jo-seph in the Archdio-cese of New Orleans.

Through this special year of renewal, our archdiocese is bringing a unique opportunity for us to deepen our faith in and under-standing of the Eucharist and increase devotion to St. Joseph. By God’s grace, we believe this effort to grow in faith can transform our local Church as we journey together, growing closer to Christ.

If you go to the website:

you can subscribe to receive email messages from the Archdiocese that will include: short excerpts of Church teachings, prayers, spiritual reflections, and faith sharing from clergy, religious, and laity in the archdiocese and beyond. These email messages are to help deepen your faith in the Eucharist and increase devotion to St. Joseph’s powerful intercession.

It is easy to subscribe. Click on the subscribe button. It will ask for your first name, then for your last name, and finally for your parish. There is a drop down list of

parishes in the archdiocese;

Way of the Cross: on the WEDNESDAYS of Lent at 5:30 pm.

Confessions: in church on Wednesday, March 10th, March 17th & March 24th

from 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm.

Father hears confessions and .

Ms. Loup has mailed to your homes the first semester progress reports for the School of Religion students. While some are doing well; others have done few to none of their reli-gion assignments. If the problem is a lost or forgotten log-in and pass-

word, please email Ms. Loup at: mloup@arch-no.org so that she can send you a new log-in and password for your child.

ST. MARK School of Religion

As Messiah, Jesus is the ful-fillment of the Law and the Prophets; thus, he appears with Moses the great Lawgiver and Elijah the great Prophet of the Jewish people. This vision, however, reveals that Jesus is more than the Messiah--he is also the Son of God in dazzling white garments and radiant with divine glory. Speaking from the cloud--a sign of God’s presence [for example: the cloud that leads

the Israelites in the desert and then descends over Mt. Sinai], God identifies Jesus as His “beloved Son” and instructs the apostles to “listen to him.” Suddenly, the vision is gone. When the apos-tles look up, Jesus’ human appearance has returned, and he is alone.

Jesus knows that Peter, James and John need time to process all they have experienced, so he tells them not to reveal their vision until after his resurrection from the dead. Jesus is aware that the apostles, at that time, do not understand what he means by “risen from the dead;” but, eventually, they will. Jesus knows that Peter, James and John will have to see him risen on Easter and be enlightened by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost be-fore they will be able to appreciate the full meaning of the trans-figuration that they had witnessed. Only then will they truly un-derstand that Jesus is: the perfect fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets; the human embodiment of God’s own Word; the inno-cent Servant who willingly suffers and dies to redeem all who are guilty; and above all, the divine Son of God Himself.