The Mother Church Cookbook Is the Perfect gift for Mom, mother's to be, or anyone that likes to cook or is forced to cook.

Founded in 1857, St. Joseph Church in Historic Gretna is the “Mother Church” of 14 Catholic parishes in West Jefferson all the way to Grand Isle. Built in 1927, this building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The Mother Church needs your help. She needs a “face-lift” and major “do-over.” The protective sealant over the stucco on the exterior of the church is crumbling and a minimum of 80% of the sealant must be removed and re-applied, with a paint job to follow. Work on the auditorium is needed as well.

The cookbook benefits the $500,000 Restoration Fund needed to return the Mother Church to her former beauty!

Thank you for your help.

To order, go to top line of this website and click on Mother Church Cookbook or, if you are on a cell phone, look to the left for the three vertical bars on top of each other and click the bars.

Prayer for a Stewardship Parish

Dear Heavenly Father,

My parish is composed of people like me; I help make it what it is.

It will be friendly, if I am.
Its pews will be filled, if I help fill them.
It will do great work, if I work.
It will make generous gifts to many causes, if I am a generous giver.
It will bring other people into its worship and fellowship, if I invite and bring them.

It will be a parish of loyalty and love, of fearlessness and faith, and a parish with a noble spirit, if I, who make it what it is, am filled with these same things.

Therefore, with Your help, O God, I shall dedicate myself to the task of being all things that I want my parish to be.

RESTORATION LOAN ACTIVITY
 

PRINCIPAL BALANCE AS OF 11/30/19                                     $362,629.88
INTEREST CALCULATED DURING PERIOD                               $1,235.75
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TOTAL PRINCIPLE + INTEREST                                                 $363,865.63

PLEASE REMEMBER TO GIVE TO OUR RESTORATION PROJECT.

 

The Coming of the Lord 

Drop down dew ye heavens from above. Let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior.

Happy New Year! While a month yet remains in the civil year, the Church is celebrating the beginning of a new Liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent on November 27, 2011. Advent — from the Latin ad venio, “to come” — is the liturgical season anticipating the Adventus Domini, the "coming of the Lord.” While the days grow shorter and colder, we prepare for the “Sun of Justice” who comes to kindle our hearts with his light and his love.

The Eternal Word, who is outside of time, became Incarnate in time, thereby making all time sacred. In the season of Advent, we await the coming of Christ on all the levels which we experience time: in the past — as a babe in the stable of Bethlehem; in the present — as grace in our souls; and in the future — as the Judge at the end of time.

The Advent season is filled with preparation and expectation. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas — shopping and decorating, baking and cleaning. Too often, however, we are so busy with the material preparations that we lose sight of the real reason for our activity: the Word made flesh coming to dwell among us. Christians are urged to preserve the spiritual focus of Christmas amidst the prevailingly secular and consumer-driven society.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season, let us strive to keep Advent a season of waiting and longing, of conversion and hope, meditating often on the incredible love and humility of our God in taking on flesh of the Virgin Mary. In our shopping and baking, let us remember to purchase and prepare something for the poor. When we clean our homes, let us distribute some of our possessions to those who lack many necessities. While we are decking the halls of our homes, let us not forget to prepare a peaceful place in our hearts wherein our Savior may come to dwell.

Focus on the Liturgy 

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. 

There are always four Sundays in Advent, though not necessarily four full weeks. The liturgical color of the season is violet or purple, except on the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday, when optional rose vestments may be worn. The Gloria is not recited during Advent liturgies, but the Alleluia is retained.

The prophecies of Isaiah are read often during the Advent season, but all of the readings of Advent focus on the key figures of the Old and New Testaments who were prepared and chosen by God to make the Incarnation possible: the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah. The expectancy heightens from December 17 to December 24 when the Liturgy resounds with the seven magnificent Messianic titles of the O Antiphons.

The Advent season also has a Marian and pro-life focus. We meditate on this wonderful mystery of the Word Made Flesh with as much eagerness as his Mother, Mary prepared and awaited the birth of her son. In the USA we celebrate the special feasts of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States of America, on December 8, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, on December 12. Other saints’ days traditionally associated in with our preparation for Christmas include St. Nicholas, patron saint of children whose feast falls on December 6, and the saint of light, St. Lucy on December 13.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=973

Holyart is an online store that sells religious art and original sacred products and religious handmade items. 

Welcome to St. Joseph Catholic Church

Since 1857, when Fr. Thaddaeus Anwander, CSSR, celebrated the first Mass in Gretna on Christmas Day, until the present time, God has blessed our St. Joseph Parish with dedicated priests, religious nuns, and laymen and women, to carry on the life of St, Joseph Parish.

May this Website help us to acknowledge our past, to recognize our brothers and sisters in Christ of the present, and to unite our parish family ever more in the future.