The 18 active members and 10 associate members of our St Vincent de Paul Conference provided $33,602 of assistance to 555 needy people this past fiscal year. They also were able to help them with food and furniture in the amount of $1520 in addition to the $33,602. The members and associates gave over 790 hours of service hours to help the poor. It is in gratitude and much appreciation that we thank our SVdP Conference for their hard work; you, for your contributions to the collection and poor box to help fund our SVdP Conference; the poor for allowing us to share our blessings; and, most of all, to God, who gives us the graces, blessings, and abilities to serve Him in our neighbor. If you wish to join us as a member or an associate, please call the Parish Office 504-368-1313 or the SVdP line 504-298-6907 and leave a message.

Legacy Sunday is an initiative of the Catholic Community Foundation (CCF), created through the vision and support of Archbishop Aymond. With the approval of the Presbyteral Council, the Foundation has established this special appeal. Legacy Sunday will be a designated weekend each year in which the parishes of the Archdiocese of New Orleans invite parishioners to discover their Catholic legacy and consider including charitable giving to their parish in their will. This is not a second collection or a cash-associated ask. It is an invitation into planned giving, which is giving for the future, and this appeal can be as simple as putting out a brochure at our parish. A critical message of this weekend is to share the potential of a person's legacy. The impact of their legacy contains two important aspects: The Spiritual Component and The Material Component. The Spiritual Component is: The spiritual things we pass on, including our values and our Catholic Faith. The Material Component is: the valuable we leave behind. Why talk about Legacy? 1. There is a spiritual need to give. * It is important to reflect on the many ways in which God has blessed us. * When we reflect on Christ's legacy, we grow in gratitude and generosity, which is so critical to our Faith. 2. The Parish needs it. * Parishes are often overlooked when preparing bequests. * Parishes receive on 9% of bequests. 3. Transfer of Wealth. * The US is in the midst of the largest wealth transfer in history. *$41 trillion will transfer from Baby Boomers to the next generation before 2052. $6 trillion will be directed to charity. What is Planned Giving or Legacy Giving? Planned giving and Legacy giving are the same thing. It is the process in which a donor creates a financial or estate plan in which they formally decide to give something of value to an organization at a future date. Because planned giving sometimes involves tax and legal considerations, Legacy Sunday aims to focus on the less complicated aspect of planned giving. Legacy Sunday is offering an easy and simple approach to talk about planned giving in our parish. We know that 90% of planned giving is done by bequests (which is a gift given by a will). Therefore, the focus is on bequest gifts to our parish. If intricate planned giving questions arise, one can contact Catholic Community Foundation at 504-596-3045. Do not hesitate to contact them at any point with questions. Ways to give planned gifts include: By will; Beneficiary Designation (IRA, insurance policy, etc.); Cash; Property; Stocks.

ATTENTION MEN OF ST JOSEPH Are you looking to deepen your relationship with God? Be a better husband? Become a more loving father? Build friendships with other like-minded men? And seek to be the best man you can be? Then Come Join… That Man is You! Friday Mornings Starting on January 31, 2025 5:45am to 7:30am Contact Info: Fr Gary Copping 504-485-3164 ATN Week 14 - Sober Intoxication of the Spirit · Speaker: Mark Hartfiel · The Intoxication of the Spirit · The Virtue of Humility · The Condescension of God · The Analogy of Water · The Annunciation: Filled with Grace · The Litany of Humility ATN Week 15 - Our Father · Speaker: Dr. Scott Hahn · Elohim, Yahweh, and Father · The Identity of God · Contract vs Covenant · A Bond of Love · Fatherhood of Man as image of the Fatherhood of God · The Love of a Father ATN Week 16 - Silent Knight, Holy Knight · Speaker: Dr. Scott Hahn · The Genealogy of Jesus Through Joseph · The Reverence VIew · God Qualifies Those Whom He Calls · The Obedience of St. Joseph · Parallels with Old Testament Joseph · Definition of True Fatherhood ATN Week 17 - Meet Your Spiritual Father · Speaker: Dr. Mark Miravalle · St. Joseph: Patron of the Universal Church · Old Testament St. Joseph: The Patriarch · A The Reflection of God the Father · Historical Errors About St. Joseph · True Though Virginal Father of Jesus · Joseph as Head of the Holy Family ATN Week 18 - The Shadow of the Father · Speaker: Dr. Mark Miravalle · The Perfect Icon of the Father · St. Joseph's Appearance at Fatima · Papal Proclamation of St. Joseph · Custodian of the Redeemer · Devotion to St. Joseph · Litany of St. Joseph ATN Week 19 – First Society · Speaker: Dr. Scott Hahn · Back to the Beginning of Marriage. · How to Bear the Image and Likeness of God? · Link Between the Crisis in Faith and the Crisis in Marriage. · We Have the Truth of Love. · The Sacredness and Holiness of Sex. · You Marriage as a Way to Evangelize ATN Week 20 - The Day is Far Spent · Speaker: Steve Bollman · Following Pope St. John Paul II · War, Famine, and Pestilence · The "Masters of Suspicion" · The Societal Effects of the "Ideologies of Evil" · Seeing COVID-19 with Spiritual Eyes · Cardinal Robert Sarah's Perspective on COVID-19 ATN Week 21 - The Signs of the Times · Speaker: Steve Bollman · The Three Ideologies of Evil · Supporting Actors to the Ideologies of Evil · Positivism: Replacing God with Humanity · Mistaking Technological Progress for Human Progress · Recent Signs of the Times · A Conflict of Visions ATN Week 22 - The Triumph of Divine Mercy · Speaker: Steve Bollman · Pope John Paul II's Last Message to the World · The Necessity of Understanding and Accepting Divine Mercy · Trusting in Ourselves vs Trusting in God · The Consequences of COVID-19 · Heed the Warning of Pope John Paul II · Practical Steps to Practice Divine Mercy ATN Week 23 - Angelic Guardians · Speaker: Dr. Mark Miravalle · Who Are the Angels? · The Role of the Angels · The Importance of Holy Hierarchy · The Nine Choirs of Angels · The Three Great Archangels · Fostering a Relationship with Your Guardian Angel ATN Week 24 - Renewed in Mercy · Speaker: Michael Gormley · How to Pray · What Mercy Really Means · Confronting the Darkness · Man's Search for Meaning · Presumption vs Despair · The Economy of Salvation ATN Week 25 - A New Day, A New Man · Speaker: Michael Gormley · What Kind of Man Will You Be? · The Danger of Pride · Friends of the World · Idols Always Demand a Sacrifice · Putting on the Armor of Light · The New Heavens and the New Earth ATN Week 26 - Avanti! The Harvest is Plentiful · Speaker Mark Hartfiel · Sent on Mission · All Called to Work in the Vineyard · Discovering Your Mission Field · Transformation Through Small Group · The Art of Evangelization · Pitfalls and Best Practices of Evangelization

We would like to thank President Kathrine Davillier, Vice-President Carliss Smith, Secretary Gail Williams, and Treasurer Carolyn Kass for volunteering to help run the St Anthony Ladies Club. Please support these ladies in their important responsibilities as officers of this club.

Please remember to support Community Center For Life (here in Gretna), Women's New Life Clinic (next door to Planned Parenthood on S Claiborne Ave) and Louisiana Right To Life. With your support, we can save babies and promote the dignity of all human life from womb to tomb, from conception to natural death.

We have some new altar servers for our 11:30am, Augustine and Simon. We welcome their ministry to St Joseph. More volunteers are needed, so if you know of anyone who would like to assist, please have them call Parish Office.

Congratulations to Msgr Rareshide who received the Msgr Joseph Susi Award of Honor from the Order Of The Fleur De Lis. The Order of the Fleur de LIs Award of Honor was established in 1998 to recognize and honor Catholic men and women for outstanding contributions to faith and morals in the course of their public and personal lives. Msgr Rareshide joins men and women like Abp Hannan, Lindsey Boggs, Dr Norman Francis, and Sharon Rodi in being honored for his contributions. Please remember to congratulate him the next time you see him.

BEWARE OF SCAM TEXTS ++ Someone is sending out a text from 225-220-5804 saying that it is Rev Gary Copping asking for a favor. It is a scam! Do not fall for it. If Fr Gary needs anything, it will come out of his mouth and not by a text.

THAT MAN IS YOU! is an interactive men’s program focused on the development of male leadership in the modern world. It combines the best research from science with the teachings of the Catholic faith and the wisdom of the saints to develop the vision of authentic men capable of transforming themselves, their families and greater society. Christ didn’t say, “Behold, I make new things.” He said, “Behold, I make all things new.” A new day is dawning for Catholic men. Now is our hour! The future of the world and the Church is happening on our watch. His mercy is new every morning. A new hope is rising! EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATION AS YOU DISCOVER: • Earth-shattering theological insights from some of the greatest theologians of our day. • A New Creation Story, New Spiritual Life, New Adam, New Eve, New Fruitfulness, New Tree of Life, New Fruit from the New Tree of Life. • Enkindle a deep Catholic spirituality and arm yourself with the two most powerful spiritual weapons. • Renew a profound, faithful and reverent love for the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church rooted in Sacred Scripture. • Discern what kind of men we need to save the Church and the world. • Become the man your family, our Church, and our world desperately awaits. • Be inspired to set out to re-evangelize the de- Christianized and secularized. • Become a new creation in Christ! FALL SEMESTER Week 1: All Things New Week 2: The Road to Emmaus Week 3: God’s Covenant Made New Week 4: The Lamb’s Supper Week 5: Four Great Truths about Mary Week 6: Mary, Mother of All Peoples Week 7: The Marian Message to the Modern World Week 8: The Prophetic Vision of St. John Bosco Week 9: From Protestant Pastor to Catholic Professor Week 10: Why God? Week 11: Why Jesus Christ? Week 12: Why the Catholic Church? Week 13: A New Evangelization OBJECTIVES: Journeying into the splendor of the Church exposes new depths of Catholic spirituality and devotion. The profundity of the Scriptures sets the stage for renewal of mind and heart - a new creation story, a new Adam, a new Eve, a new covenant and even a new kingdom! Prepare for the practical, the precise, the profound, and even the prophetic!

Congratulations to Debbie Swiler (President), Geri Mayville (Vice-President), Peggy Foley (Recording Secretary), and Kim Giglio (Treasurer) who were elected as the Executive Officers for our St Joseph Womens Club for 2024/2025.

Congratulations to Fr Gary Copping in being the first recipient of The St Vincent Prix du Chef Serviteur Award, which he received from the Society of St Vincent de Paul New Orleans Conference. This award is given to a priest who furthers the mission of the St Vincent de Paul Conference in his local parish/community and supports the poor through his ministry as a Shepherd of his flock.

CONSECRATION OF PARISHES TO THE PIERCED HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY +++ OH SACRED HEART OF JESUS, you have loved humanity to the extreme of allowing yourself to be pierced, becoming a living fountain where abundant graces of salvation and of conversion flow. From your open Heart flows, with power and strength, the Blood and the Water which purify, transform, vivify and liberate us.  It is from your Pierced Heart, visible sign of your love, that life flows as an ever-flowing torrent of grace which brings fecundity to the world. It is from your Heart opened by the lance, and moved by your love and mercy, that the Church, –your Spouse, your Mystical body and our Mother–, is born filled with your grace, holiness and fecundity as a perennial sacrament of your presence and seed of your unending Reign. Today, as pastor of these parishes and in communion with the faithful entrusted to me, I consecrate to your Most Sacred Heart, the parishes of St Joseph Church and St Anthony Church . We acknowledge, by this act of consecration, our desire to live in communion of love with your Eucharistic Heart, center and pillar of the life of the Church. We dispose ourselves to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who seeks to transform us and to give to us a heart like Your own. May we enter into the school of your Heart so as to acquire the virtues of humility and meekness; of obedience and self-denial; of generosity and sincere charity. Protect us from all sin, selfishness, error and indifference. Living within your Heart and allowing ourselves to be transformed by your love, may these parishes be a channel of grace, light, truth, justice, peace, mercy and charity for the world so in need. Consecrated to your Heart, we dispose ourselves to fulfill your merciful designs and to construct with authentic holiness and with fruitful, apostolic work, the civilization of love and life: the Reign of your Heart. OH IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, spiritually pierced at the foot of the Cross as a result of your perfect and indissoluble communion with the Heart of Jesus. Your Heart was also opened in order to receive, in virtue of your spiritual maternity, the Mystical Body of Christ, born from the Pierced Heart of your Son. Your Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart, receives the Church in the person of St. John the Apostles so that you may take care, nourish, protect and accompany Her, with the same dedication which you had with your Son.  To you, Virgin Mother, the Pierced Heart of Christ commissioned to protect with your attentive, maternal Heart, the Church, destined to advance the Kingdom of God in history, in the face of great battles and dangers. Today, the parishes of St Joseph Church and St Anthony placing themselves in the person of St. John, receive with profound gratitude, your maternal mission in the life of the parish and in the life of each faithful. We consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart and we ask you, who are the living school of total consecration and dedication to the Heart of Jesus, to teach us to love the Heart of your Son without divisions; to listen to Him with complete openness and docility; to obey Him with diligence and exactness; to actively cooperate with responsibility in the designs of His Heart in the historic moment in which we live. Guard us and defend us in your Immaculate Heart, sure refuge of sinners. Protect us from all that can separate us from the love of the Heart of Christ and from His Will.  Defend us, with your maternal care, from all the dangers against our eternal and present life.  OH HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY, Hope of Humanity! Today, these parishes consecrate themselves completely to the love of your Hearts.  Today we dispose ourselves to lift on high, as if on a luminous banner, the names of Jesus and Mary.  From our littleness, we desire to participate in the merciful designs which the Pierced Hearts are manifesting in the Church and in humanity. Having been consecrated to the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, we renew with greater love, fidelity and zeal, our commitment towards the call for a New Evangelization received from our Holy Father, Pope St. John Paul II. We renew our commitment towards holiness and coherence of life and to the faithful and enthusiastic proclamation of the truth, taught to us by the Magisterium of the Church. May this consecration result in fruits of conversion, charity, justice, peace, generosity and mercy in each one of us. May the Two Hearts establish their reign of love in each heart, in the priests, religious, laity committed in service and in each one of us, for the greater good of the entire Church. Amen.

The Holy See and the Saint Pio Foundation have launched a website offering online gifts to the faithful. These gifts include 10 copyright-free photographs (some never-before seen); use of “The Song of Saint Pio;” 365 letters (one per day- all written by St. Pio addressed to his spiritual directors and spiritual children); and a viewing of the first docudrama on the life of St. Pio, made in English and Spanish, co-produced with EWTN. Please see the website for more information: www.therealsaintpio.org.

The process of Inquiry – Discernment for the next permanent diaconate formation group is beginning. The following sessions will be held at the ANO Administration Office Lunch Room at 6:30 PM on the following dates: Tuesday, April 23 Wednesday, May 1 Tuesday, May 7 Wednesday, May 15 An RSVP is required. Send to [email protected] or call 504-861-6329 for more information.

The centuries-old jubilean tradition continues with you making a pilgrimage to Rome during the Holy Year 2025. Discover why Italy is a bastion of Catholicism as you visit Rome’s Seven Pilgrim Churches and the Catacombs. Attend the weekly Papal audience and receive the blessing given by the Pope. Spend time at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, the beloved saint’s hometown. Discover Michelangelo’s Last Judgment mural and explore St. Peter’s Basilica. See the world’s most inspirational sites and relics in Rome and Assisi amid the Roman Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee. February 5 - 13, 2025

Many thanks to Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Fr. Gary, the St. Joseph Women’s Club officers and members, Emily Gegenheimer, Knights of Columbus Archbishop Blenk Council #1905, Russell Kospelich, Mouse Dieterich, Eric Korndorffer, Russell Kospelich, Jr., the Holy Family Singers, and the many volunteers who devoted their time and talents to make our St. Joseph Altar the huge success it has become each and every year.

Pope John Paul II blessed the Cross and the Pilgrimage in 2004. His Successor Pope Benedict XVI blessed the Cross in 2006. This Cross has travelled to 11 countries and several US States. It is at Archbishop Shaw High School from March 8th to March 30th but it will come to us at St Joseph for Friday March 15th for the day and remain here until Monday March 18th evening. Please come out and venerate this cross. About the Cross: The Cross of Gratitude is on a pilgrimage to visit every capital city in the world. In 2033 we will celebrate the 2,000th Jubilee Anniversary of Christ's own Crucifixion and also his Resurrection and Ascension. To mark this anniversary, The Cross of Gratitude is on pilgrimage around the world. This mission was placed in the heart of Vitaliy Sobolovsky, an Ukranian man years ago. On Easter Sunday 2003 he heard the words spoken to him, "Take my Cross and carry it to all the capital cities of the world as a sign of gratitude for the salvation we receive through Jesus Christ.

Congratulations to Braylen Jiminez and Garyn Sercovich who were honored as our Altar Servers Of The Year.

Congratulations to Glenn Esteve who was chosen to be St Joseph School Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.