Louisiana boat procession to highlight saints known for love of Eucharist

LAFAYETTE, Louisiana — The annual Fête-Dieu du Têche within the Diocese of Lafayette takes place on the feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, and this yr’s 40-mile eucharistic procession by boat down the Bayou Têche coincides with the U.S. Catholic Church’s three-year Nationwide Eucharistic Revival now underway.

“In an effort to domesticate a deeper devotion to Jesus’ presence within the Eucharist, boaters will be capable of select a patron from a listing of fifty eucharistic witnesses — saints and blesseds “who exemplified a life completely devoted to Jesus within the Holy Eucharist,” in keeping with a information launch about this yr’s occasion.

Saints identified for his or her love of the Eucharist can be highlighted, together with St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Jean Vianney, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Teresa of Kolkata, in addition to Blessed Carlo Acutis.

Boats will characteristic cutouts, flags and banners bearing the title of their chosen saint and current quotations from them in regards to the significance of the holy Eucharist.

“The intention for the all-day non secular and cultural celebration can be for a ‘Renaissance Eucharistique’ in Acadiana and past,” the discharge stated.

Acadiana refers back to the French Louisiana area — composed of twenty-two parishes — that’s house to the Cajun individuals. Cajuns are descendants of the Acadians, a individuals exiled from present-day Nova Scotia by the British in the course of the French and Indian Warfare. They settled alongside the bayous and prairies of southwest Louisiana.

Mary is the patroness of the Acadian individuals and of Acadiana. This yr her feast day marks the 257th anniversary of when these French Canadian immigrants first got here to this a part of Louisiana, bringing their Catholic religion with them.

“After the French and Indian Warfare, round 1763, the British demanded that these dwelling in present-day Nova Scotia resign their Catholic religion and swear allegiance to the British King,” stated Lafayette Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel.

“Those that didn’t have been expelled from the nation. They misplaced their lands, their properties and a few their lives,” he stated. “It was the primary instance of ethnic cleaning within the New World. Many got here to settle in south Louisiana the place it was French and Catholic.”

“They introduced their tradition, their meals and their Catholic religion — a particular devotion to the holy Eucharist and Mary the Mom of God,” he added.

Fête-Dieu du Têche will start with an 8 a.m. Mass celebrated in French by Bishop Deshotel at St. Leo the Nice Catholic Church in Leonville.

Following the Mass, there can be a procession with the Blessed Sacrament and a statue of Mary and St. Joseph to the close by boat touchdown. Households are inspired to affix the procession as a household and comply with it to the boat touchdown for Benediction.

The Blessed Sacrament can be fastened on an altar on the lead boat beneath a cover. One other boat will carry the statue of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At 9:30 a.m., boats will depart in procession down the Bayou Têche towards St. Martinville, retracing the voyage made by the Acadians 257 years in the past. Bayou residents are inspired to collect as a household and greet the Blessed Sacrament because it passes close to their house.

The boats will cease to permit their passengers to disembark for the rosary and Benediction at church buildings within the cities alongside the best way: St. Francis Regis Church, Arnaudville; St. Joseph Church, Cecilia; St. Bernard Church, Breaux Bridge; and St. Joseph Church, Parks.

The ultimate cease can be St. Martinville. Contributors will disembark and stroll in procession to Notre Dame de Perpetual Secours for Benediction, then to St. Martin de Excursions for benediction, and at last to Mater Dolorosa Chapel for solemn vespers and Benediction.

Fifteen clergymen can be obtainable to listen to confessions in cell models at every of the stops alongside the best way.

Along with those that be part of within the eucharistic procession by boat, others with journey by automobile and collect alongside the banks of the bayou on the varied deliberate stops.

“The Most Blessed Sacrament touring by boat on the bayou, which was a serious channel of transportation for our ancestors, calls to thoughts the very important position that the Eucharist has performed within the religion of Acadiana,” stated Bishop Glen J. Provost of Lake Charles, a neighboring diocese of the Lafayette Diocese.

The area’s Catholic religion “is the material that creates our distinctive tradition right here in south Louisiana,” stated Louisiana Legal professional Normal Jeff Landry.

“Fête-Dieu du Têche is an expression of our religion in God, our respect for household and devotion to our group that enable us to construct a greater tomorrow,” he added.

Father Michael Champagne, a priest of the Group of Jesus Crucified in St. Martinville, who’s the organizer of the daylong occasion, stated the all-day flotilla requires some 120 volunteers to guarantee that its many “transferring components” synchronize.

One volunteer, Denise Denais, who’s accountable every year for boat registration, famous that she “has skilled a deeper religion in witnessing the various prayerful devoted lining the banks of the bayou merely to worship Our Lord within the Holy Eucharist.”

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Editor’s Notice: Extra info could be discovered on-line at https://www.jesuscrucified.web or www.fb.com/CommunityofJesusCrucified. A livestream can be obtainable the day of the procession on the Fb web page.