Staff Members
Reverend Kenneth Smith, Pastor
As a child growing up in Natchitoches, Louisiana, I wasn’t very athletically inclined, so my kitchen at home became my comfort zone, the place where I learned how to cook and bake from an early age.
I graduated from Delgado Community College’s Culinary Arts Program, ultimately rising to the position of executive chef at the Upperline Restaurant in New Orleans. I even had the thrill of having my recipes featured several times in the New York Times.
But in 2010 at age 49, at the “the top of my game” professionally, I gave up my career as a chef to study for the priesthood at Notre Dame Seminary.
I had felt a tug toward the priesthood since the fifth grade, but had ignored it. When I was well into my 40s, I still felt drawn to the idea of becoming a priest, but I assumed it was too late for me to consider this vocation.
This mindset began to change when one of my customers at the Upperline gave me a prayer card listing a meditation written by St. Ignatius Loyola. The prayer read, in part:
"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess you have given me. I surrender it all to you to be disposed of according to your will.”
The person who gave me the prayer card was none other than Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
When I first read the prayer, I thought, “This is too hard to even say, because it’s asking me to let everything go!” I told myself, “No! I’ve worked too hard for this stuff!”
But I took the prayer card and tucked it into my Bible.
Around the same time, I started attending daily Mass at Mater Dolorosa Church and found myself riveted by the Masses celebrated by Father Francis Ferrié. I began sitting in the front pew and soon realized that the “surrender” prayer that Archbishop Aymond had offered me was getting easier and easier to say!
The next time I saw the archbishop at the restaurant, I marched right up to his table, shook his hand and asked him, “What’s the process to become a priest?” He answered, “Talk to the bishop.”
Of course, I was talking to the bishop – and the rest is history!
(Read the full story at the Clarion Herald)
I graduated from Delgado Community College’s Culinary Arts Program, ultimately rising to the position of executive chef at the Upperline Restaurant in New Orleans. I even had the thrill of having my recipes featured several times in the New York Times.
But in 2010 at age 49, at the “the top of my game” professionally, I gave up my career as a chef to study for the priesthood at Notre Dame Seminary.
I had felt a tug toward the priesthood since the fifth grade, but had ignored it. When I was well into my 40s, I still felt drawn to the idea of becoming a priest, but I assumed it was too late for me to consider this vocation.
This mindset began to change when one of my customers at the Upperline gave me a prayer card listing a meditation written by St. Ignatius Loyola. The prayer read, in part:
"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess you have given me. I surrender it all to you to be disposed of according to your will.”
The person who gave me the prayer card was none other than Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
When I first read the prayer, I thought, “This is too hard to even say, because it’s asking me to let everything go!” I told myself, “No! I’ve worked too hard for this stuff!”
But I took the prayer card and tucked it into my Bible.
Around the same time, I started attending daily Mass at Mater Dolorosa Church and found myself riveted by the Masses celebrated by Father Francis Ferrié. I began sitting in the front pew and soon realized that the “surrender” prayer that Archbishop Aymond had offered me was getting easier and easier to say!
The next time I saw the archbishop at the restaurant, I marched right up to his table, shook his hand and asked him, “What’s the process to become a priest?” He answered, “Talk to the bishop.”
Of course, I was talking to the bishop – and the rest is history!
(Read the full story at the Clarion Herald)
Georganna Alphonso,
Parish Secretary
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Terri Dunn,
Parish Receptionist
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Kathy Huff,
Director of Religious Education
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