LAKE CHARLES and CAMERON — Bishop Glen John Provost will be the celebrant of a votive “Mass to Avert Storms” on Thursday, June 1, the first day of the 2023 Hurricane Season.
The annual Mass will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Christ the King Catholic Church, 7680 Gulf Highway in Lake Charles, followed by a vehicle procession to the Historic Shrine of Our Lady Star of the Sea, 135 Our Lady Road, in Cameron, for concluding rites and prayers to begin at 6:00 p.m.
At the Shrine, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto, blessings, and the Prayer for Protection during Hurricane Season will be recited. The Shrine has been granted the privilege of inserting the invocation of “Star of the Sea” in the Litany.
The Shrine enjoys, with papal approval, the same spiritual privileges as would a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, one of the four major basilicas in the Eternal City. The pilgrimage provides a plenary indulgence with the fulfillment of certain requirements, including recent confession, reception of Holy Communion, prayers for the Holy Father, and the recitation of the Creed.
This “spiritual bond” was granted — at the request of Bishop Provost — by His Eminence, Santos Cardinal Abril y Castellò, the Cardinal Archpriest of the Basilica and His Eminence, Emmanuel Cardinal Montero de Castro, the Cardinal Apostolic Penitentiary following Bishop Provost’s 2012 ad limina visit to the Holy See.
June 1 is also to be observed as a “Day of Prayer and Fasting at the Beginning of the Hurricane Season” in the Diocese of Lake Charles.
Prayer for Safety during Hurricane Season
O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed Your order and returned to its former quietude. You are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control: the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awaken from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster.
During this hurricane season we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a stormless eternity awaits us. Amen.
The Most Reverend Maurice Schexnayder
Second Bishop of Lafayette
