Mass Intentions & Stipends

Request a Mass Intention

Revised 1 February 2022

1. Individual Mass stipends are $5.00. All of the dioceses in the state of Louisiana have agreed that this is the basic amount requested for offering a Mass for an intention.
2. Any person may offer a Mass stipend for any pious intention:
   • deceased family member(s) or friend(s);
   • chronically ill persons;
   • other intentions, after discussion with the pastor, (generally listed as “special intention.”)
3. A Mass intention with a stipend can only be accepted on a year by year basis and will be accepted for any regularly scheduled weekday or Sunday Mass except:
   • One Sunday Mass each weekend obliged by canon law to be offered for the parishioners as a whole; this Mass will rotate through the available Sunday Masses. This is listed as pro populo or “for the people” and no stipend may be received for it.
   • Holy Day Masses sometimes have required and/or appropriate intentions which take precedence.
   • Thursday Mass will be celebrated for “All The Deceased Members of our Parish.” This list includes all members of the parish or parishioner family members who have died within the last year, as well as those names added by request of parishioners through the use of All Souls Day envelopes or other requests.
   • One Sunday Mass (4:00PM, 7:00AM, 9:00AM, 11:00AM) every other week will be kept “open,” that is, no advance intention will be accepted. This is to allow for recently deceased during the course of the year to have Masses, or in case of a need to include an unexpected “emergency” intention, or to cover a “postponed” intention.
   • Nota Bene: When a stipend has been accepted for a Mass, and for some particular reason a priest is not in the parish to celebrate that Mass, a Mass for that intention will be celebrated as soon as possible.
4. Because of the number of people requesting Masses, individuals are kindly asked to limit their initial requests to three (3) Masses per year. Generally, this would mean one Sunday Mass and two weekday Masses.
5. Because Catholic Church law allows for “collective” or multiple Mass intentions as often as twice each week, the Mass on Tuesday mornings and Thursday (see 3c above) mornings are reserved for multiple intentions. This means that as many individuals as want may offer stipends for intentions to be included in these Masses. Each Mass will be offered for all of the requested intentions. In other words, rather than only one name or intention, there would be a list of names, as many as are received, for these Masses.
6. Mass intentions, rather than being “announced” at the Mass, will simply be listed in a church bulletin insert.
7. Ordinarily, intentions and stipends for the coming year, January 1 to December 31 begin to be collected on July 1 at the church office at 8:30AM. Acceptance of intentions will continue until all available Masses are filled. The end of available Masses will be announced in the parish bulletin.
8. Sanctuary Lamp memorial donations/intentions, chapel candle donations, and missalette memorial donations will also be accepted at this time for the following calendar year. Please limit your sanctuary lamp donations to one per family per year.

This policy is an accord with the Code of Canon Law (1983) and The Pagella and Policies of the Diocese of Baton Rouge (2009).
 

Request a Mass Intention