Mass, Jazz, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and St. Jude
Nothing says jazz like New Orleans, and nothing says Catholic like the Mass. So, a jazz Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday in New Orleans at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and International St. Jude Shrine was a blessing on many levels. I had traveled from North Dakota with a son and his family.
All That Jazz
Looking for a nearby Sunday service, we discovered Our Lady of Guadalupe just a couple of miles from where we were staying. “They have two jazz Masses every week,” my son announced reading the parish website. Jazz Mass? Would it be some version of Mass turning worship into entertainment? Comments from Trip Advisor described it as an uplifting, high-energy, and welcoming experience, but accolades from a travel site could mean anything.
We slipped into our pew towards the back of an already very full church that soon became standing room only. As the priest and altar servers proceeded up the aisle, the church came alive with a jazzy rendition of a song inspired by Psalm 118:24, “This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made.”
The musicians were cornered off to one side in the front, hidden from most of the congregation, singing and playing their hearts out but as worshipers not performers. The songs were a blend of jazz and gospel music with traditional Catholic hymns, incorporating horns, drums, and a powerful choir. The Mass from beginning to end was captivating, respectful, and holy.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;
make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King” (Ps. 98:4-6).
There was no harp, but the rest was covered. The music at such a beautiful, historic mission church was only one of the many blessings we discovered there.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
This urban, interracial parish brimmed with people extending a warm welcome to visitors and giving enthusiastic greetings with one another.
It has deep roots in the history of the city. Our Lady of Guadalupe parish is the oldest church building in New Orleans, dating from 1826 (original cost $14,000). It initially served as the Mortuary Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua to hold funerals for yellow fever victims. People feared that transporting the dead through the streets could spread the disease, so the mortuary chapel was established half a mile away and burials banned from St. Louis Cathedral. Its nearby cemetery was the main burial location for most of New Orleans’ Catholic families.
Later, in 1841, the chapel also began performing baptisms to relieve St. Louis Cathedral somewhat, and by 1860, church services were held there for the Confederate army. In 1903, the Dominicans came to serve the growing Italian immigrant community, but nine days after founding the new St. Anthony Parish, the pastor died, and the chapel was abandoned.
Parish life returned, however, in 1918. Upon the bishop’s request, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived and began to minister to the parish renamed Our Lady of Guadalupe, honoring Our Blessed Mother who appeared in Mexico to the Indigenous peasant St. Juan Diego four times between December 9 and December 12, 1531. A large painting of her image was placed behind the altar.
Today, the butter-colored church interior brings softness to surrounding stain glass windows and other sacred images and paintings. Outside, between the church and gift shop, is a grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes with an area to light candles.
International Shrine of St. Jude
A prayer to St. Jude (Thaddeus) was the first novena my husband and I ever prayed in 1990. We moved from one state to another and rented our house while it was still for sale. The renters trashed it, and it seemed we would have to foreclose. I read about St. Jude being the patron saint of desperate causes. I found a novena, and my husband and I prayed it together.
At the end, the renters heard a loud noise from the basement that scared them so much they left the next day. My in-laws had a sudden change of heart after moving to Hawaii, not wanting to be there, and offered to move into our house and fix it up. Six months later, it looked beautiful and sold quickly. Praise God, and thank you, St. Jude!
My story is one of countless for people turning to St. Jude for his intercession. While the National Shrine of St. Jude was founded in Chicago in 1929, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church houses a shrine to St. Jude as well. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate had initiated parish novenas to St. Jude beginning in 1935. Many felt their prayers were answered, so they continued the devotion, fostering a strong local, then regional, following.
The Shrine of St. Jude became a pilgrimage site due to the popularity of its St. Jude novenas. In the 1930s, a shrine to St. Jude was built to the left of the altar and includes a relic of St. Jude. The St. Jude Center is across the street.
This parish, which is now designated as an International Shrine of St. Jude, had a large banner in front of the church, announcing they were in the midst of praying a novena to him, which they do four times a year—one for every season. They gather shortly after each Mass to pray for his intercession together.
Today, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish is a welcoming, diverse, inner-city community of believers united by a strong Catholic faith. Their website proclaims, “Through family centered and spirit-filled worship, education, outreach and generous service to the poor and homeless of our community, we proclaim and live out the Gospel in contemporary New Orleans.”
Author’s Note: You can connect with the parish by Facebook. For more information on the history of the church and shrine, go here.
Photo by Jens Thekkeveettil on Unsplash
