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While being flanked by brother priests from the Diocese of Lafayette, Fr. Mitch Guidry elevates the Blessed Sacrament during his 25th Anniversary Mass of being a priest. The Mass was on the patronal feast day of Our Lady, Queen of All Saints, on Monday, August 22. Among the priests present were those currently and formerly assigned to churches in Evangeline Parish and those who are native sons of Evangeline Parish. (Gazette photos by Tony Marks)
By: TONY MARKS
Editor
Stories of growing up together in Church Point and entering the seminary together were shared as Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, delivered the homily during an anniversary Mass for his friend Fr. Mitch Guidry, pastor of Our Lady, Queen of All Saints Church in Ville Platte. The 25th anniversary of Fr. Guidry’s ordination was on Monday, August 22, the parish’s patronal feast day of The Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
During his homily, Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ, recalled memories shared with Fr. Guidry. The two were best of friends from the age of 5.
“Mitchell taught me all about farming because he had farm animals at his house,” Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ, recalled during one of his stories. “I think it was Mitchell who taught me how to coax a live chicken to fall asleep in your arms.”
He later recalled, “In fact, I probably owe my Jesuit vocation to Mitchell because, in my senior year halfway through my application process to the Diocese of Lafayette, Mitchell told me that our history teacher said that I should be a Jesuit, and, all of a sudden, I wanted to be a Jesuit out of nowhere. A few months later, I was in, and I’ve been in ever since for 34 years now.”
Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ, went on to share he and Fr. Guidry continue to be best of friends and help each other to discern their paths and important decisions as priests.
“I was a Jesuit for many years before just a few years ago when for the first time I became a parish priest because most Jesuits are not parish priests,” said Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ. “I went to Mitchell and said, ‘Just like you taught me how to put that chicken to sleep you need to teach me how to be a parish priest. Mitchell taught me how to be a parish priest.”
Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ, then spoke about the day’s memorial. “Today,” he said, “we celebrate the Queenship of Mary, and we get to read my favorite reading about Mary, the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel comes and says, ‘Go,’ to Mary, and Mary goes.”
He went on to say, “At some point, the angel came to Mitchell Guidry and said, ‘Go,’ and tonight we celebrate that he went. But, go happens to be the easier part of vocations. It’s stay that’s more difficult. Many people go, but only a few stay. So we’re celebrating Mitchell’s go, and we’re celebrating his stay.”
Fr. Thibodeaux, SJ, also gave thanks to Mary for, what he called, the extraordinary moments of her life.
He said, “We thank her for her fiat, for her fleeing to Egypt, her finding of the child in the temple. We thank her, most especially, for the incredible moment of standing before her Son’s Cross. We thank the Queen for all of this today, but we thank her for all of the ordinary moments too.”
As he concluded his homily, Fr. Thibodeaux expressed, “Today, I’m celebrating Mitchell’s loyalty to me as a friend, but all of us are celebrating Mitchell’s loyalty to his best friend- his friend who loved him before he was born. We celebrate Mitchell’s loyalty to his friend who was loyal to him even unto death on a tree. We celebrate Mitchell’s loyalty to the friend who was with him in the good days of his priesthood and the hard times of his priesthood and all of the ordinary moments too. We celebrate Mitchell’s loyalty to the Son of the Queen.”
A reception followed the Mass at the Ville Platte Civic Center.
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