Dear Parents:
Thank you for your continued support and patience as we move through our second week of digital learning at Opelousas Catholic. If you are following your student’s assignments, I am sure you saw some adjustments in instruction this week from last week. As I noted before, we are still learning and adjusting assignments and workload as we go.
I do have three points to make today:

1. If you have questions, please address the questions to the person directly responsible for monitoring instruction at that grade level. For PreK-5^th grade, that would be Matt Citron (citronm@ocsvikings.com); in grades 6-10, Liz Meche (mechel@ocsvikings.com); grades 11-12, Marty Heintz (heintzm@ocsvikings.com); religion in any grade, John Braham (brahamj@ocsviklings.com); and technology questions, Beth Hebert (bghebert@ocsvikings.com). We do ask that you contact the teacher first, however, for any questions about assignments, workload, tests and quizzes.
2. Assignments come with due dates and we are finding that many students are not submitting their work in accordance with the time requirements. There must be deadlines and we have to assess students accordingly when work is submitted late. All of us are understanding and if we receive an occasional email from a parent telling us of a problem, we will work with you.
3. Finally, there will be no work assigned or due from Wednesday, April 7 through Monday, April 13. This period is our official Holy Week and Easter break. I encourage you to spend that time with your children and family and forget about school just as you would in any other year.

I wish I had that crystal ball so I could see where we will be on April 13, but none of us can predict anything at this point. Please continue to pray for our state and country and especially for our OC family, many of whom are struggling with lost jobs and income.
Thank you, again, for helping us keep our students on track. Our teachers are working – and I can tell you from my own experience that it takes me a lot longer to create, assign, grade, and provide feedback electronically than it ever did in actual face-to-face classroom instruction.
Once a Viking, always a Viking!
Marty Heintz

Acadiana Catholic Available Online May 2020
 
Click here to view your copy.
 

“Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

 
My Dear Colleagues , Families and Friends of Opelousas Catholic School

This past Sunday, we celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday.  This feast day enables us to receive graces from Jesus, who offers us great forgiveness through a divine unconditional love that can only be given to us by God the Father.  As we look back on Sunday’s gospel (St. John 20:19-31) we experience the first example of this amazing divine love.  We all know the story of St. Thomas the apostle, who like the other apostles, feared certain doom like the punishment of crucifixion because of their association with Jesus.  As word arrived that Jesus had truly risen, Thomas was the first to deny the truth for he thought it was a trick to catch the apostles.  He went further into claiming that he would not believe until he put his hand in the side of Jesus and his fingers in the wounds of Christ’s hands.  Now, we know in this Gospel,  Jesus did appeared to the apostles with Thomas present, Thomas claimed then he believed but our Lord Jesus did not let him off the hook and He forced Thomas to fulfill his very own prophesy of belief on his terms.

As we fast forward to present day, this story offers us amazing lessons of not just our faith but the amazing lesson that God’s unconditional love knows no boundaries.  St. Thomas actually offers us great hope in our own personal relationship with Jesus.  That hope stems from knowing that even as Jesus’ closest companions hid in fear, one even denied knowing Him and one even denied the Resurrection without proof, He never gave up on them and offered them forgiveness time and time again.  Jesus knew and still knows today that our personal faith journey’s will have peaks and valleys and there will be times that we will fail in fulfilling our obligation of love for Him.  Even though we go through our lives doubting God’s plan, doubting God’s love and doubting God’s forgiveness, we gain great “hope” in the powerful, unconditional great love and divine mercy to continue on seeking forgiveness and starting over daily in our journey with Christ.

May we all continue to do our very best in spreading Christ’s message of love and service to all we encounter.  I pray that God continues to give you all great strength during this time of social distancing and isolation.  May you continue to enjoy this great gift of reconnecting with family and an amazing God who loves you more than you will ever know.  All my prayers for health and peace.
 


---John Braham
Campus Minister
Opelousas Catholic School


 

For your child or children, do you want a place where:

* their faith will be reinforced
* they will be in a safe and loving environment
* they will learn from top quality teachers
* they will have access to a variety of extracurricular activities, strong athletic programs, and fun social events????

Then Opelousas Catholic School is the place to be!

Enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year is in progress. If you have not enrolled your child, please do so now. Classes are filling up, especially in kindergarten and first grade. We remind parents of potential NEW students to first complete the online application for admission by clicking here.

Opelousas Catholic is now a latex free zone as well as a nut free zone. We have recently discovered that we have students and faculty with latex allergies. We have several students with severe (deadly) allergies to peanuts and other nuts. There are other students with less severe, but still threatening nut allergies. Parents and students from grades PreK-12 are reminded to refrain from bringing any products with nuts on campus. 

Our Lady Queen of Angels Church

St. Landry Church

 

Immaculate Conception Church

Holy Ghost Church

Our Lady of Mercy Church