Fr. Taj Gladd

"You're new parochial vicar has finally arrived," boisterously acclaimed Reverand Taj Van Courtlan Gladd as he introduced himself during his first mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church on a Monday in late June. A day later in his first homily, he proclaimed, "Today's Gospel passage serves as an example to learn from. For the Christian life and as well as the Church can certainly be compared to that boat that we read about this morning because just like that boat the Church and the Christian faithful who make up the Church have to go through many storms that will threaten to capsize and sink it." He continued, "But 2000 years later, we are still standing for the Lord Jesus promised Peter that the gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church, and we can certainly take Him at His word."
The thirty-two old Crowley native earned a Bachelor in Philosophy from St. Joseph's Seminary College in 2009 and earned a Master's Degree in Divinity from Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales Corner, WI. The 2002 graduate of Crowley High School has come full circle from his first assignment as a priest at St. Pius X in Lafayette to serve the parishes of Sacred Heart and St. Joseph along with the mission chapel in Belair Cove. He feels very much at home here coming  from Crowley and is looking forward to learning French.
Fr. Gladd described how to weather these current storms such as police shootings and civil protests and how to transform our society.  He said the foundation for the Christian life especially during these storms is prayer. "Prayer is of the utmost importance," he said. "That one-on-one relationship with the Lord is not only important in the Christian life, but prayer is our answer against Satan and the world and all of their attacks because we've become indifferent to the reality that Satan is at work."
Related to this is the importance of praying as a family "because we see in our day and time the family is under a blatant violent attack never before seen in the history of our nation." He went on to say, "Marriage and family is the basis of every single society, and it continues to be so. It's no surprise that Satan is going after the family because that's at the very core of society. If he can take down the family that is the foundation of everything, then everything else goes with it."
He then stressed the importance of not only the family Rosary but the family devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "One of the devotions that has been around for some time is enthroning the family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary for that the family will always be guided by His teaching and His guidance," he said. "When we stop praying, we're leaving our families and those that we love unprotected, and Satan can go right at them without any problems. So it's important to keep these devotions that the power of Satan will not overcome even with his attacks."
The next step in building the foundation of the Christian life as Fr. Gladd noted is the importance of bringing our children to mass and building that foundation in them at the earliest age possible. "It's important to plant that seed at the earliest age possible and to nurture it that it may grow in them," he said. "And once they stand in front of the bishop when they're sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit at their Confirmation they can say with great fervor and devotion and love for God that great Amen with such faith and devotion."
Once that foundation is instilled in our lives and the lives of our family, then can we go out into the world and transform it. As Fr. Gladd often stresses, "The Second Vatican Council has been clear on this that transforming the society is not the job of priests and the monks, but that responsibilty belongs to the faithful." In doing this responsibilty we need to continually pray for the virtue of courage "for our Lord sends us out as sheep in the midst of wolves." Fr. Gladd describes this courage as "not a mere absence of fear as the world tells us but true courage is doing what is right in the eyes of God in the face of that fear in spite of that fear."
As the new parochial vicar puts it, "One of the latest dismissals we have in the latest Roman Missal is 'Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life.' If we do not live the faith, how do we expect to give it? As our Lord says, 'Nemo dat quod non habet.'" This means nobody can give what he does not have.