Healing chapel at St. Anthony of Padua, Luling, honors Mary

The inscription over the door at the new healing chapel at St. Anthony of Padua in Luling reads: “I am the one appointed by the eternal Father to crush the head of the ancient serpent and anything that threatens to devour you. Say my rosary and bring me a rose and I will take your troubles to my son, Jesus Christ.”

“It is not a Mass chapel, although we will have Mass in there,” said Father Anthony Odiong, pastor. “It is a rosary chapel. It’s the miracle of the rosary. You bring her flowers; every rose reflects the beauty and sublime nature of the Blessed Mother. There is no tabernacle. Mary is the tabernacle in this chapel.”

During the Nov. 21 dedication, Archbishop Aymond congratulated parishioners for their generosity and faith that built the beautiful chapel to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas.

“Almighty and ever-living God, pour out your grace upon this place and extend the gift of your help to all who call upon you here, and upon the intercession of your mother, Mary, that the power of your word and your sacraments and the opportunity to pray quietly before you may strengthen the hearts of all the faithful,” he prayed during the dedication.

Prayer brought healing

The chapel, designed by Murray Architects of Destrehan, reflects the Spanish Colonial exterior of St. Anthony’s original parish church. On the outside of the 30-seat chapel is a “Wall of Grace” mural painted by R.C. Davis.

“It’s a big explosion of heaven acknowledging Mary’s role in the plan of salvation,” Father Odiong said. “It is a representation of the plan of salvation, the Father sending his Son, sending the Spirit and also crowning his mother. Mary is the only creature that releases the Holy Trinity in the most fascinating fashion. She is mother, she is daughter of the Father, mother of the Son and spouse of the Spirit. I am trying to capture that teaching on the wall.”

Other special elements include a rosary walk encircling the chapel on the walkway outside; a Seven Sorrows rosary on the floor inside; and the faces of 12 apostles in marble on the outside, surrounding the Blessed Mother, to encourage praying the Apostle’s Creed.

Father Odiong said the chapel’s inspiration was a life-sized image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Oblate Father Tony Rigoli gifted him when he visited Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in New Orleans in 2016. He said this treasure – one of the first copies made in 1981 from the shrine in Mexico City to mark 450 years of the 1531 apparition of Mary to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill – traveled the world and landed in New Orleans as one of the many blessings to the city.

The icon was a fulfillment of a message Father Odiong said he heard when he first arrived at the parish in 2015 and was praying in front of Mary’s statue by an outdoor fountain in the parish, wondering why she had brought him to Luling. The fountain is now under an overhang leading to the chapel’s entrance.

The message he heard was that Mary would protect him as he reignited a healing ministry – begun in Africa in 2000 but dormant in the states – in Luling during the 2016 “Year of Mercy.”

“People had forgotten the value of her, so I decided to build her a mansion,” Father Odiong said. “That is what the chapel is all about.”

Three-year effort

A three-year chapel capital campaign began in 2017 with a groundbreaking on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12, 2017. He has since raised more than $600,000.

“People have donated from Texas to Arizona and all over the place,” Father Odiong said, and many attend his healing services on the last Thursday of the month.

Father Odiong said Catholics are hungry for truth and are naturally drawn to something authentic. Ordained in 1993, he served the Diocese of Austin, Texas, from 2006-12, and studied for three years in Rome for a doctoral degree in dogmatic theology. He also has a master’s degree in theology from The Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. He came to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2015.

“If they meet God in the man, they will come,” Father Odiong said. “He must be a student of the truth of life. The church teaches what Christ has given to us. People are hungry and thirsty, and if you give them what they need, they will come back.”

Father Odiong credits devotion to Mary and the healing ministry with St. Anthony of Padua’s growth from 280 to 650 parishioners. Since receiving the gifted icon, Father Odiong has researched Our Lady of Guadalupe and said the colorful image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma, from which Juan Diego poured out his roses to the bishop, is the only representation of Mary given by Mary.

“When Juan Diego was told to bring the Castile roses to the top of the mountain, Mary arranged the roses with her own hands,” he said. “This image is as close to her as possible. She is always present in Mexico City, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is giving to America what she has given to Mexico City. I think my role is supposed to be the new Juan Diego.”

Father Odiong said Mary has been coming for 100 years to offer a warning of the crisis of today: the pandemic, change in political leadership, etc.

“The Blessed Mother wants us to realize that at every crossroads in history, she is present,” he said.

Father Odiong said she wanted a house, and he was the catalyst to build a chapel in south Louisiana as a base for Mary’s mission to heal the nation.

“I understand now that it has something to do with the destiny of this country because we began to build this chapel March 9 at the beginning of this pandemic,” he said.

The parish’s fountain, where he prayed for guidance, has a mural of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in it.

“The Blessed Mother said, ‘My heart will triumph,’” Father Odiong said. “Americans should not be worried these days. She will triumph over what’s happening. This is her battle with the devil.”

Father Odiong has noticed a rising addiction problem and sees the chapel as a healing place for families to come and pray the rosary.

“I also hope that many people who no longer go to church will be drawn to her as a first step back to church,” he said. “Maybe, they will be inspired by her to come back to church.”

Father Odiong welcomes everyone to the chapel to be comforted in Mary’s arms. Quoting Mary’s words to Juan Diego, “Am I not your mother? Don’t I hold you in the crossing of my arms, and if so, the fold of my mantle?”

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be celebrated at a candlelight Mass Dec. 12 at 6 p.m. in front of the healing chapel. Bring a lawn chair. A rosary will be recited at 5:30 p.m. A reception with a live band will follow. The church is located at 234 Angus Drive, Luling.

cbordelon@clarionherald.org