The 2016 football season went out like a lamb for our local Catholic school teams. St. Charles Catholic came closest to winning a division championship (you may notice that I no longer refer to the division and class finals as “state” championships because the playoffs are separated into two sections of schools that do not play each other for a common prize).

The following is an excerpt of the homily given by Father Tim Hedrick, parochial vicar at St. Catherine of Siena, at the Funeral Mass Dec. 3 for Clifton Neyrey, who died in a car wreck As we come together to pray for Clifton today, it’s not easy to wrap our minds around what happened.

Christmas Eve. The eve of the celebration of the most momentous birth in all of history – the beginning of the salvation of mankind. Christmas Eve marks the last day of anticipation – the calm before the storm.

A WARM HEART FOR THE “FREEZE BELL” Kenner I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved Peter Finney’s article in the Clarion Herald (“The real Mannequin Challenge was the freeze bell,” Dec. 3). I hadn’t thought about the “freeze bell” in years, but the article brought back so many fun memories.

Neal Golden couldn’t really do much with a curve ball, but growing up in St. Raphael Parish and later attending the Sacred Heart Brothers’ Cor Jesu High School in Gentilly, he loved playing baseball and basketball.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond led faith leaders from many religious denominations in an Interfaith Prayer Service for New Orleans Homeless Dec. 7 at St. Joseph Church on Tulane Avenue. The service included a memorial reading of the names of those who died on the streets in 2016, each represented by a lit candle carried to the front of the sanctuary.

Gerard Gerarve has spent the last 15 years dressing up as Santa Claus, to the delight of children everywhere, but this year at St. Rita School in Harahan, he decided to deck himself out in the red vestments of St. Nicholas.

On its face, the fund-raising campaign for Ascension of Our Lord Church in LaPlace seemed to target a need that was more utilitarian than spiritual. But when the parish decided to participate for the first time in the #iGiveCatholic online giving day on Nov. 29 – which brought in more than $1.8 million for 323 Catholic churches, schools and organizations in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and five other dioceses – it was trying to raise $30,000 to construct a new restroom connected to the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel.

On its face, the fund-raising campaign for Ascension of Our Lord Church in LaPlace seemed to target a need that was more utilitarian than spiritual. But when the parish decided to participate for the first time in the #iGiveCatholic online giving day on Nov. 29 – which brought in more than $1.8 million for 323 Catholic churches, schools and organizations in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and five other dioceses – it was trying to raise $30,000 to construct a new restroom connected to the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel.

Can you give us your thoughts on this year’s iGiveCatholic online giving campaign, which was even more successful than last year’s? I thought it went extremely well, which shows how faith-filled and generous people are.

Catholic Relief Services Student Ambassadors from Xavier University of Louisiana gave two workshops recently in Lafayette at the African-American Catholic Youth Congress. “It was the first time we reached out to our youth,” CRS ambassador and Xavier senior Dominique Savoy said.

Chris Lazarine breathed a sigh of relief on Thanksgiving. Just the day before as the new campus minister at the Newman Center at the University of New Orleans, he oversaw a Thanksgiving Mass and a feast that fed upwards of 200 college students.

Mount Carmel has always been blessed with outstanding individual talent on its athletic teams, and in particular, its volleyball team. Two years ago, Katie Kampen, now a sophomore at LSU, was queen of the local high school nets.

At the annual Christmas luncheon of the Council of Catholic School Cooperative Clubs last week, you made a point to repeat what you have said already about the mean-spirited nature of the recent national, state and local elections.

The cement schoolyard at St. Augustine High School, a sacred space surrounded by classrooms on three sides and by George Nick Connor Drive on the fourth, stretches about 70 yards. It is the color of well-used asphalt.

My parents can tell you that one of my favorite indulgences when coming home for the Christmas holidays or breaks during college is plopping in front of the couch and turning on HGTV. I’m a sucker for home improvement shows: decorating, learning what to avoid as a first-time home buyer, trying to understand landscape and curb appeal, not quite understanding the outlandish costs of living in tiny apartments for the appeal of big cities.

It was the one time that all of Louisiana was rooting for John Curtis Christian School. The Patriots went to Hoover, Alabama, in late September 2006 and whipped the top-ranked Hoover Bucs. The best player on the field was one of the most talented athletes ever to hail from metro New Orleans.

The Year of Mercy and its series of papal reflections may be over, but compassion and acts of mercy must continue and become a part of everyone’s daily lives, Pope Francis said. “Let us commit ourselves to praying for each other so that the corporal and spiritual works of mercy increasingly become our way of life,” he said Nov. 30 during his general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans will assume ownership and sponsorship of Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center, a senior skilled-care facility on the West Bank of New Orleans, on Jan. 1. The 138-bed facility was opened in 1999 as a collaborative effort among 16 religious congregations serving in the archdiocese to care for its aging members, along with other seniors.

De La Salle’s aspirations of winning its first football championship in its 66th year of fielding a team may have fallen two games short of its goal. But the Cavaliers did win a prize that had eluded them for the last 28 years – the CYO basketball tournament championship.