Pastor’s Letter: August 7, 2022

Pastor’s Letter: August 7, 2022

5 Aug 2022 | Posted by: chadmin

The August 7 bulletin is now available online. 

Dear friend,

Happy Feast Day of St. Philomena! The Church celebrates her feast on August 11. The body of St. Philomena was discovered on May 24, 1802 in the Catacombs in Rome. The tomb was marked with the words PAX TECUM FILUMENA, “Peace be to you, Philomena.” You can see the Latin and English translations on the wall in our church devotional candle area. The parents of St. Philomena struggled with infertility. Upon converting to Christianity, Philomena’s father, a Greek king, and mother conceived Philomena with great joy. Her parents named her Philomena, meaning daughter of light, a birth they credited to their faith in God. St. Philomena was believed to be a princess who refused to marry the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Philomena made a vow of chastity at the age of 13. Her refusal to marry Diocletian flowed from her Christian faith, which resulted in her torture and martyrdom. Tradition holds that, prior to her beheading, several attempts were made to kill her. After scourging her, an anchor was tied to her and she was thrown into the sea. The anchor miraculously broke loose and she returned to the shore dry. Arrows were shot her direction before circling back and striking those who shot at her. Like many of the great saints, her time of death is noted on a Friday at 3pm, the time of the death of Jesus. Also in our candle area, you can see the anchor, arrows, and lilies. These are all signs of her martyrdom. Sometimes the exact details of the early Church saints are difficult to know. What we do know for sure, is that our world needs the intercession of saints living chastity and strictly dedicated to God. May St. Philomena guide and protect our young and encourage all of us to live our Catholic Christian faith.

St. Philomena is our Parish Patron Saint. The Church assigns patron saints to give us heavenly role models. Every organization, trade, occupation, or person can entrust themselves to different saints for particular reasons. Our parish is entrusted to the intercession of St. Philomena by the Bishop naming her our patron. When children are born we entrust them to saints by giving them a saint name. At Confirmation, each student researches the saints to discover one that meets the desire of his or her heart. The Confirmation saint then becomes an intercessor and a lifelong inspiration. We celebrate the saints not only because of their success and their prayers for us, but that we ourselves can become saints by imitating their holiness. St. Philomena, Pray for Us!

On August 3, we started our nine-day novena prayer in honor of St. Philomena. All prayers are offered to God, but we pray through the intercession of the saints as they already enjoy the vision of God in heaven. Just as we would ask a priest or someone we trust has a strong prayer-life to pray for us, we ask the saints to pray for us because they are not living the eternal fruits of a successful earthly life. The word novena stems from the Latin word for nine. Christ called us to pray often.  The offering of a novena prayer for a particular intention not only petitions God and the saints to pray for us, but helps us be persistent in the life of prayer. A novena is the same prayer offered nine times in a row, typically nine days. Although our communal novena started August 3 and ends August 11, if you have yet to start the novena, please feel free to pick an intention to pray for and pray the St. Philomena novena prayer for nine consecutive days.

God bless,

Father David