Pastor’s Letter: September 29, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: September 29, 2024

27 Sep 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings and peace to you all this day! I hope all of you are enjoying the nice fall weather. As I am writing this, I am looking forward to a trip this coming week with my parents—we are traveling to visit my brother and his family so we can celebrate birthdays and my folks’ 50^th wedding anniversary. How will we celebrate? While the plans aren’t set in stone, I have no doubt we’ll celebrate in the normal way for our family—we’ll be together for a Mass and a nice meal. When I think about my mom and dad, I think about their good example of faith and hard work. Their daily prayer routine is something I often share when I am meeting with engaged couples. Certainly, their commitment to Mass and prayer has been a steady foundation for our family through the years. Through ups and downs, their regular Mass and daily prayer has strengthened them in living out their wedding vows and has borne great fruit for our family and surrounding community.

As we come to the month of October, we also arrive at a significant anniversary for our parish—the 30^th anniversary of Eucharistic Adoration here at St. Philomena! I’ll reflect more on our Adoration Chapel next week, but I wanted to invite everyone to a special holy hour next Saturday, Oct 5 (after the 8am Mass) that will be led by our seminarians Deacon Ben and Jonathan. They will lead us in prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist and share some reflections on how to pray during Eucharistic Adoration.

Celebrating the anniversary of Eucharistic Adoration in our parish makes this a fitting time to move on to the next of our Five Foundations for our Diocese:  Devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Without question, the last two years of serving as a traveling preacher for the Eucharistic Revival was a unique and fulfilling opportunity to preach about the gift of Jesus truly present in the Eucharist.  (In case anyone wonders, I really enjoyed it, but am thankful to be finished up with almost weekly travel! =) ). For me as a priest, the opportunity to focus every day in prayer, study, writing, and preaching was refreshing and energizing. That time also resulted in me always having a lot to say when it comes to the Eucharist!  Maybe for today, I’ll challenge myself to just share a few highlights…

Whenever we talk about the gift of the Eucharist, we always talk about our greatest treasure, the source and summit of our Faith (CCC, 1324-1327). In our Catholic Faith, we believe that the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ during the words of the consecration at Mass…”This is my Body…This is the Chalice of My Blood…” We believe that Jesus is truly present in even the smallest particle of a Host or the smallest droplet from the consecrated chalice. Because Jesus is truly present, we believe the Mass connects us with Jesus in the Last Supper and on the Cross—we rightly call the Mass a participation in the one true sacrifice. For those who are able to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we believe He unites us more closely to Himself and to one another—making Holy Communion a true Sacrament of Unity. Enjoying a taste of the unity Jesus desires for us also makes the Eucharist a foretaste of the perfection of Heaven. As if all that were not enough, the true presence of Jesus remains and we reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle so that Communion may be brought to the sick, as well as having an opportunity for ongoing prayer and adoration which flows from the Mass. What a gift! What a great reminder of how much Jesus loves us and wants to unite us together!

I invite you this week just to spend an extra minute after the Mass in a prayer of thanksgiving. Please join me in being thankful to Jesus for all the ways He blesses us, especially through the gift of His true presence in the Eucharist! Know of my prayers and blessing this week.

In Christ

Father Luke