Pastor’s Letter: February 2, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: February 2, 2025

31 Jan 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to you all this day! I hope everyone is well and experiencing some good growth during Ordinary Time. I really enjoyed all the celebrations and special activities for Catholic Schools Week—there was such good enthusiasm from our students—I especially thought our Eucharistic Procession on Friday was reverent and uplifting. I decided to participate in Thursday’s “Drop everything and read” time…it definitely has been a while since I read without some project/talk/writing in mind. It was really relaxing and I hope to do that more often! It was also great being able to join some of classes for their tour of our Cathedral downtown. I shared with some of our students the spot on the floor where Fr. David and I were for our ordination—being in that place always takes me back!

Another part of the Cathedral tour I always enjoy is our St. Thomas More Chapel, which contains hundreds of saint relics. The relics of the saints are honored, certainly as a reminder of their faithfulness and witness, but also as a boost to our journey in Christ. We are reminded that their witness is part of the foundation we enjoy and we ask their intercession that we also can grow closer to Christ and live His love out in the world.

One of those saints, whom we celebrate this week, is St. Blaise. As Enzo Lodi’s book, Saints of the Roman Calendar instructs, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Blaise (sometimes spelled Blase) on Feb 3rd each year, which corresponds to his anniversary of death. He was a bishop in Armenia, and we know he died as a martyr in witness to faith in Christ. Unfortunately, there aren’t many details about his life…but a few things that are commonly known and believed about him help us understand why he is such a great help to us…and why we associate him with the annual Blessing of Throats. Lodi shares that Blaise was imprisoned during a persecution of Christians around the years 320-324 AD. During that time, “a mother came to the bishop, asking him to cure her son who was choking on a fish bone stuck in his throat, and the bishop saved the lad with a prayer and the sign of the cross. For that reason St. Blase is venerated as a patron of those suffering from diseases of the throat.” Continuing, Lodi says, “In many churches of the Latin rite (like what we are—Roman Catholics) two blessed candles are tied or held together in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross (crossed to make an X-shape) and applied to the throat as the priest pronounces a special invocation to St. Blase to protect the individual against diseases of the throat” (p.40).

No doubt, many of you may recognize the prayer that is prayed during the blessing of throats: “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness: in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” As the prayer makes clear, we are asking God’s blessing for health through the prayers/intercession of St. Blaise. Enzo Lodi comments, “If St. Blase is invoked as a powerful intercessor for the health of the body, it is because he was a martyr for the Church; he gave witness to the sufferings of Christ. As a bishop, he also, like St. Peter, heard the words of Christ: ‘Feed my sheep,’ meaning, sacrifice yourself for my sheep. The relevance of this feast can be found in the fact that it falls in the middle of winter, as if to remind us that there is no redemption or healing of the body that is not effected through sacrifice” (p.41).

St. Blaise is included in a special group of saints called the Fourteen Holy Helpers. This is a group of 14 saints who are widely regarded as great intercessors…their devotion grew during the middle ages, especially during difficult times of plague and other diseases. The Fourteen Holy Helpers are: St. George (invoked against blood diseases), St. Blaise (throat), St. Erasmus (stomach and intestine), St. Pantaleon (consumption/tuberculosis), St. Vitus (epilepsy), St. Christopher (plague and sudden death), St Denis (headaches), St. Cyriacus (eye diseases), St. Acathius (headaches and agony at the time of death), St. Eustace (against fire, for help with family troubles), St. Giles (plague, panic, nightmares), St. Margaret of Antioch (backache and to help women in childbirth), St. Catherine of Alexandria (diseases of the tongue), and St. Barbara (against fever, lighting, fire, and sudden death).

This week, as we offer blessings for good health through the intercession of St. Blaise, maybe some of these other good witnesses can help us also! Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke