Pastor’s Letter: January 19, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: January 19, 2025

17 Jan 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to you all this day! I am writing this week from my continuing education program at Mundelein Seminary. This is the third week of what will be nine weeks altogether, over the course of the next three years. I really appreciate so many of you giving encouraging comments and prayers after the Masses last weekend! I have already found the first two sessions so helpful and inspiring—I am hoping that this program will push me to grow and that our parish will benefit from the fruits of that growth over time. Know of my prayers for you all in the Masses this week!

I hope all of you have been enjoying our shift back into Ordinary Time—we will be in this first section of Ordinary Time until March 5, Ash Wednesday, when we will enter into the Lenten Season. Ordinary Time certainly can sound…well…ordinary! Perhaps the name itself makes us think that this will be a time that isn’t as exciting. No doubt, the special seasons of the Church year can be full of excitement—especially our two main celebrations of Easter and Christmas.  Those celebrations focus on who Jesus is as our Savior and how close He wants to be to us. It really is incredible to think about—almighty God, the Creator of all that is—loves us and wants to be near us—that is amazing! Our seasons of preparation before Easter and Christmas help us focus on the gift of those celebrations and help us prepare to receive those gifts.

Compared to all those wonderful truths, it might make sense for us to think that Ordinary Time is not as important…but, of course, there are tremendous graces and blessings for us during this time as well! As you may know, the focus of Ordinary Time is on all the rest of the life of Jesus, when he isn’t being born among us and isn’t offering Himself as the one perfect sacrifice….and that turns out to be a lot! The call of the disciples and apostles, the teachings of Jesus, the many miracles—Ordinary Time is our longest season of the Church year for a reason! This time provides us an opportunity to grow in our life with Christ—to grow in prayer and faith—and to work on living our faith in the midst of our daily living. The green color that we wear during this season invites us to concentrate on growth in our life with Christ.

One of the things I really enjoy during this season is that we do a much more continuous reading of a Gospel. Whereas in the other seasons we jump around the Gospels for specific readings related to the celebrations, during Ordinary Time we make a journey through chapter by chapter. This year, we will be focusing on the Gospel of Luke, which happens to be my favorite Gospel. =)  This weekend, we have one more passage from John (the Miracle at Cana) and then we’ll dive into Luke’s Gospel starting next weekend. A common description of St. Luke’s Gospel I really like is “The Great Reversal.” All throughout we will be reminded about how the poor and lowly are raised up—those that often are looked down upon in a worldly sense are being lifted up through life with Christ. This always reminds me that being a good Christian and follower of Christ is not about being the best, the fastest, the smartest, the toughest—it is about being humble and generous…it is about listening to Jesus and striving to follow Him faithfully…it is about trusting in our Lord’s love and wisdom…it is about sharing with others the goodness of God we have experienced.

Another popular description of the Gospel of Luke is the “Gospel of Wine, Women, and Song.” The “wine” part of the name comes from the many banquets in this Gospel—19 of them! We’ll often see that the meals are an opportunity for Jesus to teach on a deeper level—seeing the dignity of every person and seeing joyfully that we all are invited by Jesus to join in. The “women” part of the Gospel comes from a good number of women who are named in St. Luke’s Gospel (like Joanna and Susanna), and a description of how they helped support the ministry of Jesus and were faithful followers. The “song” part of the description comes from the three unique ancient songs that are included:  the song of Zechariah (father of St. John the Baptist, Luke 1:68-79), the song of Mary (occurs during the visitation to cousin Elizabeth, Luke 1:46-55), and the song of Simeon (happens when Jesus is presented in the temple, Luke 2:29-32). These songs are so significant that anyone who prays the Liturgy of the Hours (priests, deacons, sisters are committed to pray these; anyone else is welcome) would pray through them every day. In addition to all these people and things to note in St. Luke’s Gospel, we also can look forward to unique passages like the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) or the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

I don’t know about all of you…but can you tell I’m excited for Ordinary Time?!?!?! Know of my prayers for you all this week and that I send my blessing from the Mass!

In Christ,

Father Luke

P.S.  Next week we’ll have a special guest for the pastor’s column! =)