Pastor’s Letter: October 13, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: October 13, 2024

11 Oct 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessed fall to everyone! I don’t know about you all, but I have been enjoying these crisp mornings this past week. This time of year, as the harvest is in full swing, I recall some great “farm” memories from my growing up years. I always enjoyed when we would take meals out to the field—a kind of working picnic. Watching the combine gather and separate, seeing the grain transferred…all of it truly is a marvel. One memory that stands out the most was a time I was with my grandpa at the edge of a field. The harvest was completed and we were preparing to move all the equipment to the next field. My grandpa just paused at the edge of the field to look back over all of it. He smiled as he noted how flat the field looked. He said, “Whenever I see a field like this, I feel happy knowing we did everything we could this year to raise the crop…and now we are finished until the next season…everything else is in God’s hands.”

I think I have mentioned a couple of times before, but my grandpa and grandma were significant influences on me growing up. Along with my parents, I had great models of marriage and family life, as well as faithful Catholic living. My grandpa would often take me with him to daily Mass in the morning before we would head out to the fields for the day. I think I also previously shared how he would pray the Rosary each morning for our family while he did his morning stretches. My grandma was dedicated to our parish, helping take care of the altar flowers and singing in the choir. My mom was a hardworking teacher and catechist; my dad served the parish in many ways, including doing maintenance work and helping take care of the grounds. And of course, my one family rule that stands out from growing up years…we would always be together in the church 10 minutes before the Mass started. Our life at home included family prayer before meals and before bedtime.

When I think about my vocation story, I now recognize that my family provided a great environment to grow as a young Catholic man—to understand priorities and to see our Catholic Faith integrated into family life. I don’t recall us often directly talking about the priesthood, but I do remember encouraging comments now and then like the occasional “maybe you would make a good priest someday.” No doubt, all of that helped me be ready to hear the Lord’s calling at the end of my college years. When I told my family I felt called to go to seminary, I remember how excited my sister was, saying, “That is so cool!” Through those years and during my time as a priest my family has supported me and helped me always feel free to serve God and His people. One of the greatest honors of my life was when my grandma would write to me or talk to me and call me “Father.”

As we continue our survey of the Five Foundations for our Diocese, we’ll spend these next couple of weekends focused on cultivating vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. As baptized members of the Body of Christ, we start with recognizing our universal vocation which we all share: living a life of holiness and loving one another as Christ loved us. That is, we are all called to live holiness and love, no matter what the details of our daily lives look like. As I look back on my life, I see that the life and example of my family helped show me how to live the shared vocation of holiness and love. From that universal shared vocation, we have what is called a particular vocation—the path to which God calls each person. As our Diocese lays out for us, the path through which you will best hear God’s voice and to which you will respond is your secondary vocation, that is: marriage, single life, consecrated life, or priesthood.

Each of these paths has great dignity and each contributes to Body of Christ in a unique way. To be a healthy and growing Diocese we really need people who are following all four pathways. As I described earlier, our family faith life was a perfect foundation for each of us kids to discover and then be ready to follow God’s pathway—priesthood for me; married life for my siblings. One of the best gifts we can give our young people is encouragement and consistent living of life in Christ. If we are all concentrating on living holiness and love, we can help ensure our young people will be ready for the particular path God will call them to. For this week, I invite everyone to a two-part personal challenge: first, take some time to think/pray about how we are living our faith and modeling life in Christ for our young people. What is going well? What could use some work? Second, I invite everyone this week to pray for our children—for God’s blessing upon them and for generous people, family and parish community members, to share Christ’s love with them each day.

I also ask your prayers for me this week as I’ll be away for part of a continuing education program I am in. Extra thanks to Fr. Daniel and Fr. Don Henderson for taking care of everyone while I’m away. Know of my prayers for you all this week ahead!

In Christ,

Father Luke