Pastor’s Letter: October 6, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: October 6, 2024

4 Oct 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessed weekend to you all! This weekend we are celebrating 30 years of Eucharistic Adoration here at St. Philomena! As a seminarian, I remember coming to pray here when the chapel was located in the church where the servers’ vesting room now is. I remember praying in the former convent location (now housing our 4-year old program) when I would come to visit here for my days off. These last years, I have enjoyed praying time to time in our current adoration chapel, which opened on January 1, 2011. What an amazing gift it is to have this wonderful place of prayer, a place where Jesus is always waiting for us. In a letter dated October 1995, parishioners Harry and Georgette Williams described the beginnings of regular adoration here at St. Philomena, and expressed a hope that in 50 years “the adoration program…will still be going strong.” What a great joy to celebrate we are well past the halfway point of that hope!

Sometime back, a priest of our Diocese was working in a place that had an adoration chapel. He had an evening dinner appointment with a family and was just walking out the door when a distraught man asked his help. The man shared he had been in a pattern of sin and addiction and had damaged his marriage and family life. The priest felt conflicted in the moment—he wanted to honor his commitment to the family he was meeting, but also felt that he needed to help this man. The priest said, “I want you to go pray in the adoration chapel…and I’ll meet up with you when I get back.” The man went in the chapel, knelt down, and began to pour his heart out in prayer to Jesus truly present. At one point he got very emotional and began to cry. There was a woman also praying in the chapel who noticed and moved over to a nearby seat. “Are you ok?” she asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” In that moment, the man shared what he had been through and what he had put his family through. The woman listened patiently, then smiled and asked, “Can I have your wife’s phone number? I went through the same thing last year in my family and we made it through—strengthened by this time with Jesus in adoration.” The priest returned to find the man ready for the Lord’s mercy in Reconciliation and hopeful that the Lord would strengthen him as he recommitted to faithfulness.

Eucharistic Adoration is a powerful opportunity to pray with Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. As many have said, adoration is an opportunity to look upon the One who loves us best…and to let Him look upon us. Eucharistic Adoration is an extension of the moments of adoration we have in the Mass, after the consecration of the Body and Blood of Jesus and when Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is elevated above the altar. As Jesus said, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (Jn 12:32). We often think of Jesus on the Cross, giving Himself in perfect sacrifice for us. We would be equally edified to meditate on these elevations at Mass—looking with faith upon the One who loves us perfectly. Eucharistic Adoration gives us an opportunity to extend the prayerful worship of those special moments.

Here are just a few highlights I have enjoyed sharing the last two years while speaking for the Eucharistic Revival:

• The Eucharist is the point where God and the soul meet—God with all His graces, the soul with all its wants (Archbishop Fulton Sheen).
• Pope St. John Paul II describes adoration as looking upon the face of Christ and said that the Church and the world have a great need of Eucharistic worship.
• St. Maximilian Kolbe: “Eucharistic adoration is the greatest power in the universe, capable of transforming us and changing the face of the world.” Did you know St. Maximilian Kolbe had made a resolution to visit the Blessed Sacrament 30 times each day? One of his confreres said if anyone was looking for him it was always easy to know where he would be.
• St. John Chrysostom wrote, “Where Christ is, there is heaven.”
• From Mother Teresa: “Perpetual Adoration with exposition needs a great push. People ask me: “What will convert America and save the world?” My answer is prayer. What we need is for every Parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in holy hours of prayer.” She also said, “The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament…will help bring about everlasting peace on earth.”
• Blessed Carlo Acutis: “Before the sun, we become tanned, but before the Eucharistic Jesus, we become holy.”
• St. Manuel Gonzalez Garcia reminds us Jesus is really there, He is alive and in our midst…not like a statue but alive….that means He can see us, hear us, talk to us, listen to us.
• St. Alphonsus Liguori: “You may be sure that of all the moments of your life, the time you spend before the Divine Sacrament will be that which will give you more strength during life and more consolation at the hour of your death and during eternity.”

Without a doubt, one of the best parts of my day is spent in Eucharistic Adoration. Know that I am praying in adoration this week for all of you!

In Christ,

Father Luke