Pastor’s Letter: May 11, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: May 11, 2025

9 May 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to you all this day! As I am writing this, the cardinal-electors are gathering to begin the selection of a new Pope to serve as our Holy Father. Perhaps by the time you are reading this we will already have a new Pope announced! If we are beforehand, we continue praying for the Holy Spirit to guide the selection…if already announced we pray and ask the Lord’s blessing for the new Pope’s ministry and service to our Church!

As I mentioned last week, the Church is celebrating the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. Our first reading this weekend makes reference to the Faith going out to the Gentiles—to the outside world, so it is fitting that we continue reviewing this great summary of our core beliefs. This week, we’ll reflect on the meaning of the word Creed…which also helps explain why the Creed is important.

According to Fr. Guy Oury, “a Latin word for the Creed is symbolum. Its first meaning is that of a sign, a mark of recognition by which an envoy is accredited or strangers know each other as belonging to the same group. The ‘symbol’ of faith identifies Christians. People who are not Christian cannot profess it without a lie on their part” (The Mass, p.71). So, the Creed is kind of like a special handshake that lets people know that we are “in the group.” In reality, it serves the purpose of identification. Did you know that in early Christian days (before Christianity was a legal religion in the Roman Empire), traveling Christians had a special sign for identification? When a Christian met another traveler, he or she would draw half of the outline of a fish in the sand.  (The fish was chosen because in Greek both fish and Jesus are very similar sounding words.) If the fellow traveler completed the drawing, both would know that it was safe to talk about the Christian Faith. Along those lines of our Christian identity, as we noted last week, professing the Creed is a public way of proclaiming we are all united together in our Christian Faith.

While it may be true to say that the Creed is like a special handshake letting people know who we are, it is important to note that it is not a secret handshake. Since we openly profess our Faith before the world, there is nothing secret about it!

In addition to being a sign of our unity, the Creed also is a summary of the core doctrines we believe in and an important part of the Mass. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states, “The purpose of the Creed or Profession of Faith is that the whole gathered people may respond to the Word of God proclaimed in the readings taken from Sacred Scripture and explained in the Homily and that they may also honor and confess the great mysteries of the faith by pronouncing the rule of faith in a formula approved for liturgical use and before the celebration of these mysteries in the Eucharist begins” (GIRM, 67). I realize that is quite a sentence! To sum that up a little more clearly, Charles Belmonte writes, “The symbol or Creed expresses our response and assent to what we have just heard in the readings and in the homily” (Understanding the Mass, p.99).  All of this is a long way of saying: we have heard the truths of the Faith; now we profess them together!

Ok, Father, so we’ve been over where the Creed comes from and how we profess together…Why do we stand up to profess our Faith? Fr. Joseph McGloin, S.J., says, “At this point of the Mass, it’s as though somebody asked, ‘Are you a Christian?’ To answer that question we don’t just sit there mumbling; we stand and tell the world that we are indeed Christians, and that this is what we believe as followers of Christ. The fact that we stand means we are proud of what we are about to say…”  (How to Get More out of the Mass, p.80).

Throughout the Mass there are many postures we use—all of which help our bodies and souls to pray together. Sitting is a posture of receiving (we receive God’s word). Kneeling is a posture of adoration (we adore Christ who becomes present on the altar). Similarly, genuflecting is a gesture of honor (we honor Christ who is present in the tabernacle). Meanwhile, standing is a posture of reverence and respect (we stand to pray, to honor Christ’s life and words in the Gospel, and to profess the Christian Faith).

During the Year of Faith, the Diocese of Peoria taught, “Through the Creed, we as a community of believers stand and profess, in precise terms, the foundations of our faith.  We stand for the Creed because of its importance in our Church and in our lives…”

As we continue reviewing the Creed, next time we’ll start taking a look at the content, looking at the individual points of belief. In the meantime, if anyone asks what Catholics believe, stand up with vigor, (get the card out if you need it) and profess the Creed! =)

Know of my prayers and blessing this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke