Pastor’s Letter: May 18, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: May 18, 2025

16 May 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings and continued Easter joy to you all! I hope this week has been full of many gifts and joys! I am writing this week from the seminary in Mundelein—I’m up here again for a continuing education week. So far there has been a good deal of conversation about our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV…and actually several guys here who know him or have crossed paths with him! A couple of priests were talking at dinner about his first homily and how he encouraged us to be united with Jesus—to go deeper into our life with our Loving Savior. As I continued to reflect on that invitation, I was struck by how much we live in a time of change…yet some core things are consistently and reliably the same.

Of course, the big news of this last week was our new pope…but if you were traveling last weekend, you might have missed that our parish has some news of changes as well. Beginning July 1, Fr. Daniel will have an expanded assignment, and we’ll have an additional priest joining us to help serve our people. While remaining Parochial Vicar of St. Philomena Parish, Bishop Lou has appointed Fr. Daniel the Chaplain for Notre Dame High School. Fr. Daniel will continue to live here at St. Philomena, and you’ll see him regularly on the weekends.  During the week, Fr. Daniel will split time between PND and our parish. We have been talking about ways he will continue to be involved in our school and in the parish ministries that will match up with the High School schedule. As Fr. Daniel shared during the weekend Masses, he is excited to work with the PND students…but also happy he is continuing with us here!

We also have an addition to our priests here…Bishop Lou has appointed Fr. Albert Mwita Mung’aho to be a second Parochial Vicar here, also beginning on July 1. Fr. Daniel and I don’t know Fr. Albert, but are looking forward to getting to know him and working together to serve our parish family. Fr. Albert is from Tanzania in Africa and has been ordained a priest for 18 years. He has served in our Diocese since 2023 and has been an assistant in Ottawa and most recently has been the administrator of St. Patrick Parish in Sheffield. Please pray for Fr. Albert and Fr. Daniel as they prepare for their new duties…and for me as I work on keeping us organized and on discerning the best ways to serve our thriving parish!

In the midst of changes around us, sometimes it is nice to know that some things stay the same.  I certainly am happy that I’m not moving! After a couple of years on the road serving the Eucharistic Revival, one of my favorite things about being here is that I sleep in the same bed most nights, (I will say the seminary bed is not quite as restful as the one I have at St. Phil’s! 😊). Having been through many assignment changes through the years, I always appreciate the parts of our lives that are steady, especially the reliable love of Jesus, the Mass and Sacraments, and the opportunity to be with Jesus in prayer through the Holy Eucharist. It is a great gift to know His love for us is so steady!

Another good and reliable gift is the Creed, which we pray together each weekend at Mass. As I mentioned last week, a summary of the content will set the stage for more in-depth review of the points of belief.  Understanding the Mass teaches that “we can distinguish three parts in the Creed:

–A confession of faith in [one] God, the Father, our Creator, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

–A confession of faith in Christ, our Lord. He is God [consubstantial with the Father], who by the power of the Spirit became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. Then we focus on Christ’s passion and death on the cross; his resurrection, ascension and participation in the judgment to reign forever, as it was announced by the angel to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:33).

–A confession of faith in the means of salvation, supplied by God, the Holy Spirit, the giver of supernatural life. We declare how he works through the Church.”

Fr. Joseph McGloin, S.J., reminds us that “we say we believe in one God, and not a collection of gods (like money and fame and pleasure). And the God whom we address is not just some ‘nice old man upstairs,’ with or without a beard. He is an all-perfect Being—almighty, all-knowing, all-loving, all-good. And this tremendous God is our Father…Next we profess our faith in Christ. As [true God and true man], he is our Brother, both in the human and divine sense…The third Person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit—now receives our attention.  He gives the only kind of life that really counts, life with and in God right now, as a prelude to that perfect life sometime to come.”

Continuing, Understanding the Mass says, “We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  Catholic means ‘universal’—a reminder that the Church exists throughout the world and embraces the entire revelation of God…The Church is apostolic because she traces her origins back to Christ through the apostles and always teaches the message the apostles received from him.” The Church is one and holy because it is founded by Christ and led by the Holy Spirit toward the unity and holiness that Christ calls all Christians to live.

As we continue celebrating the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, we’ll take a closer look at the content and especially some of those uniquely Catholic vocabulary words. Know of my prayer and blessing for the week ahead!

In Christ,

Father Luke