Pastor’s Letter: August 3, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: August 3, 2025

1 Aug 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to you all this weekend—I hope everyone is well and living a good balance of service and prayer! If you are wondering where this greeting came from, I have been reflecting a good bit on two well-known sisters from the Gospels: Martha and Mary.

This past week, on July 29, the Church celebrated the somewhat new memorial of Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. As the USCCB website notes, “On January 26, 2021, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus into the General Roman Calendar, to replace the existing celebration of Saint Martha alone. Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are celebrated each year as an Obligatory Memorial on July 29.” We had new prayers given for the day, including this Collect for the beginning of Mass: “O God, whose Son called Lazarus back to life from the grave and was pleased to be a guest in the home of Martha, grant us, we pray, that, faithfully serving him in our brothers and sisters, we, with Mary, may be found worthy to be nourished by the contemplation of his word. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.” This new prayer certainly combines something significant about each person, including noting that Martha was “faithfully serving” Jesus. The official decree from 2021 begins: “In the household of Bethany, the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and for this reason the Gospel of John states that he loved them. Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the one who humiliated death.”

A couple weeks back, we had the Gospel account of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42). For most of us, the details are probably pretty familiar: Martha is busy serving and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him. Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her…Jesus responds to her with these familiar words: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Of course we often reflect on how this passage challenges us to spend quality time with Jesus—not to be too busy to sit and listen to Him. It can be a true challenge with our busy lives! Each time we have this gospel come up, I always resolve to try and spend some extra time with the Lord. Inevitably, in the midst of that wonderful, peaceful quiet time in prayer…(I am pausing a moment while writing just to enjoy it a bit more)…I feel joyful to know that Jesus wants that time with us, and if I am honest, after a few moments I think of a message I need to return or something on the to-do list…and I’m off and going again.

It certainly is easy for us to be caught up in our schedules and all that is on it. As I was reflecting on the gospel above, I was struck with how this story occurs right after the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). While we often focus our reflections for this one on love of neighbor and service for one another—right after that, the story of Martha and Mary gives us this additional focus of spending time with Jesus. Could it be that both are important? Could it be a way of showing us the balance between activity/ministry/doing/serving and being/praying/listening to Jesus? Yes, I believe so!

Lest we think that Martha is not as favorable for imitation because of her busy moment…it is also important to note that the gospel chosen for the July 29 Memorial certainly paints Martha as a woman of strong faith. In this passage (John 11:19-27), Lazarus has died and Jesus is traveling to comfort Martha and Mary. Martha went out to meet Jesus and has this wonderful dialogue with Him about her belief in the Resurrection. “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise.’  Martha said to him, ‘I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day’.” Jesus then goes on to share that He is “the resurrection and the life.” What great and amazing faith!

The gospels definitely give us an honest picture of people encountering Jesus. While we see some moments of true faith, we also often see that the person is a work in progress with faith that certainly has room to grow. Celebrating “St. Martha” reminds us of the victory of Christ that took place in her heart…and hopefully inspires us to know that even if we are busy and working hard in service for others, we still can find the time to be with Jesus and grow in our life with him.  Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke