Pastor’s Letter: August 30, 2026

Pastor’s Letter: August 30, 2026

28 Aug 2026 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear. St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings this day! As you are reading this, we are now well into the school year—another great year of growth and learning for our young people is now under way! This weekend throughout the Diocese we have ADA weekend—our Annual Diocesan Appeal. The theme for this year is” “You will be my Witnesses.” As Bishop Lou shared, these words, from Acts 1:8, “spoken by Jesus to His followers nearly two thousand years ago, resound with particular meaning in this moment in the life of our diocese as our soon-to-be-Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is held up as a witness of Christ worthy of imitating.” This weekend we will view the ADA video at our Masses in preparation for supporting the many good works we share together as a Diocese.

As I prepared to write this week, I was reflecting back on these past months of Sacrament reviews…as well as reflecting on a couple of great back to school celebrations that have many excited for the fruits of the months ahead! Looking back through our bulletins, would you believe we have been reviewing the Sacraments for about a year? I feel like the time has gone by pretty fast! Of course, we had some breaks for special events and liturgical seasons…but the bulk of our Ordinary Time has been spent with the Sacraments. My hope is that this review has served as a good refresher of our Faith, especially with the places where we encounter Christ so closely in the Sacraments.

I’m thankful for the many positive comments shared—it is a good gift to know that fruits and blessings have been coming out of these reflections. A couple of people have shared a growing appreciation for the Catechsim, noting how much Scripture, spirituality and saint quotes are nestled in with our doctrines. A few others have shared that they have a deeper understanding of certain sacraments and feel more prayerful in celebrating them. If you have an interest in more learning, I invite you to check out our fresh format for our regular adult faith formation/Bible study—look for the bulletin section titled “Manna.” Fr. Blake and Fr. Daniel will take the lead for us this year, bringing us more topics covered over a couple of weeks each. The hope is that the format will be very accessible, allowing people to jump in or out a few weeks at a time for certain topics or as the schedule allows.  Along similar lines, this year we will share the OCIA topics each week and invite anyone who would like to stop by to brush up on a particular topic.  Please continue to share with us the best ways to help our parish family know and live our Faith!

Speaking of living our Catholic Faith, I very much enjoyed a couple of community events that serve as beginning of the year kickoffs. A good number of area priests attended together the ShamROCK event at PND High School. If you aren’t familiar with the event, it is the celebration of the fall sports teams, including some scrimmages/performances and introductions for each athlete and coach. Before and after the introductions, there was food, activities for kids like face painting and balloon creations—I saw a couple youngsters with balloon swords and holsters—pretty impressive! =)  Above all, it was a great community mixer that felt like a large family party. I have shared before that the area priests have been strengthening our partnership and involvement with PND—it was great to have a large group of priests gathered together for dinner and then to enjoy the evening. Personally, I am always so edified to see our strong St. Philomena parish family present and active in our community. It was a great night to celebrate our partner school that is healthy and growing!

Just before our school year started here at St. Philomena, we hosted our Back to School Bash for families. It was also a fun-filled night! Our Men’s Club provided our burger and hot dog dinner, and we enjoyed perhaps the best weather we have had in the last couple of weeks. It was a great night for the students to play together, visit their new classrooms, and gear up for the year ahead.

Now well into my 3^rd year here as pastor, I am thankful for the countless good people and families that make St. Philomena such a wonderful place. This week I have met with people who are looking forward to receiving Sacraments, people who are joining our parish family, generous donors who want to support the strong mission of our school, and several leaders who give of their time and expertise to serve us and help St. Philomena to continue growing. We priests are certainly blessed to serve such a generous and welcoming parish! Please pray for a fruitful school year ahead for all our students, families, faculty, staff, leaders and all who help make St. Philomena a great community! Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this week!

In Christ,
Father Luke