Pastor’s Letter: July 20, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: July 20, 2025

18 Jul 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

May the Lord’s blessing be upon you all this day! This past week, Fr. Daniel was away for the Diocese of Peoria Young Clergy Days—an annual weeklong gathering of all the “young” priests in our Diocese who have been ordained 10 years or less. Additionally, our seminarian Danny was away helping with the Emmaus Days Program. As the “old” guys in the house, Fr. Albert and I split the duties on the calendar and were able to enjoy a couple of visits together. This weekend we officially welcome Fr. Albert as our parochial vicar with a reception after the Saturday evening Mass (yesterday for those reading this on Sunday). I look forward to Fr. Albert settling in and am anticipating his unique contributions to our parish life. Already in a short time, he has been a good reminder to me of how our Church is universal—it truly is an amazing thing to think about. What Jesus started with 12 guys whom He called apostles…the Church is now found in all corners of the world.

This reflection on the universal nature of the Church is a great lead in to our focus for this week from the Four Marks of the Creed…a familiar word with a couple different (and important) meanings:  “The Church is catholic.”

Jesus gives us a clue to the meaning of this word “catholic” when he says, “I have other sheep not of this fold; I must bring them also…” (John 10:16). “Catholic” was originally used by St. Ignatius of Antioch (+107 AD) in his letter to the Smyrneans in reference to the Christian Church. The word literally means “universal” and when you see catholic lowercase (as it appears in the Creed) it carries this meaning. When you see Catholic uppercase, it refers to the Roman Catholic Church and the Catholic Faith, as distinguished from other Christian communities and teachings. Practically, each particular church (Diocese and parish) is a realization of the universal Church. We are united together as a people who live a continuous tradition of faith and worship, and who hold to unbroken succession of popes, bishops, and priests since Christ chose the apostles and they in turn chose their successors.

Let’s look a little more about how the Church is universal. One of my favorite passages about the universal nature of the Church comes from the Book of Malachi: “For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations; And everywhere they bring sacrifice to my name, and a pure offering; For great is my name among the nations, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 1:11). This passage, which is also on the sanctuary floor or our Cathedral, reminds us very practically that the Church literally stretches all over the earth, being present all around the world. If you think about the time zones, there is a Mass going on at any given moment. I don’t know if it has been verified, but during the Eucharistic Revival travel someone told me that at any given time around the world there are 6,000-8,000 Masses going on at the same time. That “constant” celebration of the Mass is a great gift, especially since the Mass unites us all together in Christ! That’s how universal the Church really is…we are all constantly being united together through the celebration of our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection!

Aside from the practical, there are also some theological understandings of the word catholic. Like our other marks of the Church, the Church is universal because of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Church and the mission from Christ to the whole human race. That is, the Church is Catholic because it is intended for all people and intended for all time. Christ came to save the whole world and established the Church as the way of continuing that ministry of salvation.

I don’t know about all of you, but reflecting on the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed has also been an opportunity to reflect on the Church…both through time and especially physically throughout the world. This weekend, Catholics in every place…in every language…are praying together this great summary of Faith and praying together in the Mass. What a great gift!  Know of my prayers and blessing this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke