Pastor’s Letter: June 15, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: June 15, 2025

13 Jun 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessed Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day Weekend! I hope everyone receives many blessings this day! Similar to other celebrations we’ve had over the previous Easter Season, our celebration of the Trinity…as well as Father’s Day, actually fit very well with our celebration of the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed.

As we know, the Profession of Faith begins with “I believe.” If you recall from a couple weeks ago, “I believe” is a direct translation of the first word in Latin:  “Credo.”  Of course, the Profession of Faith is the faith of the entire Church, but in the Mass each of us proclaims it to assert our personal faith together with other believers. That is, each of us proclaims individually what we all believe together. This makes our profession more personal and also imitates what we do when we renew our baptismal promises:  “Do you renounce Satan?  I do.  And all his works?  I do…Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?  I do…” By answering for ourselves and by professing the Faith ourselves, we really are taking ownership of the Faith. It would sound so different to start by saying, “My dad told me there is one God…” or “the priest believes in one God”  or even “Christians believe in one God.” Instead, we each take ownership and say “I believe.”

In the Creed, each of us professes first belief in “one God.” Our belief in one God alone goes back to the Old Testament times (Deut 6:4…”Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God is one Lord.”) That God is one is an important truth—it shows that there is no lack of perfection, differences, weakness, or rivals for God. He Himself is all that we will ever need. He ultimately fulfills every desire. If God really is the perfect answer to all we need and desire, what does that mean? It means He alone is worthy of our highest praise and honor. God alone is deserving of our best and most devoted love.

As our Catechism teaches, the foundation of all Christian Faith is the Trinity: God the Father who revealed himself to His chosen people over time and is fully revealed in and through the Son, and the Holy Spirit sent forth by the Father and the Son to unite us in the perfect bond of love. Although God is pure spirit and is outside the boundaries of gender, God reveals “himself” as a father; Jesus the Son reveals very directly the truth about the relationship between the Father and the Son, as well as the relationship between the Father and us.

So what does that mean for us in our daily living?  As the Catechism teaches, “By calling God ‘Father,’ the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children” (CCC 239). By calling himself the Father, God is speaking to us in a language we can understand. He draws upon our human experience of parents. Even though we know our parents can be fallible and can make mistakes, God draws on our experience to give us an image of how he loves and cares for us. In truth, God’s goodness and care for us is the origin of fatherhood and motherhood; that is, every father and mother participates in the loving and caregiving parenting of God the Father. This is a good reminder to pray for parents…that they can love in the same way that God loves us.

Father’s Day weekend is for me a great opportunity to give thanks for my dad and all the good men who have helped me grow through the years—I am thankful to each one who has helped me be the priest and spiritual father I am today. Know that I join my prayer of thanksgiving for all the fathers in our parish family…and that I send everyone my blessing this day!

In Christ,

Father Luke