Pastor’s Letter: November 1, 2026

Pastor’s Letter: November 1, 2026

30 Oct 2026 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to you all and may our celebration of All Saints this weekend bring us joy and inspiration! Thanks to all those who were praying for me during my week away—it was a wonderful time of prayer and spiritual refreshment. As I am settling back in, I am excited that our Masses this weekend will be celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints. According to our tradition here, we will have the bins of saint names ready after our Masses so that a saint can “choose you” as a companion for the year. Hopefully your saint for the year will be someone you can learn from and grow with! For those of you who are able to join us for Daily Mass, you know that I love to reflect on the saints. I find them so inspiring—the amazing courage they showed; the incredible faithfulness and trust in God; their willingness to follow the pathway God laid out for them—and I especially love how there are saints from every walk of life, family situation, age, and place…they all help to show us that we also can live in God’s love and be saints! As I have been reflecting on finishing up Msgr. Gray’s book study in a couple of weeks…I think we will plan to spend some time with the saints in the weeks ahead. For now, we’ll keep going with Blessed Fulton Sheen!

Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen…Chapter 17

For this chapter, Msgr. Gray asks, “What did you learn from Sheen’s description of Vatican II that you didn’t know previously? Explain the balance between individualism and socialism, between soul-winning and society-saving, between love of God and love of neighbor. Sheen worried about a corruption of the fruits of Vatican II. Give an example of a misreading or misinterpretation of Vatican II.”

 Answers: Examples will vary. Vatican II came at a time when the Church needed to remind the world both to love God and neighbor. The love of God tells us that we must individually be virtuous and win individual souls for Christ. The love of neighbor calls us to social progress to save society. Vatican II emphasized that both poles are necessary. Sheen worried that the demonic would try to pervert the message from Vatican II. He worried about maintaining the tension between the Church giving witness in the world while not becoming of the world. He worried that the world would not listen to the teaching of the council, but rather to the media reports of the council. The “Spirit of Vatican II” is sometimes invoked to assert things that are not found in any document of Vatican II.

Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen…Chapter 18

Continuing, “Why do those who are spiritual have a greater sense of humor than the materialists or the worldly? What examples of Sheen’s humor did you most enjoy in this chapter? How did humor make Sheen more effective as a preacher and teacher?”

Answers: The spiritual person can have a greater sense of humor about the world, because the spiritual person has something greater than this world to hope for. The materialist is serious because this world is all he has. Examples of humor will vary. Humor had the effect of personalizing Sheen and bringing him down to the level of the hearer. Humor breaks up serious topics in order to allow the audience to continue to give him their attention.

As someone who truly does love humor, I wanted to just briefly say how much I appreciate Sheen’s humor—especially his self-deprecating stories about his length of preaching. Being able to see Sheen’s lighthearted side is one of those things that makes him so approachable for many. Certainly he was a brilliant scholar and author, amazing teacher, renowned preacher and evangelist…but was also so very much a man who could talk about how he didn’t like chicken or how he could find laughter in someone’s comment on his last homily.

Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen…Chapter 19

Finishing us up for this week, Msgr. Gray observes, “Sheen suffered often because of conflicts within the Church, whether with Cardinal Spellman or with his own clergy in the Diocese of Rochester. Read the foreword by Raymond Aroyo for examples. What does it say about Sheen that he deliberately remains silent about his sufferings? What are several of the reasons Sheen gives in this chapter for remaining silent in the face of wrongs?”

 Answers: Sheen personified the victimhood of Christ who bore his sufferings. It is a testament to Sheen’s holiness and integrity that he did not air his grievances. Among the reasons for remaining silent: Complaints are unworthy of the one who forgave his crucifiers. The Lord bids us to absorb any wrongs and bear them patiently. We must avoid the danger of self-justification. If we want the Lord to throw away our sins, we must be ready to throw away our own self-righteousness. If we are punished when innocent, we should bear it because we committed another wrong for which we were not punished (like King David and Shimei).

Personally, the way Sheen handled tough conflicts with people and didn’t speak openly about them is so noteworthy. It certainly is such a common human thing to complain when we are wronged or to share our struggles with others, especially those who would sympathize with our side of the conflict. Sheen truly understood that the love of Christ for us from the cross is enough for us—particularly in our hardships. May Blessed Fulton Sheen intercede for us in our relationship challenges and help us trust in the love of Jesus! Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this week ahead!

In Christ,
Father Luke