Pastor’s Letter: October 19, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: October 19, 2025

17 Oct 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings and peace to you all! This week I’ll be up at Mundelein Seminary for my continuing education program. I continue to be so thankful for this opportunity! While the program involves a pretty full schedule of lectures and group discussion times, this week is focused on quiet time in prayer with Jesus. In fact, one of our program directors specifically told us, “This time is not for reading or catching up on work…it is meant to just be time set aside in prayer.” (So, I’ll tell you a secret—I actually wrote this before I left for the week! =) ). These days of prayer are a great gift to me—they always offer me a refreshing reminder that the Lord is near and waiting. Jesus, in His great generosity, is always for us so that we can be united in prayer with Him. His availability to us in the Scriptures, Mass, and the Sacraments, and in particular through the gift of the Eucharist—all of these remind us that Jesus loves us and wants to be close with us.

For me, Eucharistic Adoration is always a special opportunity to experience the availability and love of Jesus. Last week, our school had the joy of hosting the Diocese’s traveling monstrance for three days. If you recall, four years ago now, when the US Bishops launched our Eucharistic Revival, Bishop Lou had this monstrance specially made for our Diocese. Over the past three years, the monstrance has been traveling around to every parish–so a holy hour was prayed with it in Adoration at all the parishes in our Diocese–a great reminder of how the Mass celebrated at each church unites us together in the Eucharist! This past year, the rotation shifted to visiting all the schools in our Diocese. Being able to all pray together with the help of this monstrance is a reminder that we are all united together in Christ, certainly with Catholics all over the world…but in a special way with everyone in our Diocese.

Our students were given several opportunities to pray with Jesus in adoration, especially through all day adoration where the classes took turns spending time in prayer, as well as through a Eucharistic Procession which we had after our school Mass together. For me, there is always something powerful about seeing our young people gathered together in prayer with our Lord—what a great reminder of how much Jesus loves young people and wants to be close to them!

During the time we hosted the traveling monstrance, we also had a bonus visit from our seminarian Jonathan Puckett. Since the seminary was on fall break, Jonathan had the opportunity to be with us for a couple of school days. Jonathan visited the classes and took the monstrance with him so that everyone could see the symbols up close. He also shared with each class about Eucharistic Adoration, including some quotes from one of our newest saints, St. Carlo Acutis. Here is a sampling of what Jonathan shared with our students:

Some thoughts on Adoration: 

• Spending time in front of the Eucharist, literally with God, is an encounter with our Savior. Jesus died and rose again for us. The Eucharist is our “highway to heaven” – St. Carlo Acutis
• Jesus desires to be close to us in the Eucharist. He humbly gives Himself to us and wants to be with us so much that He takes on the appearances of bread and wine. He does this because He wants to spend time with us and to be our friend.
• When we go to Adoration, Jesus desires to give us His Heart—to let us know how much He loves us—and for us to give Him our hearts.

Things to do in Eucharistic Adoration: 

• Tell Jesus about your day, your friends, your struggles (fears, sorrows, hopes, desires)
• Pray with Sacred Scripture to get to know Jesus and to grow in love. Knowledge and love go together.
• Overcome distractions in prayer (tools for older students especially)
• Enter into a friendship with Jesus (how often do you visit / spend time / talk with your best friends).
• Make an Act of Faith when starting to pray before the Eucharist (Jesus, I believe You are here).

What Happens When We Spend Time in Adoration?

• We grow in love and come to be more and more like Jesus.
• We become more genuine. God transforms us and gives us everything He has, so that we can be fully ourselves.
• “The more we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.”        -St. Carlo Acutis
• We recognize that we are fully loved and fully known.

What a great joy to have Jonathan here with us and share these good reminders of the fruits of adoration! If you can, I invite everyone this week to spend a little extra time in prayer. If you would like to have a key fob for our adoration chapel, drop by or call our parish office. Jesus, in His love, is available and looking forward to spending time with us! Know of my prayers and blessing this week!

In Christ,
Father Luke