{"id":5953,"date":"2024-10-04T08:30:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T13:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stphils.com\/church\/?p=5953"},"modified":"2024-10-03T10:30:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T15:30:26","slug":"pastors-letter-october-6-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stphils.com\/church\/pastors-letter-october-6-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Letter: October 6, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,<\/p>\n

Blessed weekend to you all! This weekend we are celebrating 30 years of Eucharistic Adoration here at St. Philomena! As a seminarian, I remember coming to pray here when the chapel was located in the church where the servers\u2019 vesting room now is. I remember praying in the former convent location (now housing our 4-year old program) when I would come to visit here for my days off. These last years, I have enjoyed praying time to time in our current adoration chapel, which opened on January 1, 2011. What an amazing gift it is to have this wonderful place of prayer, a place where Jesus is always waiting for us. In a letter dated October 1995, parishioners Harry and Georgette Williams described the beginnings of regular adoration here at St. Philomena, and expressed a hope that in 50 years \u201cthe adoration program\u2026will still be going strong.\u201d What a great joy to celebrate we are well past the halfway point of that hope!<\/p>\n

Sometime back, a priest of our Diocese was working in a place that had an adoration chapel. He had an evening dinner appointment with a family and was just walking out the door when a distraught man asked his help. The man shared he had been in a pattern of sin and addiction and had damaged his marriage and family life. The priest felt conflicted in the moment\u2014he wanted to honor his commitment to the family he was meeting, but also felt that he needed to help this man. The priest said, \u201cI want you to go pray in the adoration chapel\u2026and I\u2019ll meet up with you when I get back.\u201d The man went in the chapel, knelt down, and began to pour his heart out in prayer to Jesus truly present. At one point he got very emotional and began to cry. There was a woman also praying in the chapel who noticed and moved over to a nearby seat. \u201cAre you ok?\u201d she asked, \u201cIs there anything I can do to help?\u201d In that moment, the man shared what he had been through and what he had put his family through. The woman listened patiently, then smiled and asked, \u201cCan I have your wife\u2019s phone number? I went through the same thing last year in my family and we made it through\u2014strengthened by this time with Jesus in adoration.\u201d The priest returned to find the man ready for the Lord\u2019s mercy in Reconciliation and hopeful that the Lord would strengthen him as he recommitted to faithfulness.<\/p>\n

Eucharistic Adoration is a powerful opportunity to pray with Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. As many have said, adoration is an opportunity to look upon the One who loves us best\u2026and to let Him\u00a0look upon us. Eucharistic Adoration is an extension of the moments of adoration we have in the Mass, after the consecration of the Body and Blood of Jesus and when Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is elevated\u00a0above the altar. As Jesus said, \u201cAnd when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself\u201d (Jn 12:32). We often think of Jesus on the Cross, giving Himself in perfect sacrifice for us. We would be equally edified to meditate on these elevations at Mass\u2014looking with faith upon the One who loves us perfectly. Eucharistic Adoration gives us an opportunity to extend the prayerful worship of those special moments.<\/p>\n

Here are just a few highlights I have enjoyed sharing the last two years while speaking for the Eucharistic Revival:<\/p>\n